Blue Flower

Essential oils:

  • Plant based.
  • Not so much variety.
  • Expensive.
  • Essential oils can have effects on a person, intended or unintended.
  • Scents in soap do not last as long as fragrance oils. Citrus EO seem to fade especially fast.
  • Do not use cinnamon oil.
  • You do not need to dilute essential oils with a carrier oil if you use them in melt and pour.

 

Fragrance oils:

  • Synthetic.
  • Lots of variety.
  • Less expensive.
  • Scents in soap tend to last longer than essential oils.

 

Notes:

  • Only use soap safe and skin safe scent oils.
  • Any oil containing vanilla or vanillin needs either a vanilla stabiliser or a vanilla stable base to keep the soap from turning brown. You could also make your soap a color where more brown wouldn't hurt or be noticed at all.
  • Do not use cinnamon oil as that is an irritant.
  • The manufacturer should give you a maximum safe usage rate. For the soap itself the maximum is about 1 flat teaspoon of combined liquids/butters/oils (excluding alcohol) per pound/500g of soap base. Therefore your maximum usage rate in soap should be the lesser amount of these two.