Camphor White Essential Oil

Yes. It is 100% pure white-fraction Cinnamomum camphora, steam distilled from the wood and bottled here in the UK, with nothing added and nothing diluted. Every batch is GC/MS tested.

You will often see camphor sold as organic camphor oil, and it is worth knowing that with camphor the thing that matters most is not the growing method but the fraction. Camphor is distilled and then separated, and only the white fraction is used in aromatherapy. A camphor oil that does not tell you which fraction it is tells you very little, whatever else is on the label.

No, and this is the most common mix-up with camphor, so it is worth being clear.

• Camphorated oil: an old pharmacy preparation, camphor already dissolved into a carrier oil at roughly a fifth strength, sold ready to rub on. It became hard to buy in the UK because the concentrated version was too easy to confuse with the diluted one and too easy to swallow by accident.
• Camphor essential oil, which is this: the neat distilled oil. Far stronger, meant to be diluted by you into a carrier oil before it goes anywhere near skin.

So if you remember camphorated oil from a bathroom cabinet, this is the ingredient it was made from rather than the finished product. It needs diluting first, and the dilution guidance is in the Safety tab above.

Camphor oil is distilled from the wood and then separated into fractions by weight. They are genuinely different materials and only one belongs in a home:

• White camphor, which is this: the lightest fraction. Clear, sharp and the only grade used in aromatherapy.
• Brown and yellow camphor: the heavier fractions. These carry safrole and are not sold for home or skin use. If a seller offers you brown camphor oil for aromatherapy, walk away.
• Blue camphor: the heaviest fraction of all, an industrial material rather than an aromatic one.

This is why the word "white" on the label is not decoration. It is the part that tells you the oil is the safe fraction, and it is worth checking on any camphor you buy, from us or anyone else.

Camphor has become harder to find on the high street than it used to be. Chemists and health shops that once stocked camphorated oil largely no longer do, which is why so many people end up searching for it online.

We bottle white camphor in the UK in a 10ml dropper bottle and ship from here, so there is no import wait and no customs surprise. If you need a larger volume for formulating, soap or balm making, email support@ecodrop.co.uk and we will quote on current stock.

One or two, always inside a blend. Camphor's sharpness carries a very long way and a diffuser running neat camphor is genuinely unpleasant.

A good winter mix is 1 camphor with 2 eucalyptus and 2 lemon. Run it in short bursts in a ventilated room, and do not diffuse it at all where there are cats, dogs, young children or anyone with a seizure disorder.

Camphor belongs with the bracing, fresh-air oils: eucalyptus, peppermint, rosemary, pine, lemon, tea tree and black pepper. It is a top note and a loud one, so it goes in at the smallest number in any recipe.

Three camphor blends

• Winter room: 1 camphor, 2 eucalyptus, 2 lemon.
• After the gym, at 1%: 1 camphor, 2 black pepper, 3 rosemary in 30ml of carrier oil.
• Clear desk: 1 camphor, 2 peppermint, 2 pine.

If camphor feels too sharp on its own, rosemary is the gentler oil that does much the same job, and eucalyptus is the friendlier everyday substitute.

Clean, cold and penetrating. Most people recognise it instantly even if they cannot name it, because it is the smell of old chest rubs, mothballs and school first-aid cupboards. There is a dry woody base underneath the sharpness, which is the camphor tree itself coming through.

It reads as medicinal rather than pretty, and that is the point of it. If you want the same bracing freshness in a softer form, eucalyptus is rounder and rosemary is more herbal.

No, and camphor is the oil we would ask you to be strictest about. It is toxic if swallowed and the dangerous amount is small, so the bottle belongs high up and closed. Never apply it on or near the face of a baby or young child at any dilution, and avoid it altogether if anyone in the house has epilepsy.

It is also toxic to cats and dogs, so do not diffuse it in a room a pet shares. If you want something bracing to run in a family room, eucalyptus, rosemary or pine will do the job without the same risks.