How to Keep The Scent in Your Soap
Losing the scent from your soap is a real problem that all soap makers face. I’ll walk through the steps on how to keep the scent in your soap
You have unmolded and cut your fresh soap, you have let it cure and set,
now it’s ready to be packaged and used.
You notice that the scent from your soap has either dissipated or completely fade.
How frustrating!!
This blog post on how to keep the scent in your soap was created to help you with that frustration.
I have discovered a perfect solution completely by accident.
This works equally well for hot process soap making and cold process soap making.
Here is the story:
There is a soap making supply store near my home that I go to when I need a few small things between my wholesale purchases.
Every time I go in there, I leave the store smelling like whatever fragrance oil they were pouring in the back.
This smell sticks to me for a good few hours.
I never stay in this store for long because artificial fragrance oil
makes me feel ill and gives me a headache. I try to get in and out in 10 minutes.
As I was driving around with this scent in my nose and clothes,
I started thinking how odd it was that in such a short amount of time,
a scent could cling and last so long.
My mind started working and I rushed home to start experimenting.
- I took some soap bars that had lost a lot of its scent after curing.
- I put this soap in a lidded container
- I put a small amount of the essential oil blend from the soap batch in a glass bottle and leave the bottle open.
- I left the soap in the closed container with the scent for a full day.
When I opened the container and took out a bar of soap, I noticed the soaps scent had been fully restored.
It was at the same intensity as when I first cut the soap.
The fact is, the soap acts as a sponge for scents.
This is a good reason to keep your soaps away from each other,
so they don’t pick up each other’s scents.
This is the solution to your soap losing its scent.
Once your soap has cured, put it in a plastic container with the scent you used in your soap.
Close the lid so your soap can absorb the scent. Take the soap out as you need it.
If you are using essential oils to scent your soap, be sure you put the essential oil in a glass bottle.
Let me know what you think of this solution. It works for me, I hope you try it out.
Happy Soaping and Happy New Year!!
Rene
12 Comments
Good tip! I’m a newbie soaper so I’m going to give this a try. I also read somewhere that putting a cotton ball with some of the fragrance you used in the storage box with your soap helps retain the scent. It’s worth a try!
thank you so much for sharing,I too have been frustrated by the lose of fregrances in my soap all that work and money for scents to be gone in such a short time !! WAY TO GO !! Again thanks so much for the share !!!
Great tip. I recently made a sale on my soap and when I went to pull it out, it didn’t have any scent left in it. So I put it in a tupperware, and drenched a piece of a cotton t-shirt with sage, and one with lavender. The soap sucked the smell in so fast. I’m going to give the bottle a try so that I don’t have to waste essential oil. Thanks!!!
Do you think a unscented bar of soap can take on the smell as well?
i kindly requesting how to make fragrance small scaly at my home.
synthetic \ natural fragrance oil. technology .
I don’t make my own essential oils. I don’t own a distiller.
No. You are just replacing the scent because it was exposed to the air and has lost it. This does not penetrate the surface of the bar.
Finally I have found a solution to my problem. I was very disappointed when I started making soap and it was losing its strong scent. Good idea!
I recently delivered some fresh goat milk cp soap I make to the natural food store which sells them. I didn’t use EO in them, I just use things like real cinnamon, almond extract, vanilla, etc. The soaps had absorbed the beautiful eclectic medley of fragrance the store smells like. As I have used the bars, the fragrance actually lasts through about 1/2 the bar- so the scent DID penetrate quite deep. These were in the store for several months. I am currently trying out the method you suggested with some soap that has no EO in it. Am curious to see what happens. If it works, it would be an economically feasible way to scent soaps (I live in Alaska, and after paying for the shipping up here, most EO’s are way, way too costly).
Thank you, all comments are great for me, I am new with the soap making! Rene you are awesome thank you! Shalom.
What a great tip Rene – THANK YOU – so timely as I prepare to wrap for Christmas… !!!
Hello! I’m a little bit confused. For the EO glass bottle, should I leave the lid on or not?