Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Romantic Essential Oil Blends for Soaps

These romantic soap blends are great in a variety of products. What separates these kinds of blends from others is their tenacity and sensual aromas. I typically do not like to use expensive essential oils in cold process soap making because only the most tenacious essential oils survive saponification. It is important when formulating soaps with essential oils to make a test batch of say 1/2 - 1 pound of soap first to see how the essential oils fare.

In giving the cons of using essential oils in soaps, let me say that the benefits far outweigh the detractions. Firstly, and especially when making soap using melt and pour bases, that the therapeutic effects of the essential oil is preserved. Plus, though some essential oils dissappear in cold process soapmaking, yet for essential oils that stay, the scent tends to last longer than fragrance oils. Some examples of essential oils with killer dry downs that may survive months and even years in storage are: patchouli, vetiver, clove, clary sage, ylang-ylang and nutmeg.

These essential oil blends are all sensuous blends with tenacious dry downs. Ideally, these would be perfect added to melt and pour soaps and other body care products. Very pricey essential oils may be substituted with fragrance oils. One alternative in using these essential oils is to use the pure essential oil blends for skin care products and perfume sprays and use the fragrance oil/essential oil blends for cold process soapmaking.

Cupid’s Bower
1 tsp sandalwood essential oil
1 tsp. patchouli essential oil
1 tsp vetiver essential oil
1 tsp musk fragrance oil (see links at bottom of page for shopping source)
¼ tsp rose, neroli, or geranium rose essential oil

Siam
1 tsp sandalwood essential oil
1 tsp ylang ylang essential oil
½ tsp ambergris or musk EO (substitute ambergris or musk EO with musk fragrance oil)

Dragon’s Blood
2 tsp sandalwood essential oil
1 tsp patchouli essential oil
1 tsp frankincense essential oil
1 tsp myrrh essential oil
¼ tsp rose geranium essential oil

Vintage Rose
2 tsp rose essential oil or rose fragrance oil
1 tsp patchouli essential oil
1/8 tsp nutmeg and clove essential oil
1 tsp lavender essential oil

Mediterranean Geranium
1 tsp rose geranium essential oil
1 tsp patchouli essential oil
1 tsp bergamot

Flower of Jove (carnation)
1 tsp ylang-ylang essential oil
1 tsp clove essential oil
1/16 tsp black pepper essential oil (add more if the carnation is not spicy enough)

Resources

Essential Oils and fragrance oil

Royal Aromatics -- Outstanding company. Will send samples. Located in Neptune, New Jersey. They do business with those who need one pound to several hundred pounds of essential oil and fragrance oils. Also, they handle orders for custom formulations and duplicates.

Sweetcakes -- Sweetcakes is a hidden gem. One of the best kept secrets of the trade for those who formulate and sell exquisite perfumes. Their Egyptian musk is the best. Also, they have an outstanding sandalwood that would give the real sandalwood essential oil a run for its money.

Romantic Molds
Bramble Berry - One of my favorite suppliers. Outstanding customer service. See them for romantic molds and a wonderful valentines day soap kit.

Source: Permission to reprint by Winsome Tapper, Soapmaking Editor, www.Bellaonline.com/site/soapmaking.

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