Autumn 25

Our variety of crab apple, also known as the ‘wild forest apple’, has grown across the European continent since the Neolithic period. Using CO2 extraction to process skins and pulp left over from traditional cider making, our natural apple extract is bright, tart and a little floral.

Extracting essential oil from pears is nearly impossible - as pears are composed mostly of water they don’t yield oil through traditional processes. A naturally derived molecule developed by Ffern’s nose, our pear extract is chemically identical to the molecule found in pear fruit.

Our chamomile comes from the rich soils of Egypt’s Nile Valley, where wild or blue chamomile has been grown for centuries. Though the flower is white and gold, once it has undergone steam distillation the resulting oil is blue. Its warm and herbaceous scent is earthy with apple-like undertones.

Tuberose is an intensely-scented flower, only blooming at night when its colours are invisible to pollinators. Over the centuries, extraction of tuberose absolute has evolved significantly. At Ffern, we use solvent extraction to yield a much higher concentration of fragrance.

The cognac oil we have sourced is a byproduct of winemaking in Romania - a land with its own distinctive climate and soil. The oil itself is obtained by distillation during the fermentation of the grape juice.⁠

Closely related to cardamom and turmeric, ginger root is crowned by clusters of jewel-coloured flowers and green leaves. At Ffern, we source our ginger root in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, where it is extracted using the CO2 process.

Ffern’s pink peppercorn oil is extracted from plants grown on the volcanic Réunion Island, 680km east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Our 100% pure oil is extracted with the CO2 extraction process.

The La Faces are a third-generation citrus farming family, growing our lemons on the northeastern tip of Sicily - just across the 3km straight of Messina and in sight of our bergamot on the Calabrian shores. The fruit is picked by hand, and the rinds cold pressed on site.

Peppermint is a cross between watermint and spearmint, a familiar sparkly note with a slight peppery edge. We partner with farmers in India's northerly Mint Regions to grow and steam distill our high grade peppermint oil.

Ffern petitgrain is harvested in Paraguay from a hybrid tree - a cross between a sweet Citrus x sinensis and a bitter Citrus x aurantium. Grown by a network of family farmers, the tree’s leaves and branches are cut and immediately distilled in hand built, clay sealed wooden distilleries.

We harvest our ylang ylang, the 'flower of flowers', on the island of Nosy Be, Madagascar, where the aromatic blooms are picked at first light for intensity. The flowers are immediately taken to small, family-owned distilleries, where steam distillation begins within hours of harvesting.

Distilled from the leaves and branches of the camphor tree, ho wood oil is a light, very pleasant woody note with floral and citrus facets. Rosewood sadly being endangered, ho wood is often used as a sustainable alternative in perfumery.

Our neroli oil is extracted from the blossom of bitter Seville Orange trees on Cape Bon in northern Tunisia. The blossoms are hand-picked in the spring at daybreak, once dew has formed. The flowers are immediately pressed and distilled.

Jasmine grandiflorum is one of the most sought after ingredients in perfumery. To make a kilogram of the absolute takes eight million flowers - these delicate, night-flowering blooms are hand-picked at dawn between June and September in the Indian Himalayas, where the flowers are sacred.

Grown on Calabrian hills overlooking the Ionian Sea, the fruit is harvested by hand and the oil extracted at source. The La Face family planted their first bergamot in the 1930s and have been mastering the craft of producing citrus oils ever since.

Also known as musk mallow, ambrette seed oil is a wonderful plant-based alternative to musk. Native to India, the kidney bean-shaped seeds are dried before undergoing steam distillation. Our growers are in San Martín, Peru, a region dominated by biodiverse forest ecosystems.

Our red cedar wood (also known as red juniper) is grown and harvested in its native Virginia, USA. The oil is steam distilled directly from a cabinet maker’s offcuts. It shares the classic woody notes of atlas cedar, but introduces a distinctive ‘pencil’ facet.

Our rock rose grows wild on the plains of Almaden de la Plata outside Seville, Spain. In late summer, the leafy stems of the plant are sickle harvested and plunged into hot carbonated water. This mixture is distilled to obtain a honeyed, amber resin - labdanum.

Benzoin Siam is a balsamic resin taken from the bark of the styrax tree, growing wild in the Annamite mountains of Laos. In September, a v-shaped cut is made in the tree bark, and brittle white ‘tears’ of benzoin resin accumulate over three-weeks. This process is known as ‘tapping’.

Found in temperate, mountainous forests in the northern hemisphere, oakmoss is a branching lichen that grows on the branches and trunks of the oak tree. Ours is foraged from wild oaks in Samokov, Macedonia, before being transported to Grasse, where the oil is extracted by a family-run distillery.

Olibanum (also known as frankincense) is a resin taken from the bark of the Boswellia tree. At Ffern we use Boswellia carterii. The trees grow wild along the Gulf of Aden in northern Somalia, and the resin ‘tears’ are harvested by local collectors over a period of weeks.⁠ ⁠