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More About Fragrance Oils

Fragrance oils are widely used in soap making, candle making, for making potpourri, body lotions, hand lotions, bath salts, bath bombs, cosmetics and for many other products.  Fragrance oils are a cost effective and reliable method to use when scenting your product. However, not all fragrance oils are created equal.

Test Your Fragrance Oils
Not all fragrance oils are created equal. Some fragrance oil may work well from one supplier, but the same type of fragrance - Vanilla for instance - may not work well from another fragrance oil supplier. It's very important that you test your fragrances in small batches of product before you commit to making larger batches.  Since many fragrance oil suppliers - like ourselves - do not accept returns on fragrances that have been opened, we suggest that the customer purchase a small quantity of fragrance oil for testing before purchasing larger quantities of fragrance.  For cold-process soap makers, this is especially important.

Fragrance oils are a mix of synthetic ingredients, or a mix of synthetic ingredients and essential oils.  These synthetic fragrances can mimic a scent in nature or perfumers will often come up with an entirely new scent or fragrance.  Fragrance oils may contain up to 80% essential oils but are usually 100% artificial ingredients.  There are over 5,000 raw materials/ingredients perfumers have to choose from when creating a fragrance oil.  One of the many ingredients that a fragrance oil may be made of, could cause a batch of soap to accelerate trace, separate, heat up in the molds or totally seize.  For this reason, it's very important to test all of your fragrance oils before using them on a large scale.

Fragrance Ingredients - Why the Big Secret
Originally, perfumes and fragrance oils were made from plants and/or animal sources.  In the late 1800’s the first synthetic raw material for creating fragrances was produced.  Soon after that, there was a huge growth in the number of fragrance oil and perfume companies.  With that, the cost of fragrances and perfumes dropped so even the common man and woman could afford them.

With the lower cost and new popularity of fragrance oils came secrecy.  Usually, only the master perfumer knew exactly what was in the fragrance oil or perfume.  Developing perfumes and new fragrances is time consuming and is only done by skilled perfumers.

Formulas for fragrance oils and perfumes cannot be patented.  The only way to prevent a fragrance or scent from being copied is to not release the ingredients.  All Fragrance oils fall under the “trade secret” laws.  This means that the formula of the fragrance or scent does not have to be listed.  Fragrance oil suppliers will have an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet), which will detail the basic safety suggestions for the fragrance oil or scent.  Usually, the MSDS sheet will only list the physical properties of the fragrance oil, such as the specific gravity, flash point, physical or health hazards and first aid procedures in case of a spill.  It will also give hazardous ingredients information, as well as detail the personal protection suggested, such as goggles, gloves and other protective devices.