Please excuse me but I may wind up "Beating this topic to death!"
As someone making soap, I think learning about the EOs in the soap is very important. On top of that, I think if a ton of cash can also be saved by getting these oils at Michael's as opposed to other vendors, is also a big plus.
It's obvious that ArtMinds (the Michael's brands) EOs are very inexpensive relative to others. There is a reason for this.
It has to be one of these 2:
- The oil is inferior and not as good as the others
- Or the oil is good, but Michael's has so much buying power that they can buy a quality product at wholesale prices and pass the savings on to us. Kinda like Walmart does with some products.
I did some of the white paper tests with an oil that I purchased from a soap supplier and some of the ArtMinds oils.
All the ArtMinds oils that I tested (Lemon, Lavender, Peppermint) left a spot on the paper after drying. The one from the soap shop (Lavender) did not.
I then concluded that Artminds oils must be junk. I start doing more reading though and run into another article that says that the white paper test is a myth and due to varying weights of oils may not hold true.
So now I'm back to where I started.
There is a lot of confusing info out there about EOs.
When I compare the Artmids Lavender to the soap supply store one, I cannot tell a difference. They feel the same. They look the same. They smell the same.