Everything smells the same!

PuddinAndPeanuts · Sep 20, 2014

Ugh! I'm trying to develop a new scent for my body butter. Something that either says "purple" or "football". So I made a batch of body butter and divided it in 9 bowls. Then did the following scents & combinations:
Cool water for men FO
30/32 lavender EO
30/32 lavender EO & bergamot grapefruit EO/FO blend
30/32 lavender EO & marjoram EO. (this is particularly offensive to my nose)
30/32 lavender EO & rosemary EO
30/32 lavender EO & bergamot EO
30/32 lavender EO & ylang ylang III EO
30/32 lavender EO & neroli EO/carrier oil blend
30/32 lavender EO & jasmine EO/carrier oil blend
The fun part? I don't like lavender. My husband doesn't like lavender. They all smell like crap to me, except the cool water, which is nice. I now have two 2 ounce bottles of each one, each labeled with a letter that tells me which it is when I look at the key. Gotta find some lavender lovers somewhere to help me out, cause they pretty much all smell the same to me right about now. Not having no fun at all. :thumbdown:

CanaDawn · Sep 20, 2014

I have to laugh as I have a 12 yo football player....and that scent you do NOT want for body butter!

Lavender is overwhelming in the bottle...have you tried the scents on a bit of cloth or paper?

goji_fries · Sep 20, 2014

Lavender is a tough one. I hear that the expensive lavender EO from France smells really good but regualr lavender EO you get here I find is tough to mix if you are wanting a really attractive scent. Some thing that go well with

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lavender are: 1:1 lavender/rosemary, 1:1:1 lavender/rosemary/tea tree, lavender/cedar, lavender/patchouli/woods > some of these combinations smell not so great at first but after a few weeks smell great. I don't buy a huge amount of lavender anymore since I can't stand it. I read in some soap book though that lavender soaps outsell others 8 to 1. For real? (

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Earthen_Step · Sep 20, 2014

I only have one bar with a strong lavender scent, and people love it. "Lavender" has been searched on my site over 150 times with the next only hitting 50! I don't get it, I like lavender but I really don't love it. I do use it at a lower % in 2 bars and I think it's fantastic in small amounts. I will most likely make one more lavender bar in the future to see how it does, based on how many searches it gets.

Here are my three soaps that include lavender:

"Poppy Fields": Lavender Essential Oil, Tea tree Essential Oil

"Herbal Garden": Tangerine Essential Oil, Lime Essential Oil, Lavender Essential Oil, Sweet Basil Essential Oil, Rosemary Essential Oil

"Chocolate Covered Roses": Geranium Rose Essential Oil, Lavender Essential Oil, Tea Tree Essential Oil

*Also the scents will alter/soften through the saponification and your cure time.

sagehill · Sep 20, 2014

Puddin', you don't mention what the ratio is of your blends... 1:1, 2:1?

Adding a third fragrance, especially a woodsy note like cedar or other evergreen, or earthy like patchouli or vetiver, will soften the lavender and help your blends become more appealing to men. I like a blend of 1:2 or 1:3 Atlas cedar and lavender... lovely, woodsy and soft.

Or you can sweeten the blends you made by adding a little vanilla or amber instead. You may also be comforted to know that lavender can be fleeting, so you may find that the lavender has muted over time.

I find lavender and chocolate FO soap sells well, oddly enough. I use frozen half & half for the liquid, add ground almond flour to the oils, then mix a bit of soap batch with cocoa powder for a swirl... I call it Lavender Truffle.

One way to prevent blending frustration is to use bottle caps of FOs/EOs to find pleasing combinations, then work from there... for example, put the caps to lavender, cedar and bergamot on a plate, then swirl that under your nose. If it works, I note the combination to try in drops; if it doesn't, I simply recap the bottles.