Organic Patchouli Essential Oil

Yes. It is 100% pure Pogostemon cablin leaf oil, steam distilled in Indonesia and bottled here in the UK, with nothing added and nothing diluted. Our supplier's product statement confirms no impurities, no preservatives, no colorants and no solvents.

The grade is dark patchouli, which is the detail most sellers leave out. Dark is the heavier, richer, more viscous grade, deep red-brown in the bottle. It is what perfumers mean by patchouli and it is the version worth paying for.

Typical patchouli alcohol content is around 31%. That is the single number the trade judges patchouli on, and anything in the high twenties or above is a proper oil. The full profile is in Specifications.

This is the question to ask any patchouli seller, and very few UK sites answer it.

• Dark patchouli, which is this: the traditional grade, distilled in iron vessels. Deep brown to dark red-brown, noticeably viscous, and the richest, sweetest, most rounded of the two. Heavier in patchouli alcohol.
• Light patchouli: distilled or redistilled in stainless steel, sometimes decolourised. Pale yellow to nearly clear, thinner, brighter and greener, with less depth and less staying power. Cheaper to produce.

So colour is a real signal, not a cosmetic one. A patchouli that arrives water-pale and thin is a light grade, whatever the label says, and it will not smell the same twelve hours later. Ours should pour slightly thick and run brown to dark red-brown. Our supplier's specification states exactly that, and it is in the Documents tab.

Neither grade is fake, and light patchouli has its uses in pale cosmetics where a brown oil would discolour the product. But if you are buying patchouli for the smell, you want dark.

Patchouli has the strongest reputation of any oil we sell for this, and cockroaches are the pest it is best known for. The oil is heavy in patchouli alcohol and sesquiterpenes, and that dense, earthy smell is the part insects move away from. It is the reason patchouli was packed with exported Indian shawls in the nineteenth century: it kept the cloth from being eaten on the voyage.

What the paperwork says: our IFRA certificate puts patchouli at Not Limited in category 5A, and IFRA's own definition of 5A covers “insect repellent (intended to be applied to the skin)”. It is also Not Limited in category 10B, which covers spray insecticides, and category 12, which covers mosquito coils and incense. That is IFRA describing the product classes, not us making a claim.

What people use it against

• Cockroaches: the classic use. Drops on cotton pads behind appliances, under sinks and along the back of cupboards, where roaches travel.
• Clothes moths and carpet beetles: the original shawl-trade use, and still the best one. A few drops among stored wool and linen.
• Mosquitoes, midges and flies: a common base in homemade repellent blends, where it also makes the citrus and lemongrass last much longer.
• Ants: wiped along skirting boards and door thresholds where they come in.

Does it attract insects instead? No, and the question comes up because patchouli smells sweet and earthy to us, which sounds like something that would draw them in. It does the opposite. What it will attract is people who like the smell, so use it where you do not mind it lingering, because patchouli is tenacious.

A simple recipe: 15 drops patchouli, 10 lemongrass and 10 peppermint in 100ml of water with a teaspoon of witch hazel, shaken before each use, for skirting boards and cupboard backs. For a skin blend, 2% in a carrier oil. This is a deterrent that makes a place unwelcoming, not a treatment for an infestation already established.

Patchouli is a base note, and a dominant one. The trick is to use less of it than everything else: it will hold a blend together from underneath, but given half a chance it will swallow it.

The partners that work: sweet orange, bergamot, ylang ylang, rose, lavender, sandalwood, cedarwood, frankincense, vetiver, clary sage, geranium and black pepper.

Five patchouli blends

• The one that converts people: 2 patchouli, 3 sweet orange. Start here if you think you dislike patchouli.
• Patchouli and lavender: 2 patchouli, 4 lavender. Earthy underneath, soft on top, and a popular evening blend.
• Warm roll-on perfume: 3 patchouli, 2 ylang ylang, 3 sweet orange in 10ml of jojoba.
• Deep and woody: 2 patchouli, 3 cedarwood, 1 frankincense.
• Rich face oil, 1% in 30ml: 2 patchouli, 4 rose geranium in rosehip.

Because patchouli improves with age, a blend you mix today will often smell better in a month. It is one of the few oils worth making ahead.

Genuinely yes, and patchouli is close to unique in this. Almost every other essential oil is at its best the day it is bottled and declines from there. Patchouli improves.

A fresh oil can carry a slightly green, sharp edge over the earthiness. Over months and years that softens and the sweet, balsamic, almost wine-like depth comes forward. Perfumers and collectors set bottles aside deliberately, and well-kept aged patchouli is sold at a premium.

How to age it

• Keep the cap tight and the bottle as full as you can. Air is the enemy, not time.
• Cool and dark, away from sunlight and radiators.
• Leave it alone. There is nothing to do but wait.

Our supplier's specification asks for quality to be checked after 24 months, which is standard commercial practice. That is a trade instruction for stock rotation, not a sign the oil has gone off.

It is a long-standing choice for dry and mature skin, and it turns up in rich facial oils and body balms far more often than its hippie reputation suggests. The character that makes it useful is the same one that makes it a good perfume base: it is deep, slightly sweet and it lingers.

Use it at 0.5 to 1% on the face, which is one to two drops in 30ml of a rich carrier such as rosehip or argan, and up to 2% on the body. Patch test on the inner forearm and wait 24 hours.

Two practical notes. The safety data sheet classifies patchouli as a skin irritant and a skin sensitiser, so the dilution is not optional. And the oil is a deep red-brown, so at higher percentages it will tint a pale cream or balm, which is one reason commercial skincare often reaches for the light grade instead.

It has that reputation, and it is worth being straight about where the reputation comes from.

Patchouli is one of a handful of oils, along with ylang ylang, jasmine, rose and sandalwood, that have been used as aphrodisiacs in traditional practice for centuries. It is a staple of Ayurvedic and Southeast Asian perfumery and it appears in that role in a great deal of older literature. That tradition is real and well documented.

What there is not is clinical evidence. No essential oil has been shown in good trials to work as an aphrodisiac, and we are not going to tell you otherwise. What scent genuinely does is affect mood and association, which is not nothing: patchouli is warm, heavy and a little animalic, it slows a room down, and for many people it carries strong personal memories. If that is what you are after, it is an excellent choice.

The classic blend if you want to try it: 2 patchouli, 2 ylang ylang and 3 sweet orange in a diffuser, or the same proportions at 1% in jojoba as a roll-on.

The same care as any essential oil, with nothing unusual on top. Patchouli carries no specific contraindication that camphor or juniper do.

• Around children: diffuse in a ventilated room rather than a closed bedroom, keep the bottle out of reach, and keep skin application to 1% or less and to older children.
• Around cats and dogs: diffuse only in a room the animal can leave, never apply it to fur, and store the bottle where it cannot be knocked over. Cats process essential oils poorly as a group.
• Never swallowed: patchouli is classified as an aspiration hazard, which means it is genuinely dangerous if it gets into the airways. Keep it locked away from small children.
• Down the sink: no. It is classified as harmful to aquatic life with long-lasting effects.

Used sensibly in a ventilated room, patchouli is one of the easier oils to have in a busy house.