Neroli oil for hair: what it is, what it does, how we blend it
Neroli oil is distilled from bitter-orange blossom, a green, fresh, slightly bitter floral that After Color carries at half a percent beside geranium, and one of the dearer oils in the library.
| Role | Essential oil, floral family |
|---|---|
| On the label | Citrus Aurantium Amara (Bitter Orange) Flower Oil |
| In our blends | After Color 0.5% |
| Builder limit | Up to 1% of a hair blend (all essential oils together: 1%) |
What it is
Steam-distilled from the flowers of Citrus aurantium amara, the bitter orange tree, the oil is mostly linalool, linalyl acetate and limonene, with nerolidol and indole in the traces that give it depth. The same tree gives petitgrain from its leaves and bitter orange from its peel. It is pale yellow, thin and volatile, and the blossoms yield little, which the price shows.
How it feels on hair
At 0.5% it gives a bright, fresh, green-floral scent with a bitter edge that keeps it from being sweet; it fades over a couple of hours. The blend's weight and finish are unchanged.
Who reaches for it
Bleached, coloured and heat-styled lengths that get a floral oil (After Color, 0.5% with geranium), and anyone who finds lavender too herbal and ylang ylang too heavy.
Where it sits in our blends
After Color carries neroli at 0.5% (with Camellia (Tsubaki) 52.3%, Argan 26.2%, Marula 10%, and more). The blends with a product page can be bought as they are; every one of them can be opened in the builder and changed oil by oil.
How to compose with it
Essential oils share at most 1% of a hair blend; the builder allows neroli up to 1%. Pair it with geranium, bergamot or sandalwood over camellia or argan with marula and baobab.
Compose with neroli Find your formula
Weighed to the gram and blended to order in New Jersey, with the recipe printed on the label. For external use only; patch test before first use. Every oil, with its INCI name, is in the oil library.