Soap making fragrance oils

There are a couple of problems that could occur with soap making fragrance oils. One is that if you get a fragrance that is not intended for soap, it will evaporate and there will be no scent left. I did this with watermelon soap. The watermelon scent was evaporated by the heat of the soap base, and we were left with an unscented soap.

Secondly, because of the amount of alcohol in fragrances, your soap may "seize" on you. This means that your soap will turn from a smooth liquid into an oatmeal-like substance in just a few seconds. The alcohol has caused it to seize like this. This happened with a lime fragrance oil that I used once, I used the essential oil after that. Another scent that would semi-seize on us was a Frankincense and Myrrh blend. It would get 'thicker' blobs within the smooth soap base. Luckily, it didn't get any worse and the soap turned out perfectly.

I've worked with essential oils and soap making fragrance oils for years, and there are definitely some fragrance oils that are worse than others. I would often get samples of scents from suppliers, and occasionally one of these would give me an instant headache. Store brand perfumes also cause a reaction for me, in that my nasal passages feel like the lining of them have been slightly eroded by caustic fumes.

At my store, I discovered that people say they want natural soaps only, with essential oils. So we would point out the 100% natural ones, mention which were the blended versions, yet they would end up buying the fragrance oil soaps. I would even point out at the sales counter that those soaps had fragrances and they said that was okay.

I also noticed that most people do not know the difference between a fragrance oil and essential oil. Meaning that they assumed that because we made the soap that it must be 100% natural.

Use the links below to get acquainted with what is a real essential oil and what is a fake fragrance oil.

I had a labeling system where my all natural soap signs were in green, and the soaps with fragrances oils were in blue & purple. Some were actually half and half, and we made blended signs, as I believed in being honest about the products.

You won't find this type of honesty everywhere. I see soap makers all over in my travels, who swear that their rose scent is all natural, until I tell them that I know rose essential oil is $100 an ounce, and how can they afford that loss. Then they say that the scent is a fragrance oil.

But it isn't just the natural soap makers, corporations such as Johnson & Johnson use marketing wizardry to make their products sound natural.

From "soap making fragrance oils" to the Johnson & Johnson company baby soap page...

And about that deceptive marketing wizardy...