My preference would be herbs or essential oils (and not artificial scents) because the wife is into that stuff. I'm looking for something simple and not very expensive. I looked at a 5 fold lemon oil from Amazon but it was $20 for a small bottle...is that normal? I would be into fruity or citrusy smells, but herbs would be ok too. What do people recommend?
Best option for adding scent for a beginner
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Obsidian
Well-Known Member
A lot of citrus EO's don't stick in soap, you would be better off using lemongrass. Its nice and lemony and sticks for a long time. You will get better value buying your oils from a soap supply company, one I use and have liked is brambleberry.
It depends on how small "small" is. I like getting my EOs from Essential Depot (ED) only because I get things like NaOH form there too and just want to deal with a single vendor.
Check out ED, BB, and a few of the other vendors people on this forum use and do some price comparisons. In my experience lavandin is not too expensive and lots of people like it.
I like LibertyNaturals.com for essential oils
Where are you located? It may be possible there is a soap supply company located closer with either pick-up or less expensive shipping options.
For my very first batch of soap I went to a GNC store and purchased the NOW Foods brand essential oils. It is by all means not the most cost-effective way to buy EOs for soaping, but it might be something worth considering for this batch until you figure out if it is something you may be interested in doing more often. Warning: soaping is highly addictive and it wasn't too long before I was ordering from New Directions Aromatics and had no problem reaching their $100 minimum order requirement.
For my very first batch of soap I went to a GNC store and purchased the NOW Foods brand essential oils. It is by all means not the most cost-effective way to buy EOs for soaping, but it might be something worth considering for this batch until you figure out if it is something you may be interested in doing more often. Warning: soaping is highly addictive and it wasn't too long before I was ordering from New Directions Aromatics and had no problem reaching their $100 minimum order requirement.
I do only hot process and have had zero luck with citrus essential oils. FOs seems to stick, but some are not correct scent wise.
I've learned the hard way, that when starting soap making, scents are a rabbit hole you get sucked into. Best to prefect your soap recipe before wasting time and money on scents.
I've learned the hard way, that when starting soap making, scents are a rabbit hole you get sucked into. Best to prefect your soap recipe before wasting time and money on scents.
penelopejane
Well-Known Member
^^^ A lot listed above.
Like HowieRoll mentioned, GNC, Whole Foods, The Vitamin Shoppe or a coop would be a place to look for small bottles of EOs. The problem is, usually they are very small bottles, so figure out usage rate and what amount you would need for your batch.
If you try a small batch with scent, and decide you want to make scented soap, consider ordering a few EOs at one time to make the shipping cost more reasonable. I've had good luck with Bramble Berry's 10x Orange, but no other citrus has worked well. Lemongrass and Litsea are both good choices for a lemon, peppermint and rosemary is a nice combination, eucalyptus and orange is a nice combination, and lavender is liked by most people and blends well with everything.
Good luck finding something that will work for you.
If you try a small batch with scent, and decide you want to make scented soap, consider ordering a few EOs at one time to make the shipping cost more reasonable. I've had good luck with Bramble Berry's 10x Orange, but no other citrus has worked well. Lemongrass and Litsea are both good choices for a lemon, peppermint and rosemary is a nice combination, eucalyptus and orange is a nice combination, and lavender is liked by most people and blends well with everything.
Good luck finding something that will work for you.
If you find somewhere willing to include at least a cheap if not free sample, it can save a lot of money when looking for new scents to try, too. I don't have that luxury, really, so I end up having to pay not a small amount to test a new scent which may or may not be any good at all.
As said above, if you have to use eo and not fo (sorry, but herbs just will not make the grade) then lemongrass is a best bet for something "citrus" - it sticks better than any citrus as it isn't actually citrus! I made a salt bar with it and all those who got it at Christmas rave about it. The last two bars are reserved for when the Queen asks me for a bar!
As said above, if you have to use eo and not fo (sorry, but herbs just will not make the grade) then lemongrass is a best bet for something "citrus" - it sticks better than any citrus as it isn't actually citrus! I made a salt bar with it and all those who got it at Christmas rave about it. The last two bars are reserved for when the Queen asks me for a bar!
I highly recommend the lemongrass if you want a citrus-fragranced EO that sticks. Some people don't like lemongrass, but I really like it and so do some of my family, so that works out well for me. It is common enough that it is one of the lesser expensive EOs you can purchase and I often see it stores, although for larger quantities, I purchase online.
Peppermint and Spearmint are both strong scents that seem to stick and in my experience are not very expensive.
When you say herbs, what do you mean exactly? Fragrances that smell like herbs? Or actual herbs added to the soap. If the latter, don't expect you will end up with any herbal fragrance. You will likely end up with exfoliating soap from dried herbs, but not any fragrance. You can use herbal infusions in place of water for your lye solution, but no fragrance comes of it, and often very little color.
To evaluate herbal fragrances, I recommend you check out the scent bar at The Vitamin Shoppe if you have one near you. They have a nice set up with their essential oils for customers to sniff, then 'cleanse the olfactory palate' via sniffing from a jar of coffee beans between sniffs. It's a very nice set up and you can find scents you might be interested in trying. Their EOs are not cheap, but after doing such a sniff test, I always feel obligated to buy a little something in the store that I might need, such as Bragg's Liquid Aminos, if not an actual bottle of EO.
You might find this useful if you want to think of blends.
Peppermint and Spearmint are both strong scents that seem to stick and in my experience are not very expensive.
When you say herbs, what do you mean exactly? Fragrances that smell like herbs? Or actual herbs added to the soap. If the latter, don't expect you will end up with any herbal fragrance. You will likely end up with exfoliating soap from dried herbs, but not any fragrance. You can use herbal infusions in place of water for your lye solution, but no fragrance comes of it, and often very little color.
To evaluate herbal fragrances, I recommend you check out the scent bar at The Vitamin Shoppe if you have one near you. They have a nice set up with their essential oils for customers to sniff, then 'cleanse the olfactory palate' via sniffing from a jar of coffee beans between sniffs. It's a very nice set up and you can find scents you might be interested in trying. Their EOs are not cheap, but after doing such a sniff test, I always feel obligated to buy a little something in the store that I might need, such as Bragg's Liquid Aminos, if not an actual bottle of EO.
You might find this useful if you want to think of blends.
No, it does not work.
I have been happy ordering EOs from http://www.pipingrock.com. They offer a wide variety of oils for reasonable prices. They soap well.
The question comes to my mind is this -- how much soap are you planning to make? Some people think they can "put a few drops" of essential oil into their soap and are sadly disappointed they can't smell a thing.
A rough rule of thumb is 3% fragrance based on the weight of your oils, although some EOs are not safe at that dosage, so I'm just offering that as a ROUGH rule of thumb. That means, if you are using 500 grams (or about 16 oz by weight) of oils to make a small batch of soap (about 4 medium sized bars), you'd need 15 grams of EO for the batch. That's about 1/2 oz.
A rough rule of thumb is 3% fragrance based on the weight of your oils, although some EOs are not safe at that dosage, so I'm just offering that as a ROUGH rule of thumb. That means, if you are using 500 grams (or about 16 oz by weight) of oils to make a small batch of soap (about 4 medium sized bars), you'd need 15 grams of EO for the batch. That's about 1/2 oz.
penelopejane
Well-Known Member
If you look at handmade soaps on the internet or in shops you will see that the majority of those that use EOs use only a pretty small variety. If you check them out on an EO supplier site you will see that generally the ones people use for soap are the cheaper ones.
That's not so say that there aren't some people who can come up with some fantastic blends.
If you look at handmade soaps on the internet or in shops you will see that the majority of those that use EOs use only a pretty small variety. If you check them out on an EO supplier site you will see that generally the ones people use for soap are the cheaper ones.
That's not so say that there aren't some people who can come up with some fantastic blends.
That's interesting, I did not realize. Is the reason because to get a good scent you need too much of the EO and that makes it expensive, or you need too much that it ruins the recipe somehow?
A bit of a side question - when I go to the store to buy a standard Dial/Dove/Trader Joe's bar of soap - do those fragrances generally come from some kind of fragrance oil?
Yes, they are fragrance oils. But we don't know what kind. You can often buy duplicates of some fragrance oils. Be sure you are buying fragrance oils intended for cold processed soap, though. The ones intended for melt and pour (MP) do not survive the lye bath. And the ones intended for candles are often not skin safe.
dixiedragon
Well-Known Member
Try Majestic Mountain Sage. They have the Super 12 - something like that. You order 12 1-oz bottles - these can be EOs, FOs, or anything else that comes in a 1 oz bottle. The shipping is free. www.thesage.com.
I also like Camden Grey for essential oils. I'm not sure how much you are making, but you are going to need between .5 and 1 oz of EO PPO (per pound oils). So it might be worthwhile to go to a supplier like Camden Grey and get 4 oz bottles of a few different EOs.
You can also try health food stores. Read the bottle to be sure it says 100% lavender essential oil (or whatever oil you choose). I like NOW brand. Young Living and doTerra and WAY WAY over priced.
I also like Camden Grey for essential oils. I'm not sure how much you are making, but you are going to need between .5 and 1 oz of EO PPO (per pound oils). So it might be worthwhile to go to a supplier like Camden Grey and get 4 oz bottles of a few different EOs.
You can also try health food stores. Read the bottle to be sure it says 100% lavender essential oil (or whatever oil you choose). I like NOW brand. Young Living and doTerra and WAY WAY over priced.
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