How Perfume Ingredients Are Extracted: Essential Oils, Absolutes and Resins
By Emmanuelle Moeglin, Founder & Perfumer · Classically trained at ISIPCA, 20 years in fragrance
Every natural material on a perfumer's organ began as a plant: a flower picked at dawn, a citrus peel, a root, a resin oozing from bark. Turning it into a material that can go into a bottle is called extraction, and the method chosen shapes the scent as much as the plant itself.
There are four main families of natural extract (essential oils, absolutes, CO2 extracts and resinoids) plus the synthetic molecules that make up most of a modern formula. Here is how each is made, and why it matters to how a perfume smells.
Steam distillation: essential oils
Distillation is the method most people know. Plant material is heated with steam, the fragrant molecules evaporate with it, and the vapour is cooled so the oil separates from the water. The result is an essential oil.
It suits sturdy materials that can take the heat: rose (giving rose oil), orange blossom (giving neroli), geranium, lavender, vetiver and many woods. The Persian physician Avicenna is credited with perfecting the steam distillation of rose water in the 11th century, and the technique has barely changed since.
The method chosen shapes the scent as much as the plant itself.
Expression: citrus oils
Citrus oils are not distilled but pressed. The peel of bergamot, lemon, mandarin or orange is mechanically squeezed, releasing the oil stored in tiny pockets near the surface. This cold process keeps the bright, juicy sparkle that heat would dull, which is why citrus opens so many fragrances.
Solvent extraction: absolutes
Some flowers are too delicate to survive distillation, or simply give too little oil. Jasmine, tuberose, mimosa and osmanthus are washed with a solvent that dissolves their fragrant molecules along with natural waxes. Removing the solvent leaves a waxy paste called a concrete.
The concrete is then washed with alcohol, chilled to drop out the waxes, and the alcohol evaporated. What remains is an absolute: rich, deep and closer to the living flower than any distillate.
Enfleurage: the historic method
Before modern solvents, perfumers in Grasse laid fresh jasmine and tuberose petals on glass plates spread with odourless fat, replacing them day after day until the fat was saturated with scent. The fat was then washed with alcohol to recover the perfume. Enfleurage is beautiful but slow and costly, and is now almost never used commercially.
CO2 extraction: the modern alternative
Under pressure, carbon dioxide becomes a supercritical fluid, halfway between a gas and a liquid, which can draw aromatic molecules out of a material at low temperature. It leaves no solvent behind and gives CO2 extracts that smell remarkably true to the raw material, especially spices, seeds and some flowers. It is more expensive than distillation, but increasingly popular.
At the perfumer's organ
When a new natural arrives in the lab, I smell it diluted on a blotter across a whole day, because each extraction method paints a different portrait of the same plant. A jasmine absolute and a jasmine CO2 extract can feel like two different flowers: one dense, honeyed and almost animalic, the other greener and more transparent. I also compare lots from different harvests, since a natural changes with soil, weather and year, much like wine. And I always try it on skin and inside a simple accord, because a material that is beautiful on its own can vanish, or take over, once it meets the rest of a formula.
Resins and resinoids
Resins such as frankincense, myrrh, benzoin and labdanum are collected by making small cuts in the bark of a tree or shrub and letting the sap harden into tears. They can be steam-distilled into essential oils (frankincense and myrrh) or extracted with solvents into resinoids, the warm, balsamic materials behind every amber accord.
Perfume extraction methods at a glance
| Method | What it gives | Best for | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam distillation | Essential oil | Sturdy flowers, leaves, woods, roots | Rose oil, neroli, lavender, vetiver |
| Expression (cold pressing) | Citrus oil | Citrus peels | Bergamot, lemon, mandarin |
| Solvent extraction | Concrete, then absolute | Delicate flowers, resins | Jasmine, tuberose, osmanthus, labdanum |
| CO2 extraction | CO2 extract | Spices, seeds, some flowers | Pink peppercorn, cardamom, vanilla |
| Enfleurage (historic) | Pomade, then absolute | Fragile white flowers | Jasmine, tuberose |
| Tapping, then distillation or solvents | Essential oil or resinoid | Tree and shrub resins | Frankincense, myrrh, benzoin |
| Upcycling | Natural extract | By-products of food and timber | Almond, fruit juices, cedarwood |
| Fermentation | Single molecules | Notes once scarce or slow to source | Ambroxan, natural vanillin |
| Air extraction | Solvent-free extract | Freshly picked, fragile flowers | Tuberose |
Where synthetic molecules fit in
Most of a modern perfume is made of synthetic molecules. Many are nature-identical: the same molecule found in a plant, made more sustainably or more consistently in a lab. Others can be isolated from a natural material by fractional distillation, so they remain natural in origin.
And some exist nowhere in nature, giving perfumers effects no flower could: the clean white musks, the velvety Iso E Super, the mineral glow of Ambroxan.
New molecules also arrive when old ones are restricted. When Lilial, the classic lily-of-the-valley note, was banned in EU cosmetics in 2022, a new generation of molecules such as Lilyflore took its place.
Synthetics are not a compromise: they are half of the perfumer's palette.
Headspace: capturing a living scent
Some scents cannot be extracted at all: a rare orchid, a flower that loses its smell once picked. Headspace technology places a glass dome over the living flower, traps the air around it and analyses the molecules it contains. Perfumers then rebuild the scent with synthetics, recreating a flower that could never be bottled.
What is changing in extraction
Extraction has moved on a great deal in the last ten years. Most of the change is about using less: less heat, fewer petrochemical solvents and far less waste. These are the developments I notice most when new samples arrive in the lab.
Cleaner solvents. Most classic absolutes are still made with hexane, a solvent derived from petroleum, and suppliers are gradually replacing it. CO2 extraction now reaches materials that once seemed out of reach, from oud wood to orange blossom and even roasted sesame, and some houses make their absolutes with biodegradable solvents instead.
Fruit, at last. For decades perfumers said fruit could not be extracted, which is why most fruity notes are built from molecules. That is starting to change: strawberry can now be CO2-extracted from the whole fruit, and apple notes can be captured cold from juice.
Upcycling. Some of the most interesting new naturals begin as by-products of other industries: the water left over from making almond milk, residues from fruit juice production, sawdust from timber mills. Their aroma molecules are captured and recovered, so a waste stream becomes a perfumery material. Much of the cedarwood oil used in perfumery already comes from wood offcuts.
Natural hearts. By redistilling an essential oil and keeping only one portion of it, suppliers can take away a facet perfumers find difficult. A lavandin heart loses most of its camphor edge, and a geranium heart leans towards lychee. The material stays entirely natural and becomes more precise to work with.
Fermentation. Biotechnology can now produce key perfumery molecules by fermenting plant sugars, much as beer is brewed. Ambroxan, created as an alternative to ambergris, was traditionally made from clary sage; today it can also be made from fermented sugar cane. The same route is opening up for woody and ambery notes that once depended on scarce or slow-growing sources.
Air extraction. The newest method uses no solvent at all. First developed for tuberose, it draws the scent from freshly picked flowers with a slow, cool flow of air, and can even be carried out in the field. It is the nearest we have come to bottling the living flower that headspace can only analyse.
Newer does not always mean better. A CO2 extract can be truer to the plant and still lack the depth of a traditional absolute, which is why I smell both side by side before choosing.
Most of the change is about using less: less heat, fewer solvents, less waste.
Keep exploring: read about three iconic not-so-synthetic molecules, weigh up synthetic vs natural ingredients, or discover orange blossom vs neroli, one tree and two extraction methods.
Frequently asked questions about perfume extraction
▾ How are perfume ingredients extracted from plants?
Mainly by steam distillation, cold pressing (for citrus), solvent extraction and CO2 extraction, depending on how delicate the material is.
▾ What is the difference between an essential oil and an absolute?
An essential oil is distilled with steam; an absolute is extracted with solvents from delicate flowers. Absolutes are usually richer and closer to the fresh flower.
▾ Why are some flowers not distilled?
Heat destroys or changes their scent, or they yield too little oil. Jasmine and tuberose are extracted as absolutes instead.
▾ What is enfleurage?
A historic method of capturing flower scent in fat, used in Grasse before modern solvents. It is now almost never used commercially.
▾ Are synthetic perfume ingredients bad?
No. Many are identical to molecules found in nature, they are often more sustainable, and they make up most of a modern formula.
▾ Is perfume extraction becoming more sustainable?
Yes. CO2 and biodegradable solvents are replacing hexane, by-products from food and timber are being upcycled, and fermentation now produces notes such as Ambroxan without relying on scarce materials.
▾ What is headspace in perfumery?
A way of analysing the scent of a living flower without picking it, so perfumers can recreate it with synthetic molecules.
