Frankincense and Sandalwood

[CLMP]

Hi everyone I'm wondering if anybody makes soap with frankincense or sandalwood I know it's expensive so I don't know if soap makers use it. I would like to ask for help to make a frankincense and a sandalwood soap. I'm wondering what it's like to work with does it speed up trace or is it slow moving enough to do a swirl? Does it color the batter? Also any suggestions of other essential oils to go with it. I don't know much about top, middle, and bottom notes but I'm going to try learning. I want to make some nice soap for the men in my family and those are the scents they said they would like. So I'm in need of much advice because I don't want to end up ruining my soap with expensive EOs.

 

[AliOop]

Are you (or they) open to using FOs instead of EOs? Here is a five-star rated FO from WSP that has both of those scents (plus a few more). If you don't want the additional notes in this blend, you can also buy just frankincense and just sandalwood FOs, and mix them together yourself. I have and like both of those from WSP.

With FOs, you'll get a longer lasting scent for a lot less money. Real sandalwood is unbelievably expensive, so you'd have to spent an outrageous amount of money to get enough to scent your soap -- as in, a couple of hundred dollars worth of EO for one very-lightly scented batch.

Even if you are able to spend that kind of $$$, I'd encourage you to use those pricey EOs in a lotion, so the scent would linger on their skin and be enjoyed much longer than it would in soap.

 

[CLMP]

Are you (or they) open to using FOs instead of EOs? Here is a five-star rated FO from WSP that has both of those scents (plus a few more). If you don't want the additional notes in this blend, you can also buy just frankincense and just sandalwood FOs, and mix them together yourself. I have and like both of those from WSP.

With FOs, you'll get a longer lasting scent for a lot less money. Real sandalwood is unbelievably expensive, so you'd have to spent an outrageous amount of money to get enough to scent your soap -- as in, a couple of hundred dollars worth of EO for one very-lightly scented batch.

Even if you are able to spend that kind of $$$, I'd encourage you to use those pricey EOs in a lotion, so the scent would linger on their skin and be enjoyed much longer than it would in soap.

Thank you @AliOop thats what I was worried about. Spending alot of money and then not much scent lasting. I actually just bought a sandalwood FO I just bought it smells nice but I find at least to me it smells a little bit feminine I wonder what I could add to it to make it more masculine. I'm going to try buying a frankincense FO too and see what that smells like. Do you know if the FOs speed up trace or not, there is no reviews for either I'll have to be the first. I always write reviews because I find it frustrating some times when I order FOs with no reviews.

 

[Zing]

I use essential oils and buy frankincense at a reasonable price. On the other hand, sandalwood is way outta my budget. When I win the lottery....

I like frankincense blended with fir needle, cedarwood, orange, cinnamon leaf, and myrrh. Once I did a frankincense, myrrh, orange blend and did not like it. Myrrh by itself smells sickly sweet to me so a little goes a long way. People like my frankincense lotion bars as well.

The men in my life like my cedarwood & bergamot blend. And what surprised me is that they also like soaps with some lavender.

Experiment, it's fun! Keep us posted.

 

[AliOop]

Thank you @AliOop thats what I was worried about. Spending alot of money and then not much scent lasting. I actually just bought a sandalwood FO I just bought it smells nice but I find at least to me it smells a little bit feminine I wonder what I could add to it to make it more masculine. I'm going to try buying a frankincense FO too and see what that smells like. Do you know if the FOs speed up trace or not, there is no reviews for either I'll have to be the first. I always write reviews because I find it frustrating some times when I order FOs with no reviews.

That's very interesting that it smells sweet. Is it just sandalwood, or does it have other scents mixed in?

Zing is correct about frankincense EO being much more affordable than sandalwood EO - appreciate the clarification on that. Whether EO or FO, the smell of frankincense can range anywhere from a bit medicinal to more of a smoky incense (hence the name). And different people experience the same FO differently, making it so hard to know whether you will like what you are ordering. My best advice is to read the reviews to get a sense of how others experienced that particular version. Sorry, that's probably not much help.

As for me, I love sandalwood mixed with frankincense. I also love it on its own, or mixed with vanilla. When I don't know what scent to pick, sandalwood is always one of the contenders.

 

[CLMP]

Sorry I had to step away for a few hours to run to the butcher's and than make dinner. Thank you lots @AliOop this is lots of good to know stuff I'm still trying to figure out what I should buy. But yes the sandalwood FO I have smells a little sweet kinda like a unisex smell I really like the smell of it I just think my older son might not think its manly enough for him lol, he is a log home builder and he's use to ruff and tuffing it haha! He is the one who wants sandalwood stuff I want to make him some soap and beard oil. @Zing thank you for your scent suggestions I might try some of those too, the cedarwood sounds interesting I wonder if my son would like that the log homes he builds are out of cedarwood, although he comes home smelling of cedarwood and chain saw gas ha ha! I will have to ask him!

 

[CLMP]

So I asked my son to smell a few different FO strips and one of them was the sandalwood FO. He told me he can't smell the sandalwood FO so strange it smells pretty strong to me. I looked up the sandalwood FO from my soap supplier and it says sweet, warm, woody, scent that's all it says about what kind of scent it is.

 

[CLMP]

All I have right now to try, is mixing palo santo FO, sandalwood FO and Applewood FO it actually smells pretty good.

 

[ScentimentallyYours]

@CLMP, have you considered using actual sandalwood powder for color? I used it years ago and got a very pretty red. Could be used for a single color or in a swirl.

Edit to add: There is also white sandalwood, which is the source for Sandalwood EO. And note that it’s possible for some folks can develop contact dermatitis over time.