Cinnamon EO and Natural Brown Color

[RDawn]

Hi! I am wanting to try a coffee/cinnamon scent blend using EO. Have any of you used cinnamon EO in soap? If so, did you use cinnamon bark or cinnamon leaf EO? Leaf is much less expensive, so I'd like to go with it, but only if it gives it a nice scent.

Second question: I want my soap to be a coffee brownish blackish color. Any experience with that? I want to stick with something natural.

Thanks!

 

[karenbeth]

I smelt both bark and leaf recently. To my somewhat dodgy nose the bark was better.

 

[spenny92]

Not sure about cinnamon EOs (I can't stand the smell of cinnamon) - but you can get a brown colour from using cocoa powder. Just go lightly with it, as it doesn't take much to get a good brown colour. Or you could use brewed coffee as your liquid.

ETA: I'm not sure how much experience you have soaping, so I thought I should mention that if you do use brewed coffee, make sure it's cold or frozen into ice cubes. Or look up the split method - you could use water as your liquid, but subtract some of it for coffee and add it at trace. Cocoa powder is probably the easiest option if you want to keep it simple.

 

[dixiedragon]

I like cinnamon leaf EO. To me, cocoa makes a sort of muddy brown. I think coffee makes a darker brown. Or possibly use some charcoal to make a darker black/brown.

 

[dibbles]

I use cinnamon leaf eo in my oat milk and honey soap. It doesn't smell as green to me once soaped - I like it. Be sure to check usage rates as cinnamon is an irritant. I used .25 oz in a batch size of about 2.5 pounds (oils, lye and water). The soap has a nice, light, cinnamony smell, and it seems to stick well.