Fragrance Oils vs Essential Oils ** Fragrance vs Essence

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Howdy Cathy, Patty .. other good folks,

 

(Snipped)

 

 

> I'm not sure this is exactly what you were getting at,

> but the simple answer I guess is that fragrance is a

> broader term that includes synthetic chemicals that

> are synthesized in a lab. Whereas, in natural

> perfumery, we use the term essence to indicate a

> substance directly extracted from a plant (or

> sometimes animal).

>

> Patty

>

 

Patty .. your reply is right on and perhaps I too am not clear on the

question .. reason being we don't have a vocabulary that is universal in

this industry .. use of terms like essence and fragrance and essential oil

and fragrance oil can be confusing unless we are all reading off the same

sheet of music. And .. perhaps the explanation below is preaching to the

choir in Cathy's case but it might be new information for some new folks.

And .. perhaps someone from the Natural Perfumery group would be better

qualified to define Fragrance since its what perfumery is all about .. they

even have a Fragrance Wheel used for classification of odors in that

industry.

 

Essence .. I think there could be many definitions here .. but as I am not a

perfumer Essence and Fragrance and Odor are sorta the same thing to me. ;-)

 

Fragrance Oils (FO) .. they are generally commercially produced products

that are almost always created using synthetic or natural identical

ingredients .. there might be some that also have some natural Essential

Oils in them .. I'm not sure because I've never sold or used an FO. FOs

are used by most folks who make soaps .. and in many perfumes and cosmetics

... but folks who are into Natural Perfumery or Natural Soaps and Cosmetics

will NOT use them.

 

Essential Oils (EO) .. they are oils extracted from Aromatic plants using

various forms of distillation .. and if we want to stretch the term a bit

... we can say that Absolutes might be considered to be EO by some folks ..

though they really aren't .. they are natural oils but the are Absolutes.

Same goes for Cold or Expeller Pressed Oils .. technically they are not EO

but many folks consider them to be so .. we're back to the lack of a

universal language in the industry. One thing we can count on .. EO and

Absolutes and Cold or Expeller Pressed oils will all be Volatile Oils ..

meaning the molecules of the oils will evaporate .. and it is these

volatile molecules that we depend on in the Aromatherapy and Natural

Products industry.

 

There is an old post in the list archive that goes into the production of

various plant extracts ...

http://health./message/46946

 

 

As for Therapeutic value .. there is no question that Aromatherapy using

Essential Oils works .. it works primarily because of the inhalation of the

volatile molecules of natural oils .. through the olfactory system and into

the blood stream. The therapeutic effects can be physiological,

psychological or emotional .. often a combination of the three.

 

It is probable that there is some therapeutic value from use of an FO ..

from an emotional or maybe even a psychological point of view .. its

sometimes difficult to separate the emotions from the psych .. this would

occur IF the person smelling the odor/fragrance/essence likes what they are

smelling .. if their olfactory memory brings back visions of good times

passed, etc. If they do not like the odor then odds are great that they

will gain no therapeutic value from that FO because odds are better than

good that it will not have any physiological therapeutic properties.

 

The above is not true for use of an EO .. of course, if we like the odor we

will certainly gain emotional value from it .. but even if our sniffer is

not functioning properly we will still gain physiological and psychological

value IF the particular oil has such capabilities. For example .. even if

we are in a coma we our body can gain physiological value from sniffing an

EO that has anti-microbial properties.

 

There are some old posts in the list archives that address therapeutic

values of EO:

 

http://health./message/28756

 

http://health./message/46715

 

http://health./message/4222

 

Again .. perhaps I misunderstood the question .. and for me .. the above

explanation is a short one ;-) .. but maybe it will clear some confusion.

 

Y'all have a good one .. and keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/>

 

 

>

> --- Cathy Kaiser <kaiser.cathy <kaiser.cathy%40>>

> wrote:

>

> > is there a difference between fragrance and the

> > actual essential essence? what are your thoughts on

> > the subject?

> >

> > > Cathy L. Kaiser

> > Laura Smith-Whaley

>