# Is my nose crazy?



## LisaBoBisa (Jan 16, 2022)

Do FO's just smell fake to some people? I grew up in a perfume-free house, since a family member's airways constrict from strong perfume (i.e. most shampoos, detergents, hairsprays, etc), but he doesn't react to natural smells (food, garden, or essential oils). I've mainly made fragrance-free and EO-scented CP & HP soaps.

I'd love to sell at the farmer's market, and people really do seem to buy based on scent, then on appearance (and some eventually notice the soap formula). So after months of reading FO reviews, I used my first FO in soap a little less than a month ago.

I went to a local candle/soap fragrance showroom this fall, and had the oddest "emperor's new clothes" experience: another customer moved from bottle to bottle smelling different FO's (especially pumpkin/spice/fall scents), exclaiming how good they all smelled. I sniffed each scent in a long list I'd made before coming, and all but one scent smelled absolutely foul: overwhelming chemical smell, not much like the real thing. And some of the worst smells were the same ones the other customer enthusiastically raved about.

I figured I'd try an order of natural FO's if that made a difference vs synthetic, and (after reading reviews and re-working my shopping cart a million times) I just received 12 Nature's Flavors FO's (all natural, some organic). Smelled them one by one, amazed at how weird/synthetic/chemical they smell in the bottle. The mango is the only exception so far... it smells like lovely tropical flowers, not fruit, but does genuinely smell good. The coconut's kind of weird, but might be nice if I use just a little.

I'll test out these two best-smelling/least bad-smelling in CP/HP soap to see if they improve, but... is my nose crazy? Could this be like when people hate the taste of cilantro, because they "have a variation in a group of olfactory-receptor genes that allows them to strongly perceive the soapy-flavored aldehydes in cilantro leaves"?

Do some people's noses just find a lot of fragrance oils weird and chemical? FTR, I have a bottle of benzaldehyde (bitter almond oil), and it smells perfectly natural to me... And I love my fancy floral/fruity candles from Restoration Hardware, Costco, and Voluspa (probably synthetic).

I learned decades ago to avoid candles that smell like baked goods--they've always smelled fake and strange to me, but maybe they smell the same to everyone, and other folks grew up with the fake smells and enjoy them? Does anyone else have the same experience... or are all FO's just supposed to smell weird or awful in the bottle?


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## DeeAnna (Jan 16, 2022)

You can't really evaluate an FO or an EO by whiffing the bottle. It's much too concentrated. Many fragrances are pretty obnoxious to me when smelled straight from the bottle, but they're fine when highly diluted in soap, lotion, etc.

A better way to test a fragrance is to put a single drop on an unscented strip of paper -- a coffee filter cut into strips works well -- let the fragrance sit for 5-10 minutes, and then smell. Then test it after 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, and so on.


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## LisaBoBisa (Jan 16, 2022)

Thanks!


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## Ugeauxgirl (Jan 16, 2022)

One very interesting thing I've discovered is that different people smell different things in fragrances.  One peppermint FO I used had a chemical smell to me but my sister loved it and said it smelled just like peppermint candy.  I used a Beach FO that I thought smelled just like suntan lotion (which I hate) and one of my girlfriends (and main tester) said she didn't smell that at all.  Glad she liked it, I was ready to toss the whole batch!
'


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## AliOop (Jan 17, 2022)

Agreed with all of the above. One person's rose is another's rotten egg.

Also, as someone who is somewhay chemically sensitive, a lot of FOs do smell "chemically" to me. Many give me really bad headaches - even if I like the actual smell. 

I've had to give away more than a few FOs because one or both of those issues.


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## LisaBoBisa (Jan 17, 2022)

That makes sense, @AliOop -do you mainly use EO's then? Or what are your favorite FO's that don't bother you?


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## Vicki C (Jan 17, 2022)

Some FOs smell really gross to me, too. But others here have advised, and I have learned that they are right, that some smell different in soap than out of the bottle (OOB). There is variation among suppliers too, I have smelled some that really smell like cheap perfume - others that I love. Why not try some small batches with different FOs in different strengths in each bar to see how you feel after saponification and cure?


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## ResolvableOwl (Jan 17, 2022)

I can understand you so well. Deliberately, I bought only a single FO in my soaping career so far (vanilla), and although it's nice on itself, it didn't change my mind about FOs.
With some distance from the fragrance craze, it is actually impressive how much “too much” we are burdening our noses. It should warn us from food that has gone bad. Instead it can't help itself but rather trigger false alarm that we have washed hands ten minutes ago with a weird cocktail of petrochemicals and plant-insect signal substances. Gosh, I _hate_ the smell of some of the restroom soaps at some public places. Did someone deliberately, unironically call them “fragrance”???

Another very important thing to keep in mind is what @DeeAnna said: dilution is key. There are several approaches to sniff tests (wrist, paper strip test, cotton ball in plastic bag, single-FO test batch in bar or liquid soap…), and on top of that the “nose blindness” when you overburden your nose with judging too many scents in a short time.


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## Zany_in_CO (Jan 17, 2022)

LisaBoBisa said:


> I went to a local candle/soap fragrance showroom this fall, and had the oddest "emperor's new clothes" experience...


You sound just like me! I totally relate to that description! 


LisaBoBisa said:


> all but one scent smelled absolutely foul: overwhelming chemical smell, not much like the real thing.


From my experience, rather than a "crazy" nose, I believe you have a "discerning" nose. I would not buy from that company. To compare the difference to a company that sells top quality FOs, I highly recommend *MMS (Majestic Mountain Sage)* in Utah.

ETA: *MMS Fragrance Calculator* - Great tool to have in your virtual tool box! I use it for all my products even if I use a fragrance from another supplier. I just find an EO or FO close to it.  

Choose anything for the drop down menu of fragrances. Then you can scroll down to easily see what all they have available.


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## TheGecko (Jan 17, 2022)

My future DIL wanted candles for Christmas.  O!M!G!  Being a soap maker, I hit the coffee aisle first and bought a small bag of beans.  I easily sniffed a good 50 candles...from the inexpensive to the "you want how much?!?"  I found three...two I actually liked.

FOs can be a bit of a crap-shoot at times. I've had some that smelled horrible in the bottle, but wonderful in soap. I've ha some that smelled wonderful in the bottle, but stink in soap. And I will never forget Autumn Harvest...OMG, the smell when you open the bottle is so warm and soft and then you go to unmold it and it smells like a chemical factory so you stick it on the highest shelf and forget about for a couple of months and then you go to toss it out and end up putting it in your shower instead.

I checked out Natures Flavors...I would never use them because $16.00 for 2oz is just too expensive.  I whine as it is when I pay $4.00 for an ounce, but if I don't like it, I've only spent $4.00 and I can recycle the empty bottle.  But...once you get past the sticker shock, their 8oz + prices are fairly good.


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## cmzaha (Jan 17, 2022)

Also, keep in mind if you are selling you do not have to like the FO, only your customers have to like it, so it becomes a lot of trial and error. When buying fo's remember to read the reviews. Some will sell well for some folks and not so well for others. Sea salt and Driftwood FO is a good example I can think of. Many here love and swear by it and say it holds well, well I did not have the same experience with the same fo from the same supplier and could not sell soap made with it. When selling some will sell well and some simply will not, you just have to learn your markets, but yes, folks like scent first.


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## AliOop (Jan 17, 2022)

LisaBoBisa said:


> That makes sense, @AliOop -do you mainly use EO's then? Or what are your favorite FO's that don't bother you?


I do use some EOs (mostly citrus) and a fairly limited number of FOs that I can stand to have in my house. My very very favorite is @cmzaha's special Dragon's Blood blend, followed by a sandalwood vanilla from a company that is no longer in business. I don't know what I will do when those are both gone. But mostly I stick with unscented unless I am making things for others.


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## TheGecko (Jan 18, 2022)

AliOop said:


> My very very favorite is @cmzaha's special Dragon's Blood blend….. I don't know what I will do when those are both gone



Same here.  But I bought four pounds of it…for personal use.  It’s the DB I got my fancy review from.


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## LisaBoBisa (Jan 18, 2022)

This is so insanely helpful--thank you all SO much.



ResolvableOwl said:


> I can understand you so well. Deliberately, I bought only a single FO in my soaping career so far (vanilla), and although it's nice on itself, it didn't change my mind about FOs.
> With some distance from the fragrance craze, it is actually impressive how much “too much” we are burdening our noses. It should warn us from food that has gone bad. Instead it can't help itself but rather trigger false alarm that we have washed hands ten minutes ago with a weird cocktail of petrochemicals and plant-insect signal substances. Gosh, I _hate_ the smell of some of the restroom soaps at some public places. Did someone deliberately, unironically call them “fragrance”???
> 
> Another very important thing to keep in mind is what @DeeAnna said: dilution is key. There are several approaches to sniff tests (wrist, paper strip test, cotton ball in plastic bag, single-FO test batch in bar or liquid soap…), and on top of that the “nose blindness” when you overburden your nose with judging too many scents in a short time.



YES! That makes so much sense--nose-blindness is such a good way of saying it.



cmzaha said:


> Also, keep in mind if you are selling you do not have to like the FO, only your customers have to like it, so it becomes a lot of trial and error. When buying fo's remember to read the reviews. Some will sell well for some folks and not so well for others. Sea salt and Driftwood FO is a good example I can think of. Many here love and swear by it and say it holds well, well I did not have the same experience with the same fo from the same supplier and could not sell soap made with it. When selling some will sell well and some simply will not, you just have to learn your markets, but yes, folks like scent first.



Really good point--I'll recruit friends to sniff the testers for me. I have such strong latex allergies that I already do this with body butter recipes (I react to mango butter, shea butter, and probably kokum)... relying completely on other people's skin and noses! A lot of the reviewers did say these FO's sold well, so hopefully I won't be one of the exceptions you mentioned 



TheGecko said:


> My future DIL wanted candles for Christmas.  O!M!G!  Being a soap maker, I hit the coffee aisle first and bought a small bag of beans.  I easily sniffed a good 50 candles...from the inexpensive to the "you want how much?!?"  I found three...two I actually liked.
> 
> FOs can be a bit of a crap-shoot at times. I've had some that smelled horrible in the bottle, but wonderful in soap. I've ha some that smelled wonderful in the bottle, but stink in soap. And I will never forget Autumn Harvest...OMG, the smell when you open the bottle is so warm and soft and then you go to unmold it and it smells like a chemical factory so you stick it on the highest shelf and forget about for a couple of months and then you go to toss it out and end up putting it in your shower instead.
> 
> I checked out Natures Flavors...I would never use them because $16.00 for 2oz is just too expensive.  I whine as it is when I pay $4.00 for an ounce, but if I don't like it, I've only spent $4.00 and I can recycle the empty bottle.  But...once you get past the sticker shock, their 8oz + prices are fairly good.



I'm prepared to repeatedly love and hate the same scent, then!
YEAHHHHH... they don't have affordable trial sizes, so I just went for the 8oz sizes, and I'm really kicking myself now. It's $16 for 2oz, and $20 for 8, so hard to justify 2oz. I think I'll at least end up with 4 I like out of this, and maybe more that other people like, but I'm learning a stupid expensive beginner's lesson (I read all the reviews before ordering, and some customers did talk about asking Nature's Flavors to reformulate a scent, so they do actually do that)



Zany_in_CO said:


> You sound just like me! I totally relate to that description!
> 
> From my experience, rather than a "crazy" nose, I believe you have a "discerning" nose. I would not buy from that company. To compare the difference to a company that sells top quality FOs, I highly recommend *MMS (Majestic Mountain Sage)* in Utah.
> 
> ...



*A Discerning Nose*™ Thanks for the collective rebrand and the recommendation! It does sound like a FO version of the cilantro situation (folks who "have a variation in a group of olfactory-receptor genes that allows them to strongly perceive the soapy-flavored aldehydes in cilantro leaves")


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## Vicki C (Jan 18, 2022)

ResolvableOwl said:


> Gosh, I _hate_ the smell of some of the restroom soaps at some public places. Did someone deliberately, unironically call them “fragrance”???


Me too. And some of the hand sanitizers in stores available for the shopping public are just awful. I don’t use them.


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## TheGecko (Jan 18, 2022)

LisaBoBisa said:


> YEAHHHHH... they don't have affordable trial sizes, so I just went for the 8oz sizes, and I'm really kicking myself now.



Great if it works out for you, sucks if it doesn't.  I still have half a 8oz bottle of RE's Pearberry from three years ago....it accelerates horribly and though I learned to work with it, it's not a scent that sells well.  Elements' Autumn Harvest...bought a 1oz bottle and fell in love with the scent and immediately ordered a 8oz bottle; turns out it discolors to a really dark brown.  It's only because of @Todd Ziegler's VCS that I can now dust off the bottle and use it.

I have a bunch of 1oz and 2 oz bottles I need to get rid off.  They sounded great when I ordered them, but then I got them and UGH!  So glad I didn't purchase larger sizes.  Katie at Royalty Soaps buys large quantities of FOs...like 25lbs...and she did a video on a couple of skunks she ended up buying that much off that she was just going to have to dump.


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## AliOop (Jan 18, 2022)

Vicki C said:


> Me too. And some of the hand sanitizers in stores available for the shopping public are just awful. I don’t use them.


Yes, and the worst are the ones in some airport bathrooms that actually spray the stuff into the air every so often. The spray gets on my hair and clothes, and that's all I can smell until I can get somewhere to shower and change. BLECH


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## cmzaha (Jan 18, 2022)

TheGecko said:


> Same here.  But I bought four pounds of it…for personal use.  It’s the DB I got my fancy review from.


I am hoarding approx 7lbs of my DB.     Although I am not really sure how much is left since it is still in my 40-gallon tote.


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## TheGecko (Jan 18, 2022)

cmzaha said:


> I am hoarding approx 7lbs of my DB.     Although I am not really sure how much is left since it is still in my 40-gallon tote.



Your DB has pretty much ruined me for all other scents.  Without question, I will purchase whatever you don't want to hang on to.


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## maryloucb (Jan 18, 2022)

I feel like we are so inundated with artificial scents, I try only to buy unscented detergents, lotions, etc. I can't even stand to walk down the detergent aisle at the supermarket.


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## cmzaha (Jan 18, 2022)

TheGecko said:


> Your DB has pretty much ruined me for all other scents.  Without question, I will purchase whatever you don't want to hang on to.


When I finally get moved I will try to weigh it out and see what is left, but as you probably know this is the end of having it manufactured at least this particular formula.


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## AliOop (Jan 18, 2022)

TheGecko said:


> Your DB has pretty much ruined me for all other scents.  Without question, I will purchase whatever you don't want to hang on to.


... and I will arm-wrestle you for it!


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## Nona'sFarm (Jan 19, 2022)

maryloucb said:


> I feel like we are so inundated with artificial scents, I try only to buy unscented detergents, lotions, etc. I can't even stand to walk down the detergent aisle at the supermarket.


Oh wow, can totally relate. I can't walk into a Yankee Candle store, it is so overwhelming that I start getting a phantom headache. Pretty sure it's phantom because my headaches don't usually start until 20-30 minutes after exposure. Oh and the fertilizer, insecticide aisles in the hardware store are also awful. I just stay clear of those. My eyes are burning and tearing up just thinking about it.


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## LisaBoBisa (Jan 22, 2022)

TheGecko said:


> Great if it works out for you, sucks if it doesn't.  I still have half a 8oz bottle of RE's Pearberry from three years ago....it accelerates horribly and though I learned to work with it, it's not a scent that sells well.  Elements' Autumn Harvest...bought a 1oz bottle and fell in love with the scent and immediately ordered a 8oz bottle; turns out it discolors to a really dark brown.  It's only because of @Todd Ziegler's VCS that I can now dust off the bottle and use it.
> 
> @theI have a bunch of 1oz and 2 oz bottles I need to get rid off.  They sounded great when I ordered them, but then I got them and UGH!  So glad I didn't purchase larger sizes.  Katie at Royalty Soaps buys large quantities of FOs...like 25lbs...and she did a video on a couple of skunks she ended up buying that much off that she was just going to have to dump.



@TheGecko Oh my goodness-can't imagine buying 25lbs of a single fragrance without already loving it! That sounds like a real blow. Searching the glossary- what's a VCS or a DB?


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## dibbles (Jan 22, 2022)

@LisaBoBisa DB = Dragon's Blood and VCS is vanilla color stabilizer.


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## TheGecko (Jan 22, 2022)

LisaBoBisa said:


> @TheGecko Oh my goodness-can't imagine buying 25lbs of a single fragrance without already loving it! That sounds like a real blow.



Yep, it's why I ALWAYS recommend making test batches when using a new ingredient, scent, colorant, additive or even a new technique.  I have two 4" Silicone Loaf Molds and one 6" Silicone Slab Mold for just this purpose.


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## LisaBoBisa (Jan 27, 2022)

That makes sense! Looks like my new silicone rose mold is going to finally get used... will post results when I finally get it done.



TheGecko said:


> Yep, it's why I ALWAYS recommend making test batches when using a new ingredient, scent, colorant, additive or even a new technique.  I have two 4" Silicone Loaf Molds and one 6" Silicone Slab Mold for just this purpose.


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## LisaBoBisa (Mar 11, 2022)

Welp… in the end, it doesn’t matter what they smelled like in the bottle, because all but 3 disappeared pretty quickly in the cure, even though I mixed kaolin clay into my batch. Blueberry, honey, and the sort of floral lemon won, so 3 of my 12 Nature’s Flavors bottles are soapable (Nature’s Flavors: the twelve bars on the right).

Not sure what was in the Chocolate and Vanilla FOs, but they turned foul and musty in soap… there are traces of that musty smell in the strawberry, raspberry, and true almond, too.

Also made a 6~pack of the other natural scents i bought from Bulk Apothecary and Voyageur (and a random Chocolate “EO”). All of those 6 dissapeared except for Voyageur’s faint Violet & White Melon natural FO, and the Chocolate EO, which smalls softly, fakely sweet, but not in a bad way—it smells like a toy from my childhood.

I bought 4 more natural FO’s from Bulk Apothecary: Lemon Creme, which smelled heavenly OOB but mostly disappeared instantly when I poured a half-lb batch of cupcakes, and 3 melon scents  that I haven’t tried yet, but reviews say they survived CP cure.

So much money wasted… It might be time to give up on natural FO’s if this doesn’t work. I ordered my first synthetic, BrambleBerry’s Pineapple & Papaya, and it smells heavenly to my nose oob.

I’ll try making body butter and bath bombs with the fruity Nature’s Flavors FOs that faded on me; the Fig especially smelled nice as it vanished.


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## Zany_in_CO (Mar 11, 2022)

I'm sure others have mentioned this but it may need repeating. Fragrances return and bloom during use. So, if you haven't already done so, lather up and see what happens! All may not be lost.


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## DeeAnna (Mar 11, 2022)

Yep, what Zany said. 

I make a soap with 20% neem seed oil in it. I've been scenting the last few batches with a lime-cilantro fragrance oil. That fragrance goes into hiding for a good solid month after I cut the bars. But eventually it resurfaces and I can smell it again. Neem oil scent by most people's opinion (including mine) needs some serious help, so it's good the lime doesn't disappear forever.


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## LisaBoBisa (Mar 27, 2022)

Zany_in_CO said:


> I'm sure others have mentioned this but it may need repeating. Fragrances return and bloom during use. So, if you haven't already done so, lather up and see what happens! All may not be lost.





DeeAnna said:


> Yep, what Zany said.
> 
> I make a soap with 20% neem seed oil in it. I've been scenting the last few batches with a lime-cilantro fragrance oil. That fragrance goes into hiding for a good solid month after I cut the bars. But eventually it resurfaces and I can smell it again. Neem oil scent by most people's opinion (including mine) needs some serious help, so it's good the lime doesn't disappear forever.


Two weeks later...
turns out both of you are right, of course (experience!).

@Zany_in_CO turns out I do need to repeat the testers. Just learned that light and heat can make fragrances fade (such a noob mistake), and I had left these testers near a closed heater vent over a month with lots of heater use. So it's actually pretty impressive that those 3 natural FO scents are still so strong, and a few others still have a faint scent.

@DeeAnna, even the coconut scent shows up softly when I use the soap. And I haven't tested any of these in hot process yet.

So basically, fragrances are turning out to be the most convoluted and unpredictable part of soapmaking so far (for me, at least). It's the soapmaking equivalent of wandlore in Harry Potter.


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## TheGecko (Mar 27, 2022)

LisaBoBisa said:


> So basically, fragrances are turning out to be the most convoluted and unpredictable part of soapmaking so far (for me, at least). It's the soapmaking equivalent of wandlore in Harry Potter.



Don't know Harry Potter, but yeah...lots of variables.


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## cmzaha (Mar 28, 2022)

LisaBoBisa said:


> Two weeks later...
> turns out both of you are right, of course (experience!).
> @Zany_in_CO turns out I do need to repeat the testers. Just learned that light and heat can make fragrances fade (such a noob mistake), and I had left these testers near a closed heater vent over a month with lots of heater use. So it's actually pretty impressive that those 3 natural FO scents are still so strong, and a few others still have a faint scent.


A few things to keep in mind. 

#1 In my opinion so-called natural fo's are a waste of money that buyers do not care about. At least 90% of the buyers, if a buyer is concerned about a fragrance and wants natural they are going to want an EO, and my experience most of the "Natural" fragrances are too pricey and do not hold well. If I am going to spend that kind of money on a fragrance it is going to be a quality fragrance from a supplier such as The Sage who has wonderful fragrances, other than her Mango Sorbet, I prefer Natures Garden's Mango Sorbet. 

#2, you do not have to like a fragrance only your customers do. I had fragrances I would absolutely love, I would think they would sell like crazy, so off to market they would go. Nope, they would not sell worth a darn, but soap with a fragrance I absolutely hated would sell like crazy. This is why I always took a selection of up to 40 different fragrances to each market. 

#3 This is a big one. Light and Heat are might make a difference but when you are selling you cannot control the conditions you face if you sell in weekly markets. Weekly markets are usually rain or shine and in order to keep your spot, you better be there if the market is open. Selling is a lot of hard work.  

In conclusion yes, a lot of money is or can be wasted on fragrances, and small bottles and test batches is the best way to go which I admit I did not have the patience to do. I just did no like paying shipping costs on little bottles when companies like Natures Garden gave breaks on multi bottles of fragrances. Sadly no one supplier fits the bill for all fragrances. While I hate buying from WSP they have a couple fo's I could not live without because they were top sellers for me and the same applied to Brambleberry. It is trial and error, and fo's are you most expensive ingredient in soapmaking. Also when selling remember to fragrance heavy, if a customer cannot smell the soap they do not buy. As for buying 25 lbs at a time sometimes it works well and sometimes not. Royalty soaps is probably like me, she probably purchased at times for a good selling fo then suddenly the fo stopped selling for her. Trends stop or your market closes and you lose that customers base that loved a particular fo. For me my DB sold in every market, I still have customers calling me for DB soaps after 2 yrs.


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## Basil (Mar 30, 2022)

cmzaha said:


> When I finally get moved I will try to weigh it out and see what is left, but as you probably know this is the end of having it manufactured at least this particular formula.


I sure wish I had known about your Dragon’s Blood earlier. I’ve read about it so much I would have loved to try it


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## AliOop (Mar 30, 2022)

Basil said:


> I sure wish I had known about your Dragon’s Blood earlier. I’ve read about it so much I would have loved to try it ❤


It is truly awesome!


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## Saponificarian (Mar 30, 2022)

@cmzaha I know you are mega busy now but maybe a group buy, sometimes soon?


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## Basil (Mar 31, 2022)

Saponificarian said:


> @cmzaha I know you are mega busy now but maybe a group buy, sometimes soon?


Those of us who read about it but never have tried it would


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## ArcticBanshee (Apr 15, 2022)

I think that sometimes it takes time for me to re-arrange my thoughts around certain scents. Sage is one of them. I love the ozone quality of it, but not the herbal. Other people just love it no matter what. I grew up overseas so I’ve been exposed to a LOT of different smells. Sadly I think catching Covid two years ago altered my sense of smell, and it’s still not the same. Eating is a chore for me now. You’d think I’d lose weight with such a problem. Lol


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## AliOop (Apr 15, 2022)

ArcticBanshee said:


> Sadly I think catching Covid two years ago altered my sense of smell, and it’s still not the same. Eating is a chore for me now. You’d think I’d lose weight with such a problem. Lol


I'm so sorry to hear that, and I can sympathize. My sense of smell and taste never fully came back either. It comes and goes, and so many things taste funny (or downright bad) to me. I smell things that aren't there, and don't smell things that are.

But sigh, no pounds lost here, either.  Sometimes I find myself eating more because I'm mentally chasing the missing flavors.


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## LisaBoBisa (Apr 17, 2022)

Really appreciate your insights, @cmzaha. Did my first markets selling soaps with those NFO's this week (two in one week!), and oh my goodness, it really is surprising what people do and don't buy sometimes. A few batches I expected to sell well did, but two batches I wasn't sure whether to sell at all (one turned darker than I planned, the other became too solid to swirl and looked like blue cheese) either sold out or came close, and two new scent combination I wasn't sure about ended up being very popular with certain people (spice lovers). You really do have to bring all sorts of combinations to figure out what people like! One of the Nature's Flavors scents ended up being a bestseller, so I'm glad that bottle is so big. Markets are a lot of work, but I think I'd feel more scared of trying out new fragrances online... if they can't smell it first, and it's this tough to predict what each person will end up enjoying, might end up with unhappy customers.

So glad I could field test the scents this week. The toughest one to figure out is the batch that everyone commented on ("that smells so good!"), but only one person actually bought. I should pay better attention to what they bought instead to figure out that mystery.



cmzaha said:


> #2, you do not have to like a fragrance only your customers do. I had fragrances I would absolutely love, I would think they would sell like crazy, so off to market they would go. Nope, they would not sell worth a darn, but soap with a fragrance I absolutely hated would sell like crazy. This is why I always took a selection of up to 40 different fragrances to each market.


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