Flower Cake and Wax: The Secret Behind Luxurious Herbal Skincare

Champca Golden Flower Wax

Have you ever heard of floral wax or flower cake? Most of us know about honey bee wax, candle wax, or even a wax museum—but pure floral wax is a treasure that only a few people come across. In the world of herbal cosmetics and aromatherapy, floral waxes are highly valued because they help create truly luxurious skincare products, made with the pure intention of healing the skin in the most organic way.

The reason floral wax isn’t widely available is simple: it’s rare, produced in very small quantities, and often pre-booked in advance due to high demand and limited supply.

Many of our organic and herbal skin care clients use some of our rarest floral waxes available, including Champaca, Magnolia, Mimosa, Lavender, and more. These flower waxes make our products super rich in texture and provide a fine, natural aroma that feels both comforting and premium.

What is Floral Wax and Flower Cake?

As the name suggests, floral wax comes from flowers. It is a natural waxy substance obtained during the process of extracting aromatic compounds from flowers. 

To explain floral wax more clearly, let’s take the example of Jasmine. The Jasmine flowers are harvested by Nisarga Farms Organic and brought to the distillation plant (processing facility). Once the flowers arrive, they are spread out in the shade for about 20–30 minutes on a large surface. This step allows the heat to evaporate and helps the flowers “relax.” Sometimes, a fan is used to support the process.

After this, the flowers are placed into a large container. One container has the capacity of 450 kilograms. The flowers are added in layers—about 100–125 kg at a time, followed by an iron net lid, then another layer of flowers, and so on. This layering helps prevent the flowers from being crushed and makes the extraction more efficient. Once the container is filled, hexane is added and the flowers are left to soak for approximately 3 hours. This allows the aromatic compounds of the flowers to be extracted. After soaking, the “hexane with floral aroma” is removed, and the container is cleaned using steam.

Next, the hexane is completely removed from the aromatic solution. At this stage, the product becomes what is known as “Flower Concrete.” This flower concrete contains the therapeutic properties of the flower, its natural color, pigments, and flower oil. However, it is dense and almost solid at room temperature, meaning it requires further filtration.

Finally, the concrete is filtered using heat to remove impurities and separate the material into two final products:

• Oil of flower

• Cake of flower (it looks like a delicious and aromatic cake and can be solid or semi-solid)

The oil of a flower is called an Absolute, and the cake of a flower is called Floral Wax.

Color of each flower is different, and the wax color is also different. For example, Jasmine flower, sambac variety is more yellowish in color, and Jasmine flower, grandiflorum variety is comparatively less yellowish. Frangipani flower which is mostly white in colour, but its wax colour is brown. Champaka flower which is golden in colour, but its wax colour has a dark chocolate colour. Rose wax is yellow-reddish in colour.

Why Floral Wax is So Rare and Precious

Floral wax is not easy to produce—and the yields are incredibly small compared to the amount of flowers required. For example, from 450 kilograms of Jasmine flowers, Nisarga Farms Organic gets approximately:

• 250–300 grams of Absolute

• 100–150 grams of Floral Wax

This explains why floral waxes are difficult to find in the market and why they are often reserved in advance. And it gets even rarer depending on the flower. For example, with Tuberose, it can take around 9000-10000 kilograms of flowers to produce just 100–150 grams of wax. That’s why some floral waxes are considered extremely expensive and almost impossible to source in large quantities.

Krishana at Manufacturing Plant

Is Floral Wax Safe to Use because Hexane is used in the process?

Some people may wonder about the use of hexane in the process. The good news is that the hexane is removed during the extraction stages. After that, a sophisticated filtration process is performed using expensive equipment to remove any remaining impurities. Finally, special filter paper is used to remove even the tiniest traces of impurities.

Because of this careful purification process, all our friends who make organic skin care products consider both floral wax and absolutes(oils made from these flowers) safe to use in skincare products.

Floral Wax Purification

Questions (FAQ)

• Is it easy to make Floral Wax?

No, it is really not easy. By looking at the plant factory process, you can imagine how complex it is. Here it has been explained in a simple and easy way.

• How much floral wax and absolute oil can be made from 450 kg of flowers?

From 450 kg of Jasmine flowers, we get approximately 250–300 grams of absolute and 100–150 grams of floral wax.

• Does this mean every flower gives the same amount of wax from 450 kg?

No. For example, Tuberose needs approximately 9000 kg of flowers to get 100–150 grams of wax, making it extremely rare and expensive.

• Is CO₂ extraction better than Hexane?

Nisarga Farms Organic also has a CO₂ facility where oils like coffee, vanilla, Bakuchi, black pepper, amaranth, fennel, and ginger are made. However, CO₂ does not work efficiently with flowers because flowers are delicate and can be crushed easily during the process.

• Why is each flower wax colour different?

The colour of the wax depends on the natural colour pigments available in the flower. 

• Are floral wax aromatic?

Yes, they are very aromatic because they are made from aromatic flowers only. That is why people use to make deodorant, balms, natural perfume, solid perfume.

Krishana Chaitnaya, Shashwat

Author

Krishana is a co-founder of Nisarga Farms Organic. He lives in the Himalayas in India, where pure essential oils and rare oils such as saffron, magnolia, earth oil, and bakuchi are produced. He is also the founder of the Himalaya Ayurveda Aromatherapy and Aroma Meditation Centre, as well as the Mysore School of Ayurveda Aromatherapy.

We would love to hear your feedback. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

• Instagram: @essentialoildistiller

• Connect with Krishana: @aromatherapist_krishana

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