Welcome To
Semper Phyte
California Native Essential Oils
Phyte On!
Our website is still under construction. Please bear with us as we build it!
Soap, Body Butter, and Essential Oils
While Ron pursued his degree in botany, he took a class in organic chemistry. There he was introduced to techniques of distilling fragrant oils from plants. He left the class with a desire to merge his botany skills with knowledge of essential oil distillation. A few years later, he decided to make an investment in equipment to start distilling his own oils.
With encouragement from friends, he began producing a variety of soaps and body butters scented with distilled essential oils from California native species not available on the commercial market. The picture to the right is one of the early stills he constructed (Ron & Gabriella typically run 2 stills twice this size concurrently now).
You can find a list of the plant species the EO is produced from below along with educational information on each species.
The unrefined shea butter we use in our products is purchased directly from a micro-business in West Africa. The money supports 48 women and their families, who harvest the nuts and labor over open fire pits with clay pots to produce the shea butter. This generates jobs and reduces their reliance on charities and food donations.
We have plans to produce more products made with our own California native plant essential oils, so keep checking our blog for updates!
Semper Phyte's goals include:
1) Increase overall interest in California native plant species.
2) Introduce others to an entire palette of fragrances and flavors not utilized by the current commercial market.
3) Educate the Public about the "green blur" outside, as overall plant species identification can be challenging for many.
This was one of the early versions of Ron's distillation apparatus. The current version is twice this size and much more efficient at extraction.
This is a specialized form of separatory funnel known as an essencier. Like a traditional separatory funnel this piece of glassware allows the oil and water to separate at the end of the distillation, but this allows the excess water to be continuously collected as hydrosol. We typically use the hydrosol as our source of distilled water for making our soap.
Did You Know?
The essential oil industry is largely unregulated, and some brands resort to using artificial scents or dilute their products with carrier oils, alcohols, preservatives or
fixatives.
At Semper Phyte, each EO is 100% steam-distilled under glass without cheap copper stills that can leach ions into the final distillate. No hybrids or cultivars are used only true species.
Species We Typically have in Stock As EO
1) California sage brush
(Artemisia californica)
Scent notes: mint, men's cologne
2) Great Basin sage brush
(Artemisia tridentata)
Scent notes: If you've been on the east slope of our mountains during a rain this is likely what you smell. It's somewhere between a desert rain and an earthy sage.
3) black sage
(Salvia mellifera)
Scent notes: think of hiking southern CA immediately after a rain. This is one of the species you're most likely to smell.
4) white sage
(Salvia apiana)
Scent notes: earthy, clarifying
About How We
Distill Our EO's
The pictures at the top of this page show one of our small stills used for producing small amounts of essential oil (EO) many years ago. We have distilled a significant number of different species since then and narrowed our focus down to species we can dependably produce yearly.
We produce every EO using steam distillation. The design of our stills makes them more efficient and eliminates explosion risk. There are many stories out there of well meaning people who tried to utilize converted pressure cookers for this process and the apparatus detonated in their kitchen.
We also DO NOT employ any solvents in our process. Solvents also put safety in question and increase the cost of production.
We know a lot of people make their way here out of the same curiosity that inspired us, but PLEASE do things safely! Feel free to message us with questions.
Available Products
*Most products are available by special order*
If you are interested in a purchase please contact us directly.
Soap
Our handcrafted soaps are made with olive oil; unrefined coconut oil; unrefined yellow shea butter; and pure EO of whichever California native plant species you select.
Individual bars or loafs (between 45 and 50 ounces) are available. We recommend inquiring about buying a solid loaf, uncut which is much easier to ship and much less money than if we need to cut and box each bar.
Essential Oil (Individual)
One mL sample vials, 5 mL or 10 mL Euro dropper style bottles of your selected California native plant species are available.
Body Butter
Unrefined coconut oil; unrefined yellow shea butter; and EO of the California native species of your choice goes into our handmade body butter.
Essential Oil Wholesale
Please contact us to ask about wholesale opportunities. Currently, our wholesale amount is by the ounce (roughly 30 mL in metric).
Species Information
Species We Have Experience Producing but cannot actively stock annually
1) Rose sage
(Salvia pachyphylla)
Scent notes: Unique
2) Dorr's sage
(Salvia dorrii)
Scent notes: Unique
3) Parish's golden bush* (Ericameria parishii)
Scent notes: citrus, lemon
4) California bay leaf (Umbellularia californica)Scent notes: herbal, mint family
5) Mojave sage
(Salvia mohavensis)
Scent notes: Unique
6) Mojave rabbitbrush
(Ericameria paniculata)
Scent notes: Unique
7) Spice bush
(Calycanthus occidentalis)
Scent notes: Every bit as potent as Eucalyptus! This species can absolutely be a replacement for it.
* Parish's golden bush (Ericameria parishii) is a fire responsive species, meaning it only grows in post-fire areas; therefore, quantity can vary. Delays in customer shipments may occur if purchasing in larger quantities.
We source our native plants from private gardens and construction salvage.
The links below for each species will take you to pictures and information about each one. If you wish to conduct your own investigation on your own of each species we recommend you start with these links.
If you still have questions go to our contact page.