What is a Catalytic Lamp or Lampe Berger?  Introduced over 100 years ago by a French company called Lampe Berger, catalytic fragrance lamps (sometimes called "effusion" or "perfume" lamps or simply "Lampe Berger") are amazing air purification devices and fragrance diffusers.  They all work the same way:  alcohol is burned at a low temperature without a flame in a catalyst embedded in a ceramic "wick."  The device emits ozone and other things that are potent air purifiers.  The lamp also emits fragrance that is dissolved in the lamp fuel.  Because the lamp burns at a low temperature and without a flame, the fragrance is diffused unaltered, without being burned.

The Amazing Sense of Smell.  Have you ever noticed strong memories tied to particular smells?  Aromas are directly linked to the brain, where odorant molecules interface with millions of olfactory receptors.  The odorant molecules physically connect with the receptors, like a jigsaw puzzle.  The human sense of smell can easily differentiate among some 10,000 different aromas.  Our olfactory senses are very sensitive to the types, shapes, and combinations of odorant molecules that make up any given aroma.

Essential Oils and Fragrance Oils.  Most people have never experienced pure essential oils, largely due to their high cost.  The scents in virtually all perfume, cologne, personal care, and home fragrance products are made from synthetic fragrances.  If you've never experienced real essential oils, you're in for a pleasant surprise.

Essential oils are the highly concentrated essence of plants.  These oils are made naturally by the plant during its normal life cycle and serve important functions, such as disease prevention, predator deterrence, and propogation.  Essential oils are separated from plant materials through simple distillation processes and are very expensive because of the tremendous amounts of plant materials it takes to produce a small amount of essential oils.

Fragrance oils are man-made chemicals that create aromas.  Natural aromas (essential oils) are chemically complex, often containing thousands of different kinds of aromatic molecules.  The petro-chemical industry has become very good at identifying a few of the primary types of odor molecules in any given smell and then synthetically producing those few molecules.  That's why synthetic fragrances are similar to the real thing but lack the fullness and body of natural aromas.  Fragrance oils are much less costly to manufacture than essential oils.

Catalytic Lamp (Lampe Berger) Fuels:  Virtually all catalytic lamp fuel is made with synthetic fragrance oil and artificial perfumes, not essential oils.  Just consider the names of the lamp fuels.  Nearly all fruit fragrances (apple, strawberry, melon, cherry, raspberry, etc.) and many types of flowers (freesia, lilac, etc.), and "musk" aromas do not exist in essential oil form or are far too expensive to use in lamp fuels.