Where do you buy your essential oils?

Mr_O

I put this under General, as I have the intention of using some in my own snuff scenting. Looking for businesses in the US, or maybe Canada. I am familiar with Mountain Rose Herbs, Azure Green and Goddess Isis books. I often just can not find certain rare oils, sometimes there are web shops that list some of them, but the businesses may not be legit. Any advice is appreciated!

boiledonions

Now Foods essential oils are all very great and pretty reasonably priced, and they have a pretty big line up. Never used them for snuff, but I

volunge

Living on the other continent and having little experience with essential oils, I can't help out with links. Rare oils are expensive and intercontinental shipping could make the high costs even worse.

All I can say - it's definitely worth experimenting, if you are
interested in scenting plain snuffs or altering commercially
manufactured flavoured ones. So far I used only cheapest and widely available oils: Eucalyptus globulus (found it at my local drugstore, imported from Russia), lavender (unspecified variety; got 5 ml from my relative, who brought it back home as a souvenir from Croatia) and fake Bulgarian rose attar (a famous cheap souvenir from Bulgaria - 2 ml glass vial in decorated wooden casing). I also used spiritus camphoratus (camphor solution in rectified ethanol from local drugstore) and Bulgarian rose water.

I learned some lessons. Say, realized why there's no single-flavoured (menthol-free) eucalyptus snuff on the market. It just doesn't work without menthol, but enhances effects of the latter big time when used in combo. Same goes for camphor - it's too flat on its own, so you won't find a standalone camphor snuff, too (actually there was one - the discontinued WoS Camphor and Mild). I found out that I'm not that fond of it at all. It was interesting to check it out, tho.

Talking about lavender, it's more herbal than floral. Coniferous-like scent, which goes well with dark smokey snuffs, eucalyptus and menthol.

Which particular oils are you looking for, @Mr_O? I can check some local sources.

Mr_O

Thanks @boiledonions and @volunge ! What I can think of off the top of my head: galangal and calamus, which I have found listed by some unverified companies. Also I can not find Corsican mint anywhere. I am sure I have been looking for some others, but I can not remember right now. I will have to re-check with Isis books and Azure Green, to make sure about some of them.

volunge

Nice choice, I would like to try calamus oil, too. I know this plant very well, some traditional Lithuanian bread is still baked on it's leaves. I have collected its roots myself and used some for homemade crude absinthe (I mean tincture, not distilate).

Here it is: https://aromata.lt/en/shop/257/sweet-flag-essential-oil-co2

I will give them a call or shoot an email to find out paying and shipping whereabouts. Or.. if I get some, I can send you a small sample (1 or 2 ml) for free. Just a few drops of any oil is enough to scent 10 grams.

I could not find Mentha requienni (Corsican Mint) oil anywhere on the web. Seems like a really rare one.

Mr_O

@volunge thanks! Back in the 90s, I used to be able to buy calamus oil locally at a new age herb and book shop. Was produced by Frontier Herbs, a major herb and oil company, I think they call at least the oil brand auromere or something now. Last time I bought it was maybe 5 to 10 years ago. Can not remember where I got it. Did have a nice warm to hot leathery scent. I would wear a drop straight on my skin sometimes, even though that was not considered a smart thing to do. I think I might be able to get it special ordered for me, but I might have to pay a fairly high price for it. I have seen it listed at a good price, from one or two shops online, but I do not know if they are legit businesses. Seems like it will probably cost over $30USD for an average size bottle, which is do-able, but there will probably be others that I would add onto the order. Could add up to be pretty expensive. FYI, I can vouch for Mountain Rose Herbs, if they have something you want, but I do not know about international sales and shipping. I definitely want to find a quality oil of hops, as well. Some places do not disclose which variety/varieties of hops they are using, though.

boiledonions

@mr_o if you come up with anything good and need some help sampling these new scented snuffs, let me know

Mr_O

@boiledinonions for sure man! :)

volunge

@Mr_O, just got a reply from aromata.lt. They do ship worldwide. Shipping 1-2 5 ml bottles of oil to the USA costs 5 EUR, but there's only one payment option - international bank transfer, which is a deal breaker, I guess.

Talking about calamus, @rostanf has posted an image excerpt with old rappee snuff recipes in this thread https://snuffhouse.com/discussion/12209/what-is-your-favorite-rappee-snuff . One of them calls for calamus root and bayleaves among other ingredients. Simple decoction of root should be enough for scenting the snuff. Will try out this old method, too. I believe the same could be done with hops. I know some places where the wild ones grow, my grandfather used them for his homemade beer.

Mr_O

@volunge thanks for the info! Definitely food for thought! I might try doing a cold infusion with the calamus. Would retain more of the raw character of the root, might be more likely to mold though, maybe? At any rate, I want to have some of the oil for other reasons, too. Was kind of thinking that maybe the hops resin crystals could be rubbed off of the hops manually?

volunge

@Mr_O, 95% (Everclear, 190 U.S. proof) or 96/96.5% rectified ethyl alcohol cold infusion (tincture) would be even more efficient than any water infusion or hand-rub. That is, if you can obtain it in your state. Getting it in the Baltics is really tricky - small amounts are sold only in drugstores as a prescription stuff. I still have 1/3 of the 150 ml bottle I got five years ago and use it sparingly.

Mixing essential oil with snuff is kind of tricky and time-consuming. It is much easier to proceed with alcohol-dilluted EOs. Just let the alcohol evaporate at room temperature later, stirring your scented snuff occasionally. Usually a daynight or two is enough. If you like mentholated snuff, you can use alcohol for solving menthol crystals (some snuff manufacturers use this method). Or for solving any aromatic resin.

Coniferous resin can be easily collected manually from the bark of trees or cones:

This is a larch (Larix) cone, picked in a town park. The smell of the resin is divine. I will collect some more and save for future experiments.

Mr_O

@volunge thanks for the advice! I believe that everclear is still available in my area, I should pick some up. I also have a supposedly good home brewing shop close by. Should make it interesting to buy some small amounts of a variety of hops to experiment with, if they will let me buy small quantities. Also, I think I can get some frankincense and copal resin nearby. Will be worth some attempts I hope. I have tried adding a couple drops of some essential oils into an old tin of something, but the result was a little off somehow.

So are you just rubbing the plant material, then, and sifting it? Chopping or crumbling then sifting?

volunge

For alcohol infusion, herbal material can be steeped lightly crumbled or coarsely ground with electric coffee grinder. Use copious amount of herbs of your choice (1 part of herbs for 1 part of alcohol by weight). Steep it for two weeks, shaking daily. Squeeze through cheesecloth and filter the extract through paper coffee filter. Concentrate the filtrate by letting some part of alcohol evaporate at room temp (if needed).

Or simply try a tea bag method. I described my way in Snuff making 101 thread (page 5, May 26). The flavour of commercial aromatic hops varieties should be strong enough for this method. Works best with coarse and moist plain snuffs. No need for sifting when scenting is done in this manner.

_______________

Correction to my previous post with cone picture. I confused genus, it's not larch, but Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), a rare tree in this part of the world. I was picking the resinous cones in the park and was spotted by some old lady who had a walk there. We had a small nice talk. Ex-botanist, she told me that this North American genus was introduced to Europe by the Scottish botanist David Douglas, hence the name.

ar47

@volunge I was holding a laugh when you said Larch :D And have a grove of Douglas Firs on the property here for good fun. But Monty Python was why the laugh

Mr_O

@volunge ok. I was thinking that you meant rubbing the resin crystals off of the hops, like works with some other herbs. I was also thinking about using a cotton cloth tea bag so I could massage the hops now and then through the scenting process. Your tincture method sounds good as well. Will see what I can do with that.

I also went straight to Monty Python in my head!

ar47

volunge

Didn't know that bit before. Just found and watched it, thanks :)