What smells and colours do you like??

SoapAlchemist

SoapAlchemist

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Hi Guys,
I'm hoping you can help me with a bit of market research. At the moment I make 3 types of shaving soap. They all have the same basic recipe, which seems to be working well. The smells and colours vary. My current 3 are yellow with a mainly cedarwood smell, brick red with a spicy smell (reviews from lucky winners of free samples to come I hope in a few weeks), and a very pale green one with a fainter smell than the others, of eucalyptus.
So I'ld be interested to hear what types of colours and smells you like. However, I can't do smells that there aren't essential oils for (don't use synthetics), so no coconut, pineapple etc. :)
If you can inspire me, I may try to create a new recipe in a few weeks on return from much needed break.
 
Hi there,

I don't know which smalls you use or are availabe in EO. Here is what I like and the colours I associate with them;

I am always on the lookout for that perfect rose scented soap and for that it has to be pink in colour, normally a light pink.

I like menthol soaps and they should be off white towards a green shade in my mind.

Sandalwoods should be slightly yellow or cream shades of white.

When I smell zesty soaps I think of stronger yellows.

Pastel shades for all the deep and strong scents, the stronger the colour the stronger the scent.

Fresh scents make me think of blue shades of colour.

We not only smell scent and associate a colour with it we also taste it to an extent (but I don't eat it). Sometimes I accidently taste it when applying the lather round my mouth but I am talking about the smell that you taste when sniffing, if a soap doesn't taste right or is too pungent it is off putting so I guess it is a balance between enough scent to smell and too much that is overpowering.
Hope that helps.
 
Thank you, that's useful. I have some bowls of mint, but they're rather a dark green. Not a very strong smell, although that depends on how good your sense of smell is, you wouldn't believe how much it varies. Also, the difference in how things smell to different people. I had a balm I'd made, which to most people smelt very warm, vanilla type smell, but to one person it smelt 'medicinal'.
Hunny, I have smallish bar soaps with no scent or colour, which I made in the certain knowledge that there must be loads of people out there needing to avoid potential irritants. Well, all I can say is that I don't know where they're hiding. However, I do have a lot of repeat buyers who say that my soaps have benefited their eczema, but then it depends on what is causing the irritation. The batch size I make is usually a minimum of 10 bowls - if there are enough people who would want it, I'ld happily make up a batch. Indeed, I would reduce the price, as the essentail oils are a significant part of the cost.
 
Menthol/eucalyptus and almond are probably my two faves at the moment.Colours don't really make much difference to me but I could agree with the colour adding to the smell for instance a bright red soap which had a mint smell may be strange.
 
Well, I'm jiggered; I never knew menthol and mint were so popular. Apparently menthol is made by freezing peppermint oil forming crystals of menthol, and draining off the liquid. Although the peppermint oil I use has about 70% menthol in it. I will investigate this on return late this month. Think I'll invest in some crystals and see if the resulting soap smells significantly different from that using peppermint oil.
 
soapalchemist said:
Well, I'm jiggered; I never knew menthol and mint were so popular. Apparently menthol is made by freezing peppermint oil forming crystals of menthol, and draining off the liquid. Although the peppermint oil I use has about 70% menthol in it. I will investigate this on return late this month. Think I'll invest in some crystals and see if the resulting soap smells significantly different from that using peppermint oil.
Click to expand...

I think they're about £1.20 for 10g of menthol crystals when I saw them last in a pharmacy - enough to damage many mucous membranes anyway :ugeek:
 
On a slight aside, I would recommend that whatever scent you give your soaps you make it a strong one. The general consensus from the shaving community seems to be that the stronger smelling soaps are good and anything too subtle isn't worth the trouble.

And personally I like to have an idea of what smell I'll get before I order a soap. Mama Bear soaps are great, but most of her soaps are blends of various scents, and I can't imagine the smells from her descriptions. That's just me but I expect lots of fellows would like good quality versions of established soap scents e.g. Sandalwood, Rose, Lavender, Lime. Bay Rum appears to be a classic so would that be worth a shot?? :?
 
I'll have to do some research on safety and what amount to use. I never heard of menthol crystals before, but google says they are commonly used in shaving soaps, balms etc.
Also says not a good idea to lean over the pot when dissolving them.......I reckon I'll have vry clear sinuses during this project!
 
If I may clarify the menthol is mostly for the FEEL ie when cold water is applied after one gets an icy blast feel. There is little scent to menthol itself.
Mint on the other hand would be great like the (sorry!) Origional Sourse mint showergel, I love that, minty smell and cold feel.
I would love to try/buy your soap.

C
 
Holy Gamoley Pig Cat,
I can't keep up with it all. Bay Rum, now I've never smelt that, although I did see my sister open a small bar of Bay Rum soap not long ago, and it was swimming in brown liquid...I'm presuming that's not supposed to happen?
Wiki tells me that other ingredients in Bay Rum may be citrus, clove and cinnamon. I think it is quite strongly scented, but then I've got used to natural soap; it's true I think that most of my soaps are not as strongly scented as high street stuff. But I think that when you get used to natural soaps, after a while a lot of the high st. stuff starts to seem overpowering - a bit like walking into Lush.
Lavender I could do, and it is comparatively strong. Rose.....well, a soap scented with just rose essential oil would cost a fortune, I have 10mls that I paid £64 for, my soaps generally contain 2 - 3% essential oils.....you can do the maths. Sandalwood is also very expensive, though not as bad as Rose. Lime is cheap.
But I know what you mean about combinations of lots of oils - my free imperfect samples use a much larger number of oils than most, but you're right, unless it's just one or two, its impossible to try to predict what the smell will be like.
 
Zubar - yes, I think I know what you mean. My better half has been using my mint bar soap in the bath for some time.......I understand that it has a noticable cooling effect on certain parts of the body, and that's without cold water.
 
I think it would be fair to say that a lot of shavers like the Proraso range of products that contain Eucalyptus and Menthol, don't think they make a hard soap as such but more of a hard cream/soft soap.

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