Creating Soaps that Sell using Essential Oils

When I use Fragrance Oils (which are synthetic) I always choose fragrances that have been researched by big perfumeries as they have spent millions of dollars in research and they have products that sell, sell, sell. When you are selling to the general public, they are most likely going to want these synthetic fragrances. I do love to use natural fragrances, i.e. essential oils, too. They have benefits that synthetics cannot match. But I haven't found much information that I could benefit from as a soap maker by using essential oils. So it is more of a guessing game trying to develop your own essential oil blends.

In order to create soaps that sell using Essential Oils, you should sell the benefits of the essential oils that you use. For instance:

Bug repellent soap could include citronella, bergamot
benefit: natural insect protection that can be used in conjunction with a natural bug repellent.

Common cold soap could include Eucalyptus and Peppermint
benefit: helps open up breathing passages

So you name your soap appropriately and sell the benefits of those essential oils.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. One site that I found on-line that talks more about blending essential oils can be found here. This site addresses top notes, middle notes, and the lower notes of fragrances and gives ideas on how you can create your own custom blend.

I found another site that has essential oil recipes. This would be a good place to start for ideas on blending and the amounts of each oil in the blend. They have a lot of other kinds of recipes too. I haven't tried any of these recipes, so I can't say if they are any good, but they looked interesting.

I normally use 1 oz. of essential oils per 2 pounds of soap, but when I am making soaps with mint in them I normally use about 1/2 the amount (1/2 oz. per 2 pounds of soap or even less). The reason I found to do this is that the essential oil in the soap is irritating to sensitive areas of the body at 1 oz. per 2 pounds of soap.

Another good resource is this list of essential oils.

I hope this gets you started in using natural essential oils in soap. Remember you need to sell the benefit of the essential oils you use. I'd be interested in your comments about oil blends that you have tried, liked, and have thought sold well to the public.

Lavender Essential Oil in Soap

I love to use Lavender Essential Oil in soap. You can read some detailed information about Lavender at this site and some detailed information about the essential oil of lavender here.

Lavender soap, my second or third best selling soap, has universal appeal and is very popular with relaxing spa products as well as baby items. I like to buy my essential oils from Camden Grey. They carry several different Lavender Essential Oils, so you may ask yourself which one should I buy?

Because cold process soap has lye that needs to saponify I always wonder what that lye does to the essential oils/fragrance oils. We know that there are many different chemical reactions because soap many times turns out like you least expect it to. So it is important to read fragrance descriptions very carefully, lest your white soap turn brown or some other mishap. But not being a scientist.....it can become a guessing game. So here is my experience.

I purchase the lavender 40/42. The price is right when compared to the other lavenders, and the description states that most soap makers like this EO because it is more consistently uniform in fragrance (which is pretty important when you develop a clientele), so that is what I buy. I still like this EO and it has consistently been a good seller for me. I use about 1 oz. of EO for every two pounds of soap.

Often I will make an oatmeal and lavender soap. I tend to make this kind of soap without any colors so it looks pure and natural which a lot of people really like.

I have also blended lavender EO and Orange EO in a 50/50 blend. I really like this smell, but it didn't hit the charts when it came to sales so I fazed that one out. Has anyone else got a lavender blend that was an outstanding seller? Care to share?

Please post your suggestions!