Blend Fragrance oils in a glass container before adding them to your handmade soap or bath body and spa products. Experiment with different blends of fragrance. Make sure that you keep a log of what you have done so that you can repeat the blend again later.

Fragrance oils and Essential oils can be added to melted soap base. You can use both fragrance and essential oils in the same batch of natural handmade soap, or bath body and spa products if you like.

Fragrance oils offer a wider range of scents and blends that would be unattainable in essential oils. As the quality of fragrance oils is as wide spread as their price, be sure to use fragrance oils that are not diluted with alcohol, let your nose be your guide in determining the quality of your oils. Low quality oils diluted with alcohol will tend to smell alike and will usually have a sharp bite to them, while quality oils will have a smooth, concentrated smell, and will have a well combined fragrance of all three notes (top, middle and bottom). As you will need less of a high quality fragrance oil then a low quality one, investing in high quality oils is wise.

Beware of buying fragrance oils by price alone, even the highest priced fragrance oils can be diluted with alcohol, and are really a low quality oil in disguise. Buy several small samples of the same and different scents from several suppliers and make your choice based on what you smell, and how the oil reacts with your handmade natural soaps, bath body and spa products. In the end you may find yourself buying from several suppliers as one may have a high quality raspberry but a low quality blueberry and visa versa. Just remember these are one of your most expensive ingredients, do your research on your potential suppliers compare samples and lastly don’t buy cheap oils or extracts as you will be disappointed in the end product.

What’s the difference between a fragrance oil and an essential oil you ask?

Well fragrance oils are synthetically produced, offer a wider selection of scents, are cheaper to produce, and are cheaper to purchase.

Where as essential oils are extracted from natural plant and flower sources. Has a limited selection of affordable scents, are expensive to produce, and are in most cases more expensive.

Blending your own scents to create enduring and lasting fragrant blends is not difficult if you follow a few basic steps.

Scents are categorized into scent groups, knowing these groups will help you to decide how to blend your scents, and lets you know how your blend may evolve; for example you may want a mandarin from the citrus group with a light spicy undertone of ginger from the spice group.

Scents are also categorized into notes like a musical scale, these notes help to make a scent rounded, full bodied, and long lasting. All your perfumes and fragrances are made up of these notes they are broken down as such top notes, middle notes and bottom notes.

Top notes: also known as high notes or the main scent – this is the key or predominant scent in your blend and is the first aroma that your nose detects and is the first scent to fade.

Middle notes: also known as the blender(s) – this is the additional scent(s) that is added to enhance the main scent; this is the second scent(s) that your nose will detect and also the second to fade.

Bottom notes: also known as contrasting scents – The scent(s) are used to liven up the blend and are the last scent(s) that your nose will detect, it is also the longest lasting scent(s) in your blend.

You will find that not all scents fall into one specific note category and can be used as other notes when blended with different scents.

Just remember to blend Fragrance oils in a glass container before adding them to your handmade soap or bath body and spa products. Experiment with different blends of fragrance oils. Make sure that you keep a log of what you have done so that you can repeat the blend again later.

• The main scent is the overall aroma that you wish to create, it will smell as a whole as one particular scent.
• Some scents are natural blenders and will always blend nicely from other categories. These blenders are but not limited to lime, peppermint, rose, vanilla, honey, cinnamon, lavender, jasmine, and sandalwood.
• A fixative acts as the plants cell structure and holds the scent. A fixative is necessary to give the blend a long lasting quality and release the fragrance moderately. The fixative can be unscented or add its own aroma to the blend; your fixative can be base soap, base oil, dried botanicals, or salt ect.
• To easily test your fragrance blends - place a few drops on a cotton ball or paper towel, place inside a plastic zip lock bag or glass jar with a lid. Set aside for a couple of hours or overnight, then open, smell and evaluate.
• To clear and refresh your sense of smell sniff a bag of freshly ground coffee, this helps keep your sense of smell from being overpowered and becoming numb. When this happens all the scents will start to smell the same.
• Dry skin won’t hold a fragrance as well as skin that is well hydrated.
• The oil content in your body and your skins PH will alter the scent lightly, thus creating your own unique aroma.
• Layering your scents, such as washing, moisturizing and spraying with complementary fragrances will help make your scent last longer.

More information on Fragrance oils will be added in the future as soon as my notes are in order.

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Leave Fragrance Oils and go to Colorants

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Leave Fragrance oils and go to Butters and Oils

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