Why Essential Oils Instead of Cheaper Fragrance Oils?

I use pure essential oils in my soaps whenever possible. Why do I use them when fragrance oils are often cheaper, can be used in smaller quantities, and most people love the variety of scents available (strawberry, apple, caramel, linen, sweet pea, etc.)?

For me, I have been on a quest to provide only the healthiest soaps for my family and customers. I have (had) very dry skin and commercial soaps only increase the dryness. I had to use a lot of lotions to “fix” or at least get some relief from dry, itchy skin. So, using EOs was a natural choice for me as they are natural and have often been historically used medicinally. I’ll post another blog later on the properties of individual EOs.

Essential oils have been used for centuries. Today EO are used for aromatherapy, massage or even burned as candles or incense. Did you know they are also used in perfumes, cosmetics, soaps, household cleaning products, and even for flavoring in foods and drink? WOW! I know it was eye opening for me.

Fragrance oils (FO) on the other hand are synthetic compounds or EOs that have been blended with vegetable oil, mineral oil or propylene glycol. Fragrance oils are most often used in commercially available products. They are also known as aroma oils, aromatic oils and flavor oils.

I do sometimes use FO as some essential oils are so expensive, such as sandalwood, that fragrance oils are the only economic alternative. For example, for a bar of sandalwood soap, if I were to use sandalwood EO, no one (including me) could afford a bar of the soap. I use mostly EO in my soaps. However, because of price or a specific request, I will use FO from time to time. These will be listed as fragrance in the ingredient list of any product.

For those of you that want to know about essential oils tons of information exist on-line. However, basically EO are concentrated oils from plants and carry distinctive scents (or essence) of the plant that are extracted through distillation (heat), expression (cold pressed) or chemically. I try to stay away from the chemically extracted EO and diluted EO. Most EO’s are expensive because the plant grows slowly, is rare, takes large quantities of plant material, or can be difficult to obtain. This is why many companies dilute the EO.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief blog on EO’s … Let me know if there is a specific topic you’d like addressed. Till next time. Shelia