What is steam distillation?

Steam distillation is the most typical process for extracting lavender essential oil, a technique that we favor.

Keeping it simple, the process of steam distillation for lavender requires heating the water and plant matter to their boiling points, separating out the essential oil vapors upon rising, and then cooling and condensing them back into liquid form for collection. Simple as ABC!

 But if you really want to understand a little bit more...according to ScienceDirect steam distillation, employed to draw out essential oils from perfumery plants for many years, is conducted by sending steam through the material and capturing the volatile compounds in receivers. Hydrosteam distillation is used when the plant is vulnerable to the steam. This process entails the material being placed on a screen or perforated grid a certain elevation above the base of the still and distillation is done with steam at low pressure, which extracts the volatile components from the intact plant.

Tazeka Aromatherapy has produced an informative, concise video that details the methodology of steam distillation.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVQC-6qIq-Y