Recommendations on FO's

[Cactuslily]

Hi soapers, I'm getting ready to purchase a slew of FO's. I'm a new soaper, so ones that behave are pretty helpful. That being said, after looking around different sites, my head started spinning. Several sites that I've heard great things about don't give a lot of info about how their product behaves in CP soap. So...I'm hoping you all would perhaps share with me, perhaps sites you love, what to stay away from, and maybe even scents that you all like. Thank you so much!

 

[lionprincess00]

I'd stick to one supplier at a time, make a larger purchase there to cut the cost of shipping (like bb costs 8.50 to ship 1 fo, or 2+ sometimes, I think or that's a close estimate), so bigger the purchase the better the shipping.

I like and found behaves
Bb tobacco bay leaf, lavender forest, neroli Shea blossom, fresh snow, Moroccan mint behaves, and I like some that do accelerate like moonlight pomegranate, lychee red tea, and sea moss that rices, and finally I have but haven't tried lime, vetyver, Orange peel and kumquat that smells great!

Daystar, toffee sugar crunch, milk sugar kisses, salty sailor but I think it accelerates, stone washed cotton smells similar to bb fresh snow, but not as sweet, and don't think it a but haven't tried it yet, and ahoy matey which I haven't tried but it smells great!

Oregon trails I LOVE their green Irish tweed and am going to soap today their silver mountain water, both are cologne types/dupes of creed.

 

[shunt2011]

I like the following........

Nature's Garden - The Perfect Man, Teakwood & Cardamom, Peach Magnolia Raspberry, Love Spell, Bite Me, Balsam & Cedar and Hummingbird. The all behave well for me but that can depend on recipes as well. NG does list their experience with the fragrances in CP as well as usage rate.

Peak - Black Raspberry Vanilla & Pink Sugar

Symphony Scents - Lemongrass EO and Red Clover Tea

WSP - Lemon Verbena Mint (my new favorite), Berry Mimosa

Those are just some of them. I'm a FO HO so have a lot of them.

 

[Cactuslily]

I hadn't even seen a few of those sites. I've heard great things about sweet cakes, but 1) it's pretty costly, and 2) they don't offer a lot of info about behavior. Some, but not all. I don't mind spending a bit more for an exceptional product, but I don't want to go in blindly.
Thank you both for your gracious sharing. Does adding kaolin clay to your FO before adding help anchor your scent?

 

[Cindy2428]

FOs are the most expensive ingredient in your soap. Doing research and reading reviews are some of your best friends. I always prefer vendors that give MSDS, IFRA info. I always look for sales. 1 oz bottles let you maximize your choices but turn into a very expensive option, price per ounce. From experience, 1 oz bottles become a pain to store as well. For trial scents I now only buy 4 oz bottles - cheaper, and if I'm not a fan of a scent I have enough others to fix them with blending.

Peak Candle Supply is close to you and their shipping is relatively quick. Personally, I've been hit and miss with their scents.

Wholesale Supplies Plus for me has the best descriptions, documentation for their FOs. Shipping price is included but that is reflective in their pricing. I like their quality but only buy when they have a sale.

Brambleberry also has good documentation, plenty of reviews and good quality. They are expensive, mark-up their shipping and only send low FP FOs ground. With their historical slow shipping, they aren't worth the wait for me. - Recent posts here have stated their shipping speed has improved, so that's in their favor.

Mad Oils - Pretty decent descriptions; not too many scents. My order just arrived so I haven't even opened the box yet.

Nurture Soap - I bought 4 oz bottles of almost everything she has. All of the ones I've tried soaped well, did not have that cheap plastic smell out of bottle and generally stuck in my soap. (4 weeks) Price is reasonable but she does not have that many choices.

 

[Cactuslily]

Cindy2428, any time I can support Nurture, I do, but she doesn't have a lot of options. I'm waiting for her expansion on this aspect, but I'm so bored or out of the Fo's I have left. I don't buy the 1 oz option either for the same reasons. I much prefer the experience of the forum users to many of the ratings I see on some sites. Thank you!

 

[Seawolfe]

I have had some bad luck with FO's that sounded good, but smelled like an old lady's boudoir - blergh!

I've only used BB's tobacco bay leaf in HP shave soap, mixed with Bay Rum EO and I adore it! For cold process like their cucumber melon (cybilla) for a nice neutral scent, and grass stain for a fresh grassy scent - both behave very well when soaping. Young boys really really like the grass stain one

 

[snappyllama]

Unfortunately, there is no perfect FO supplier that I've tried. I love some from everyone I've tried and dislike others. I normally buy 2oz at a time so I can try out a lot of different things. Here's my take on it with a couple of my favorites from each of the suppliers I've used.


BB:
I think they have nailed the tangy notes for FOs. Their men's FOs - all smell muddy to me.

Champagne
Ginger Ale
Crisp Anjou Pear
Ginger Patchouli - NEW! - love it OOB

DayStar:
I think their Lush dupes are the best (other than Karma which I really do not like)

Ahoy Matey (accelerates but worth it)
Goldilocks
Toffee Sugar Crunch

Nature's Garden:
They have sooo many, but it's really a mixed bag. Some are awesome and some smell like gas station candles.

Perfect Man
Bite Me

Mad Oils:
I've only tried a couple since they are a little pricey. They smell pricey though. Very high quality scents.

Snow Witch
Pumpkin Bread

WSP:
I think they nail BBW dupes. Mixed bag on some of the others I've tried.

Black Raspberry Vanilla
Coconut Lime Verbena


For Reviews:
If you have a paid email address (not gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc), you can join the Soap Scent Review forum. http://soapscentreview.obisoap.ca/

Also, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...VFTXY5M2o4MVRMZm4wdFE&authkey=CMTEtswL#gid=13 has a bunch of reviews from folks here.

 

[lionprincess00]

And it soaped beautifully (silver mountain water).

 

[cmzaha]

Black Raspberry Vanilla and Pink sugar are great well behaved fo's from Soapsupplies.net with $7.95 flat rate shipping. Her Salty Air is fantastic but a real mean one to cp with. Her BRV does not acclerate or discolor and the pink sugar only accelerates slightly with only a light tan discoloration. Her pumpkin spice is a definate winter winner, it is the best pumpkin spice I have tried. The Aloe is strong but a nice blender. I buy all I can from Paige, she is a great person with wonderful customer service. I also like her Lilac. The one I would never never purchase again is the Leather. It is super strong but no one liked it, and I cannot say it smelled at all like my closet that is filled with leather jackets...sorry vegans we ride

 

[Cactuslily]

Sometimes the description from someone who disliked a FO is priceless! I need to brush up on my descriptives! Lionpricess00, so happy to hear Silver mountain lake behaved well for you! The description sounds delightful! Right now, the only FO's in my pantry that I like, are NG China rain, NG CK one, and I absolutely LOVE BB lavendar and cedar! Wish I could share more with you all, but I hope to soon! I'm compiling lists from each site, and checking S/H costs. I may end up buying from a couple sites if postage isn't ridiculous. Will let you know. BTW, speaking of hilarious descriptions, Sweet Cakes has some doozies I just wish they had info on all of their FO's.
Thanks again!

 

[lionprincess00]

Their green Irish tweed is pretty spot on, considering the real thing is several hundred dollars. My dad bought me a real creed git sample bottle. On comparing the two, I think they're very similar! OT doesn't have the pepper like bite the real deal does, but for the price, no A no D, and it sticks, I love it!!
The silver mt smells pretty strong, so I'm hoping it sticks well (I think it probably will).

 

[fuzz-juzz]

From BB:
Sensous Sandalwood (mixed with a bit of vanilla, it's really strong and woodsy by itself)
Kumquat (yummy citrusy and summery fragrance)
Wasabi (fresh and herby)
White tea and ginger (fresh and weird, but it works for me)

WSP:
Tried about 15 of theirs FOs and didn't like any unfortunately apart from OHM. I bought most of them on reviews and on what I would like but no, they are not what I like. Bay rum for example, smells to me like a really cheap men cologne, evaporated and stale. But, based on reviews, it's amazing. So there are obviously noses out there that prefer those kind of fragrances.

Natures garden:
Now, these guys, it seems there's nothing they can do wrong, apart maybe from Black cherry bomb (lol I don't know what I was thinking) and Blackberry sage (lovely but fades to nothing in CP).
Everything else I tried from them I loved:
OMH, Lotus blossom, Brown sugar & fig, Aussie bamboo grass, vanilla silk, black raspberry & vanilla are some that I always have to have in my soaps.
There's few more but I can't remember at the moment.
I received their order few weeks ago so there's few new FOs to test but so far I like them OOB. They have cheap postage to Australia too. Love them!

 

[dixiedragon]

We could name FOs we love all day. See, we're doing it now! Maybe pick a supplier and then you can get a more manageable list? I strongly Brambleberry and Wholesale Supplies Plus because they have reviews of FOs on their site. I have also found BB to be very honest about discoloration and acceleration. And check the Fragrance Oil Review Chart.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=47182

 

[navigator9]

I find it difficult to recommend particular FOs, because everyone's nose is different. The important thing, I think, with fragrance oils, because they are the most expensive ingredient we use, is that they are good quality and last in soap, making our expensive purchase worthwhile. And we also want them to behave when we use them. That being said, I like sites that tell you as much as possible how the FO behaves, and reviews from users are also really helpful.

Sometimes it's tempting to order bargain FOs, but be careful, if it seems to good to be true, it usually is. I would have to say that the bulk of my FOs come from either WSP or BB. Both of them are not inexpensive. But their FOs are consistently the best I've found. I've tried most of the FO sites out there, but I always come back to these two.

 

[dixiedragon]

Something else in BB's favor - they have a list of what they call "water white" fragrances - fragrances that do not discolor at all.

https://brambleberry.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200512240-Water-White-Fragrances-

Brambleberry is my recommendation for a first timer. You can get every thing you need - lye, oils, molds, fragrances, a scale, etc. Their descriptions about discoloration and acceleration is pretty spot-on. They have recipes. They have reviews.

WSP is not my recommendation for a first timer because there is SO MUCH STUFF. They also don't have a lot of information regarding their fragrances' performance in CP. I think they are a good supplier, but not the best choice for a newbie. BB also responds promptly to questions. My only complaint with BB is shipping time - they are slower than most of the suppliers, in my experience. So if I need something ASAP I don't go to BB.

 

[TRBeck]

I agree with the points being made about BB as a good choice for someone looking to get started exploring FOs. I would add that it's not a bad idea to buy a badly behaved FO so you can learn to work with less than optimal conditions. What I did when starting was to used several well-behaved scents and learn my process, and then introduce an accelerating FO to learn how my recipe and process would respond. Then I experimented with adding more water, soaping cooler, etc., nd learned how to deal with acceleration.

But to your original question, you have good suggestions here as to suppliers who provide info on the performance of their oils. I use a lot of BB and NG as I usually know from their descriptions what I'm getting into with a given FO.

 

[TVivian]

I started with BB and most of the fragrances I've tried from there are very good. The second supplier I started buying from is WSP and I've also found some wonderful fragrances there that I now cannot live without. It was fine when I was buying fragrance 1 or 4 ounces at a time. But now I'm completely married to some fragrances from those places and wish I'd never committed lol..... Because.... I love the prices and fragrances at Natures Garden! My issue with NG is that they have such a huge selection and they don't need to.. I recently bought 5 different coconut samples and only one is any good, same with variations of their Mango/mandarins/tangerine.. Same with many others. Why have 5 different lavenders if only one is great? I guess people like choices and every nose is different and so that's why they do it. Their 1oz bottles are so inexpensive so you can test a lot and if you buy more than 10 you get .50 off each bottle. I like that it's 6 to 10 dollars LESS for a pound of fragrance at NG compared to BB or WSP and so if I could go back in time I would have just started testing samples at NG and becoming married to their fragrances.

But BB and WSP... I just can't quit them now

 

[dixiedragon]

I think TRBeck makes a good point about badly behaved FOs. Many of them are worth the trouble, even worth the trouble of hot process vs cold process. Of course you don't want a naughty FO right out of the gate, but you don't need to scratch them off your list forever. It might be a good idea to get a sample size of badly-behaved FO that smells awesome to try a few months down the road.

For example, I have Sweet Cakes Mulled Cider. I got it from another soaper for a song. She was probably getting rid of it because it is so misbaved. We're talking soap on a stick. I LOVE this FO. It smells sweet and spicy and appley and some how cool, like the jug of apple cider from the produce section.

 

[not_ally]

Cactuslily, I am a newbie to cp, too, and I echo SnappyLlama's advice regarding the Soap Scent Review board. It is an invaluable resource regarding FO performance in CP, I always check there before I buy one now. No matter how inviting the description is on the vendor site, if it does not hold or is super finicky I usually just pass. There are some scents which I love and do not perform well in CP, those I just use in MP or B&B.

It is a little bit of a pain to have to sign up w/a paid email subscription, but you may already have one, eg I use my Time Warner acct - have TW for cable - and only used it for SSRB, I use gmail for everything else. The board is so worth it, though, the only resource of its kind. If you join, please post, that is what makes it so great.

I agree about BB and the other suppliers which are a bit more expensive (SC, Daystar and the like), their oils tend to be higher in quality and less iffy if you like the fragrances. But there are also great oils out there from less costly places - Gemlite, Just Scents come to mind b/c I am placing orders w/them - you just have to check reviews and/or do more sampling with them first. They tend to be more iffy w/r/t trueness/holding, but if they work they are awesome, especially if you are selling and watching the bottom line, I would think (hobbyist myself.)

Edited to add: OK, you guys talked me into adding Silver Mountain Lake from OTS, although I am hating their website right now, just not working well. Counterproductive for both seller and buyer.