What is absolute?
Absolutes are similar to essential oils. They are volatile, concentrated, highly aromatic, oil-soluble mixtures extracted from plants. Whereas essential oils are produced by distillation, boiling or pressing, absolutes are produced through solvent extraction, mostly by using synthetic hexane as solvent. That is why absolutes can't be certified as organic.
What absolutes are used for?
Absolutes are used in perfumery mostly – jasmine absolute, rose absolute, tuberose absolute, champak absolute and other delicate flower blossoms absolutes. Residual solvent may be left in absolute. Despite the fact that it's rather rare case with high quallity absolutes, it's use in aromatherapy is undesirable. However absolutes are essential ingredients in natural botanical perfumery.
