Pure Jasmine Essential Oil

It is an absolute, and that is the honest answer even though the industry sells it under the essential oil heading.

Jasmine flowers are far too delicate for steam distillation. The heat destroys the scent before you get anything worth having, and the yield is close to nothing. So jasmine is solvent extracted instead: the blossoms are washed with a solvent to lift out a waxy concrete, which is then washed with alcohol to give the absolute. It is the same method used for rose absolute, tuberose and mimosa, and it is the only way jasmine exists as a bottled aroma at all.

What that means for you: it is richer, deeper and far truer to the living flower than any steam-distilled version could be, and it is the form every perfumer uses. It is also why it is dark amber rather than pale, and why it costs what it does. If you see "steam distilled" or "cold pressed" jasmine advertised cheaply, it is almost certainly a fragrance oil rather than the real thing.

Ours is 100% pure jasmine absolute, nothing added or diluted, bottled in the UK and GC/MS tested.

Jasmine releases its deepest scent after dark, pickers work before dawn to catch the flower at its peak. Romance with a 4 a.m. alarm.

Standard care: ventilated rooms with an exit for the animal, never applied to fur, bottles stored out of reach.

Four sizes: 5ml, 100ml, 500ml and 1 litre. Jasmine is a drop-at-a-time material, so a 5ml goes a very long way, and the bulk sizes are really for perfumers and candle makers working at volume.

Batch paperwork comes with every 500ml and 1 litre order. For larger volumes, email support@ecodrop.co.uk with the quantity you need.

No. This is an absolute for aromatherapy and perfumery, sold for external use only, and it is not a food flavouring.

That matters a little more with an absolute than with a distilled oil, because solvent extraction can leave a trace solvent residue, which is fine for fragrance use and not intended for ingestion. If you want jasmine for food or drink, use jasmine tea, dried flowers or a food-approved flavouring, all of which are different products with different paperwork.

Jasmine and lavender go together very well, and the pairing is more interesting than it sounds. Lavender is herbaceous and calming, jasmine is heady and sweet, so lavender stops jasmine becoming cloying while jasmine gives lavender depth. Start at four parts lavender to one part jasmine, because jasmine will dominate anything you put it near.

Beyond that: sandalwood and rose are the classic fine-fragrance partners, ylang ylang doubles the exotic floral, bergamot or sweet orange lift the top, and a trace of vetiver or patchouli anchors it. Jasmine is a base note, so it stays in a blend long after everything else has faded.

Ours is Jasminum sambac, also called Arabian jasmine or sampaguita, grown in India. There are two jasmines in commercial use and they are not interchangeable:

• Sambac is sweeter, greener and more tea-like, with a bright lift over the heavy floral. It is the jasmine used to scent jasmine tea, and the one strung into garlands across South and Southeast Asia.
• Grandiflorum (Spanish or royal jasmine) is softer, fruitier and more narcotic, the classic French perfumery jasmine from Grasse and Egypt.

Both are genuine jasmine and both are expensive. Sambac tends to read fresher and less overwhelming in a diffuser, which is why it suits home use well.

It's one of perfumery's two royal florals: 1–2 drops over sandalwood in jojoba makes a genuinely fine roll-on.