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Essential Oil Production
Naturallythinking are unique, not only are we an aromatherapy company that sources some of the finest essential oils from throughout the world, we are also a grower of the plants for essential oils.
At our 50 acres of Farmland on the Surrey Hills we grow Lavender, Peppermint, Rosemary, Sage, Basil, Chamomile and Geranium and micro varieties for specific cosmetic product use. We grow, harvest and distill and use the essential oils in our Cosmetic Products.
Growing Plants for Essential Oil
We have been associated with a local Community project growing Lavender since 2004, but in 2015 we made the decision it was time to scale up our operations, increasing the amount of Lavender and planting many other essential oils ourselves.
We planted our first Lavender in 2015, in an acre of land and in 2016 planted a further 15 acres. During 2017 we planted a further 25 acres of land and during 2018 we will plant an additional 10 acres.
By the end of 2018 we will be the second largest Lavender grower in the UK and one of just a handful producing essential oils other than Lavender in the UK.
More than Essential Oils
In addition to our essential oils, we are growing over 100 different plant types for botanical extracts and actives. These extracts and actives add skin conditioning properties to our products. We previously purchased many of these botanical actives from Germany, but growing themselves has allowed us to reduce our Carbon footprint and bring life to abandoned farm land on the Surrey Hills.
We have planted 10,000 Pumpkins that we will use not only for Pumpkin extract, but will press the seeds to obtain Pumpkin Oil… and we are sure a few of them will be used for fun during Halloween! Pumpkin has wonderful skin conditioning properties, it is one of our favourite carrier oils, it works well directly applied to the skin and adds an amazing lustre to skincare products.
Click here ot see our range of Aromatherapy Products
Small and Large Scale Essential Oil Distilling
We distill both large scale volumes of Essential Oil and small craft batches depending upon the time of year and the oil we are distilling.
As we grow and distill oils in our Greenhouses throughout the year, we produce small crops of Peppermint, Sage and Basil throughout the winter which we micro-distill for freshness. These wonderful oils go straight from the still into our products.
Our micro-distilling allows us to produce significant volumes of floral water throughout the year, for freshness and purity.
Future Essential Oil Plans
We are hoping to increase our range of Essential oils produced in the the UK. We are also creating an educational greenhouse that will be open to the Public, here we will be growing a small number of all of the plants that produce our essential oils. This will open to the Public during 2019 and will be a great visit for any keen aromatherapist.
We are also working on a United Kingdom Rose Project, more details below.
Rose Essential Oil Production in the UK
Rose Essential Oil is one of the most expensive essential oils available. A combination of the sheer amount of plant material required to produce 1kg of Rose Oil and the labour intensive nature of the harvest dicates the high price.
Since 2016, Naturallythinking have been experimenting with the indoor growing of Rose plants for the production of essential oil. Using harvested Rainwater and UV lighting powered by Solar we are attempting to grow Rosa damascena indoors in a controlled environment that will be free from the use of pesticides and herbicides, leading to a beautifully pure Rose Oil.
We are under no illusion that we will probably not produce large scale amounts of essential oil, however we are hoping the process will allow us to produce large scale volumes of Rose Floral Water / Hydrolat.
