Teach Soap

if my goal is to make soap as natural as possible, id like to know if the fragrance oils we use in our soap are cancer causing free?

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~~~Cheryl~~~

If your goal is simply to be as natural as possible, essential oils are probably better for your purposes than fragrance oils. "Natural" is different from "not harmful", though, plenty of EOs and other natural substances can be harmful.

I don't know of anything generally used in fragrance oils that's known to cause cancer. Is there a specific chemical you're worried about?

There is no true way to know since fragrances contains proprietary constituents. If you are worried about fragrance oils, try essential oils instead.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I just wanted to know if we know. So really we could be thinking we are selling some good soap.. but in reality..It could be not so good. Just wanted to know about it more.

I'm just concerned about what I will say about being in my soaps.

I wish we knew..

I sure can't afford 2 or 3 ounces of essential oils in soap. That would get me no where.

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~~~Cheryl~~~

Although we don't know every exact ingredient in fragrance oils, they are usually made up of essential oils, resins, aromatic chemicals (vanillin, citral, linalool, etc).
I use essential oils, but I also use fragrance oils when cost becomes a factor or I want a scent that just can't be duplicated by me blending EO's. But I only buy fragrance oils that follows IFRA (International Fragrance Association) guidelines and use RIFM (Research Institute for Fragrance Materials) approved materials in their FO's. RIFM tests for carcinogenic indicators, irritation, etc. and then the IFRA takes that information and creates guidelines for that materials usage or if it is safe to be used in a fragrance oil at all.

I'm very careful to follow the IFRA guidelines for each and every fragrance oil I use.

Also, I know that many people think of Essential Oils as chemical free and pure/natural, when in reality that's just not always the case. Absolutes, Concretes and Resins (which most people put under the Essential Oil category) are extracted using solvents, usually hexane, but petroleum and ethanol have been used as well. Part of the solvent does remain. Is it harmful? Most likely not, but it would be misleading to say they're "All Natural" or "Chemical Free"

I think it would be impossible to say that something in our products absolutely wouldn't cause cancer whether you're using fragrance oils, essential oils, etc. Because you'd also have to look at how your base oils are extracted & handled, how your colorants are created/cleaned, etc.

Also, in all the years I've been selling, I've never had anyone ask if any of my soaps were possibly carcinogenic or harmful in any way.

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Genny

thank you very much Ginny. that does help me. Thanks for giving me some guidelines on what to look for in suppliers. Ca't get this information from ebay, sometimes..

Not that I've looked. But I will be looking now.

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~~~Cheryl~~~