During my reading and research over the years trying to learn and perfect my cold process soap making craft, I've compared all the soapmaking websites and businesses I could find, to see what they offer, to learn pricing and molding and all sorts of information so I could be educated in my decisions of what products I wanted to make and offer.
I made a conscious decision to make a product that was as "all-natural" as I possibly could. I chose to only use vegetable based oils for my soaps and to scent my soaps with essential oils. I don't add any artificial fragrances or colorants to my handmade soaps. And if I choose to color a soap (which is seldom the case, I like soap to be a natural color, but that's just me), I use natural products to add their color, like carrot juice (makes a nice yellowy orange) or cucumbers for a pale creamy green. I like to make soap as simple and nourishing and skin-loving as I possibly can without adding unnecessary chemicals to it. We get more than enough chemicals from so many places already. Through research, and trial and error, I've learned that artificial fragrances and colorants can be downright harmful to our bodies and I do my best to stay true to my decision to offer an "all-natural" product.
It bothers me when I see products claiming to be "all-natural" and then when you read the list of ingredients you find words like "fragrance added." And even when you don't see those words you find products that say they are "all-natural" with pomegranate scent, or baby powder scent, or Granny Smith Apple and more! Bugs me to death... There are no "natural scents" for any of those fragrances! My thinking is these soapmakers simply don't know the difference, which in itself is cause for concern, or they're trying to fool the consumer.
What are essential oils? I'm glad you asked... essential oils are natural essences of plants, derived from the flowers, leaves, stems, bark, roots, or resins of plants, real plants! Each essential oil offers its own unique therapeutic or skin-nourishing benefit. And they smell like... well like real plants! Real lemons, real peppermint, real lavender! Because they are!
What are fragrance oils? again, I'm glad you asked... apparently for whatever reason, natural smells weren't enough, so chemists analyzed the chemical makeup of many many many different scents and formulated chemical-based oils that mimicked the fragrances of all those lovely things we like to smell! But they're chemicals, many petroleum-based, and many providing harsh, skin-irritating qualities. They tend to cause allergic reactions and are pollutants. And we put these pollutants on and in our bodies without a thought! To be honest, much of the time, and for most people, there isn't a horrible rash or a life-threatening reaction, but "fragrance oils" offer no beneficial qualities whatsoever.
A few pros and cons for both... there are hundreds and hundreds of fragrance oils and only about 150 essential oils. Fragrance oils cost less, therefore soaps and other products formulated with them would cost less. Essential oils are real, from real plants and offer real benefit to our bodies. Dunno 'bout everybody, but I like knowing that grapefruit oil is good for fighting cellulite and water retention, that lavender heals the skin, that citronella repels insects, and that geranium soothes and heals aging and sensitive skin. And maybe there are fewer choices, but the choices smell like the real deal... because they are the real deal!
My point? Read labels, don't be fooled by pretty bright colors and chemical scents. Just because something claims to be all natural, doesn't mean it is.
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