Jasmine Sambac is a beautiful plant and has an incredibly intense aroma that is very floral, more musky and masculine.

She is an enchantress, this 'Queen of the Night', who works her magic through the nose and seduces her prey with the promise of lascivious joys. Cleopatra shamelessly borrowed this seductive power of flowers and doused her sails with Jasmine and Neroli oils as she went off to conquer the loins of Marc Antony - no wonder the guy didn't stand a chance. Despite its price tag Jasmine is among the best known and most popular essential oils. The cost however, is relative, considering the labour intensive process of production and the enormous amount of flowers required to obtain a single litre of oil: 1000kg, which equals about 8 million individually hand-picked flowers, are required to produce just 1kg of oil. Even so, it remains the most sought after oil of perfumers around the world. In India, the flowers of J. sambac are regarded as sacred,symbolizing innocence and purity of mind. Jasmine flower garlands adorn the temples and holy effigies or are offered to the Gods. At religious festivals the Gods themselves are thought to be present within the flowers. Jasmine flowers are never amiss at wedding ceremonies, and women like to weave a string of flowers into their hair, thus engulfing themselves with this beautiful, most sensuous of natural perfumes.