Traditional Attars

        In lands where attars/ittars have been produced traditionally for generations, such as India, Turkey and Bulgaria, the recipes are tenaciously guarded. Some traditional attars/ittars have been retained within single families for hundreds of years. These recopies are, for all intensive purposes, their trade secrets. At Broken Earth Naturals we respect their rights to those secrets and appreciate the years of trial and error that have gone into creating these wonderful aromas. The offerings on our natural perfumes and attar pages are all single scents brought from these family owned and operated facilities. Our BEN Signature Scents are our creations using these attars and other pure hydro distilled attars and absolutes.

       Traditionally Attars are similar to essential oils in that they are distilled using water or steam and are the pure oils taken from the distillation of botanical material. Attars are different from essential oils because Attars are usually herbs and flowers, or even woods and resins which are being distilled into a base oil such as sandalwood. These distillates are then allowed to age for varying amounts of time. Some attars are aged for only 20 days while others may be aged for five years.

An Indian woman gathering Rosa Damascena. Flowers or herbs are gathered by hand. As in the case of Rosa Damascena they are gathered in the early morning.

Ladies caring their rose petals to the wagon for transportation to the distillery.

In India a Bullock may pull the herbs or flowers to the nearby distillery for possessing.

In the Middle Eastern countries a camel will pull the wagon of herbs or flowers. This camel is pulling rose petals.

This is a family owned distillation plant in India. The secrets of the herb and flowers are still kept even though the operation seems to be quite large.

A traditional one family operation in Turkey. The Deg is made of hand hammered copper and the lid is sealed to the base with clay. It takes about six hours to produce a kg of sage oil using this Deg and this rudimentary system.

                The blending of herbs and flowers takes place before distillation, and the botanical oil distilled is distilled into a sandalwood base. There is an aging process for many attars as well. Some oils actually smell quite bad directly after distillation but over time their true nature represents itself. So, while the process seems simple, and we intend to embark on our own exploration, there is no reason to recreate the wheel when some of the most lovely and exotic aromas have already been created. We can learn to appreciate and support each other in a global way. At Broken Earth Naturals we hope to take from the best and the purest, and support the family businesses like our own no matter what country they come from because we are all brothers of the human kind.