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Since many soap and skin product producers use both essential oils and fragrance oils to scent their products, you may wonder if there really is a difference between the two, or why you should care which type of oil is scenting your soap.

Although it’s true that both types of oil add fragrance to soap, there are several reasons why we choose to use only therapeutic-grade essential oils to add fragrance to our goat milk soaps.

Essential oils are extracted, not manufactured. While both essential and fragrance oils are complex combinations of chemicals, the sources of these chemical are quite different. Fragrance oils are synthetic, made in labs to mimic natural scents. Essential oils, however, are extracted directly from the leaves, flowers, roots, barks, and fruit skins of the plants that give them their scent. This extraction process, called distillation, takes time and requires large amounts of plant matter to extract just a small amount of essence. This is one reason why essential oils usually cost more than fragrance oils, and a reason why some soap makers choose to use fragrance oils instead.

Essential oils are blended with natural oils. Both fragrance oils and essential oils can be quite potent and irritating to skin if not used properly. To dilute their potency and make them safer for use on skin, distilled essential oils are often blended with plant-based “carrier” oils, such as safflower, sweet almond, or avocado oil. Fragrance oils, on the other hand, are more often diluted with synthetically produced oils like propylene glycol.

Essential oils connect us to the land and to traditional methods. We make our soap from only pure, natural ingredients, using traditional methods. We use the milk from our own goats, who graze on land right where we make our soap. It only makes sense to us to scent our soap with oils derived directly from plants and with no added synthetic chemicals or ingredients. In addition, essential oils have a long history in skincare products, with many being traditionally used as insect repellents (eucalyptus and lemongrass), to alleviate fatigue (spearmint), and to sooth and calm (lavender).

When it comes down to it, even though essential oils cost more, have a shorter shelf life, and sometimes are more complex to blend into our soaps, we believe in using essential oils in our goat milk soaps. It’s just another way we can ensure that our soap is the purest, most natural way you can clean your skin.