Hraundís Guðmundsdóttir is the owner and producer of the company Hraundís. She is an educated Aromatherapyst and forester from the Agricultural University of Hvanneyri. She ran a massage parlor in Reykholtsdalur for many years where she mixed essential oils into massage oils to help people with various ailments.
She had the dream for many years to produce Icelandic essential oils. In January 2015, she went to Sedona, Arizona to study plant distillation and began distilling and selling Icelandic essential oils in the summer of 2015. She is also producing various health products that have evolved after people have asked her to mix them with various health problems.
The production takes place in Southwest of Iceland and all the plants are hand-picked in areas that have organic certification from Tún and distilled in the pure Icelandic water. All raw materials used in the products are organically certified and environmentally friendly. Our goal it to be an environmentally friendly company in every way.
To create essential oils, plants are distilled in special distillers. It is different which parts of the plant are used but it is either flowers, leaves, roots, seeds, needles, bark or all the plant that is used. 100 ° C hot steam is passed through the plant and the oil is released.
The steam is then passed through a cooling tube and must be liquefied. The water then comes down to a so-called separator, but since the oil is lighter than the water, it floats on top. This allows you to drain pure oil. It takes a few hours to distill the plant, but it varies from species to species how easily the oil is released from it.