Lemon eucalyptus is its own oil, not a weaker eucalyptus and not a registered repellent. We distil the leaf ourselves and say clearly which is which.
This oil is misunderstood in two directions at once, and both are worth clearing up before you buy any.
The first is that it behaves like ordinary eucalyptus. It does not. Its character comes from citronellal, so it leads bright and lemony rather than cool and medicinal, which puts it closer to citronella in feel than to blue gum.
The second is more important. Lemon eucalyptus essential oil is not the same thing as the refined PMD material sold as a registered insect repellent. They start from the same tree and they are not interchangeable. We sell the essential oil, and we are not going to blur that line to make a sale.
Corymbia citriodora is the lemon-scented gum of Queensland, a tall tree with smooth pale bark and narrow leaves that release a sharp lemon smell when crushed.
It is now planted well beyond Australia, notably in Brazil and China, which makes careless sourcing easy and honest sourcing a choice.
We take the leaf, cut and distil it fresh, and buy it in bulk from growers farming organically rather than from whoever is cheapest in a given quarter.
We are not making medical claims, and we are also not making a repellent claim. If you want a registered insect repellent, buy a registered product; this is an essential oil and we will not imply otherwise.
Reduce it substantially in a base oil first, then trial one patch of skin. Citronellal is a known skin sensitiser for some people, so this is not an oil to be generous with.
It ages faster than a wood oil. Store it cool and dark, note the still date, and if a batch does not analyse the way citriodora should then we sell out rather than fill bottles.
Finished oil never comes through our door. We buy leaf and the distillation is ours to get right or wrong.
The packed foliage is steamed until spent and the oil separates out pale with that immediate lemon lift. It is a generous yielder, which is exactly why it is often produced without much care.
We stop when the leaf is exhausted rather than at a set time, because pulling a run early is the simplest way to raise throughput at the cost of the oil.
Each batch goes to an independent laboratory with no stake in the outcome before we fill anything.
The dominant constituent and the whole reason this oil smells the way it does.
The supporting profile, and a check that the batch is properly citriodora.
Confirms this is the essential oil rather than the refined repellent material, which is a different product entirely.
Quote the lot printed on your bottle for its figures, or ask us through the contact page.
Distillation and bottling both recorded, tied to a lot reference you can quote back.
Amber for every size; citral-rich oils dislike light more than most.
Pure Corymbia citriodora, undiluted, with no citronella blended in to cut cost.
Organic lemon-scented gum leaf, distilled in our own still, citronellal confirmed by an outside laboratory, and no repellent claims attached.
Try it in a summer diffuser blend.
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