Steam distillation: the classic
By far the most common method, and in principle unchanged for centuries: plant material goes into a still, steam passes through it and carries the volatile scent molecules along. The steam is cooled and condenses — and because oil and water do not mix, the essential oil can be skimmed off the top. Left behind, almost as an afterthought, is the hydrosol: the fragrant distillation water.
This is how most of the oils you meet at Wyld Notes come about: lavender and clary sage from the flowering tops, juniper from the berry cones, black spruce from needles and twigs, palo santo from aged wood. What distillation demands is robustness — the scent molecules have to come through heat and steam unharmed.
Cold pressing: the citrus route
Citrus scents are not distilled but pressed: the oil glands sit within easy reach in the peel, and mechanical pressure squeezes them out — without heat, hence “cold”. The result smells of the fruit more directly than any other method can manage, but ages faster in return.
This is how you recognise the method in a pyramid: orange, lemon, bergamot, mandarin — practically everything that brings brightness to the top notes is, classically, cold-pressed peel.
Extraction: for the delicate ones
Some blossoms are too tender for the still — jasmine is the most famous example: the heat destroys exactly the scent molecules that matter. Here perfumery works with solvents that draw the scent gently out of the flower; once the solvent is removed, a waxy mass remains, from which the so-called absolute is obtained. Modern variants use CO2 under pressure — particularly gentle and free of residue.
Absolutes are more concentrated and “closer to the flower” than distillates — and considerably more laborious. When jasmine appears in a heart note, perfumery usually means an extract of this kind; which method an individual maker uses, however, the pyramid does not reveal.
Why the yield explains the price
All three roads share one uncomfortable truth: it takes a lot of plant for a little oil. For one kilogram of oil from true lavender, roughly a hundred kilograms of flower heads are distilled; with rose petals the arithmetic runs into tonnes. If you have ever wondered why pure natural perfumes cost what they cost — the answer is standing out there in the field.
And it explains why origin is no marketing detail: where that much plant matter is needed, cultivation and harvest year have a say you can smell. Wyld Notes states that it sources its oils from its own and partner farms, vetted suppliers and sustainable wild harvest — we repeat these details as the brand publishes them.