Ylang Ylang Essential Oil: Benefits, Uses, Blends and Safety
Ylang ylang essential oil is steam distilled from the fresh yellow flowers of Cananga odorata and sold in graded fractions, from the sweet, light Extra to the heavy, woody Third. This guide covers ylang ylang oil benefits, practical uses, dilution rates, blending partners, its Venus and sacral chakra associations, and the safety cautions that matter, including cats, pregnancy and sensitization.
What is ylang ylang essential oil and how is it extracted?
Ylang ylang essential oil is steam distilled from the fresh yellow flowers of Cananga odorata var. genuina, a tree in the custard apple family, Annonaceae, native to the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia and now produced commercially on the Madagascan island of Nosy Be, in the Comoros, and on Mayotte and Reunion. The flower is unmistakable: six narrow ribbon-like petals hanging down like a small green octopus, turning yellow as it ripens, often with a reddish blush at the base. Green flowers yield almost nothing worth having, so pickers wait for the yellow stage and harvest in the early morning while volatile content is highest, then get the flowers into the still the same day. Plantation trees are topped and trained to two or three meters so the crown stays within reach, although left unpruned the species will pass twenty meters. What separates ylang ylang from nearly every other floral distillation is that it is fractionated during the run. The still works for the better part of a day and the distiller draws off the condensate in successive cuts instead of collecting one uniform oil, which is why a bottle labeled ylang ylang essential oil can contain any of five noticeably different products.
The cuts are graded Extra, First, Second and Third, with complete as a fifth designation. Extra comes off within roughly the first hour or two and carries the largest share of the light, sweet esters and ethers, making it the most expensive and the most prized in fine perfumery. Third, taken from the tail of the run, is dominated by sesquiterpenes such as germacrene D and beta-caryophyllene, smells drier and woodier, and traditionally goes into soap. Complete is either a single uninterrupted distillation or the fractions blended back together, and it suits general aromatherapy best because it carries the whole arc of the scent. A separate oil, cananga, comes from Cananga odorata var. macrophylla, mostly from Java; it is coarser, greener and cheaper, and it is the most common adulterant sold as ylang ylang. Because the yield from flower to oil is a small percentage of fresh weight, a liter of true ylang ylang represents tens of kilos of hand-picked blossom.
What is the difference between ylang ylang Extra and ylang ylang III?
Ylang ylang Extra is the first fraction off the still, richest in light esters like benzyl acetate and geranyl acetate, and it smells sweet, bright and intensely floral. Ylang ylang III is the last fraction, dominated by sesquiterpenes, and it smells drier, woodier and more soapy with the banana note largely gone. Extra costs several times more and goes into perfumery; III is a soap material.
Is cananga oil the same as ylang ylang essential oil?
No. Cananga oil is distilled from Cananga odorata var. macrophylla, chiefly in Java, while true ylang ylang essential oil comes from Cananga odorata var. genuina. Cananga is greener, harsher and considerably cheaper, and it lacks the creamy sweetness that defines ylang ylang. Because the botanical names overlap, cananga is routinely blended in, so check the label specifies var. genuina and a grade.
How can you tell if ylang ylang essential oil is adulterated?
Genuine ylang ylang essential oil names its grade, its variety and its country of origin, most often Madagascar or the Comoros, and a reputable supplier publishes a GC/MS report. Common adulterations are cheaper ylang ylang III sold as Extra, cananga blended in, and synthetic benzyl acetate or p-cresyl methyl ether added to boost the banana note. A ylang ylang priced near lavender is not what it claims.
What does ylang ylang essential oil smell like?
Ylang ylang essential oil smells like a heavy tropical flower with an unmistakable banana-custard character, a jasmine-like indolic warmth, a spicy clove edge and a faintly rubbery, almost solvent-like sharpness on the opening. It is one of the few naturals most people can identify blind after smelling it once. The banana impression comes mainly from p-cresyl methyl ether, a small-percentage component that punches far above its weight, supported by benzyl acetate and methyl benzoate. The clove edge traces to eugenol and isoeugenol. The creamy floral body comes from linalool, geranyl acetate, benzyl benzoate and benzyl salicylate, and the woody drydown from germacrene D, beta-caryophyllene and farnesene. Grade changes the picture substantially: ylang ylang Extra is the sweetest and most narcotic, ylang ylang III is dry and soapy, and complete sits between them with the fullest arc. The most useful thing to know about the smell is that it changes character with dilution. Neat or heavily dosed, ylang ylang essential oil reads as cloying and can trigger headaches within minutes. Dropped to a level where you barely register it, the same oil turns warm, skin-like and softly powdery.
In perfumery ylang ylang essential oil is a middle to base note with unusual tenacity, holding on skin for hours and often outlasting the materials layered over it. It is one of the pillars of the classic floral aldehyde structure and sits in Chanel No. 5, where it works with jasmine and rose to give the bouquet its creamy lift. Perfumers use it as a rounding agent as much as a headline note, because a fraction of a percent will smooth the gap between citrus top notes and a woody base without announcing itself. That behavior transfers directly to home blending: one drop of ylang ylang in a blend of ten will bind bergamot to sandalwood in a way neither manages alone. If you find ylang ylang overwhelming, the problem is usually the proportion rather than the oil.
Is ylang ylang a top, middle or base note?
Ylang ylang essential oil is classed as a middle note that behaves like a base note. Its floral heart sits squarely in the middle of a blend, but its tenacity is closer to a fixative, and it will still be detectable on a test strip a day later. Treat ylang ylang as a heart note when choosing partners and as a base note when deciding how many drops to use.
Why does ylang ylang essential oil smell like bananas?
The banana note in ylang ylang essential oil comes chiefly from p-cresyl methyl ether, a compound present at a low percentage that carries enormous odor impact, reinforced by benzyl acetate and methyl benzoate. The same molecule gives ylang ylang its slightly rubbery, narcotic sharpness. It is most pronounced in ylang ylang Extra and fades through the grades, so ylang ylang III has much less fruit.
How long does ylang ylang essential oil last on skin?
Diluted in a carrier oil, ylang ylang essential oil typically stays detectable on skin for four to eight hours, and traces of its benzyl benzoate and sesquiterpene base persist longer on fabric. It substantially outlasts citrus oils, which often vanish within an hour. This tenacity is why ylang ylang works as a natural fixative in homemade perfume oils, and why a heavy hand in the morning is still with you at dinner.
What are the main ylang ylang oil benefits?
The ylang ylang oil benefits with the most support fall into two groups: measurable calming effects from inhalation, and traditional skin and hair uses that go back centuries in Southeast Asia. Small human inhalation trials of ylang ylang have reported modest reductions in blood pressure and pulse rate paired with participants describing themselves as calmer and more relaxed. The same work noted something aromatherapists find useful: alongside the calm came reduced alertness and slower reaction times, a genuine effect rather than a footnote. Traditionally, ylang ylang flowers were macerated in coconut oil to make a hair dressing, the ancestor of the Macassar oil that Victorian men used so liberally that households pinned antimacassars to chair backs to protect the upholstery. That lineage is why ylang ylang still appears in scalp oils. In skin care it goes into facial oils for combination and oily skin, where practitioners describe it as balancing rather than drying, and into body oils simply because the scent is sensual and long-lasting.
The third set of ylang ylang oil benefits belongs to the emotional register, and here the tradition is clearer than the data. Aromatherapists reach for ylang ylang essential oil for anger, jealousy, panic and the tight-chested feeling that follows a shock, and the standard description is that it loosens the grip of an emotion rather than replacing it with anything. It also has a long-standing reputation as an aphrodisiac, reinforced by the Indonesian custom of scattering ylang ylang petals on the bed of a newly married couple. What ylang ylang essential oil is not good for is anything requiring clarity or stimulation. It will not help you concentrate, it does not clear congestion, and it has no place in a morning blend meant to wake you up. Practitioners who like it use it in a narrow band of situations, and that specificity is a feature.
Does ylang ylang essential oil lower blood pressure?
Small human inhalation trials of ylang ylang essential oil have reported modest short-term reductions in systolic blood pressure and pulse rate, often alongside self-reported calm. The effect is small and temporary rather than therapeutic, and ylang ylang is no substitute for medication. The practical implication runs the other way: people who already run hypotensive sometimes report lightheadedness after prolonged inhalation and should keep sessions short.
Is ylang ylang essential oil good for anxiety?
Ylang ylang essential oil is a standard aromatherapy choice for acute anxiety, particularly the racing-heart, tight-chest variety, and inhalation studies pairing it with lowered pulse support that use. Aromatherapists prefer it for anxiety with a physical charge rather than low-grade rumination, where lighter oils suit better. Use one drop on a tissue or two in a diffuser, since too much can itself provoke a headache.
Does ylang ylang essential oil help with sleep?
Ylang ylang essential oil suits people whose sleep problem is being wound up rather than wide awake, since the reported drop in alertness works in your favor at bedtime. Two drops in a bedroom diffuser run for thirty minutes before bed is the usual approach, or one drop of a 1 percent ylang ylang blend rubbed into the chest. Its tenacity means the scent lingers faintly for hours.
What are the most common ylang ylang oil uses at home?
The most common ylang ylang oil uses at home are diffusion for evening relaxation, scalp and hair oils, facial oils for combination skin, natural perfume, bath and massage oils, and scenting linen. Each has a different dose, and ylang ylang is an oil where the dose is the whole game. For a 100 ml ultrasonic diffuser, two drops is a full dose and three is generous; run it thirty minutes on and thirty off rather than continuously, because ylang ylang builds in a closed room and the point where it tips from pleasant to headache-inducing arrives without much warning. For a scalp treatment, three to five drops in 30 ml of coconut or jojoba oil, massaged in and left an hour before shampooing, follows the Macassar tradition directly. For a facial oil, keep to two or three drops in 30 ml of squalane or jojoba. For massage, five drops in 30 ml of sweet almond oil gives a 0.8 percent dilution, the recommended ceiling. For linen, one drop on a cotton pad tucked at the back of a drawer scents the contents for weeks without touching the fabric.
Two ylang ylang oil uses deserve specific warnings about method. The first is the bath. Ylang ylang essential oil does not dissolve in water, so drops added straight to a tub float as a concentrated film and land on the most sensitive skin you own. Disperse three drops in a tablespoon of jojoba, whole milk or unscented liquid castile soap before it goes near the water. The second is perfume. Ylang ylang works beautifully in an oil-based roller, but at perfume strength it is easy to overdose, and a roller that smells balanced in the bottle can be suffocating on warm skin. Build a 5 ml roller at no more than 2 percent total essential oil, about four drops, and let ylang ylang be one of those four rather than all of them.
How many drops of ylang ylang essential oil go in a diffuser?
Two drops of ylang ylang essential oil in a 100 ml ultrasonic diffuser is a full dose, and three is as far as most people want to go. Ylang ylang is far more assertive than lavender or sweet orange and accumulates in an unventilated room. Run thirty-minute cycles rather than continuously, and if anyone reports a headache, cut to one drop or blend it with a citrus.
Can you put ylang ylang essential oil in your hair?
Yes, diluted. Ylang ylang essential oil has been used in hair dressings since flowers were first macerated in coconut oil in the Philippines and Indonesia, the practice that became Victorian Macassar oil. Use three to five drops in 30 ml of coconut, jojoba or argan oil, massage into the scalp, leave an hour and shampoo out. Never apply ylang ylang neat to the scalp, which is thin-skinned and readily sensitized.
How do you make a ylang ylang perfume oil?
Fill a 10 ml roller with jojoba, then add eight drops of essential oil total for a 4 percent perfume strength: two drops ylang ylang essential oil, three drops bergamot, two drops sandalwood and one drop vetiver. Cap it, roll it between your palms and leave it a week to marry before judging it. Keep ylang ylang to roughly a quarter of the blend, since it dominates at any higher share.
How do you dilute ylang ylang essential oil correctly?
Ylang ylang essential oil should be diluted to a maximum of 0.8 percent for anything left on the skin, the dermal limit given in Tisserand and Young's Essential Oil Safety, which is set on the basis of sensitization potential rather than acute toxicity. In practical drops, 0.8 percent is about five drops of ylang ylang in 30 ml of carrier oil, or roughly one drop per teaspoon. For facial products, halve that to two or three drops in 30 ml, since facial skin is thinner and gets reapplied product daily. For a rinse-off use such as a scalp treatment or shower oil the constraint is looser, and three to five drops in 30 ml is comfortable. For children over two, keep total essential oil dilution at 0.5 percent and treat ylang ylang as an oil to use sparingly rather than routinely. The reason the ceiling is low is specific to this oil's chemistry: ylang ylang contains isoeugenol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl salicylate, benzyl cinnamate and linalool, all of which appear on the EU list of fragrance allergens that must be declared on cosmetic labels. Repeated overexposure is how people lose the ability to use ylang ylang at all.
Choose the carrier to suit the use rather than defaulting to one bottle for everything. Jojoba, technically a liquid wax, is the most stable option and the best choice for a ylang ylang perfume roller or facial oil because it resists rancidity and carries almost no smell of its own. Sweet almond oil is the standard massage carrier and suits ylang ylang's warmth. Squalane is the best pick for facial blends on oily or combination skin. Avoid strongly scented carriers such as unrefined hemp or extra virgin olive oil, which fight the floral. Always patch test a new ylang ylang blend on the inner forearm and wait a full 24 hours. Sensitization reactions frequently appear on the second or twentieth exposure rather than the first, so a clean patch test is a starting point rather than a guarantee, and spreading redness means stop rather than push through.
How many drops of ylang ylang essential oil per ounce of carrier oil?
Five drops of ylang ylang essential oil in one fluid ounce, about 30 ml, of carrier oil gives roughly 0.8 percent, the recommended maximum dermal level. For facial oils use two to three drops per ounce. In a body oil containing several essential oils, count ylang ylang against that 0.8 percent ceiling separately while keeping the total blend at 2 percent or less.
Can you apply ylang ylang essential oil undiluted?
No. Ylang ylang essential oil should never be applied neat, because its isoeugenol, benzyl benzoate and benzyl salicylate content makes it a recognized skin sensitizer, and undiluted contact is the fastest route to a permanent allergy. Neat application also wastes an expensive oil, since the scent is more pleasant diluted. If it reaches skin undiluted, wipe it off with plain vegetable oil rather than water.
Which carrier oils work best with ylang ylang essential oil?
Jojoba is the best all-round carrier for ylang ylang essential oil because it is shelf-stable and virtually odorless, which keeps the floral clean. Squalane suits facial blends on combination skin, sweet almond suits massage, and whole coconut oil is the historically correct choice for a ylang ylang hair treatment. Avoid unrefined hemp or extra virgin olive oil, whose own smell muddies ylang ylang's creamy top.
Which oils blend well with ylang ylang, and what are the best ylang ylang oil blends?
Ylang ylang oil blends work best with citrus, woods, resins and other rich florals, and the governing rule is that ylang ylang is almost never the largest number in the recipe. Bergamot is the classic partner, its bitter-bright top cutting the creaminess without erasing it. Sweet orange, grapefruit, lime and mandarin do a lighter version of the same job. On the base side, sandalwood, vetiver, cedarwood and patchouli anchor ylang ylang and stretch its life on skin, with vetiver in particular pulling it away from sweetness toward something earthier. Among florals, rose, jasmine, neroli and geranium layer with it comfortably, though jasmine and ylang ylang together can become overwhelming quickly, so keep the combined floral load low. Clary sage and ylang ylang is a well-worn pairing for evening blends. Frankincense adds a dry, resinous lift that makes ylang ylang read as more serious. Black pepper, ginger and vanilla or benzoin give warmth and a spiced edge. As a starting ratio, use one part ylang ylang to three or four parts everything else, then adjust upward only if the blend feels thin.
Four ylang ylang oil blends worth making by drop count. For a relaxing evening diffuser: two drops ylang ylang, four drops bergamot, three drops cedarwood. For a sensual massage oil in 30 ml of sweet almond: four drops ylang ylang, six drops sweet orange, four drops sandalwood, two drops black pepper, which lands under 1 percent total. For a scalp treatment in 30 ml of coconut oil: four drops ylang ylang, four drops rosemary, two drops lavender. For a night-time roller in 10 ml of jojoba: two drops ylang ylang, three drops clary sage, two drops vetiver, one drop frankincense. The oils that fight ylang ylang are the sharp camphoraceous ones: eucalyptus, tea tree, ravintsara and peppermint all clash with it. If a ylang ylang blend smells cloying, the fix is almost always more citrus rather than less ylang ylang, since you cannot remove drops but you can rebalance immediately with a bright top note.
What blends well with ylang ylang for a romantic diffuser blend?
For a romantic ylang ylang diffuser blend, use two drops ylang ylang, three drops sweet orange and two drops sandalwood in a 100 ml diffuser. The orange lifts the opening, the sandalwood gives depth and a skin-like warmth, and ylang ylang carries the sensual floral heart. Swapping sandalwood for patchouli makes the same blend earthier and heavier, which suits colder months.
Does ylang ylang essential oil blend with citrus oils?
Yes, and citrus is ylang ylang essential oil's most reliable partner. Bergamot is the classic choice, with sweet orange, mandarin, grapefruit and lime all working well. Citrus tops cut ylang ylang's creaminess and stop it reading as cloying, while ylang ylang's tenacity gives fast-evaporating citrus something to hold onto. Use roughly two to three parts citrus to one part ylang ylang.
Which oils should you not blend with ylang ylang essential oil?
Avoid blending ylang ylang essential oil with sharply camphoraceous oils: eucalyptus, tea tree, ravintsara, camphor and peppermint sit alongside it rather than merging, giving a blend that smells medicinal and tropical at once. Heavy florals like jasmine and tuberose are not a clash but a risk of excess, since together they overwhelm most rooms. Rosemary is a workable exception in functional hair blends.
What are the spiritual and chakra associations of ylang ylang essential oil?
Ylang ylang essential oil is a Venus oil in Western magical correspondence, assigned to the element water, to the planet Venus and by extension to Taurus and Libra, to Friday as its working day, and to the sacral chakra as its primary energy center. Practitioners use it for love, attraction, reconciliation, sensuality, self-worth and the softening of anger, and the correspondence lines up neatly with the plant itself: an intensely sweet flower long tied to marriage and desire in the cultures that grow it. In Indonesian custom, ylang ylang petals were scattered on the beds of newlyweds, and that image is cited constantly in modern practice as the root of the oil's reputation. On the chakra map, ylang ylang belongs to svadhisthana, the orange sacral center below the navel governing pleasure, creativity and emotional flow. A secondary placement puts it at anahata, the heart, where it is used for grief, jealousy and the guardedness left behind after heartbreak. Ylang ylang essential oil is rarely worked with the upper chakras, where practitioners reach for frankincense or sandalwood instead.
In practice, ylang ylang essential oil shows up in a few recognizable ritual formats. It is added to Venus oils and love-drawing blends alongside rose, jasmine and patchouli, usually as the smallest component. It is used to anoint pink or green candles for love and reconciliation work, and red ones for passion. It goes into sachets and mojo bags for attraction, often with rose petals, cinnamon and a lodestone. In self-love work, which is where many practitioners feel it does its clearest work, a single drop is added to a bath dispersant on a Friday, or a 0.5 percent ylang ylang body oil is applied slowly as an act of attention rather than a routine. The one caution practitioners repeat is that ylang ylang essential oil is not a subtle tool. Its association is with desire and abundance, so be precise about what you are asking for before you light the candle.
What planet rules ylang ylang essential oil?
Ylang ylang essential oil is ruled by Venus, with water as its element and Friday as its traditional working day. The Venus attribution places it with rose, geranium and vervain among materials used for love, beauty, reconciliation and self-worth, and it makes ylang ylang a natural choice for anything worked under Taurus or Libra. Some practitioners add a lunar association because of the flower's night-heavy fragrance.
How is ylang ylang essential oil used in love and attraction work?
In love and attraction work, ylang ylang essential oil is used to anoint pink or red candles, added in small amounts to Venus oil blends with rose and patchouli, tucked into sachets with rose petals and cinnamon, and worn as a 0.5 percent body oil on Fridays. The consistent instruction across traditions is to use one drop rather than several, since ylang ylang is understood to amplify whatever intention it is given.
Is ylang ylang essential oil used in meditation?
Ylang ylang essential oil is used in meditation focused on the body, emotion and the heart rather than practices aimed at clarity, because its reported effect of lowering alertness works against concentration. Practitioners pair it with grounding oils like vetiver or cedarwood for sacral and heart work, and set it aside for breathwork or study meditation in favor of frankincense or rosemary.
What are the ylang ylang oil safety cautions?
The core ylang ylang oil safety issues are skin sensitization, headaches and nausea from overexposure, a mild blood-pressure-lowering effect, and real toxicity risk to cats, dogs and birds. Sensitization is the leading concern: ylang ylang contains isoeugenol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl salicylate, benzyl cinnamate and linalool, all declarable EU fragrance allergens, and it is restricted in leave-on cosmetics for that reason. Tisserand and Young's Essential Oil Safety gives 0.8 percent as the maximum dermal use level. The headache issue is specific enough to ylang ylang that it has its own reputation among aromatherapists: the oil is so tenacious and so sweet that overdosing a room produces a heavy, nauseated headache within twenty to forty minutes, and the fix is ventilation rather than more oil. Anyone with low blood pressure should keep inhalation sessions short. Ylang ylang essential oil should not be used before driving or any task needing sharp reactions, since inhalation studies have reported reduced alertness alongside the calming effect.
Ylang ylang essential oil is not phototoxic. It contains no furocoumarins, the bergapten-type compounds responsible for photosensitivity in expressed citrus oils such as bergamot, lime and cold-pressed lemon, and steam distillation would leave them behind in any case. You can wear a diluted ylang ylang blend in sunlight without the burn risk a bergamot blend carries. That said, oxidized ylang ylang is more sensitizing than fresh, so a bottle you have owned for six years and used down to the last quarter is a worse candidate for skin application than a new one. Store it capped tight, cool and dark, decant into smaller bottles as you use it, and write the date of opening on the label. If you develop redness, itching or small bumps where a ylang ylang blend was applied, stop using it entirely rather than reducing the dilution, because sensitization does not resolve with lower doses.
Is ylang ylang essential oil safe during pregnancy?
Ylang ylang essential oil is not contraindicated in pregnancy in the standard safety references and is commonly used diluted for massage in the second and third trimesters. The practical cautions are that pregnancy heightens sensitivity to smell and ylang ylang frequently triggers nausea and headache, and that it can nudge blood pressure downward. Keep dilution at or below 0.5 percent, keep diffusion brief, and clear it with your midwife first.
Is ylang ylang essential oil safe for cats and dogs?
No. Cananga odorata appears on veterinary poison-control lists of species toxic to both cats and dogs, and cats are especially vulnerable because they lack the glucuronidation pathway needed to clear these compounds. Diffused ylang ylang settles on fur and is swallowed during grooming. Do not diffuse it in rooms pets can access, do not apply it where an animal might lick it, and give birds no exposure at all.
Does ylang ylang essential oil cause photosensitivity?
No. Ylang ylang essential oil is not phototoxic and carries no sun exposure restriction, because it contains none of the furocoumarins that make expressed bergamot, lime and lemon oils photosensitizing. A diluted ylang ylang blend can be worn in daylight safely. The risk that matters with ylang ylang is skin sensitization from overconcentration or from using an old, oxidized bottle.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ylang ylang essential oil used for?
Ylang ylang essential oil is used for four main things. In aromatherapy it is diffused or inhaled to slow a racing mind, and small human inhalation trials have reported modest drops in blood pressure and pulse alongside self-rated calm. In skin and hair care it goes into scalp oils and facial oils for combination skin, a use descended directly from Macassar hair oil. In perfumery it is one of the great floral hearts, present in Chanel No. 5. In folk and magical practice it is a Venus oil for love and reconciliation. In all four it is used sparingly.
Can you put ylang ylang essential oil directly on your skin?
No, ylang ylang essential oil should not be applied neat. It contains isoeugenol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl salicylate and linalool, all recognized fragrance allergens, and repeated undiluted contact is a reliable way to sensitize yourself to a material you may want to keep using for decades. Tisserand and Young's Essential Oil Safety gives a maximum dermal use level of 0.8 percent, roughly five drops in 30 ml of carrier oil. Patch test any new ylang ylang blend on the inner forearm for 24 hours, since sensitization often appears on a later exposure rather than the first.
What does ylang ylang essential oil smell like?
Ylang ylang essential oil smells like an intensely creamy tropical flower with a distinct banana-custard note, a jasmine-like indolic warmth, a spicy clove edge and a faintly rubbery sharpness at the top. The banana impression comes largely from p-cresyl methyl ether and benzyl acetate, the clove edge from eugenol and isoeugenol, and the round floral body from linalool, geranyl acetate and benzyl benzoate. Ylang ylang Extra is the sweetest grade and ylang ylang III the driest and most soapy. Diluted well below the point where it smells strong, it reads as warm and faintly powdery.
Is ylang ylang essential oil safe to diffuse around cats?
Ylang ylang essential oil is not considered safe around cats and should be kept out of any room a cat shares. Cananga odorata appears on veterinary poison-control lists of plants and oils toxic to cats and dogs, and cats clear phenolic and terpene compounds poorly because they lack the glucuronidation pathway other mammals rely on. Diffused droplets settle on fur and get swallowed during grooming, turning an airborne exposure into an oral one. Diffuse only in a closed room the cat cannot enter, ventilate afterward, and give birds no exposure at all.
What is the difference between ylang ylang Extra and ylang ylang complete?
Ylang ylang Extra is the first fraction drawn from the still, taken within roughly the first hour or two, and it carries the highest proportion of light esters and ethers, making it the sweetest, most intensely floral and most expensive grade. Ylang ylang complete is either an uninterrupted distillation collected as one oil or the separate fractions recombined, so it spans the full range from bright floral top to heavy sesquiterpene base. Extra is the perfumer's choice; complete is the better general aromatherapy oil because it has more staying power and a fuller character.
Does ylang ylang essential oil expire?
Ylang ylang essential oil generally holds up for three to five years in a full, tightly closed amber bottle stored cool and dark. It contains no furocoumarins and relatively little monoterpene content, so it does not degrade at the pace of citrus oils. The heavier grades age best, since ylang ylang III is dominated by comparatively stable sesquiterpenes while ylang ylang Extra loses its brightest notes first. An oil past its best smells flat and waxy with the banana facet gone. Decant into smaller bottles as you use it down, because oxidized constituents are more sensitizing than fresh ones.
Which chakra does ylang ylang essential oil work with?
Ylang ylang essential oil is assigned primarily to the sacral chakra, svadhisthana, the orange center below the navel associated with pleasure, creativity, sensuality and emotional flow. Practitioners choose it there because of its long association with desire, marriage and fertility in Southeast Asian custom and because its scent is enveloping rather than clarifying. A secondary assignment places ylang ylang at the heart chakra, anahata, for grief, jealousy and the guardedness that follows heartbreak. It is rarely used for the upper chakras, where lighter oils such as frankincense and sandalwood are preferred.
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