Ordering
Our preferred method of ordering is through our website’s Shop Online facility, however we do accept written orders placed by email or post. Follow the main menu link: contact us to find out the relevant details and be sure to accurately record the name, size and quantity of the product you wish to purchase as well as your own contact details: name, email, phone and address. We will issue you an invoice on receipt of your order and when payment has been made will promptly dispatch your goods. You are welcome to phone us to discuss your order, however we do not to take phone orders. We request you follow your phone call with a written order containing all details.
International Orders
We are currently working through the commercial details for international online sales, but this facility is currently not available. Please use the contact details supplied on the website to reach us directly if you are an international customer wanting to discuss a quote and options for getting product to you.
Pricing and Taxes
All the pricing listed on our website is quoted in Australian dollars (AUD) with GST included. All prices quoted are for products only and do not include the cost of shipping or delivery. The website price list is kept up to date with our current product pricing. Any change in pricing is at our discretion and will be listed online. Please contact us if you require a current price list in print format. Please note, our honey is food grade and is GST exempt.
Availability Items
Snowy River Lavender is a producer/retailer, meaning we only sell product: essential oil, hydrosol, dry botanicals and honey: exclusively from our farm. For this reason while most products are produced in significant quantities, all products have a limit to their supply due to each year’s harvest, and once sold out will only be restocked when the next year of production becomes available. When a specific product is sold out it will be recorded on the website list as ‘currently not available’. Usually there will be similar products available to choose from, however if these do not suffice for your chosen product, then please send us a request via email and we will notify you when the product is again available for purchase.
Payment Methods
Our online purchase payment system is through the widely used PAY PAL payment system. PayPal has facility for credit card payment for those without a PayPal account. For other options, such as bank cheque or money order, contact us directly. Bank cheques or Money Orders are to be made out to Snowy River Lavender. Please record your order reference number and business name on the back of your payment. Post the cheque or money order with a copy of your order to Snowy River Lavender, 1039 Avonside Rd, Berridale 2627 NSW Australia. We will dispatch your goods when we receive the cheque or money order and funds are cleared. FULL PAYMENT IS REQUIRED PRIOR TO THE DISPATCH OF ANY GOODS
Delivery
Delivery of your purchase is via Australia Post (registered post) and is costed on a flat rate per cart. Please contact us directly if other delivery options are required.
Dispatch
Dispatch of goods to Australia Post will be within 2 – 5 working days. Including Australia Post’s delivery time, delivery of goods to you or your post office should be within 5 – 10 working days. We will contact you if this cannot be achieved. Please contact us if the goods are delayed beyond a reasonable time after you have paid for your order.
Returns, Refunds / Exchange
We produce quality products please contact us within 7 days of receipt of your product to discuss your order if you believe the product you have purchased does not meet the specifications outlined for the product on our website or has been incorrectly issued. All products must be returned to us intact or at least in the condition you have received them. No item is to be returned to us without prior notification by phone or email. Refund or exchange of an item will be promptly made once the original item has been received by us. For exchanges, dispatch procedures outlined above will be followed and if a product has been wrongly issued by us, delivery costs for the exchanged item will be met by us.
Product Liability
The stability and nature of our products may be altered depending on storage and end use. Given that the end care and use of the product is beyond our control we can take no responsibility for the end use of our product. Please follow conventional user guidelines and precautionary practices typical for the products being purchased.
Disclaimers
All images shown and information given on our website, are of, or about our farm, and represent what works for us in our own landscape and environment. They are not intended to represent a generic or universal account of lavender farming, but are given as a guideline for the client as to how the products purchased from Snowy River Lavender are grown, harvested, distilled and handled.
All GC/MS data given on the website is a guideline of what is typical of each cultivar’s phyto-chemistry for the stated year of distillation. Because we do not homogenise our oils but attempt to maintain the integrity of each distillation, one distillation may have minor variations from the next. Sometimes if there is a marked variation between different fields or plantings of the same cultivars harvested, we will do more than one GC profile but generally it is just one. This means that the GC data is derived from a representative distillation for each cultivar for the year. NOTE: We can have GC/MS profiles done for a specific batch (distillation) at the extra cost of AUD$45.00 per analysis, if requested by the client.
We include the history of our GC/MS readings, since 2005, for each cultivar as an online databank. This databank is a general resource for the client to obtain a broad idea of the potential phyto-chemical content or balance each cultivar represents. To further assist the client, we have included in the CULTIVAR PROFILE section of our website, a Summary Table of the range, the highest and lowest percentages, of key phyto-chemical compounds gathered for each cultivar since 2005, when our single cultivar distillations began. This record of range gives an idea of the scope of phyto-chemical variation which can be brought on by seasonally specific environmental factors.
While we have an extensive regime of phyto-chemical analysis for our essential oils we have not as yet had our hydrosols chemically analysed. Hydrosol’s do have different chemistry to the essential oil from the same distillation containing more of the water soluble chemistry of the plant and is often higher in alcohols and oxides then the complimentary oil. While hydrosol analysis is still a job we need to do, we do however sell our hydrosols as cultivar specific and the client may choose to cross reference the complimentary cultivar’s essential oil’s chemical profile to get an idea of the chemistry of the plant which also produces the hydrosol.
We do record the pH of each hydrosol we distil, both as a production protocol but also as an index of quality for the client. Both our lavender and lavandin consistently come off the still with a pH reading well below 4.5 (which can mean as low as pH 3.3), making our lavender & lavandin hydrosols in general more acidic than is common for hydrosols from Lavandula plants (around pH 6 or 4.5 for high altitude distillations – Catty 2001). This lower pH gives our hydrosols an astringent quality and we think a long shelf life (well beyond 2 years if stored well). However, this said, we only record on the label that the hydrosol is less than 5pH (<5pH). This is because the acidity of a hydrosol will decrease overtime and we cannot control the exact acidity of the hydrosol when it will be use by the client. We recommend if using the hydrosol, for therapeutic purposes or for producing cosmetic formulations, that the general pH be determined prior to use as it can affect how it combines with other ingredients and also determines the level of astringency when being used topically. We use a dedicated pH meter in taking our readings however a simple litmus test with a range from 4 will give you a general idea of the hydrosol’s current acidity. (Reference: Catty, S. Hydrosols: the Next Aromatherapy Healing Arts Press 2001)
There is currently much talk about ‘therapeutic grade’ essential oils and to this end we largely direct the marketing of our own essential oils and hydrosols to a wide scope of aromatherapy professionals. While it is for others to outline what they mean by ‘therapeutic’, for us, there is only ever therapeutic potential in the essential oil or hydrosol and therapeutic benefit must be seen as located in the specific healing knowledge and protocols of the practitioners, or end users, who put the distilled product to good use. For us, the therapeutic potential in our distilled lavender products is simply based in the fact that we believe we bring a ‘true’ essential oil and hydrosol to the point of sale and that any essential oil or hydrosol produced with care, and with mind to the integrity of the plant and the distillation process, will have its innate therapeutic potential intact. Thus for us ‘true’ is the province of the plant and in our context means we bring products to the market which are true to the plants we distil; plants which are grown with a care for their own nature and the ecology of the natural environment of which they are part; and plants that are harvested, distilled and handled in a way which we believe maintains their integrity and innate value. There is no mystery to this process of production and definitely nothing apart from due care, that can be done beyond the still to make greater the basic therapeutic potential of the distilled products. While we hope many will use and enjoy our distilled products, we direct our boutique production towards a therapeutic group of end users because we believe that like us they have a strong affiliation to, and respect for, essential oils and hydrosols as some of nature’s most precious gifts and that the value added to our products by these practitioners in providing their therapeutic solutions put these precious products to optimum use.