Essential oils, essential oils, cosmetic fragrances, extracts - how do you know about them?
Let's start from the basics - because fragrance is not like fragrance and oil is not like oil. If you have already taken a look at the fragrances category on Ekokoze, you have found that you can choose between essential oils and natural essential oils, extracts or cosmetic fragrances and essential oils (we will leave macerates aside for now). Well, that's not enough, is it? :)
EXTRACTS
Our extracts, 100% natural aromatic substances, are suitable for both cosmetics and various delicacies – for example fruit desserts, to give them the necessary aroma, because as is well known, aroma goes hand in hand with taste. Aromatic extracts therefore often smell like edible goodies – mango, apricots, caramel or watermelon.
ESSENTIAL OILS AND NATURAL ESSENTIAL OILS
Natural essential oils and essential oils are used in the production of cosmetics, healing and aromatherapy, and they all mean the same thing – substances extracted only from flowers, plants, herbs, and fruits in their purest form. They are also called essential oils. The difference between the labels often comes from how the manufacturer calls their product. These are highly concentrated substances (up to several kilograms of basic raw material can be used for a few milliliters of essential oil), so it must be remembered that they must always be diluted and not added to food. So among essential oils we can find the scents of various plants in their purest form. You certainly know lavender or mint essential oil, but they can also be very rare plants and oils, such as myrrh, coffee or clary sage essential oil.
COSMETIC FRAGRANCES AND ESSENTIAL OILS
Unfortunately, the essential oil cannot be extracted from some plants (or the resulting smell is very different from the one we imagine). It's like an apple scent. That is why there are cosmetic fragrances or in other words fragrance oils. In cosmetic fragrances we can find such essential oils in which some component is synthetic, moreover, it is mostly a scent composition or composition of several scents that we would not be able to produce "only" with the help of nature. Cosmetic fragrances therefore do not offer the beneficial aromatherapeutic properties of essential oils, but they can certainly improve our mood and make us happy with their fragrance.
They are irreplaceable when washing or cleaning the household, making soap or candles and many other products. Among them we can find, for example, the scent of blueberry, chocolate and many wonderful combinations, such as fig and vanilla or blackberry and basil, or thanks to them we can also save money and use their synthetic counterparts instead of very expensive rare essential oils, such as the scent of jasmine or rose.
What can it do, and how to replace them?
First of all, let's talk about why we use the aforementioned joys in home products and cosmetics at all - and that will also get us to how to successfully (or not) replace products in recipes. The production needs are for their:
- smell
- therapeutic effects
- physical effects
- a combination of the previous one
SCENT
That must have occurred to you, right? :) Sometimes we just want something to smell nice, nothing more, nothing less. That something is usually soaps or other body cleansers, lip balms, perfumes and home fragrances, candles and cleaning products including washing powders.
If we use the fragrance "just" to make it smell nice, you can basically change them freely. You can use essential oils, cosmetic fragrances and extracts, just remember that citrus essential oils are photosensitive, so don't use them on your skin and complexion before going outside. Sad but necessary.
THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS
Beneficial healing effects that will help with ailments of the body or psyche can be obtained with the help of essential oils. Cosmetic fragrances will be short here, therefore, if you are making something that is supposed to relieve or "treat" in some way, for example to help with acne or a cough, definitely do not substitute essential oils for cosmetic fragrances - you could deprive yourself of the ability of your product.
When you start researching essential oils, you'll find that there's at least one (or maybe sixteen different) essential oils to combat the problem that's been bothering you - hair loss, problem skin, tummy aches...it seems like we have an essential oil for everything. This is also why it is difficult to find capable and effective replacements among oils - everyone can do something different and no two essential oils are completely alike.
But we can find essential oils whose abilities are similar
Antibacterial and antimicrobial effects: tea tree, eucalyptus, lemon grass, mint, cedar, citrus, palmarosa, citronella, thyme, camphor, laurel
Antiviral effects: lavender, litsea cubeba, tea tree, oregano, bergamot, palmarosa, patchouli, niaouli
Healing effects: chamomile, pine, cypress, bois de ho, vanilla, myrrh, frankincense, geranium
Relaxing effects: lavender, ylang-ylang, lemon, bois de siam, petitgrain, nutmeg
You can find all these essential oils on Ekokoze, yup!
PHYSICAL EFFECTS
You are certainly familiar with Tiger Ointment, which is based precisely on the physical effects of essential oils – when you apply it on your forehead, you immediately feel coldness and other sensations on your skin. Essential oil of mint and menthol cools, cajeput and camphor help to clean and release cavities, cloves and rosemary warm.
If you desire the physical effects of essential oils in ointments or other mixed preparations, do not change them and do not replace the essential oil with a fragrant one, it would be difficult to find and replace the raw material on whose capabilities the entire product is mostly built.
How much to use?
As a rule, around 2-5% is stated as the recommended amount of essential oils or fragrances in the production of cosmetics, which is a very wide range, so we need to talk more about it. It is completely different with candles, where you can use up to 10% of the weight of the product, we recommend keeping the amount of fragrance to 6-8%.
For who is it?
But if we stay with cosmetics, always start from who you are mixing the item for. If the product is intended for babies, children, pregnant or nursing mothers or the elderly, keep the concentration low (perhaps lower than you would like) and do not exceed 1%. If you are producing for adults and healthy people, remember that less is always more when it comes to essential and fragrance oils. Seriously. Therefore, weigh and measure all fragrances well, the eye does not pay off much in this case.
Different strength, different concentrations
We also have to keep in mind that the types and strength of essential oils differ very significantly. This is also why the general recommendation of the amount "up to 5%" is rather unfortunate. Just imagine, 5% essential oil of soothing lavender will have a decidedly different effect in a cream than 5% essential oil of spicy clove.
To dilute or not to dilute ?
Some essential oils are known to be used in small amounts undiluted, i.e. in 100% concentration, such as lavender and tea tree. Personally, I would also dilute those and would definitely not recommend the use of essential oils. A lot of people do, and I'm not aware of any cases of losing a limb after applying 100% tea tree essential oil, so it's up to you, but remember that there are many reported cases of irritation after using even these two "gentle" undiluted oils.
On the other hand, there are also a lot of very irritating oils that you definitely want to use in amounts much smaller than the stated 2% - for example cinnamon, cloves, but also bergamot, which can burn many people in higher concentrations on the skin.
First theory, then practice
This brings us to the crucial point – for each type of essential oil, first check its maximum concentration in the products, especially if it is a leave-on product for the face and skin. You can find very high-quality, clearly processed and easy-to-find information about essential oils on AromaWeb (or contact us and we'll take a look at it together).
When to exceed the recommended concentration?
It should be added that if you are making ointments of the type already mentioned Tiger ointment (and other cooling, warming, blood-permeating and other balms) where we want to use essential oils to achieve those physical effects, a concentration of 5% will definitely not be sufficient. For some products that are supposed to be really strong, it may be up to 10 times more. Therefore, don't be upset that you will find a few instructions and recipes that exceed the 5% threshold, otherwise they would not work. :) But there are a minority of them.
What to take away from this? When mixing, start small and add very judiciously. Do your own research BEFORE starting production and always think about the people who will come into contact with the product.
And the warning notices?!
When you start excitedly adding essential oils to your cart and then notice those crazy safety warnings and warning symbols, remember this article. :)
Happy making and happy sniffing!
Resources:
https://www.aromaweb.com/articles/essential-oil-safety-guide.asp
https://www.newdirectionsaromatics.com/blog/articles/group/aromatherapy/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0882401020309864
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8893526/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324478
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321401#risks
https://www.humblebeeandme.com/faqs/lets-talk-about-essential-oil-concentrations/
