Soapmaking Essential Oil Scents

Soapmaking Essential Oil Scents - Help!

by Dorothy
(Ohio)

I am very new to the world of Essential oils and aromatherapy, etc. I am planning on making some homemade soap in the next few weeks and wanted someone to take a look at my intended blends to see if I have a decent scent profile with them.

Batch 1(Relaxing?): 1 part Lavender, 2 parts Rosewood and 1 part Vanilla
Batch 2 (Masculine?): 1.5 parts Sandalwood, 1 part Tea Tree and 1.5 parts Patchouli
Batch 3(Energizing?): 1 part Lemon eucalyptus,1 part Mandarin, and 2 parts Vanilla

I cross checked each oil to make sure they didn't have skin irritant issues (there is some question about the mandarin possibly being phototoxic, but the guy who wrote the website thinks it is fairly safe)

Please feel free to make suggestions about substitutions or changing the ratios.

Most importantly do you think these will smell good?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

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Soapmaking Essential Oil Scents - Help!

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Soap Recipe Essential Oils
by: Kyley

Hi Dorothy,

Thanks for sharing your question about scenting your soap recipes.

Are you using pure, natural essential oils or synthetic fragrance oils? I ask because soapmaking takes a heck of a lot of essential oils, and some of the eo's in your blends are really expensive - this could be really costly if you're going all natural!

For your relaxing blend - it sounds lovely, but rosewood is 1) endangered and 2) super expensive. I would try replacing it with something like 2 parts lavender, 1 part marjoram and 1/2 part rose geranium, vanilla or ylang. Palmarosa might work, and it's not too expensive.

If you're using pure, natural vanilla absolute, you'll have to pay a ton for a really good one. The cheap ones smell just that - cheap!

For your masculine blend, what about tea tree, lemongrass and pine? Or sandalwood, patchouli and a touch of cedarwood or black pepper? I'm not sure how well the sharp scent of the tea tree will blend with the spicy scents of the sandalwood and patchouli.

BUT everyone's nose is different, so if you like your blends, feel free to ignore everything I'm saying - I won't mind!

If you use lemongrass or palmarosa for your energizing blend instead of mandarin, you won't have any issues with phototoxicity. Mandarin can cause increased chance of sunburn in sensitive individuals, so you want to be careful.

Again with this blend, the vanilla is killer expensive - if it's not, you either have a poor quality absolute or a synthetic. Which is fine if you're okay with using synthetics, but don't be fooled into thinking (or selling) it as real.

I hope that helped, Dorothy, and please write back with any other questions or comments. I'd love to hear how your blends turn out!

Kyley

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