Ylang Ylang is the only oil obtained in fractions, which is why there are so many versions of it out there. Find out more about this intoxicating flower in our Ylang Ylang Exploration.
This calming massage blend can double as a diffuser blend or as a daily body lotion. It’s grounding, yet it helps relax your tissues and lift your spirits during darker times.
Did you know that essential oils can calm the mind, increase memory, and positively affect mental health? Find out how essential oils work on the mind and how you can use them to feel better.
If I asked you to describe the scent of Ylang essential oil, but then I said you couldn’t use the words “floral” or “sweet” … What else would you say?
It can be really difficult to find the right words to describe the way different essential oils smell. This is because smell and language happen in two different areas of the brain.
Luckily, the language of scent can be learned.
This is one reason why we love Tony Burfield’s Natural Aromatic Materials: Odours and Origins. Tony and his team of smell analysts worked with over 600 aromatic extracts, essential oils, CO2s, and absolutes to offer their scent descriptions—including the dry-down after 24 hours.
But we’ll let Sylla teach you more about this reference, with her usual enthusiasm, charm, and depth of knowledge in this field.
For a closer look, here is an excerpt from the Ylang entry that Sylla references in Natural Aromatic Materials. You might already know this, but Ylang Ylang (Cananga odorata) is unlike other oils in that it is distilled in fractions. A single distillation will produce several different versions of Ylang that all smell different. This is why the oils are labeled as Extra Superior, Extra, First, Second, Third, and Complete.
These entries are all from the same distiller in the Island of Comoros near Madagascar.
Odour is heady, sweet, radiant heavy floral odour with somewhat medicinal character, and with spicy notes of clove in the background. There is a very slight fruitiness (probably from prenyl acetate) and a very slight greenness. The dry-down is round and full-bodied, sweet, warm and with a slightly spicy-carnation-powdery character. The sweetness in some samples almost takes on a honeysuckle aspect.
Top odour note is similar to II. It is a slightly less heady and more rounded than Extra. Dry-down is very similar to Extra; but not so strong, with hay-like nuances.
Odour has a little (but not much!) of the heady floral quality of Extra; radiant but not to the extent that the extra shows; not particularly medicinal. It is also without the fruity lift of the extra quality, which is, by comparison, more rounded floral-medicinal. It is not as clean and pure. Dry-down is full-bodied, floral, rounded and glowing, but not to the extent of the Extra’s dry-down. It is also cruder more medicinal and more powdery-carnation as opposed to warm-carnation.
The top note odour profile has none of the floral radiance of extra with spicy notes more to the fore, and a somewhat woody-hay character is revealed after a few moments. Dry-down is thinner and less powerful than extra with some suggestion of carnation character but rather oily and generally floral.
The overall odour impression by comparison with Ylang II is that it is dirtier in a phenolic sense and has minimal radiance. It has a rich floral character, however, but is interwoven with phenolic and woody notes. Many commercially complete oils are fairly disappointing. Dry-down is sweet floral carnation like with a salicylate-like lift.
Now get out your Ylang and see how these words compare to what you smell! Let us know how your Ylang smells and use these words as inspiration to create your own description.
For bonus points, place a drop on a scent strip (or make one at home with a piece of cardstock or an index card) and make notes on how it smells immediately as well as in different increments later (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, several hours … up to 24-hours.)
Leave a comment with what you find!
We hope to keep inspiring you to learn about your oils from one of the best ways you can – by smelling them! Thank you for letting us share the joy of aromatherapy with you.
Aromatically Yours,
Nyssa
This is Part One of a two-part series. Here are five examples with direct quotes (please excuse the grammar) from our 2014 Injury Report. These are short quotes from the report. This is not the report nor are these quotes our words. Most, if not all, of these cases are due to bad advice and misinformation. This is why we believe that education is the key to safety.
We love our essential oils and our fellow humans, so we want to help put an end to dangerous and unsafe practices. Most of these cases improved once those affected discontinued use of the oil(s).
Here is a list of the 10 Worst Adverse Effects we received in 2014. We’ve included a summary with direct quotes from the testimonials.
10. Undiluted oils applied to a small sore. “Blend/frankincense” was used and the next day, her skin turned red, bubbled up, and peeled. When she voiced her concerns, she was told it was “detox, that there’s no way to be allergic or have a bad reaction to the oil since they are natural.”
However, qualified aromatherapists know that the “detox” claim is not true. Dr. Robert Pappas talks about this myth here.
9. Undiluted oils on wrist. Someone used two drops of Clary Sage and Ylang Ylang on their wrists several times a day for about 10 days. Their wrists started itching, broke out in red blotches that turned into blisters, which spread to an area of approximately 3 cm x 4 cm. After a month with no oils and jojoba, it cleared up. “Lesson learned: Always dilute your oils and never use neat oil application to the skin.”
8. Undiluted oil on mouth sores. “Between 25-35 drops of essential oil on canker sores in mouth on tongue after being told it was safe. This resulted in a trip to ER because of racing heart, panicking, gagging, dry heaving, extremely hot, fever, dizzy and sick and high blood pressure … I thought I was going to die.”
It is so heartbreaking to read these sometimes. That is why it is so important to spread this information so that we can hopefully prevent adverse reactions and don’t have any deaths due to misuse.
7. Undiluted long-term use leads to sensitization. One person had been using essential oils since 1997. By 2005, she started having small reactions. Finally, by 2014, this person found help in understanding sensitization and the safe use of essential oils. Unfortunately, because of the years of previous misuse, she can only use oils in low dilutions (if at all) and has turned to hydrosols & flower essences. “Now have A LOT of sensitivities and allergies to a wide range of fragrances and EOs.”
Though we can become sensitized to a single oil, we can also become sensitized to many single oils and blends because they share common chemical constituents. By overusing oils now, we deprive ourselves of being able to use them in the future. Remember the saying, “Less IS more.”
Read more about sensitization.
6. Undiluted EOs in ear. Someone’s ear canal was damaged when a Registered Nurse, who also owns a spa, dropped undiluted Thyme essential oil into it. “I was sick with an ear infection and she said “I’m going to put oil in your ear. I assumed it to be sweet oil like mom did . . . I was totally shocked that she would do this . . . I would have never used neat essential oil in my ear canal.”
Never drop essential oils into anyone’s ears and always confirm what “product” someone is using. Please remember that just because someone is a medical or spa professional, does not mean they are properly trained to use essential oils.
It is so sad to see stories like these. People are looking for alternative health care, possibly to save money or avoid surgery. Unfortunately they sometimes end up making things worse for themselves or their families, simply because they didn’t know better.
Knowledge is power. Never forget that it is in your hands.
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