Black seed is a cold pressed vegetable oil derived from the seeds of the bushy, flowering plant Nigella sativa. The plant is known by a wide range of pseudonyms including fennel flower, nutmeg flower, Roman coriander, onion seed, and in the USA it is known as charnushka, which is derived from Russian.

Even more confusingly, both the seeds of the plant and the derived oil are sometimes referred to as black cumin or black caraway. This illustrates the problems you can encounter when using the ’common’ names of plants or oils. 
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I recently spoke to a new customer who had previously purchased her anonymous ‘cedarwood’ oil from a supplier that did not provide either the full common name or a botanical reference on the label. It was just called ‘cedarwood oil’.

When she purchased Quinessence Cedar Atlas oil she had presumed that it would be the same as the oil she was familiar with, and was understandably surprised at the different fragrance. ‘Why doesn’t it smell like pencils?’, she asked me.

Good question. ‘If only I had included this oil profile in a recent post’, I thought to myself, ‘It would have made this explanation so much easier!’ Oh well, at least our customer helped me to decide which essential oil I should cover next.
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