Product Overview
Invaluable in natural perfumery, Vanilla smooths rough edges, warms floral blends, and softens coniferous notes. Our certified organic Vanilla CO2 Total Extract has a 12% vanillin content and is very rich, warm, sweet, and has a somewhat woody/animalic-like aroma, with soft notes of spice and tobacco and a very deep, sweet, balsamic body note. It is sweeter and smoother than our Vanilla Absolute and has a 12% vanillin content.
The fragrance of vanilla is one of universal appeal – the familiar aroma invites sensuality and confidence, conveys comfort, and softens the ambiance.[1],[2] Try blending it with your favorite essential oils, absolutes and CO2 extracts. To add a green note to vanilla, use Violet Leaf; adding traces of Celery or Caraway CO2 makes it sophisticated and intimate.[3]
Vanilla, a flowering tropical plant of the orchid family, is a very costly and labor-intensive crop. It takes approximately 4-5 years after planting for Vanilla to set its first blossoms and it takes 600 hand-pollinated blossoms to produce only 1 kilo of cured Vanilla pods. These are picked by hand while still green and are sold to special processing plants where they are sorted, blanched, steamed, and sun-dried. They are then re-sorted, dried in the shade, and fermented while being continually evaluated for aroma and individually inspected for quality. No wonder true Vanilla is such a precious commodity!
We recommend diluting this product to 5-10% before blending it with your favorite essential oils, absolutes and CO2 extracts; Vanilla is well-known for its tendency to ‘bloom’ when added to compositions – its aroma increases over time and may overwhelm the other aromas it is blended with, so less is better to begin with. For a pre-blended product that is easy to use, please see our Vanilla CO2, organic – 10% or Vanilla CO2 – 30% diluted in Fractionated Coconut Oil – Organic.
1 Keville, Kathi and Mindy Green. Aromatherapy – A Complete Guide to the Healing Art, 1995, p. 69.
2 Green, Mindy. Natural Perfumes – Simple Aromatherapy Recipes, 1999, pp. 45-6.
3 Lawless, Alec. Artisan Perfumery or Being Led by the Nose, 2009, pp. 70-1.
