Organic Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

Yes, 100% pure Cananga odorata, nothing added or diluted, bottled in the UK and GC/MS tested.

Why that matters more with ylang than most oils: ylang ylang is one of the most frequently extended oils in the trade. The usual tricks are cutting it with the cheaper cananga oil, stretching it with synthetic benzyl benzoate or benzyl salicylate, or selling a later, cheaper fraction as a first one. A real batch GC is the only way to see any of that, which is why we test rather than take a supplier's word for it.

EE-lang EE-lang. It is Tagalog, from the Philippines, and usually translated as "flower of flowers".

The smell is unmistakable: heady, sweet and creamy, with a jasmine-and-banana lift over a soft balsamic base and a faint spiced edge underneath. It is closer to a tropical night than to any garden flower, and there is nothing shy about it. People tend to either love it immediately or find it too much, and the ones who find it too much are almost always smelling too many drops at once.

Compared to its neighbours: sweeter and creamier than jasmine, heavier and more exotic than neroli, far richer than geranium. It sits in the same family of big white florals as jasmine and tuberose.

It is a traditional hair oil across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and it is one of the nicest oils to use on hair because the scent lingers for hours. Two ways:

• Through the lengths: 1 to 2 drops in a palm of coconut or argan oil, smoothed through mid-lengths and ends. It adds shine and a soft floral trail without weighing hair down.
• Scalp oil: 3 to 4 drops in 30ml of a carrier, massaged in and left for an hour before washing out. Keep it to the lower end; ylang is strong and the scalp is sensitive.

Patch test first, and keep it off the face if you are prone to breakouts, since it is a rich oil.

Four sizes: 10ml, 100ml, 500ml and 1 litre. Because you only ever use two or three drops at a time, even a 10ml lasts a long while in a diffuser. The bulk sizes are really for perfumers, soap makers and candle makers, who get through it faster than anyone.

Batch paperwork comes with every 500ml and 1 litre order. If you need a particular distillation grade, or a volume above a litre, email support@ecodrop.co.uk before ordering.

Yes, in small amounts. Ylang ylang is a long-standing favourite in facial and body oils because it is balancing rather than drying, and it is one of the few oils that smells luxurious enough to carry a blend on its own.

• Facial oil: 1 drop in 30 ml of jojoba or rosehip, no more.
• Body and massage: up to 0.8% in a carrier oil, which is about 5 drops per 30 ml.
• Bath: 2 drops stirred into a spoonful of carrier oil first, never straight into the water.

IFRA caps ylang ylang at 0.8% on skin, which is low, so take the measurements seriously and patch test. Two practical notes: it is rich enough that more is genuinely worse, and a heavy hand is the usual reason people report a headache from it. Back off to one drop and the problem normally disappears.

Ylang ylang is a loud base-to-middle note, so it wants grounding or lifting rather than more sweetness. The reliable partners are frankincense, sandalwood, bergamot, sweet orange, lavender, rose, jasmine, patchouli and vetiver.

Three ylang ylang diffuser blends

• Frankincense and ylang ylang: 3 frankincense, 1 ylang ylang. The most asked-for pairing we see, and the resin keeps the floral from turning sugary.
• Lavender and ylang ylang: 4 lavender, 1 ylang ylang. They mix beautifully, but lavender has to outnumber it or the blend reads as pure ylang.
• Evening in: 2 bergamot, 1 ylang ylang, 1 sandalwood.

The rule with ylang ylang in any blend is one part to three or four of everything else. It is the strongest floral on the shelf and it does not share politely.

Ylang ylang is the one essential oil that is routinely sold in graded fractions, and knowing which is which saves a lot of confusion. The flowers go into the still once, and the distiller draws the oil off in stages over roughly twelve to twenty hours:

• Extra is the first fraction, taken off in the first hour or two. Lightest, sweetest and most intensely floral, richest in the delicate esters. This is the top grade, the perfumer's choice, and the most expensive.
• First, Second and Third follow in order. Each one is progressively heavier, woodier and less sweet as the light molecules are used up and the sesquiterpenes come through. Grade III is the cheapest and is mostly used in soap and household fragrance.
• Complete is an uninterrupted distillation, so it holds the whole range from first drop to last. It is the fullest, roundest version and the one most aromatherapists reach for.

The one that catches people out: "Grade I" is not the best grade. It sounds like it should be, but it is the second fraction, one step below Extra. If a supplier offers you their finest ylang ylang, the word you are looking for on the certificate is Extra.

Which to choose: Extra for fine perfumery where you want the top-note sweetness, Complete for diffusing and general aromatherapy, and the numbered grades for soap and candles where cost matters more than nuance. If you need a specific grade for a formulation, email support@ecodrop.co.uk before ordering and we will confirm what is in stock.

It has the oldest reputation of any oil for it. Ylang ylang flowers are scattered on the beds of newlyweds in Indonesia, and the oil is a fixture in the great seductive perfumes, Chanel No. 5 among them.

What is actually going on is mostly scent psychology: a warm, sweet, slightly narcotic floral reads as intimate and unhurried, and it fills a room fast. That is a real effect on atmosphere, even if it is not a pharmacological one. Pair it with sandalwood and a drop of bergamot and you have the classic accord.

Two or three drops in a diffuser is plenty. More does not make the room more romantic, it makes it harder to breathe in.