Making Scents

September 12, 2017

Don’t even worry about the title, you’ll learn to love it.

             VS.     

Did you know that I’m carrying 2 lines of candles now? There’s my Signature Collection & then my Pure Collection. Love them both. What’s the difference?

Well, it boils down to how the candles are scented. This is a totally unsubstantiated figure but I’d say that 95%+ of candles out in the market today use either synthetic or synthetic-essential oil blend scents.

Why synthetic? There’s a few major advantages:

• The obvious one is cost. Synthetics are a fraction of what steam distilled natural oils cost to produce. Did you know that it takes about 45 lemons to make a small 15 ml bottle of lemon essential oil? Laboratory produced lemon scent doesn’t cost nearly as much to make.
• Another big reason is that with synthetics, you basically get the whole rainbow of smells. From the deep woods & musks, to hefty citrus, to florals galore, and all the little nuanced scents in between, there’s a lot of options there. Essential oils simply can’t cover the entire scent rainbow.
• Finally, as a scent mixer, I recognize that synthetics help keep scents from disappearing. If I leave a tablespoon of grapefruit essential oil sitting out, it will be gone baby gone in a short period of time. However, if I leave the same amount of  my synthetic blend grapefruit oil on the table, it will still be there tomorrow. So there’s definitely some staying power in the synthetics and that is important in retail.

On the other hand, there are areas where essential oils just can’t be beat:

• Aromatherapy isn’t just for spas & hippies anymore. For treating colds, stress, nausea… there are real benefits here for inhaling a healthy dose of essential oils. For more information, visit your one friend on Facebook who does direct sales.
• Also, there’s no denying – Mother Nature’s handiwork doesn’t always come out as good in a lab. For instance, my favorite flower of all time – the peony. I have sniffed just about every single peony scented candle, lotion and perfume out there. None of them come even close to what a garden peony smells like. So yep, there are still a bunch of scent profiles that man can’t match. Sandlewood, bergamot & neroli come to mind.

Wait, why don’t you know what neroli smells like? Dude, because it’s so expensive!

Enter synthetic-essential oil blends. This is what I use in my Signature candles. We use a phthalate-free synthetic base and fill in the gaps with essential oils. There’s nothing in it that’s harmful & we are able to keep it all really affordable. That Signature Grapefruit candle you see up there? It has a creamy base with some melon middle notes and that sweet grapefruit up top.

My Pure Grapefruit & Lime candle? It has almost a lime sherbet base and a light grapefruit finish. The ingredients on that one? Soy wax, grapefruit essential oil (top note), blood orange oil (midrange) & lime (base) essential oil.

I think they both smell fantastic and I happily burn either one all the time. Which one appeals to you?

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