GET TO KNOW YOUR OILS
Cotton Lavender
Santolina chamaecyparissus L.
Chemotype: artemisia ketone / vulgarone B type
- PLANT PART
- flowering aerial parts
- EXTRACTION
- hydrodistillation
- AROMA NOTE
- top-mid
LEARN AS YOU COMPARE
What’s inside this oil?
Constituents are the natural chemicals that give an oil its character. See the main ones, learn what they do, and explore differences between batches.
Meet the main constituents, then select one to see what makes it interesting.
FOLLOW YOUR SENSES
Aroma & character
A closer look at this oil's scent, strength, and staying power.
- Aroma intensity
- 75 / 100
- Note layer
- top-mid
If you like this scent, explore
A LITTLE CARE GOES A LONG WAY
Using it thoughtfully
Read the full safety context before bringing this oil into your routine.
- Cited dermal maximum · leave-on
- 0%
- Phototoxicity
- Not flagged in this profile
- Oxidation risk
- medium
A cited maximum is a limit, not a suggested dilution. Missing restrictions do not establish safety.
No phototoxic furocoumarin restriction was identified in the reviewed public sources; the stricter public restriction found in this pass is IFRA's surfaced prohibition on using Santolina oil as a fragrance ingredient.
Contraindications & cautions
- majorThe publicly surfaced IFRA summary lists Santolina oil as prohibited for fragrance use and the available trade safety summary does not expose a safe dermal-use concentration.
Explore measured chemistry from supplier batches
A supplier report describes a particular sample. Open this workspace to investigate measured constituents and their original documents.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE SCENT
Inside the oil
An oil's character comes from its natural chemical composition. Explore each constituent to understand the connections.
About this composition
This profile is anchored to the 2025 MDPI Serbia flower-oil table, which exposes a quantified Santolina chamaecyparissus hydrodistillate dominated by artemisia ketone and vulgarone B with smaller supporting monoterpenes and oxygenated sesquiterpenes. Public trade references also describe the odor as balsamic-herbal/chamomile-floral and note that Santolina oil is prohibited as a fragrance ingredient under the IFRA usage summary surfaced by The Good Scents Company.
| Constituent | Typical amount | Reported range | Chemical family | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artemisia ketone | 36.11% | 36.11–36.11% | monoterpene ketone | View sourceChemical Composition, Chemometric Analysis, and Sensory Profile of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. (Asteraceae) Essential Oil https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/12/5/115 (Table 1, lines 629-629: Artemisia ketone 36.11%) |
| Vulgarone B | 22.13% | 22.13–22.13% | oxygenated sesquiterpene | View sourceChemical Composition, Chemometric Analysis, and Sensory Profile of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. (Asteraceae) Essential Oil https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/12/5/115 (Table 1, lines 659-659: Vulgarone B 22.13%) |
| Spathulenol | 3.41% | 3.41–3.41% | oxygenated sesquiterpene | View sourceChemical Composition, Chemometric Analysis, and Sensory Profile of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. (Asteraceae) Essential Oil https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/12/5/115 (Table 1, lines 652-652: Spathulenol 3.41%) |
| Camphor | 2.23% | 2.23–2.23% | monoterpene ketone | View sourceChemical Composition, Chemometric Analysis, and Sensory Profile of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. (Asteraceae) Essential Oil https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/12/5/115 (Table 1, lines 634-634: Camphor 2.23%) |
| beta-Phellandrene | 0.92% | 0.92–0.92% | monoterpene hydrocarbon | View sourceChemical Composition, Chemometric Analysis, and Sensory Profile of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. (Asteraceae) Essential Oil https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/12/5/115 (Table 1, lines 627-627: beta-Phellandrene 0.92%) |
| beta-Pinene | 1.41% | 1.41–1.41% | monoterpene hydrocarbon | View sourceChemical Composition, Chemometric Analysis, and Sensory Profile of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. (Asteraceae) Essential Oil https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/12/5/115 (Table 1, lines 622-622: beta-Pinene 1.41%) |
Profile source: Chemical Composition, Chemometric Analysis, and Sensory Profile of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. (Asteraceae) Essential Oil; santolina oil entry at The Good Scents Company; Gas chromatographic examination of an essential oil of Santolina chamaecyparissus L. · https://www.mdpi.com/2297-8739/12/5/115 ; https://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/es1065721.html ; https://www.perfumerflavorist.com/fragrance/ingredients/article/21855681/gas-chromatographic-examination-of-an-essential-oil-of-santolina-chamaecyparissus-l
A TRADITION OF BOTANICAL CURIOSITY
Traditional & reported uses
These uses reflect the profile's reported traditions and literature. They are not established treatment recommendations.
- traditionally used in folk herbal practice for a sharp, herbaceous-camphoraceous aroma
- used in aromatherapy for a bracing, clearing top note distinct from true lavender
- shares the traditional insect-deterrent household reputation of related Mediterranean herbs
- used in small amounts in perfumery for its unusual bitter-green, artemisia-like facet
- traditionally associated with cleansing and purifying folk rituals
For aromatherapy and wellness use only — not medical advice. Effect statements are traditional/reported associations, not treatment claims. The Synergy Rating scores blend craft, harmony and safety, not medical efficacy. Read the safety framework.
What we're still learning · 4 data gaps
Good decisions start with knowing what is — and isn't — in the evidence.
- A public dermal-use monograph specific to aromatherapy or leave-on cosmetic use for Santolina chamaecyparissus oil was not located in this pass; the strongest accessible safety source found was the IFRA-surfaced prohibition on fragrance use.
- Odor intensity 75 normalizes public descriptions of Santolina oil as having a strong, penetrating odor into the archive's 0-100 scale rather than transcribing a published numeric instrument measure.
- No public source located in this pass gave directly measured volatility-rate or tenacity-hour values.
- UNRESOLVED (closure pass): current closure is ~0.66 (6 rows, sum 66.21%) against the cited MDPI Serbia study, which itself states its 47 identified compounds sum to only 91.72% of the total oil. Table 1 of that paper (the full 47-compound GC-MS list) is rendered as an image/figure on the MDPI page and was not extractable as text within this pass's 3-web-fetch budget (attempts: /htm full-text mirror, The Good Scents Company data page, The Good Scents Company Typical G.C. page). The only alternate quantified GC table found (Good Scents Typical G.C. analysis, citing Giner et al. 1993, Sci. Pharm. 61:169-173) is explicitly a non-artemisia-ketone-rich June-harvest chemotype from a different study population and cannot be merged with the Serbia artemisia-ketone/vulgarone-B-dominant chemotype already recorded here without misrepresenting the profile. No further rows were added; closure remains ~0.66 pending direct access to the MDPI Table 1 data (e.g., via a table-extraction tool, the paper's supplementary spreadsheet, or a cached/OCR'd version of Table 1).