Fragrance & Essential Oil Supplies

[Jenn Lee]

I recently started making soap - mmm - 6 months ago. I have been stocking up on my supplies of fragrance and essential oils. I wanted to point out one which I do not particularly care for and ask about one that I haven't tried much of their stuff.

First, Mel's Candles FOs. I like their Leather, but I also got their Clover, Tobacco, and Blended Whiskey. None of the last three smell anything like what they are supposed to smell like, in addition to which, they all smell really terrible. I don't even know what the Blended Whiskey FO smells like - but like cheap liquid soap in a convenience store bathroom? Tobacco - what kind of tobacco? None I've ever smelled. And the Clover smells like cough syrup.

Second, has anyone had a good experience with Artizen Essential Oils? They seem to have decent prices, but often that's because it's diluted - just wanna know if anyone has good/bad reviews.

Any suggestions of good brands welcome!!

 

[dixiedragon]

I haven't heard of any of those suppliers. My suggestion is to generally stick with soap people, vs candle people. I mean companies that test their products in soap, and discuss how their FOs perform in CP vs MP. I like Brambleberry and Nurture and a lot.

Essential Oils - I like Camden Grey.

 

[zolveria]

Rustic essential Leather is spot on
And might I say Potent.. if you need to add a drop is all you need

 

[shunt2011]

I've not heard of either of them before so can't help. I like Nature's Garden, Rustic Escentuals, Nurture, Sopalooza and several others. I agree with sticking with soap companies unless they have details for soapmaking. Nature's Garden lists and tests all their fragrances. Depending on where you live, shipping may play a part as well. There's also Wholesale Supplies Plus (I don't use them often). Also, check out the fragrance reviews on the forum.

 

[IrishLass]

Welcome, Jenn Lee!

Like the others, I have never heard of either Mel's Candles or Artizen Essential Oils either, so I can't give an opinion one way or the other. The best advice I can give you is to stick to companies that make it a point to test their fragrance oils in lye soap, because not all fragrance oils perform well in it.

I looked up both Mel's and Artizen and I couldn't find any pertinent info on how well they perform in soap.

For what it's worth, Mel's really concerned me because it states curiously on their labels, "Infused with essential oils". To me, that does not inspire any confidence that I will be receiving an uncut/undiluted product. Also, they have a bothersome little blurb on their info page instructing you to not ingest their oils (which is an excellent instruction), but it then it takes a wrong turn by stating that they don't think doing so will hurt you, but they're pretty sure the oils won't taste as good as they smell. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm hearing the voice of Obi Wan Kenobi in my head saying, "These are not the oils you are looking for."

Artizen doesn't inspire any confidence in me to purchase either. They may very well be good oils, but they offer no information on where their essential oils are sourced, certificates of analyses for each oil, the MSDS, and/or safety guidelines, etc...such things that are very important to me (reputable companies make either most or all of these things easily accessible on their websites).

For essential oils, I love Liberty Naturals. They are reasonably priced and they make all of the above aforementioned information available on their site.

Here are some of my favorite vendors for fragrance oils:

Brambleberry
Daystar
SweetCakes
Oregon Trails
WSP
Nature's Garden
Rustic Escentuals
MMS
Soapalooza


IrishLass

 

[DeeAnna]

Here's a link to the SMF Fragrance Oil Review: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...MFTWfchk-c7sNswuh-yaTdRf1M/edit#gid=778656389

Pretty much all of the reviews are for FOs (fragrance oils) but there are a few EOs (essential oils) in there too. And there's a list of suppliers with contact information as well for FOs, EOs, and general soaping and B&B supplies.

 

[Jenn Lee]

Thank you all for your suggestions!! I do wish more websites would make FOs that weren't quite so...fanciful? I'm a basic kind of gal and like to do my own mixing of oils. Most FO scents seem silly to me. I mean do a lot of folks really like peanut butter, banana cream with hints of orchid, vanilla, butterscotch, chocolate, and cornflower? Seems like too much. Also, I try to avoid anything that smells like a brand perfume/cologne because that stuff makes me ill. Especially the heavy guy fragrances. Can't we get some gentle masculine scents/sense?! Ha. Still, there seems a lot to look at and I really appreciate the help!!

 

[dixiedragon]

Well, remember when we buy scents we can't smell them. They can only sell them on words and pictures alone. I would buy peanut butter banana cream with hints of orchid! That sounds good! LOL.

I think a lot of "masculine" scents are inspired by Axe and Old Spice. IMO, if you avoid heavy sweet florals, everything else is gender neutral.

Another thing for masculine scent is to get a good dark scent or bottom note, and then blend it. For example, Bay Rum. I don't care for it by itself - it's very harsh smelling. but it is a WONDERFUL blender. I love it with lime, for example!

 

[Jenn Lee]

That is a very good reminder, Dixiedragon! Thank you. Also, I wanted to try out the Bay Rum. I have also been looking for a whiskey scent as a blender. I even put some Crown Royal in a cp soap hoping just enough of the scent might make it through, as an experiment, but as I expected, it did not.

 

[TeresaJean53]

I've used candle and soap suppliers over the years. For my cold process soap scents I will only buy from Bramble Berry now. I trust their quality and they are close to me so I get my orders fast