Where materials come from
Our catalogue comes from three places: the major fragrance and chemical manufacturers, qualified distillers and extractors for naturals, and our own laboratory.
We buy from producers rather than through anonymous intermediaries wherever we can. The reason is practical rather than romantic — when we know the producer, we can get documentation, ask about a lot, and tell you something useful when a material behaves unexpectedly. A material that arrives through three brokers comes with a price and nothing else.
Aroma chemicals
Single molecules and captives come from the manufacturers who make them, and we identify the source on the product page where we are able to. This matters because nominally identical materials differ in practice: purity, isomer ratio and trace impurities all shift the odour, and a perfumer who has built a formula around one producer's material will notice when it is substituted.
Where a material is available from several producers, we say which one we stock rather than listing them all and leaving you to guess.
Naturals
Essential oils, absolutes, resinoids and CO₂ extracts are agricultural products, and they behave like it. Colour, viscosity, constituent profile and odour move with harvest, season, origin, weather and extraction method.
Lot variation in naturals is a property, not a defect. Two lots of the same oil from the same producer can differ audibly. If your formula depends on a specific character, buy enough of one lot to finish the work, and tell us — we can often hold material from a single lot for a production run.
We publish origin where we hold it, and issue certificates of analysis and allergen statements per lot rather than per product, because that is the only level at which they are true. See certificates & specifications.
Some naturals carry constraints that have nothing to do with quality. Cold-pressed citrus oils are phototoxic and are restricted in leave-on products for that reason; FCF and distilled grades exist precisely to avoid it. Where a material has a characteristic like this we note it on the product page, because it changes what you can do with it rather than how good it is.
What we make ourselves
Alongside materials made by others, we produce our own specialty fragrance chemicals, bases and accords in our own laboratory — constructions that are not available from anyone else.
These come from working practice rather than a marketing plan. Our perfumers formulate for fragrance houses; where a needed effect had no single commercial material behind it, the material got built. Bases and accords are sold with the same identification and documentation as everything else, and in evaluation sizes, so you can judge them properly before building a formula on one.
Anything we make is identified as ours on its product page. We do not pass off our own constructions as someone else's, or the reverse.
Restricted & withdrawn materials
Some historically important materials are now restricted or prohibited under the IFRA Standards, and others are controlled under CITES or national law. We do not stock materials we cannot supply lawfully, and we will not source them on request.
Where a classic material has been restricted, there is usually a modern construction that gets close. Ask us — that question is a large part of what our perfumers do.
Ask about a material
If you need to know the producer, the origin, the current lot's character, or whether we can hold quantity from a single lot for a production run, ask us. For bulk and production quantities, choose “Bulk & production quote” on the contact form.
See also our standards and packaging practices.