As for fragrances, you will have to decide for yourself whether you want to add fragrances when making soaps. Soaps can have no smell, but in my experience, in order for the use of soaps to be a complete enjoyment, and for soaps to be pleasant to use, it is necessary to add a scent.
Essential oils, fragrance oils, food-grade cake fragrances are just a few of the choices for adding scents to soaps. You should know that the chosen fragrance will probably change its smell during the saponification of the soap, so don’t be surprised by that.
Essential oils are one way to make your soaps have a pleasant scent. If you decide to use essential oils, then you should know that you will have a very expensive soap, because real therapeutic, essential oils cost a lot, and for the said recipe you need as much as 15, 16 ml of fragrance. In our markets, in pharmacies, health food stores, “essential oils” are sold, and some of them are of unknown origin or have a composition that does not match the real essential oils, but they are much cheaper than therapeutic essential oils and due to the low price, they could be used for fragrance soaps. However, never use them to make cosmetic products, creams, or use them in a diffuser, if you are not sure of their quality or origin.
Fragrant oils are synthetic oils and have a very large selection of different scents, from refreshing, floral, citrus, coconut, sea, pine, to various combinations that are used to make perfumes. With these oils, you really have a wide range of options to make your soap smell good, if you opt for a synthetic scent. There is one aggravating circumstance with these oils, especially if you are a beginner, as many of these oils will instantly thicken your soap mixture to the point where you will not be able to pour it.
Fragrant essences, which are used in cooking, such as the essence of vanilla, rum, lemon, orange, etc. are another way to add fragrances to your soaps. As a beginner in making handmade soaps, this is perhaps the most acceptable way, because they are the cheapest, so even if you fail in the first attempt at making soaps, you will not lose much.
Colors are not a mandatory part of the composition of soaps, the natural color of soaps is completely acceptable, but if you want a visually different soap or you are making 2, 3 batches of soaps, and you want to distinguish them, then you can use colors. You should know that you will only see the real color of the soap when you take it out of the mold, because during saponification, the color will change. Also, when drying the soap, the color becomes paler. In any case, if you want to add color to your soap, just add a few drops.
There are colors that are intended for soaps and you can usually order them on AliExpress, they are very effective and it is really important to add them in small quantities, 4, 5 drops.
You can use liquid cake colors to color the soaps, there are oil-based and water-based ones, and I prefer oil-based colors, because soaps are also made from oil. If you use powdered cake colors, then dissolve them in very little water, because powdered colors are difficult to dissolve in oil.
In the last phase of mixing, you can add small amounts of crushed herbs, dried mint, chamomile, etc., or raspberry, blackberry, etc. seeds to your soaps, to enrich your soap and/or exfoliating effect.
Soaps made this way can be used for bathing, showering, washing hands, washing hair. It is not recommended to use homemade soaps for washing your face more than twice a week.
Enjoy making soaps, enjoy your creativity and let the Lavina Cosmetics soaps, their quality, therapeutic properties that lead to the complete soothing of skin diseases such as eczema or inflammatory processes on the face, pleasant showering with a peeling effect, serve as an incentive to introduce a healthy way of maintaining personal hygiene into your life and the life of your family.
Up next: The three essential steps needed for perfect facial care