Essential, Fragrance, and Natural Fragrance Oils

Essential Oil

Essential oil is the essence of a specific plant that is extracted through steam or pressure. They are completely natural but they cant be made from every plant. It is easiest to make essential oils from citrus fruits, herbs, spices, and some flowers. Another downside to essential oils is that the price varies wildly from oil to oil. Many people use essential oils as a fragrance substitute in cosmetics and skincare because they think it is less irritating to everyone's skin which unfortunately is not true. Everyone's skin is different and reacts to ingredients differently. I have found that my skin doesn't react as much to essential oil which is why I use essential oils in most of my products but for some people, it's the opposite. Since essential oil is made from plants, there is always a risk that dirt, bacteria, and other irritants that the plant came into contact with before the distillation process make it into the essential oil. This is why it is so important to use high-quality essential oils especially in face and body products. To make essentials more complicated, there is an irritation scale when it comes to different types of essential oils. Citrus essential oils like lime and orange are the most irritating type of essential oil followed closely by spice essential oils like clove and pepper. Floral essential oils are typically more expensive but are the least irritating essential oil group. In fact, many people think that lavender essential oil can actually soothe the skin.

Fragrance Oil

Fragrance oil is a mix of fragrant components that are artificially created in labs. On ingredient lists, fragrance can be listed by their individual components such as limonene, citronellal, and linalool, or they can be grouped together as "fragrance parfum". Grouping fragrant components together allows a brand to have a signature scent that other brands cant copy but it. While this doesn't bother people who prefer fragrance oil because it has a lower chance of having natural contaminants, it can cause problems for people who are more sensitive to the fragrant components since they have no way of knowing how much fragrance is is actually in the product.

Natural Fragrance

Natural fragrance is not a regulated term so many people debate over the concrete guidelines of what natural fragrance is. By my definition, a natural fragrance is a fragrance oil that is made of fragrant components taken from plants or essential oils. By extracting and combining specific fragrant components it allows chemists to naturally create scents that are not possible with essential oils such as fruits and dessert scent profiles. Natural fragrance is typically safer than essential oils and not as irritating as fragrance or essential oils. The one downside is that natural fragrance does not always stick in cold process soap. Just like cocoa butter, sodium hydroxide tends to kill the scent during saponification. Because of this I try to avoid using natural fragrances in my soap bars and opt for essential oils.