Cinnamon Harvesting

The cinnamon essential oil we use at Indochine Natural is sourced from various countries including Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Viet Nam. The process of harvesting the raw cinnamon has not changed for centuries.

When a cinnamon tree is around two years old it is cut back to a stump and covered with soil. This causes it to grow like a bush, with new shoots emerging out of the sides by the following year. It's these shoots that are used to make cinnamon. The leaves are removed and the outer bark scrapped off the twigs in one piece and rolled in layers, telescope style, into long quills that are left to dry for several days.

The cinnamon essential oil is later extracted by steam distillation.

Selecting cinnamon essential oil for use in Indochine Natural products requires thorough scrutiny as the fragrance can be affected by where and how the plant was grown, extraction method, plus the soil, air and water in the growing region, the health of the plant, and how long it sits before distillation. At Indochine natural we have been known to reject entire shipments of Cinnamon essential oil.

Exactly What are Essential Oils?

For a start  the term “essential oil” is a misnomer as they do not contain the fats that are usually a part of anything we class as oil. Therefore they are vastly different from the vegetable oils pressed from nuts, olive flesh and seeds. Essential oils are volatile, and if left exposed to the air will evaporate completely becoming the airborne vapours detected by our sense of smell.

The fragrances of plants come from different parts, for example cinnamon is extracted from bark, ginger from roots, basil from leaves, ylang ylang from flowers, lemon from the fruit rind.

There is a range of extraction methods, depending on the oil. For example oils in citrus rinds are extracted by simple pressing. For most other plants a distillation process is used.

Dr. Mike’s Guide on How to Smell Essential Oils

Most people just smell from the top of the bottle…..this is not the right way. Why? Because you will usually only get  the top note, the light and volatile constituents that are at the top of the bottle, and you will be missing out on the other fragrance components in the rest of the bottle.

At Indochine Natural we use “professional” Fragrance Testing Strips, but at home you can use strips of paper towel. Put one or two drops of the oil on the scent strip, let the oil on the strip dry for a minute or two, then inhale. Fragrances are all about emotions and feelings, when assessing an essential oil for the first time makes notes of:

        • The fragrance layers (is it one dimensional or complex)
        • Would you describe the fragrance as pointed, sharp, rounded or dull?
         • What memories are aroused by the fragrance?
         • What feelings?

Make an assessment of the oil initially, then wait ten minutes and smell the strip again. Then again in twenty minutes, an hour, two hours. Notice how the oils (or blend) aroma changes in time. Let your test strip sit overnight and smell it in the morning. Of course the lightest top notes will be barely perceptible the next day; the deep base notes, the woods and roots, will be deeper and richer tomorrow.

Describing what an essential oil fragrance can be difficult, however common terms used include floral; woody; citrus; herbal; spicy; minty; camphor; pine; vanilla-like. We then have a number of sub categories of each: soft; strong; mellow; sharp; smooth; harsh; bitter; sweet; sour; full; flat; and all the ones in between.

Dr. Mike Thair

Co-Founder & Managing Director
Indochine Natural

Penang Island, Malaysia

Why You Should Know the Difference Between Fragrance Oils & Essential Oils

Written by Dr. Mike Thair

Co-founder & Managing Director

IndochineNatural Sdn Bhd

As manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers cash in on the “all-natural” and “organic” trend these days we start to see the blurring of lines between what are truly natural plant derived natural ingredients and those that are strictly synthetic.

What are essential oils?

Essential oils are all-natural botanical extracts of various plant materials, including flowers, herbs, trees and other types of plant materials. These oils are described as "essential" because they represent a distinctive scent, or essence, of a particular plant.

The oils are extracted by various methods including distillation, or cold pressed methods, which is one of the best methods to extract essential oils.

If you read cosmetic labels you can easily recognize that essential oils are included in the ingredients as the botanical names are used. For example, with our Indochine Natural Tropical Flower shampoo the essential oil ingredients are:

Piper nigrum (Black Pepper) oil, Salvia sclarea (Clary Sage) oil, Eugenian caryophyllata (Clove) bud oil, Cananga odorata (Ylang Ylang) flower oil.

What are fragrance oils?

Fragrance oils are also known as aroma oils or aromatic oils. These are blends of synthetic aroma compounds diluted in a carrier, for example mineral oil, vegetable oil of other substances such as propylene glycol. These synthetically manufactured chemicals are designed to "mimic" the aroma of natural materials such as essential oils. The motivation here is that these synthetic fragrances are a lot cheaper to produce than the all-natural essential oils.

It is important to know that fragrance oils are in no way "natural", and that 95% of the chemicals found in these oils are synthetic compounds, generally derived from petroleum and include a wide range of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, and various central nervous system disorders.

It is quite common these days to see fragrance oils marketed as being “natural,” and what is even more surprising is that even unscented and fragrance-free products can contain synthetic masking scents to "mask" the smell of other ingredients. Even ingredients that are registered as “organic” can contain synthetic masking scents and these are generally not included in product ingredients list.

Even more shocking is that globally there is minimal government regulation and monitoring on the safety of these synthetic fragrance oils, and most have not been tested individually or in combination for their effects on human health. Additionally, these synthetic fragrance chemicals do not have to be listed on the product label, all that the manufacturer is required to list is the word “Parfum “ of “Fragrance,” there is no need to list the actually synthetic chemicals included in the product fragrance. Trade secret laws keep toxicity testing and ingredient identification from being accurately disclosed, and this is in an industry that is largely self-regulating.

What should consumers be looking for?

As always, study ingredient labels of your cosmetics and body care products very carefully.  Here is what to look for:

·       If you see the word Parfum, Fragrance or something similar, then the product contains synthetic fragrances. Under the cosmetics laws the manufacturer does not need to declare what synthetic ingredients are used to create a fragrance, therefore the consumer has no idea what synthetic chemicals they are exposing themselves to.

·       Similarly, avoid products using ingredient descriptions such as aroma oils or aromatic oils.

·       Products using all-natural essential oils will generally list the fragrances using botanical names (usually Latin names) for example Cananga odorata (Ylang Ylang) flower oil.

Unfortunately it is common these days to see unscrupulous manufactures using botanical names to list synthetic ingredients in their products.

Indochine Natural products are available in Malaysia through JustLife stores   

Or locally & internationally online

 WE WELCOME WHOLESALE INQUIRIES - contact Dr. Mike Thair

STRENGTH, CHARACTER & ALLURE

Yes, these are characteristics and benefits attributed to Patchouli essential oil, which is probably the most powerful of any essence extracted from plants. And yes, Patchouli is also considered as an aphrodisiac, as well as having grounding and balancing effects on mood.

And unknown to most Malaysians, the Patchouli plant, a species of plant from the genus Pogostemon, is native to Malaysia.

But what a contradictory essential oil in practical use…..it is one of the few essential oils (including Frankincense, Cedarwood, Sandalwood and Vetiver) that actually improves with age, so we can disregard those best-before dates!!! Like Vetiver, as it ages, the oil turns from light yellow to a very deep amber, with the aroma becoming smoother richer.

Over many centuries Patchouli oil has been used in traditional medicine in Malaysia, China and Japan. The main use has been in treating skin conditions, and has been of benefit in cases of dermatitis, eczema, acne, and dry chapped skin. Patchouli was also used in treating dandruff and oily scalp conditions. Patchouli may also be useful as a cell rejuvenator in helping to heal wounds and reducing the appearance of scars.

No surprise then that our best selling soap at Indochine Natural is our Patchouli bar. We also blend Patchouli essential oil into our Patchouli Lavender Face, and Spice Island Body Wash.

Pictured below is Patchouli in its raw dried form.

Indochine Natural products are available at all JustLife stores

Or at the Indochine Natural online store

The Benefits of Essential Oils

Having worked with essential oils over many years it is very apparent that these are gradually being replaced by synthetics, and this is a pity because people do not realise the benefits of natural essential oils.

The fine, delicate and natural complexity of essential oils cannot be duplicated synthetically with inorganic chemicals. This is the very simple reason that essential oils can effect our moods and emotions and synthetic fragrances do not.

Essential oils work on two levels. Firstly, an essential oil fragrance that you find pleasant and attractive will soothe or stimulate the mind. At the same time, as you inhale the essential oil it, will have a physiological action in your body (anything you inhale will go into your bloodstream).

Certain fragrances will have specific effects.....for example to calm stress and tension, one of the most soothing essential oils is Frankincense (this essential oil has a history going back 5,000 years), and others include Bergamot, Clary Sage, and Lavender.

Our tip then is to switch onto essential oils for mood, romance, uplifting/stimulating, and calming.....but be warned, it is difficult to find the genuine article these days.

Check out our range of essential oils HERE .....all are provided with a Certificate of Analysis on request. 

 

EucaMatcha

It's almost that i'm obsessed with Matcha green tea and hasn't get over it yet.
I have done yet another Matcha green tea recipe with Eucalyptus essential oil.

I hope after curing time, the green tea colour will become a bit brighter.
Love it already.

My new products recently

My pizza

My SageParsley cake and a sprinkle of Basil seeds.

My Bay leaves.

Frankincense oil story

Somalian Frankincense Oil

Sereolipi – this means dry river. The land is very arid and bare at this time of year and very little grows.

One of the few plants that survives these conditions is the Boswellia (frankincense) bush.

These are the women who collect the Frankincense Gum to produce the oil.

IMO send an inspector to check the storage facilities and production methods used.

A very trained eye is needed to be able to spot the gum in all these thorns.

The women have to work their way right to the centre of the plant to find the gum.

It is very thorny work!

The sap naturally seeps out of the bark and forms the hard gum.

The frankincense gum is then sorted before being distilled.

Donkeys are the main mode of transport in the area and are used to carry the collected frankincense gum.

The Somalian people are very proud of their frankincense oil and Aromantic are very proud to be able to support them.

http://www.aromantic.com/somalian-frankincense-oil.htm