Imbolc

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.

For a few brief weeks in early spring, the hills around France’s perfume capital, Grasse, are splashed with sunshine yellow; the mimosa trees are in flower. Mimosa is a kind of acacia native to Australasia. Its scent is fresh, floral, a little honeyed, with a powdery facet.

Our lavender is grown by a network of family farms in the hills of Provence, 600-1500m above sea level. This much-loved herb is particularly beloved of Provençals, who have been growing it for centuries. It is often called the soul of the region.

Our black tang seaweed, also known as bladderwrack, is sustainably harvested from the pink granite rocks of Brittany in northern France. After harvesting, the seaweed is dried before being ground into a powder. This powder is refined using solvent extraction to create the seaweed absolute.

We chose Haitian vetiver over Javan competitors for its fresh, sparkling notes, and because the root provides sustainable employment for south Haitian communities. One year after planting, the roots are excavated, washed, cut, and sun-dried before they can be steam distilled at source.

We press our sweet orange oil from the rind of cold-pressed Hamlin oranges grown in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Hamlin orange trees are among the most tolerant of cold and their fruit comes early, the season beginning in October.

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.

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.

Marjoram is an aromatic herb - closely related to oregano. As a fragrance ingredient, it brings a surprisingly spicy facet, with a dry, herbal edge. Marjoram essential oil is obtained through steam distillation of the dried flowering plant.

Cardamom is a tall, reed-like shrub native to South India and Sri Lanka. The mature fruit takes the form of a capsule-like pod that holds within it small aromatic seeds. The cardamom we use is grown in Guatemala and the essential oil is extracted by steam distillating the seeds.

Our Egyptian basil grand vert is renowned for its high linalool composition and its distinctive aniseed notes. The leaves are cut and immediately distilled - if they are allowed to dry, the scent is largely lost.

Grown in Northeastern Madagascar, our clove trees are lush with reddish brown buds which burst into many-headed white flowers. It is from these buds that our clove oil is extracted - using a water distillation process.

Hand-picked at night to preserve intensity, our jasmine sambac is native to the Eastern Himalayas. Also known as Arabian jasmine, jasmine sambac has a long history of connection with Persia and the Middle East. The oil is extracted at source using Joseph Robert’ solvent extraction process.

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.

Our balsam fir absolute is extracted from wild-grown needles east of Calgary, in Canada. The scent is often compared to that of jam: intense, very long lasting, sweet, fresh and foresty all at once.

Sandalwood is a slow-growing plant that can reach heights of ten metres, which, due to its popularity, is extremely vulnerable to over-harvesting. Ours comes from sustainable groves in Australia, and is extracted by steam distilling the tree’s wood and root chippings.

Scentless when fresh and native to Asia, patchouli is a member of the _Lamiaceae_ or Mint family. Our patchouli is hand-harvested on the Indonesian Island of Java. It’s then dried in the shade and briefly fermented, helping to break down the cell walls before the copper still hydrodistillation.

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.