White Pepper Essential Oil

I typically request samples before buying an essential oil, particularly one I haven’t worked with before but one blurry photo from my Indonesian supplier revealed an essential oil so stunning in color – like a perfect blue topaz stone I once worked with in my goldsmithing days, that I bought the oil sight unseen, scent unknown. White pepper essential oil was an unknown to me just as it was in Ernest Guenther’s era when he wrote in 1952 that white pepper could not be distilled due to high prices and hulls being removed. I work with our Black Pepper essential, CO2 and Pink Peppercorn from both Kenya and Peru – all of which have interesting spicy profiles. White Pepper is in a scented lane all on its own, possessing an almost mustiness that mutes expected pepper notes. There is an intense floral top note that is unique, mature like the white peppercorn itself. The complexity of this oil belongs in compositions with Carnation and other spicy noted aromatics. I admit that when I first sniffed it off the scent strip, I felt like I had been sucker punched in the third eye. I wasn’t offended, in fact, I liked it.

Suggested uses: In natural perfumery compositions particularly with aromatics of a spicier note.