30 Essential Oils for Soapmaking + Printable Chart (cold process)

35 Comments

1. Thanks for the chart. I am looking forward to using it! I finally made a batch of Goat Milk soap using your recipe and cannot wait for it to cure so I can try it. I also used your idea of dandelion tea with a batch of my favorite bar.

   I had a couple of questions though, I hope you don’t mind. I have not seen a recipe of yours that uses lard, is this just personal preference? Also, I was wondering about the cooking oils by Lorann. It says it is peppermint oil, but I was wondering if it would work for soap?(I’ve got some leftover from holiday baking and was wondering if it would work)Thanks so much.

   1. Hi HappyHomemaker! So glad that you like the chart! I don’t use lard or tallow a lot, but we do raise pastured pigs from time to time & I use the lard from those in soap sometimes. I guess I just naturally prefer working with butters, but lard & tallow are great substitutes for palm oil too & make for great soap! My new print book will have several recipes with lard or tallow in them, with vegetable butter alternatives for those who prefer to stay vegan. :)
      As far as the cooking oils by Lorann – are they the food grade essential oils? If so, and that’s all they contain – just the pure essential oil, it’s possible they might work in soap. (Haven’t tried them to be sure though!) Baking extracts & flavorings (like vanilla or coconut) in general usually have added ingredients that can make your soap act strangely and those scents just don’t stay around in soap.

      1. From what I understand, they are pure oil. They are the ones that are used to make hard candy ect… I know for sure they are not extracts. I may have to make a small batch and just give it a try and see what happens :)

         Thanks for the comment on lard. My favorite soap has lard and I love the creaminess, but I haven’t been doing this for long, so I didn’t know if lard bars might go bad early or there was something about lard I didn’t know.

         Thanks for your help!

         1. Sounds great! I’d love to know how they work if you test them out! :)

   2. Thank you so much for this chart. I was using fragrance oils for my soap making, but really wanted to start using essential oils. This chart makes it so much easier. :) Happy Homemaking

      1. Hi Lisa, I’m so glad you found the chart helpful!
         Happy soapmaking! :)

2. My question here is… When you want to use a mix of two our three esential oils by lb of soap you put the quanties of each one by separatly or the total you divide by two ir three… I Hope you understand my question….Thank you

   1. Hi Beatriz, That’s a great question!
      Yes, dividing by the amount of oils used is exactly what I do when I want to add more than one oil.
      For example, if I want to add lavender and litsea to a soap with 1 pound of oils, I could take 20 g of lavender divided by 2, to get 10 grams of lavender,
      then 17 grams of litsea divided by 2, to get roughly 8 or 9 grams of litsea.
      That would total:
      10 g lavender
      8 (or 9) g litsea
      in a recipe with 1 pound of oils.
      You can also tweak the ratios around a bit.
      For example if I wanted a much stronger lavender than litsea scent, I might use 2/3 the amount of lavender and 1/3 the amount of litsea, which would be:
      about 13 g lavender
      and about 5 g litsea
      for every 1 pound of oils in the recipe.
      The numbers are just a rough guideline that I use to make sure I keep the amount of essential oils in a conservatively safe range. There is some flexibility with them though, so feel free to adjust a little to suit scent preferences too! :)

3. Jan, this chart is most helpful. Thank you for putting it all together and sharing it. This makes MY life easier. Have a blessed day!

   1. Hi Mary, I’m so glad that the chart is helpful for you! :)

4. I’ve been enjoying all your natural non-red palm recipes. We live in a very harsh environment-but dandelions and sunflowers grow well. I’ve used your wonderful articles and recipes to teach a class at our church. My class decided to be adventuresome and add infused oils to their collections. Keep up the wonderful work! We love all the knowledge and wonderful articles.

   1. Hi Tiffany, So glad to hear that you’re enjoying the recipes! It sounds like a fun class & that everyone had lots of fun! :)

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6. Jan just wanted to let you and your readers know that I used annatto infused olive oil in your carrot and honey soap recipe (from your web site) and it turned out great. Red palm oil is difficult to find where I live and very expensive. I infused annatto seed & olive oil in the sun with 2 tbsp per 8 oz of oil for three days. Though the soap is still curing the soap it is a very nice carroty color. I am very happy with the results! I had a question though, I read on a website for another carrot soap that the beta carotene in carrots can turn very white skin slightly orange like tanning solution. Have you heard that? How about with the annatto or alkanet infusions? I don’t see that there is enough of a concentration in the soaps to do that but I just wondered if you had ever had that experience? By the way you are still my favorite go to for inspiration. Thanks so much!

   1. Hi Lisa! Your carrot soap sounds wonderful! :) It would take a lot of annatto seed for the soap lather to be discolored & it *might* stain a washcloth if you use too much, but I haven’t heard of it discoloring skin. I haven’t heard of or experienced that with carrot soap either, so you should be good to go with your soap! :)

7. I love your essential oil chart! What I’m wondering is what grade of essential oils do you use in your soaps? I’ve used oils from Brambleberry that are cheaper and they require quite a bit. I am checking into using other brands(young living, doterra, etc) that are more pure but since they are more pure I would think the usage rate would be much less? Do you have any experience with this?

   1. Hi Jenni! I use an assortment of essential oil brands – Bramble Berry, Bulk Apothecary, New Directions Aromatics, NOW Brand, and also some Young Living blends before. However, they all act the same in soap so have the same usage rates, not matter the brand. It’s better to save your more expensive bottles of essential oils for products that aren’t washed off your skin, such as lotions, salves and balms. :)

8. Thank you for this information, I am a beginner soap maker and this will come in very handy :)

   1. Hi Mary! I’m glad the information is helpful! Happy soapmaking! :)

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12. Thanks a lot for all the tips you have shared!

    1. Hi Uma! I’m glad they’re helpful! :)

13. Again – a big job and a great job!!! I am just excited, pleased, that I found you, in love with your job… all the best wishes comes from me to you and family! Every time I make soap, I thank God for brought me here. You gave me the strenght to begin!
    Thank you!

    1. Thank you Krasimira! I appreciate your kindness & support! <3 :)

14. Hi, I really need some troubleshooting help with your 100% olive oil soap that I can’t find any answer too anywhere! Please help before I go crazy!!

    1. Hi Sue! Have you checked out my giant troubleshooting article yet?
       https://thenerdyfarmwife.com/troubleshooting-cold-process-soap-problems/
       If you can’t find the answer there, let me know more about the problem you’re having & I’m happy to help! :)

15. If I make Melt & Pour soap, are the amounts the same?

    1. Hi Jonna! Melt and pour soap doesn’t need as much essential oil as cold process soap.
       (This is because essential oil has to encounter active lye and a long cure time in cold process soap – which can fade it to different extents, but melt and pour is ready to go once you add the essential oil.)
       For melt and pour, essential oil amounts can range from 0.5% for light scent to 2.5% for strong scent.
       EO Calc is a really great tool to help you figure out the perfect amount for your melt & pour projects!
       https://www.eocalc.com/enter-your-own-blend/
       I hope to one day create an easy reference chart for essential oil for melt and pour soap to put on my website too. (It’s on my to-do list!) 😊

16. Hello Jan,

    Thank you so much for the article. I have not make soap yet and a bit intimidated. (Your essential oil come to save me :).

    Question: how do I know percentage of the blend? Say if I want to make “Spearmint” blend, the formula suggested blending of Peppermint, Rosemary, Lavender. So are these list alway be 40%, 40%, and 20% in order listed?

    I am so grateful and thank you in advance.

    Pom

    1. Hi Pom! I’m so glad the article is helpful! :)

       The blend ideas that you see beside each essential oil in the chart, are other essential oils that should smell good when combined with it.

       For spearmint, it combines well with peppermint, or with rosemary, or with lavender in soap. It also mixes nicely with other scents, but I only had a little room to type in that box! :)

       So you wouldn’t mix up peppermint, rosemary, and lavender, to get a spearmint scent.

       But a combination of 50% peppermint and 50% spearmint (“double mint” soap) smells nice!

       If you have a soap recipe that gives specific amounts of essential oils, but you’re not sure of the percentage, you can figure it this way:

       Example blend:
       1 gram peppermint
       1 gram rosemary
       2 grams lavender

       That’s a total of 4 grams of essential oils.

       So you would divide the amount of each essential oil into 4 to get the percentage.

       1 gram peppermint divided by 4 = 0.25 —– which is 25%
       1 gram rosemary divided by 4 = 0.25 —– or 25%
       2 grams lavender divided by 4 = 0.50 —– or 50%

       If the recipe doesn’t give a number, then you will have to do some guesswork. Your thought of 40%, 40%, 20% is a good starting place!

       You can then take your blend idea to the EO Calc and see how much to use for your recipe:
       https://www.eocalc.com/enter-your-own-blend/

       I hope that helps and good luck making your first batch of soap!

17. Hello
    Why isn’t Pine (scotch) on your list ?
    Kim

    1. Hi Kim! That’s not one I personally use a lot when making soap, so didn’t think to add it.
       I really need to update and expand this list though – hopefully this fall! 😊
       I would use it at the same rate as fir needle.

18. You may search online for the brand of the essential oil you’re using, and you will come across an IFRA compliance statement document for that specific brand.

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