Does anybody like unscented soap?

[KiwiMoose]

Interesting topic this - and I was thinking of raising a similar topic regarding scents. I think as a soap maker it is challenging to make soaps scented with FOs you don't like. The only time I order FOs I don't like, is by accident - as you have done @Catscankim. I buy it thinking it sounds nice, then receive and think .
Surprisingly, these stinky soaps still seem to sell well - it seems there is no accounting for other people's taste, lol!
I decided last night actually, that I won't ever again make a soap with cinnamon in the blend. They just do not sell. Well - they do, but always slowly. I love cinnamon so I have put it in many soaps, only to have bars left unsold ( oh well - they end up in my shower).
I also find that people like pretty soaps. At the market I attend there is a woman opposite who sells plain soaps, and she does a good trade. But if i make plain soaps (eg my oatmeal one) it takes longer to sell than my pretty swirled and coloured ones. People seem to like the artistry.

 

[Catscankim]

It's not extremely popular for sales as others have said, but I personally LOVE using unscented, uncolored soap. As a soapmaker, I find it so satisfying to use it in its "purest" form, and it makes me focus on the recipe and quality when I'm using it, which I find really stimulating and pleasing. It has a slightly nutty scent that to me is so relaxing. But it depends on your personal preferences of course.


Hmm, maybe say "hint of ___" on the label? That's tricky. If you really can't smell it AT ALL, and of course you don't want to mislead customers with your labeling, this batch might be best saved for just you or fam/friends that won't feel "disappointed" if they purchase and then smell nothing. I hope it's not a huge batch! Hate when this happens! Part of the FO/EO experimenting fun I guess.

It was one of my earlier soaps where i was shy/cheap with the fo. I have other soaps with the same fo that smell phenomenal at higher rates. This soap is really pretty and i love it in the shower, so im pretty diappointed.

Interesting topic this - and I was thinking of raising a similar topic regarding scents. I think as a soap maker it is challenging to make soaps scented with FOs you don't like. The only time I order FOs I don't like, is by accident - as you have done @Catscankim. I buy it thinking it sounds nice, then receive and think .
Surprisingly, these stinky soaps still seem to sell well - it seems there is no accounting for other people's taste, lol!
I decided last night actually, that I won't ever again make a soap with cinnamon in the blend. They just do not sell. Well - they do, but always slowly. I love cinnamon so I have put it in many soaps, only to have bars left unsold ( oh well - they end up in my shower).
I also find that people like pretty soaps. At the market I attend there is a woman opposite who sells plain soaps, and she does a good trade. But if i make plain soaps (eg my oatmeal one) it takes longer to sell than my pretty swirled and coloured ones. People seem to like the artistry.

I brought a bunch of soaps into work to give to our nurses (it is/was er nurse week). The last ones in the box were my cranberry spice and nobody took them. Which is really odd, because I dont have one bar left of the pumpkin spice, and to me they are very similar in smell.

I think that if i made the soap more pumpkiny looking and called it pumpkin spice, they would have flown out of the box lol.

 

[msunnerstood]

I have a few customers who want only unscented and they buy a loaf at a time so they get to pick colors.

 

[Liesel Atwood]

I'm a sucker for pure white soap! I enjoy using milks, oats or clay...a pure soap seems like such a luxury! But as much as I want to love unscented soap, I'm always disappointed with the "unscented scent", if you know what i mean. No smell is fine.. I like that, for the reason that Michele M stated. But an odd smell drives me nuts, especially when I can't identify the reason. I like a soap that smells clean, as opposed to fragranced. I've only been able to achieve this with 60% - 100% coconut oil soap. My other recipes are all "feel good" soaps for skin, with at least 4 oils and a butter, but still smell 'off ' to me if I don't add EO or FO, even though the oils are brand new or well within the expiration window. I wonder if others notice this as well, and maybe this is why unscented isn't popular with some people? Just a thought. Does anyone else here notice a similar thing with your unscented soaps? Have you tried making soap curls out of the unscented bars, forming them into roses and adding those to the top of your newly made fragranced soaps? That's kinda fun!

 

[sarveshwari raniwala]

I have been making cp soap since a few months and one thing I know for sure. All the people who saw my soaps first put it to there nose. So if you are catering to sell your soaps then I guess if has to be scented. For the discerning customer and fof yourself if you wish you can go for the unscented. So it's a 80/20 choice.

 

[melinda48]

My experience is the same as cmzaha. I make one unscented soap and a batch of 16 will last 2-3 years at my shows. My customers love fragrances and many love those I dislike.

I have yet to sell a bar of unscented soap. I always have it in my display but no one has ever bought one. I will continue to offer it - just in case.

 

[Misschief]

I do have a few customers who prefer unscented soap as they're scent sensitive. I make one batch a year of an unscented Castile soap (Zany's recipe) and I do manage to go through a batch of 10 bars in a season so I make one batch per year.

 

[earlene]

I do like some scents and I also like unscented soap that simply smells like soap, but like sarvshwari raniwala, some soaping oils produce an intolerable scent for me. I cannot abide the smell of a lard-containing soap. I have read of people who cannot abide the smell of a pure olive oil soap. We all have our own scent tolerances, of course, so that is not surprise to me.

Perhaps we are going to see some changes in the way the general populations responds to scented soaps, however. Recent studies are showing that about 25% of people who recover from CoVid-19 have long-term loss of their sense of smell, but the disease is too young to determine if that would or would not be permanent, and those who have their sense of smell return, often it does not return to normal (so far anyway.) So I expect that this will make a difference for soapmakers in the future.

 

[Liesel Atwood]

I do like some scents and I also like unscented soap that simply smells like soap, but like sarvshwari raniwala, some soaping oils produce an intolerable scent for me. I cannot abide the smell of a lard-containing soap. I have read of people who cannot abide the smell of a pure olive oil soap. We all have our own scent tolerances, of course, so that is not surprise to me.

Perhaps we are going to see some changes in the way the general populations responds to scented soaps, however. Recent studies are showing that about 25% of people who recover from CoVid-19 have long-term loss of their sense of smell, but the disease is too young to determine if that would or would not be permanent, and those who have their sense of smell return, often it does not return to normal (so far anyway.) So I expect that this will make a difference for soapmakers in the future.

That's a very good point, earlene.!

 

[mensasnem]

I greatly dislike scents, odors, and smells. I always look for "unscented" when I buy stuff at the store -- regardless of what it happens to be. I only make scented soap for other people. My daughter likes lavender -- lavender reeks worse than most essentials oils. When I make soap for her, my entire house reeks for days.

 

[Becky1024]

I have several customers who buy unscented because they are either allergic or just don't want to smell like anything. I always keep a few bars around for them to keep them happy.

 

[Pepsi Girl]

The only time I don't like unscented soap is when I 'forget' to add them to my soap! Hate it when I do that!

Lol Thats exactly what I was going to say!

 

[Catscankim]

Well i decided on OMH...i love the way it smells naturally.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

I made GM soap & lotion for a wholesale customer. We did 3 scents: Lavender EO, Ginger Essence FO, and unscented. Sales were 50% Lavender, 40% Ginger, 10% unscented.

I prefer fragranced except for the ZNSC that I use AM & PM on my face.
My sister doesn't want anything with fragrance. A lot of older women are like that I've found. And men who buy lotion.

I can either use the fo's leftover that I have and hate, or make unscented soap.

There's a third choice... gather all the FO's you don't like and sell them here at a deep discount, i.e., make the FO Hos an offer they can't refuse.

 

[lyschelw]

Personally, I am all about the scent. But if you don't like the scents that seems worse to me than no scent. But as said above, if you are giving them away someone will like the scents

 

[amd]

I made unscented uncolored soaps for a year and a half before I bought colors and FO's. I do not make it any more for my customers - I have two unscented soaps (castile and pine tar) that once they are gone will not be coming back. While people want castile soap they do not want it unscented... and pine tar soap is just not a thing for my customers I guess. I have several scents (lavender sage for example) that I hate, but I can't keep in stock and literally have people waiting for the soaps to come off the cure rack - to the point that I need to make another batch while another batch is still curing. Go figure...

All that to say, use the FO's even if you don't like them. Blend them with something even. Or create layers with a different FO on each layer. I've done the layering technique with a few soaps and they turn out to be quite nice. (an odd one that I did was a sunflower FO that no one likes, and a rose that I don't like sandwiched around a cucumber melon scent... people went nuts for it... they still ask me about it.)

 

[Dawni]

I make, use and sell unscented soaps! My triple rice soap posted in the forum sells without added fragrance. I'm not sure where the scent is coming from though, coz it smells very different from other soaps of mine lol. It became my bestseller because of those customers who don't like or can't use scented soaps. I guess my competition all had soaps with added fragrance lol

I'm also one of those who don't like strong scented soaps, and back when I was still buying I went for those that were only lightly scented.

 

[MelissaG]

I much prefer unscented personally.

 

[Peachy Clean Soap]

I've never created a bar of soap w/ out scent' natural color yes, however I've had soaps thats lost its scent completely & personally I love a beautiful scented soap..

Patience is a virtue. Where the hell is that ups truck#!!#

So Funny'

 

[gbtreasures]

i had to add my 2 cents!! My daughter uses unscented soaps that I make, as she is too sensitive for the scented ones. She claims my soap has helped her skin which makes me very happy. Personally, I love strong scented soaps. I have not sold an unscented bar of soap in 1 1/2 years and I’m sure there are other ppl out there that prefer unscented. I am surprised I have not encountered them as yet.