alfredus
Auctioneer-in-Chief + organises many group buys
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@alfredus , far be it for me to tell you what works best on your skin but perhaps @Anthony or other vendors can clarify that they use SPECIFIC soap making fragrances only. Generally the better fragrance oils that are specifically made for soap making will be much more dermatologically friendly (as well as less likely to 'seize' a soap batch - which is where they react and make it go unusable!).
The vast majority of EO's are actually not things you'd want on your or anyone elses skin and somewhat counterintuitively fragrance oils are the only way for many people to experience/utilise a lot of different scents WITHOUT copping a nasty skin reaction from the product e.g cinnamon is one that springs to mind and there are many others.
I think a lot of vendors use cheaper fragrance oils that aren't 100% soap making specific/skin tested and these would be more likely to cause skin conditions. Please forgive me in advance if you're already across all this.
No need to apologise, can't get enough info from you - especially in the soap department.
Of course you are right, but I just drew this border for me a while ago, as I did not see any need to cross it. Producers, who bother to make these distinctions, usually only use high quality ingredients anyway.
That's why I said initially short answer. It makes life for me in most cases easier, as I don't have to go on researching about ingredients lists as well. And as I said, there is enough choice out there (usually except in this case).
Same goes for me and ZAMAC razors - except for the R41 - I don't need to cross the line, it makes life easier - so why bother.
HMMMMM...don't agree fully with that - but I am a trained chemist. For me it is actually more about the impurities that a chemical process carries along - not the compound itself. See what most people often don't realise: the actual compounds are the same.
Of course Essential oils are often a mixture of compounds, but for simplicity lets assume for a second it is one compound. Now there is no way chemically or physically to distinguish between a plant derived compound - or the same synthetically derived compound. IF IT IS 100% PURE!
The problems are the impurities. Essential oils are mostly extracted from plant material via steam (water) distillation - which leads to water being the only impurity beside the plant material itselt. Fragrance oils on the other hand are a blend of synthetically derived compounds - and in synthetic organic chemistry water is usually the biggest pain to use and so one uses organic solvents like ethyl acetate, acetone or chlorinated solvents. Plus the starting materials are usually derived from petrochemical products and therefore carry those impurities.
Of course there can be many complications - like the pesticides used on the plants, before the EO's are extracted - but GENERALLY speaking (and if the producer uses high grade materials) EO's are less likely to carry nasty impurities.
One more thing - as Nick said: just because it is an EO doesn't mean it is good for you or your skin. Bergamot Oil for example is phototoxic. If you use a concentrated form on your skin, you can't go into the sun for hours or you get sun burned...and I am sure there are many more examples.
OK, so hopefully I got my points across, in any case it is a personal choice for me and makes my life easier.
