Kewra Flower Essential Oil (Pandanus)

Adam Michael has this to say “Aromatically this kewra flower essential oil (23/06/22) opens with a bright pink rose note, somewhat watery, dewy, very candy-floss sweet and underpinned with a gorgeous sticky warm fruit, brown-sugar and rich dark honey medley that in part reminds me of eating brandy-snap as a child at the yearly funfair. The heart is mostly the same profile-wise, albeit the strength is dialled down a few notches. The dry down is a musty, slightly sweet medicinal, astringent, trace nutty, toasted corn, nasturtium peppered experience, and on the strip, I would add it has a note comparable to the smell of butter-popcorn and provides a cold-air sensation in the dry-down as well.

Again, I have done my thorough due diligence here and purchased directly from a very long-standing old school player in the Ganjam district in Oshida. This material is produced via hydro distillation of the flowers, clear in colour and the key constituent being 2-phenylethyl-methyl ether is present here at 79% according to the GC-MS. This is an incredibly potent aromatic, lasting for 3 hours on my skin type, 8 hours on strip in optimal form and is best evaluated at between 1% to 5% dilution.

More experimentation on my part is still needed, (time poor) but so far, used sparingly, this kewra flower essential oil blends very well with jasmine aromatics, especially polyanthum, Chinese Sambac and both Egyptian and Indian Grandiflorum. Our ylang ylang extra paired with this kewra seems to be a marriage made in heaven and provides fascinating effects when used in conjunction with Honey Provence Fir Abs, intensifying the already rich honeyed notes and injecting additional floral character.
Also, purely due to what legend Arctander wrote, I have made a point of evaluating Kewra and Bulgarian rose otto on my skin type. Findings being the distinctive lemon-buttery tonality found within Bulgarian rose otto, is muted somewhat by the addition of the Kewra and the outcome as this develops on my skin, is more of a true to life sensation of taking a walk in a rose garden, so more than just the flower, but the whole plant seems to come alive in amplified fashion, the stems, the mustiness of the leaves, the delicate earth-honey notes found when you bury your nose into living rose damascena flowers, the metallic through to powdery aspects, all of a sudden with kewra included, Bulgarian rose otto improves leaps and bounds I find.”

Botanical Name: Pandanus odoratissimus

Origin: India

Alcohol Soluble: Yes 

Oil Soluble: Yes