Confused about which essential oils can be used when making soap and how much of them you should use?
If so, this chart should help!
It can be downloaded and printed out, so you’ll always have it for easy reference when making soap.
The chart lists 24 of my favorite essential oils to use in soap & includes:
- a brief description of scent
- a benefit or characteristic of the oil
- the note (top, middle or base)
- a few suggestions for other oils it blends well with
- my preferred usage rate, per pound of oil
- plus a rough volume/weight conversion if your scale doesn’t measure tiny amounts well
CLICK HERE or on the image above to grab your free chart in pdf format.
(If you have trouble opening the link from above, try THIS DROPBOX LINK instead.)
This chart comes straight out of my Natural Soap Making Ebook Collection which also includes:
- Natural Soap Making Ebook
- Natural Shampoo Bars Ebook
- All-Natural Milk Soaps Ebook
- Printable Soap Additives Chart
- Guide to Using the Essential Oil Chart
- Soapmaking Checklist to Keep You Organized
- Helpful List of Soap Supplies Resources
- Reference List of Soapmaking Abbreviations
- and more!
Love to make soap with natural ingredients? Me too! Let’s keep in touch.
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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.
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.
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!
Sounds great! I’d love to know how they work if you test them out! :)
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
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! :)
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!
Hi Mary, I’m so glad that the chart is helpful for you! :)
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.
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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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!
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! :)
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?
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. :)
Thank you for this information, I am a beginner soap maker and this will come in very handy :)
Hi Mary! I’m glad the information is helpful! Happy soapmaking! :)