Essential oils V’s Fragrance oils

When Willow’s Wonder was launched, we were aiming for an eco-friendly, cruelty free product that was kind to the skin and as natural as possible and we think we have done that rather well! We recently received a custom order for 30 soaps for a birthday party requesting a Pina Colada scent. I had to explain to the customer that this scent wasn’t possible in our soap as we only use essential oils. So why do we use essential oils rather than fragrance oils? Lets see…

What is an essential oil?

Put simply, an essential oil is a compound that has been extracted from plants, and one that has captured that plant’s essence – the flavour or scent. We get essential oils through a process of distillation or through cold pressing. Once extracted, they’re combined with a carrier oil and are then ready to use.

What is a fragrance oil?

Fragrance oils are synthetic – artificially created from chemical compounds that do not occur naturally, such as salted caramel. Fragrance oils are usually created to last a lot longer than essential oils and are usually classed as either Synthetic fragrance oils or Natural fragrance oils- the latter being somewhat misleading to say the least!

What are the top three benefits of using essential oils?

essential oils are made up of 100% natural substances, as opposed to synthetically created fragrance oils

essential oils have healing properties, meaning that they may be able to help with a variety of ailments, including stress reduction, inflammation, mood, skin irritations and more.

in the right amounts, essential oils are less likely to cause irritation to the skin.

What are the top three benefits of using fragrance oils?

fragrance oils are cheaper to use, and therefore bring down the price of products that contain them.

a wider range of scents can be achieved with the use of synthetic fragrance oils, such as bubblegum

oils will usually be stronger and last longer

Essential oil vs fragrance oils?

We do acknowledge that some natural ingredients may still cause reactions in a few people (allergens do occur naturally in plant essential oils and can cause irritation in some circumstances). For this reason we have created an un-scented range for people with sensitive skin – for example, the dreamy and creamy and the honey, oats and goats soaps.

While both essential and fragrance oils have their uses, and even though it costs us substantially more to use them, we stand firm in our belief that only essential oils should be used in our soap. Fragrance oils are designed to mimic a scent and most do this very well but they might also bring with it a range of nasty side affects such as skin irritation or hormone disruption.

Willow’s Wonder soaps contain only premium essential oils that are carefully sourced from around the world using only the most delicate extraction methods to preserve the unique signatures of the plant. So for this reason, we feel that we are delivering you a far superior product. The lather and mildness of soap actually increases with age, and soap can last in storage for 2-3 years but in terms of the scent fading, we recommend using the soap within 6-8 months.

We have lavender, ylang ylang, patchouli, lemongrass, lemon myrtle, tea tree, orange, ginger, cinnamon, clove, spruce, frankincense, rosemary, rose and many more essential oil soaps to choose from. Check out our shop here!