Enfleurage

What is Enfleurage?

Enfleurage is a process for extracting the scent of flowers using odorless animal fats that are solid at room temperature. The technique involves either spreading fat on glass plates and layering fresh petals on top (cold enfleurage), or heating fat and mixing in flowers (hot enfleurage). Over time, the fat absorbs the fragrance, which can then be further processed to make perfumes or scented pomades. The method is slow and labor-intensive, and was mainly used for flowers that could not withstand heat.

Where does Enfleurage come from?

Enfleurage originated in southern France, particularly in Grasse, during the 17th and 18th centuries as the perfume industry developed. It became the main way to capture the scent of delicate flowers whose fragrance would be lost with heat-based extraction methods. The process was especially important before the invention of modern solvent extraction, and it played a key role in the early perfume trade in France.

How Enfleurage is made

In cold enfleurage, glass frames are coated with animal fat and layered with flower petals, which are replaced every few days until the fat is saturated with scent. In hot enfleurage, flowers are stirred into heated fat, strained, and replaced repeatedly. The scented fat, called pomade, can be used as is or washed with alcohol to extract the pure fragrance, leaving behind an absolute. The remaining fat is often used for making scented soaps.

When and where Enfleurage is used

Enfleurage was used mainly in the perfume industry to extract scents from fragile flowers like jasmine and tuberose. The resulting pomade or absolute was a key ingredient in high-quality perfumes. Today, the method is rarely used, having been replaced by more efficient techniques such as solvent extraction and steam distillation, but it remains a part of perfume history.

Forms of Enfleurage

There are two main types: cold enfleurage, which uses unheated fat and is suited to very delicate flowers, and hot enfleurage, which uses heated fat and is considered the oldest method. Both methods can be adapted to different flowers, but cold enfleurage was especially valued for preserving the true scent of blooms like jasmine.

What Enfleurage means

Enfleurage is closely linked with the perfume heritage of Grasse, France, a city famous for fragrance production. While the process is now largely obsolete, it is remembered as a symbol of traditional craftsmanship in perfumery. Its use for extracting scents from flowers that could not survive other methods made it essential in the early history of perfume.

The flowers of Enfleurage

JasmineA group of fragrant shrubs and vines with white or yellow star-shaped flowers

Questions people ask about Enfleurage

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Enfleurage on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data