Flower essences, essential oils, herbal tinctures, herbal oils, floral water… they’re all made with botanical materials and come in little glass bottles, but that is where the similarity ends. Find out the differences between these products – how they’re made, how they’re used, and what they’re used for.
Flower Essences vs. Essential Oils
Most people have heard of essential oils, but haven’t heard of flower essences, or if they have, assume it’s the same thing. The names sound similar, and to complicate matters, some perfumers refer to aromatic liquids as essences.
Essential Oils (EOs) are aromatic plant constituents that are extracted and concentrated by distillation or expression (pressing). They are highly concentrated and it takes massive amounts of plant material to create each drop. They’re typically inhaled, misted, or applied externally and used for a variety of health and sensory benefits. Because they’re so concentrated, it’s important to follow proper usage guidelines and safety protocols when handling and using them. Qualified Aromatherapists and Aromatic Medicine Practitioners are trained in how to mitigate these risks and use them properly.
Flower Essences are made from an imprint of the life force of plants into water. It takes very little plant material to do this, so they pose no sustainability issues. The final product contains only microscopic amounts of plant material, if any, and there is no scent. Because of this, they are extremely safe to use for people of all ages, pets, and even other plants.
Rather than working through scent and the olfactory system like Essential Oils, or with the body’s physiochemistry like herbal medicines, Flower essences work on more subtle energetic levels. These are “vibrational remedies” and act through a process of resonance to convey information to the subtle levels of the body-mind-spirit complex. Flower Essence Practitioners are trained to address emotional root causes of complaints and create appropriate combinations that help the client over time.
Note that this is a simplified representation because a.) different extraction methods pull out different constituents, and
b.) strength is also dependent on the dose.
