About Clearleaf Botanics

What this site is

Every page here is a monograph on one essential oil — not a blend, not a recipe, not a brand recommendation. Each monograph carries the Latin binomial, the plant family, the part distilled, the extraction method, the country of origin, the chemotype where the species has more than one, the principal constituents with percentages, a dilution table, a contraindication row set, a shelf life, an oxidation note, a four-step patch test and a rotation suggestion.

The dilution arithmetic is stated once, in public, and used everywhere: 20 drops per millilitre. A 1% blend in 30 ml of carrier is therefore 6 drops. If a number on one page disagrees with another page, that is a bug, and there is a script in the repository that fails the build when it happens.

What this site is not

We do not sell essential oils. There is no shop, no affiliate link and no brand sponsorship. We do not publish recipes, blend ratios, candle-making or diffuser craft instructions, because the failure mode of a home recipe is a burn or a sensitisation, and a formula invites people to scale it up. We do not publish fragrance pyramids or top/heart/base classifications, because those describe perfumery composition, not safety.

We do not make therapeutic claims. Nothing on this site diagnoses, treats, cures or prevents a disease, and no page will tell you an oil will fix a condition. The content is informational only. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, epileptic, taking antihypertensive or anticoagulant medication, or blending around a child under six or a household animal, the answer is a conversation with a qualified clinician or veterinary surgeon, not a web page.

How the collection is published

Monographs are released on a schedule rather than all at once. Each one carries a publication date; the ones dated in the future are not merely hidden — their pages do not exist yet, they are absent from the index, from the family and plant-part filters, from the glossary cross-links and from the sitemap. A page appears the day it is due, and the queue runs several weeks ahead.

This is why you may arrive from a search result and find an oil listed in the family index but not yet on its own page. It is queued, not broken.

How to read a monograph

Start at the safety dose table in the middle of the page. It gives four concentrations across four audiences — adult, child 6+, pregnancy, and a household with pets — with both whether the concentration is appropriate and how many drops that works out to in 10 ml. If your situation is not represented by any column, the answer is no.

Then read the botany block on the left of the lower half for what the oil is, and the contraindication block on the right for what stops you using it. The rotation and substitution note at the foot exists because continuous use of one phenol-rich oil is one of the most common causes of contact sensitisation we see described in the literature.

Points to keep

• Every drop figure on the site assumes 20 drops per millilitre and a 10 ml or 30 ml carrier.
• Percentages of constituents come from published gas-chromatography profiles and are indicative ranges, not a certificate of analysis for your bottle.
• Chemotype matters. Thyme, rosemary and sage are sold as different chemotypes with genuinely different hazard profiles.
• The patch test is four steps and 48 hours. It is not optional and it is not a formality.