What are Flower Essences?
What a flower essence actually is
Spring water that has held flowers in sunlight, preserved with a small amount of brandy. That is the whole bottle.
There is no plant matter in it, no fragrance, no essential oil and nothing pharmacologically active. Which is exactly why it can sit alongside your animal's food, their routine, their training and anything your vet has prescribed, without interfering with any of it.
What they are for
- Emotional balance: fear, grief, restlessness, the unease of change
- Safe alongside food, medication and other formulas
- Dogs, cats, horses and birds, at any age
- Four drops, whatever the animal. Nothing to work out by weight
- Gradual and cumulative. Consistency matters more than quantity
What they are not
- Not a sedative. Nothing in the bottle dulls or slows your animal down
- Not an essential oil. There is no aromatic oil in an essence, and no scent. This matters around cats, where several essential oils are unsafe
- Not a medicine, and never a replacement for veterinary care
- Not a herbal supplement. No plant material remains in the water
- Not an overnight fix, and not a personality change
How they are made
Blossoms are floated in a bowl of spring water and left in the sun. The flowers are lifted out, and what stays behind in the water is what an essence is. That water is diluted, then preserved with a small amount of brandy, around 20%. Single essences are then combined into a blend aimed at one situation, so you choose by what you are seeing rather than assembling a recipe yourself.
How to give it
Four drops in the water bowl, two to four times a day, topped up as you refill it. You can also rub a drop into the fur behind the ears, or for birds, onto the feathers or beak. For a known trigger like fireworks, a move or a vet visit, start two or three days ahead rather than on the day.
What to expect
Flower essences work gradually. Most people wonder whether anything is happening somewhere in the first fortnight. Give a formula three to four weeks before you judge it. If nothing has shifted by then, a different formula is probably the better fit, and we would rather help you find it than have you keep buying the wrong bottle.
Do they actually work?
Flower essences are a traditional practice rather than a pharmaceutical, and we are not going to point you at clinical trials that do not exist. What we will say is that we have been making them for animals since 1998, our reviews are published unedited on every product page, and the fairest test is your own animal over three or four weeks.
Not sure which formula? Take the one-minute quiz, or browse all the formulas.
Pet Essences formulas support emotional balance alongside good food, routine, training and veterinary care. They are not a substitute for veterinary care. If your animal is unwell, in pain, or something has changed suddenly, please speak to your vet first.