Distillation

• Distillation is the process of heating water to steam. Flower petals, whole flowers, stems and herbs are placed on a screen. Water is heated to steam. The steam passes through the flowers. The essential oils evaporate and are captured by the steam within the minute drops of water. The steam is directed to a watertight vessel, where it is cooled and condenses. The water separates from the essential oils. Since oil is lighter than water, it floats on top and is collected.
  
  Distillation requires hundreds of pounds of flowers and herbs to make any appreciable amount of essential oil. The water from the distillation process does not go to waste, but is sold as "rose water," a lightly scented pure water used in making scents, cooking, and making candies. Rose Otto or essential rose oil is one of the most expensive essential oils.
  
  

Cold Pressing

• Used mostly for citrus fruits, the essential oil is expressed by lightly pricking the fruit all over its surface. This pricking releases the essential oil from the skin of the fruit. The fruit is pressed to obtain the oil and the juice of the fruit. The oil is separated by centrifugation as it rises to the top of the juice.
  
  

Enfleurage

• Jasmine, tuberose, orange blossoms and other flowers that are too delicate to withstand the heat required by distillation have their essential oils collected through enfleurage. On a commercial basis enfleurage is expensive, labor intensive and takes quite a bit of time. However, it is the one method that can be used at home. The required supplies are simply a glass pan, lots of highly scented flowers and vegetable oil or animal fat that isn't scented.
  
  The flowers are placed on the tray of vegetable oil or animal fat. The essential oil from the flowers is absorbed by the oil or fat. Every day the old petals are removed and replaced with fresh ones. This process continues until the fat is saturated with the essential oil. This highly scented fat can be used at home as is. Commercial perfume manufacturers separate the enfleurage mixture by adding alcohol.
  
  

Chemical Processes

• Solvents can be used to extract the essential oils from the flowers or plants. Using a solvent such as hexane is quicker and less expensive than enfleurage. However, the solvent has a scent of its own, and even though the substance is removed from the essential oil, the scent is nearly impossible to remove completely.
  
  

Chemical Reproductions

• Since removing essential oil for perfume-making is costly, many synthetic reproduction scents are used in cheaper perfumes, rather than real aromatic oils. The difference is readily apparent if the two scents are compared side by side, since the synthetic oil has a slight chemical scent.