Ylang Ylang Essential Oil
Where Radiant Skin Meets Inner Serenity
Ylang Ylang essential oil, Cananga odorata, is steam distilled from the fragrant star-shaped flowers of the ylang-ylang tree (pronounced EE-lang EE-lang). It is sometimes called the "poor man's Jasmine."
This exotic essential oil has been treasured across cultures for centuries. Its name means “flower of flowers”—a fitting tribute to its intensely sweet, floral, romantic aroma. Beloved in perfumery (including as a key note in Chanel No. 5), Ylang Ylang has long been associated with beauty, sensuality, and emotional harmony. It is even traditional in parts of Indonesia to scatter fresh flowers on the beds of newlyweds.
In addition to its luxurious scent, Ylang Ylang offers remarkable skincare and hair-care benefits—making it one of the most versatile essential oils we use.
Skin Benefits of Ylang Ylang Essential Oil
Ylang Ylang essential oil helps promote the appearance of healthy, radiant skin by supporting balance, calm, and clarity.
- A Well-Rounded Skin Balancer: Ylang Ylang helps regulate sebum production, keeping skin from becoming overly oily or excessively dry. This makes it beneficial for oily, dry, sensitive, combination, and mature skin.
- Helps Support Clearer, Calmer Skin: Its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties help reduce blemishes and redness while calming irritation from acne, inflammation, or environmental stress.
- Encourages Healing & Radiance: By supporting circulation and offering gentle antiseptic properties, Ylang Ylang helps soothe irritated areas, promote recovery of minor cuts or abrasions, and contribute to a glowing, nourished complexion.
Other Key Skin Benefits Include:
- Balances oil production for oily, dry, or combination skin
- Fights acne by reducing bacteria and calming inflammation
- Soothes red, irritated, or stressed skin
- Promotes healing of minor cuts, scrapes, and blemishes
- Enhances skin nourishment for a soft, radiant glow
Ylang Ylang helps to maintain moisture and balance and regulate oil production to prevent excessive dryness or oiliness. It is good for dry, normal, oily, sensitive, and combination skin types.
Hair & Scalp Benefits
Ylang Ylang has been used for generations to help rejuvenate hair and support a healthy scalp.
It helps regulate sebum production—important for both oily and dry scalps—and offers antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties that can ease dandruff and itchiness. By encouraging blood flow to the scalp, Ylang Ylang supports stronger, fuller, more vibrant hair. Hair Benefits Include:
- Balances oil levels for greasy or dry scalps
- Helps condition and brighten dull hair
- Supports hair growth by improving circulation
- Reduces dandruff and itchiness with antimicrobial action
- Adds shine, smoothness, and softness
- Helps strengthen strands and reduce breakage
Aromatherapy Properties
Ylang Ylang’s beautifully sweet, fruity-floral aroma is deeply soothing to the mind and spirit. It promotes feelings of peace, warmth, and emotional harmony—making it a favorite in relaxation blends, perfume, massage oils, and evening rituals.
Its scent helps calm anxiety, ease daily stress, uplift low moods, and encourage deeper, more restful sleep. Ylang Ylang is also renowned for its sensual, romantic qualities, long used to inspire intimacy and affection.
Aromatherapy Benefits Include:
- Reduces stress, anxiety, and emotional tension
- Uplifts mood and helps ease irritability or emotional fatigue
- Helps stimulate positive feelings
- Supports relaxation and restful sleep
- Helps balance intense emotions such as anger or frustration
- Its sweet, euphoric aroma inspires romance and is regarded by many as an aphrodisiac
Ylang Ylang Distillation Grades: A Simple Guide
Ylang Ylang essential oil is unique because it’s distilled in stages, or fractions. This means that the distillation process is stopped at various stages, the essential oil produced at that point is taken off, and then the distillation continues.
As the distillation runs, different aromatic molecules emerge at different times, creating several distinct versions of the same oil. None are “better” than the others — they simply have different scent profiles and uses.
The Five Types of Ylang Ylang
Extra – Collected in the first hour or two of distillation. The most volatile, intensely sweet, and floral. Highly prized in perfumery.
Grade I – Still bright, floral, and slightly sweet, but more mellow and balanced than Extra.
Grade II – A softer version of Grade I with a gentler aroma.
Grade III – Less sweet and more earthy or herbaceous, with deeper base notes.
Complete – A full, uninterrupted distillation (about 15 hours) that captures the whole aromatic range of the flower. Sometimes created by blending all four fractions. Balanced, rounded, and often used in aromatherapy.
Why So Many Versions?
When botanicals are steam distilled to produce essential oils, the aromatic molecules that are the smallest, the lightest, and the most delicate notes escape first. Then, throughout the distillation process, the larger and heavier aromatic molecules are released.
So, as distillation progresses, lighter, sweeter molecules appear first Ylang Ylang Extra), and heavier, earthier molecules appear later. Fractionating captures these different aromatic “moments.”
Which One Is Best?
It truly comes down to preference and purpose:
- Ylang Ylang Extra is intensely floral (some love it, some find it overpowering).
- Ylang Ylang I and II are beautifully balanced and often the most popular.
- Ylang Ylang III is deeper and more grounded.
- Ylang Ylang Complete offers a “full flower” aroma.
While Ylang Ylang Extra is the most expensive, in a little informal experiment at your shop, most of us preferred the scent of Ylang Ylang I over Extra!
Pregnancy and Children: We do not provide information on the safety of essential oils during Pregnancy or for use in Children because the available information is very ambiguous and often contradictory. If you’re interested in using essential oils during pregnancy or with young children, please do your own research and always consult your doctor, midwife, or health care professional before use.
Precautions: If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, have a medical condition, or have any medical concerns regarding yourself or your family, consult a qualified, licensed health professional prior to use. For external use only. Keep away from the eyes and mucous membranes. Keep out of reach of children.
