Rose from a leaf. Not from a lab.

Our Story

Geranium is the leaf that smells like a rose, which is exactly why it gets faked. We buy the crop, distil it ourselves, and have the numbers checked.

Leaf Rosy Without a Rose

Organic Bought Direct, In Bulk

In-House Distilled On Site

3 yr Date Stamped

The Rose Substitute Problem

Geranium sits in an awkward spot: rosy enough to stand in for rose, cheap enough that people expect it to be cheaper still.

That pressure has consequences. Geranium is routinely thinned with palmarosa, topped up with isolated citronellol or geraniol bought by the kilo, or blended down until the rosiness is mostly synthetic. It still smells passable, which is the problem.

We would rather sell the plant. Our leaf comes in bulk from organic growers we deal with directly, and it goes through our own still, so the rosiness in the bottle came out of foliage rather than a drum of isolates.

Rose geranium foliage with deeply lobed leaves growing in a field row

It Is the Leaf, Not the Flower

People are often surprised by this one. Pelargonium graveolens has small, unremarkable flowers, and none of the aroma is in them. The scent lives in the deeply lobed, slightly furred leaves and the green stems.

Brush the foliage and you get it immediately: fresh crushed leaf wrapped around a rose heart, with mint and citrus glinting at the edges.

The crop is cut with the stems attached and distilled fresh. The finest reputation belongs to the Bourbon type from the volcanic soils of Reunion, while Egypt and China now grow most of the world's supply.

Straight From Cut Foliage

Everything is made rather than purchased, which on this material is the difference between selling a plant extract and selling a formulation.

Cut foliage is packed while still green, steam is drawn through it, and the aromatics separate out as the vapour cools. Geranium yields modestly, and that modest yield is precisely why the market is full of stretched versions.

We take each run to completion. There is no hour figure to quote because we stop when the plant material is spent rather than when a clock says so.

Fresh geranium foliage packed into a still with steam rising in a distillery

The Rosy Compounds, Counted

An independent laboratory analyses every batch, and with geranium the constituent balance is where adulteration shows up.

Citronellol and geraniol

The two that carry the rose character. In genuine graveolens their ratio falls in a narrow band.

Palmarosa markers

Palmarosa is the classic cheap extender here, and it leaves a recognisable fingerprint.

Isolated additions

Screens for kilo-bought citronellol or geraniol dosed in to lift a weak distillate.

Send the reference off your label and the report follows. Alternatively use the contact page.

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Dated, Then Numbered

You get the distillation day, the bottling day, and a lot number tying them to an analysis.

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Amber Glass

Amber in every size, because a rosy leaf oil goes dull in clear glass.

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No Palmarosa

Pure Pelargonium graveolens, undiluted, with no grass oil blended in.

Where We Hold the Line

Six positions behind every geranium lot we bottle.

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Foliage Distilled

Leaf and stem cut fresh, with nothing bought in as a finished oil.

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Organic Growers

Bulk purchase from organic geranium farms, dealt with directly.

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Our Own Still

Green cut foliage in, sealed bottle out, all under our roof.

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Ratio Verified

Independent analysis of the citronellol and geraniol balance on every batch.

✓

No Isolates Added

Nothing dosed in to make a thin distillate smell rosier.

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Bottle to Barrel

Buy an ounce or buy a barrel; the lot behind it is the same.

Sensible Use

Nothing on this page is a medical claim. Geranium's value sits in perfumery and in formulation work, which is what we will discuss.

Use it in a carrier rather than neat, and trial a little on reactive skin before a full application. Geranium is well tolerated by most people, though it is more likely than a citrus to bother reactive skin, so go lightly at first.

When the crop cannot give us oil that analyses correctly, we run out rather than reach for something rosier and cheaper.

A Rose Note With Its Paperwork

Organic leaf and stem, cut fresh, distilled in our own still, with the rosy constituents measured by a laboratory that does not work for us.

Compare it against a rose blend.

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