What Are Essential Oils?

We use essential oils in our products for their beautiful scent, their skin-loving qualities and the all-round positive effects they have on your body and mind. But what are they, exactly?

Essential oils are literally the essence of the plants they come from. They’re concentrated liquids containing the parts of the plant that attract pollinators, deter pests and smell so nice. They’re made from flowers, trees, herbs, spices, shrubs, shoots and all sorts of greenery. But they don’t just smell great – they’re full of goodness for your mind, body and soul, and it’s for that reason they’ve been used for centuries for all things from religious incense, to medicine, to food flavoring.

These oils are used in hundreds of everyday products. They’re often dismissed as smelly things you buy in vials and keep stowed away for sporadic use, but they’re so much more than that. You’ll find them in laundry detergent, the scented candles you decorate your home with, the treats you eat, the perfumes you spritz and the remedies you use to fight a cold. All in all, they’re pretty amazing.

One of the most common uses for essential oils is in perfume. The fragrances we scent our lives with are often clever combinations of essential oils put together in much the same way an artist constructs a painting with colors and inks. The word perfume comes from the Latin per fumum, which literally means “by smoke” – the oldest method of extracting perfume from plants.

Essential oils can be made from hundreds of plants, which means there’s a huge variation in their look, texture, color and smell, not to mention in the extraction methods used to obtain them. The method used to obtain an oil depends on the flower or plant it’s extracted from. Each method yields a slightly different product, either an absolute, concrete, butter or essential oil. Regardless of texture, though, they all have wonderful benefits for your body and mind.