TROPICAL QUEEN : FRANGIPANI - Tīpaniē / plumeria 100% Pure Essential Oil (a rarity)

Frangipani, also called plumeria, tīpaniē (and dozen other vernacular names), is the Queen Flower of the tropics. Thought by scholars to be native of the Caribbean, it travelled all the way to the Pacific via indigenous travels routes.

The scentient experience of this oil is very warming, deep, grounding, incarnated, hypnotic, inebriating, soothing and a major activator of the heart energy (so it can provoke a roller-coaster of emotions at first - like good rose does)

Actually, the more I dive into both my personal experience and the cultural history of the plant the more I come to regard it as "the tropical rose". No surprise that many traditional cultures have associated the flower with love, devotion, the supernatural, religious ceremonies & rituals.

Like the rose, it has symbolic, mythological,  and medicinal uses in all the countries it grows. Perhaps not entirely coincidental that in eastern India and Bangladesh, where the flower is considered sacred, it is also known by the name kath golapa, literally... wood rose !

Of course frangipani is also one of the favourite flowers traditionally uses to make lei, the beautiful fragrant garlands & wreaths in found in Hawaii, and in several Pacific islands, such as Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, New Zealand, Tonga, and the Cook Islands, etc. 

In perfumery, frangipani, when not from synthetic sources, is always in found the form of an absolute, never an essential oil. This is virtually impossible to find: a rarity. And a truly remarkable oil that transcends the realm of florals.

The oil itself

100% Vietnam White Frangipani / Plumeria flower
organic production, directly distilled at plantation
hydro-distilled fresh, with a slow, low-pressure process
1400kgs of flower are needed to make 200ml, which is the current yearly production.

The Frangipani trees grow in the orchard garden of Tha Bolton, from Aroma Sublime, a small company producing artisan aromatics of remarkable quality in Vietnam.

The flowers are distilled exactly where they grow, just like our roses... the best approach for superlative quality florals. 

Aroma Sublime's organic hydro-distilled White Plumeria (frangipani) flower essential oil, is a rare feat of all-natural low-temperature hydro-distillation imagined by company founder Tony Bolton, master Distiller and absolute gentleman, sadly passed away in 2022.

Pierre, the other co-partner of Aroma Sublime, is a dear friend, and we exchange some of our respective productions and sourcing (including our rose oil, that is sold on their website), we source things together, etc. It is thus natural, that we decided to cross-reference each other's companies.

Here is how they describe their oil [with minor editorial changes]: