Essential oils, the scented liquids derived from botanicals, lend their fragrance to soaps while boosting the soaps' therapeutic and helping to preserve them. The amount of essential oil added to a soap batch varies depending on the strength of the oil and amount of soap being made. Formulas range from a tsp. to a few tbsp. While essential oils represent "all natural" skin care choices, they may still cause contact allergies in some people. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as people with asthma or high blood pressure, should avoid essential oils entirely, or consult their physicians.
Fragrance
Soap makers value essential oils for their incomparable value as fragrance additives. Many people find synthetic fragrance oils unnatural or too cloying, while essential oils deliver the true spirit of the botanical. Further, essential oil stands up to the saponification process of soapmaking--the process which turns water and vegetable oils into soap. The ingredient lye, or sodium hydroxide, is essential to saponification. Whether you make "from scratch" soap with lye or buy a "melt and pour" formula in which saponification has already occurred, the necessary lye has a way of eventually diluting many scents and colors. Essential oils stand up to lye better than other natural ingredients, notes Melinda Coss, author of "The Handmade Soap Book." Use a single a single essential oil like peppermint or lavender, or blend the notes as a perfumer would. In perfumery, top notes capture your interest first, middle notes create the overall scent theme, and base notes deepen and fix the scent. Blending essential oils allows you to achieve a truly artisan product. A citrus top note, floral middle note and spicy base note, such as lemon-rose-sandalwood, for example, results in a complex fragrance few mass-produced soaps can capture.
Therapeutic Qualities
Many essential oils contain therapeutic benefits for the skin while relaxing tension or lifting moods. To repel insects, the University of Maryland Medical Center recommends eucalyptus, clove, neem and citronella essential oils. For overall skin care, the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy suggests geranium, lavender and chamomile oils. NAHA's top picks for mood enhancement include ylang-ylang, geranium, clary sage, rosemary and lemon. Immune-system boosters or antibacterial oils picked by the association include eucalyptus, tea tree oil, rosemary and lavender.
Preservative
While an increasing number of people express aversion to bathing with chemical preservatives, the natural soapmaker must nonetheless keep the soap from developing dangerous bacteria. At best, preservative-free soaps go rancid within a few months---at worst, the bacteria in them create skin rashes and infection for the user. Fortunately, several essential oils act as preservatives. Natural soapmaker Sharon Kinnier recommends thyme, sweet orange, lemongrass, Chinese cinnamon, rose, clove, eucalyptus, peppermint, rose geranium, meadowsweet, Chinese anise and mustard essential oils as good choices to preserve soaps. "The Handmade Soap Book" further suggests benzoin and tea tree essential oils. This range of oils allows the soap maker to find a preservative which blends with a number of fragrance themes, including floral, citrus, spicy, mint or herbal-medicinal.
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