How Essential Oils Are Made: 5 Extraction Methods Explained Simply
As I held my very first bottle of lavender essential oil in my hand, I found myself wondering how those lovely aromatic flowers ended up in the bottle. And how many flowers were used to produce that 10ml bottle of lavender oil?
Intrigued, I decided to find out, and what I learnt was very interesting.
It takes an extraordinary amount of plant material to fill that small bottle, and the process that gets it there is more fascinating than I realized.
There are five main methods used to extract essential oils from various plant parts. The extraction method matters. It affects the quality, the aroma, and the price of the final oil.
Understanding the basics does more than just satisfy your curiosity. It also helps you be a more informed buyer.
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A Quick Note Before We Dive Into How Essential Oils Are Made
Essential oils are volatile, meaning they evaporate easily at room temperature. That’s exactly what gives them their scent.
And that’s also what makes extraction tricky. Too much heat or pressure applied to the botanicals can damage those delicate aromatic compounds before they even make it into the bottle.
Each plant presents a different challenge during extraction, which is why different plants require different techniques. Each extraction method handles this challenge differently
1. Steam Distillation
This is the most common method for extracting many essential oils from lavender and peppermint to eucalyptus and tea tree.
It has been used for centuries and remains the most widely used technique today.
Here’s how steam distillation works:
Plant material is loaded into a large container called a still. Depending on the plant, the material may include flowers, leaves, bark, or roots.
Steam is passed through the plant material under pressure. The heat and steam rupture the tiny oil-containing sacs in the plant, releasing the aromatic compounds into the steam.
That steam then travels into a condenser, which is essentially a coiled pipe cooled by cold water, where it cools back down into liquid.
What comes out at the other end is a mixture of water and essential oil. Since oil and water don’t mix, they separate naturally. The essential oil floats to the top and is siphoned off.
The water that remains is a hydrosol (think: rosewater or lavender water), which has a milder scent and is gentler than essential oil. Hydrosols have their own range of uses.
What makes steam distillation so good for extracting essential oils?
The steam extracts the aromatic compounds at temperatures lower than their actual boiling points, which helps preserve the integrity of the oil. It is an efficient, time-tested extraction method that’s suitable for a wide range of plants.
The downside: the heat can degrade more delicate compounds, which is why certain flowers such as jasmine and rose need a completely different extraction approach.
2. Cold Press Extraction
If you’ve ever zested a lemon and noticed oil spraying from the peel onto your hands, you’ve experienced cold-press extraction in miniature.
This method is used exclusively for citrus fruits such as lemon, bergamot, orange, grapefruit, and lime.
The essential oil in citrus isn’t in the fruit itself. It lives in tiny sacs on the underside of the rind.
Cold-press equipment mechanically pierces those sacs, releasing the oil along with juice and pigment.
The mixture is then centrifuged to separate the liquid from any solids. During this process, the oil, which is lighter than the juice, floats to the top, where it’s siphoned off.
No heat is involved in this extraction method, which is why cold-pressed citrus oils tend to have such bright, fresh aromas.
The trade-off is that they’re less shelf-stable than distilled oils and can be photosensitive, so always check before using them on skin in sunlight.
3. Solvent Extraction
Some flowers are too delicate for steam distillation. Jasmine, rose, and tuberose, for example, don’t hold up well under heat and pressure. Solvent extraction is used to extract these essential oils.
In this process, food-grade chemical solvents, such as ethanol or hexane, are used to pull the aromatic compounds from the plant material.
The solvent is then removed through low-pressure distillation, leaving behind what’s called a concrete – a waxy, highly concentrated aromatic substance.
The concrete is then washed in alcohol to separate the aromatic oil from the plant waxes, and after the alcohol evaporates, what remains is called an absolute.
This is why you’ll see “Rose Absolute” or “Jasmine Absolute” rather than “Rose Essential Oil” on the labels of these products. Technically, they are not true essential oils, but absolutes.
Absolutes tend to have extraordinarily rich, complex fragrances that closely resemble the living flower. Perfumers love them for creating exotic scents.
These oils are also more expensive to produce as they require larger amounts of plant material to produce a small amount of extract.
Fun Fact: It takes an estimated 2,000 rose petals to produce one drop of rose absolute. That explains the potency as well as the price.
4. CO2 Extraction
This is the newest technique on the list, and possibly the most interesting from a chemistry standpoint, though I’ll keep the jargon to a minimum.
CO2 extraction uses carbon dioxide that has been pressurized to a point where it behaves like both a liquid and a gas at the same time. This is called its supercritical state.
In this form, CO2 acts as a solvent. It flows through plant material and pulls out aromatic compounds without the need for heat or traditional chemical solvents.
When the pressure is released, the CO2 evaporates, leaving behind a clean, highly concentrated oil.
The result? Oils that are often thicker and more aromatic than their steam-distilled equivalents, with a scent profile that’s closer to the original plant.
CO2-extracted ginger, for example, smells far more like fresh ginger root than steam-distilled ginger essential oil.
This extraction technique is also considered more environmentally friendly since CO2 is a recyclable solvent and the process produces very little waste.
The downside: the equipment required is expensive, which is reflected in the price of CO2-extracted oils.
5. Enfleurage
Enfleurage is the oldest method on this list, and it’s the one I find most fascinating.
It was widely used in the south of France in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, to capture the scent of flowers that could not be distilled. Think jasmine, tuberose, and gardenia.
In the enfleurage process, odorless fat (traditionally lard or tallow) is spread onto glass plates.
Fresh flowers are pressed into the fat and left for about one to three days, during which time the fat absorbs the aromatic compounds from the petals. The spent petals are then removed and replaced with fresh ones.
This continues, batch after batch, until the fat is fully saturated with fragrance, at which point it becomes what’s called a pomade.
The pomade is then washed in alcohol to release the aromatic oil. When the alcohol evaporates, an absolute remains.
Enfleurage is rarely used commercially today. It’s extraordinarily labor-intensive and not cost-effective at scale. You’ll occasionally find small artisan producers still practicing it, and the resulting absolutes command very high prices. If you ever smell a true enfleurage jasmine, you’ll understand why.
What About Maceration? (A Quick Clarification)
Maceration comes up whenever essential oil extraction is discussed, so it’s worth a brief mention, but with an important clarification.
Maceration uses a carrier oil, such as sunflower or jojoba, to extract compounds from plant material.
The plant is crushed or cut, steeped in warm carrier oil for days or weeks, and the oil absorbs whatever it can from the botanical. The result is an infused oil, not an essential oil. The volatile aromatic compounds that make up a true essential oil don’t transfer into a carrier oil in the same way.
Macerated calendula oil, for example, is a beautifully useful product, but it’s a carrier oil infused with calendula’s properties, not an essential oil.
Maceration is the one method on this list that you can easily do at home without any special equipment. See how I made this lovely rose-infused oil at home with just rose petals and carrier oil. It is very different from rose essential oil and used for very different purposes too.
Why Does the Extraction Method Matter to You as a Buyer?
This is the practical bit, the “so what”, because knowing extraction methods shouldn’t just be trivia.
A few things worth keeping in mind when you’re shopping for oils:
The extraction method affects the price. CO2-extracted and enfleurage oils cost significantly more than steam-distilled oils. If you see a “rose essential oil” at an unusually low price point, check the label carefully. It may be synthetic, diluted, or mislabeled.
It also affects the aroma. Cold-pressed citrus oils smell brighter and fresher than any distilled version would. CO2 ginger smells more like fresh ginger root. These differences are real and worth knowing if you use oils in fragrance blending.
Labelling is affected too. “Absolute,” “CO2 extract,” and “essential oil” are not interchangeable terms. A reputable supplier will always tell you what you’re buying.
Can You Make Essential Oils at Home?
Technically, yes. You can find small home distillation kits, and some people do experiment with them.
But I’d encourage you to think carefully before going down that route.
Professional extraction involves precise equipment and careful temperature control. Without the proper equipment, it can be difficult to control the yield quality.
Moreover, you need a significant quantity of plant material to extract a small amount of oil. At home, you’re unlikely to get a meaningful yield.
Maceration, as mentioned above, is doable at home and worth exploring if you’re curious about making your own infused oils. But for true essential oils, buying from reputable suppliers is the practical choice, and lets you put your energy into actually using the oils rather than extracting them.
Mini FAQ — How Essential Oils Are Made
What is the most common method used to make essential oils?
Steam distillation is by far the most widely used method. It works well for a broad range of plants, including lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, and tea tree, and has been the industry standard for centuries.
Why are some oils labelled “absolute” instead of “essential oil”?
Absolutes are produced through solvent extraction rather than distillation, which is why they get a different label. Flowers like jasmine and rose are too delicate for steam distillation, so solvents are used to draw out their aromatic compounds instead. The result is technically an absolute, not a true essential oil, though it’s just as valuable, and often has a more complex scent.
Does the extraction method affect the quality of the essential oil?
The extraction method affects the character of the oil more than the quality. A cold-pressed lemon oil will smell brighter and fresher than a distilled version; a CO2-extracted ginger will smell closer to the fresh root. Neither is inherently better, they are just different, and the right choice depends on what you’re using the oil for.
Why are some essential oils so much more expensive than others?
A few factors drive price: how much plant material is needed to yield a small amount of oil, how labour-intensive the extraction process is, and which method was used. Enfleurage absolutes and CO2-extracted oils sit at the higher end; steam-distilled oils from abundant plants (like eucalyptus) are more affordable.
