Hi friends! Today I want to talk with you about essential oils vs fragrance oils and the key differences between them. This question comes up a lot, and sometimes it doesn’t, but then I find out that a person doesn’t really understand the difference. When you are scenting your homemade body care products, you can choose to use either essential oils, which come in little bottles, or fragrance oils, also found in bottles.
Essential oil vs Fragrance oils
So what’s the difference? There’s a huge difference. Let me explain the key difference between essential oils and fragrance oils, and I’ll give you the pros and cons of each because fragrance oils aren’t always completely bad. There are actually some good things about using them. So let’s start with fragrance oils.
Fragrance Oils
Generally speaking, what I have found when people first start using and making their own body care products, including soap, is that they go to reach for fragrance oil. That’s because they’re cheaper. Fragrance oils don’t cost very much, and they come in some pretty unique scents, like fruit flavors such as apple, cranberry, or green tea. Have you ever smelled green tea? Anyway, the thing is, these fragrances, which are synthetic chemicals, are generally created in a lab, and they’re not good for you.
Downsides of Fragrance Oil
They can be harmful to health. In fact, the manufacturers don’t even have to, by law, put the ingredients on them. When you go to the store and start looking at labels, what you’re going to see is fragrance oil or perfume, and just know that that term encompasses about 10,000 different chemicals, some of which are carcinogenic, some of which disrupt your endocrine system.
Cleaning up the toxins in our home and on the products we use is essential for a healthier lifestyle. So you should be really careful about all of it, and I think everybody should be, if you have little children, especially if you have babies.
So, fragrance oils contain synthetic chemicals, and you have no idea what they are. That’s reason number one to be cautious about using fragrance oils. Actually, that’s probably the main reason not to use fragrance oils. They’re just not good for you, even though they’re cheaper.
Essential Oils
Now, let’s talk about essential oils for a moment. This is a really quick, simple discussion. There’s no need to dive deeply into all of this. It’s clear as day. Essential oils are natural plant compounds. They’re natural extracts, volatile oils from the plants themselves. Essential oils are generally safer than fragrance oils when used appropriately. Most of them are not sensitizing, and most of them are just beautiful for your skin.
Benefits of Essential Oil
The other thing is, essential oils have therapeutic benefits. For example, let’s say you purchase a handmade bar of soap that contains some eucalyptus essential oil. Soap is a wash-off product, but what’s happening there is you’re getting the benefits of the eucalyptus, which can really help your respiratory system. Or let’s say it’s scented with lavender essential oil. Taking a nice warm bath or shower before bed with a soap scented naturally with lavender is an incredible experience and helps you go to sleep. So you see, with essential oils, you’ve got therapeutic benefits as well.
Downsides of Essential Oils
The problem, the downside, with using essential oils is that there are a couple of them. One downside is you can’t get the fruity scents. You have to be really good at blending to get some of those fruity scents with essential oils. That’s because fruits don’t have essential oils, except for the citruses, where the essential oils come from the peels. But generally, fruits like apples, peaches, pears—all those fruits we love to think we’re smelling when we’re smelling a fragrance oil—those fruits don’t have essential oils. So you’re not going to see an apple-scented essential oil. It just won’t happen.
First Downside of Essential Oil
That’s one of the downsides of using essential oils. You’re a little bit limited in scent. But with that said, you have thousands of different essential oils that you can blend together and make your own creations. One popular blend for the holiday season is called holiday spice. That blend is gorgeous, but it doesn’t smell like a fruit. Sorry.
The second downside of Essential Oils
The second downside of using essential oils is that they are expensive. Essential oils are very, very pricey in general. These essential oils can range from about 100-drop bottles up to 300-drop bottles, and they’re expensive. Another thing you can do, and what I do for making soap—because sometimes you’re measuring out your essential oils in terms of ounces, which is quite a large amount—is I buy my essential oils in bulk. Yes, it’s a little more expensive, but to me, it’s worth it. It’s worth it.
Sustainability of Essential Oil
Another downside to essential oils, to be quite honest, is the sustainability issue. With the explosion of interest in essential oils over the last 20 years, some plants are being overharvested. For example, sandalwood is a very endangered plant right now. Frankincense is another one. The problem is that in some parts of the world, such as in the Middle East, frankincense trees are being decimated. They’re trying to farm them, but the problem is that trees like frankincense and sandalwood take a very long time to mature, and that makes those essential oils very, very expensive.
Sustainability is another issue with essential oils. But with scents like orange, mint, and lavender—some of the more common essential oils we’re used to knowing about—they don’t cost much to distill. So purchasing enough lavender essential oil in a larger amount is not nearly as expensive as purchasing a larger amount of frankincense.
Ethics and Transparency
One more thing I want to mention is ethics. There’s an ethical value system that I think people need to take into account when making natural products, especially when you’re selling them. Please, if you are making homemade body care products, make decisions that are good for you. Be honest about what you put on the labels. Please don’t tell people that you’re making a 100% natural product if you’re using fragrance oils or using some of those fluorescent colorants. Those are not natural. Natural colorants are a little muted and beautiful, like the earth.
In conclusion
I just wanted to mention this and bring it up because I keep getting questions about it: What’s the difference between an essential oil and a fragrance oil? The answer is that essential oils are generally a better choice for scenting your home and body care products when considering natural and therapeutic options.
