|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
As the soap base is already cured you can use essential or fragrance
oils without worrying about them interacting with the soap but you
should make sure that whatever you use is suitable for cosmetic use.
Oils designed for potpourri or candles are not suitable. The fragrances
on these pages come from Amphora
Aromatics , FPI (Sales) Ltd
and Sweetcakes. |
|
| Essential oils and fragrance oils |
Essential oils are extracted by a number of methods from plant
material and are highly concentrated. Used wisely, essential oils
can be wonderful additions to your soap but you should find out as
much as you can about them.
Fragrance oils have usually been put together in the laboratory.
Many mimic scents found in nature and others use the basic chemical
compounds found in natural scents to produce new ones. Like the
perfumer's art, it is the combination of fragrances that is important.
|
|
|
You have a choice. Price will sometimes be a determining factor
because of the enormous quantity of plant material needed to produce
essential oils. The small bottle of Rose Otto in the picture costs,
per millilitre, thirty times as much as the fragrance oil next to
it. Both are good in their own way but whereas I would diffuse a drop
or two of Rose Otto in a burner to scent the room I would never pour
it wantonly into a bar of soap, and not just because of the price.
Some fragrance oils can be ugly but if bought wisely they can be lovely
in their own right. I would rather use a good fragrance oil than squander
an essential oil on a soap in which all its subtle qualities are lost
because it does not like the temperature. |
|
| There are some wonderful resources on the Internet for
anyone interested in finding out more. |
|
- A site which I come back to again and again is Graham Sorenson's
A Guide to Aromatherapy
which has a beautifully presented listing of hundreds of essential
oils and their properties.
- Marge Clark's site Nature's
Gift has a lot of information about all aspects of essential
oils.
- There is a master site for Aromatherapy the
Agora Project, which has many links and details of further
reading. The pages for this project have been contributed to by
over eighty aromatherapists throughout the world.
- If you want to join in discussion there is an aromatherapy
mailing list which is high volume and as volatile as the oils
at times but which is very informative too. To subscribe to the
list, send an email to list@idma.com
with the message subscribe aromatherapy in the body of
the message.
|
|
I should preface this by saying that I am not an expert
and if you are going to use essential oils you owe it to yourself,
your friends, family and customers to find out for yourself how to
use oils wisely. With that caveat, here are just a few of my favourite
oils:
- Lavender - a lovely scent, and one of the few that is safe
to use neat on the skin
- Tea Tree - again, safe to use neat on the skin, with caution
of course, antiseptic and sharp smelling
- Sandalwood Mysore - outrageously expensive, a beautiful, elusive
yet persistent scent
- Rosewood - an essential oil that causes ethical problems for
some people because of the depradation of forests caused by its
popularity; Ho Leaf is a substitute but not nearly as nice
- Oakmoss - not something to be used on its own but a deep down
earthy scent of an English wood, and Vetiver - a smoky scent from
tropical forests, both used in tiny quantities for depth and anchoring
other scents
- Patchouli - for all hippies who haven't grown up - loved by
some, hated by others - long lasting
- Lime - one of the freshest scents
- Neroli - the scent of orange blossom which blends well with
other scents. Try a few drops of neroli to one drop of lime.
- Rosemary - fresh and clean
- Bergamot - This is one of the loveliest of the citrus oils.
A word of warning: these oils are phototoxic which means that
if you were to leave them on your skin neat (you should never
do this anyway) the effect of sunlight can mark the skin permanently.
This is more of a potential problem for the careless soapmaker
than the user. After all, in soap the oils are very dilute and
who leaves soap on their skin? They are wonderful scents provided
you use them with care.
|
|
