Non-discoloring holiday / winter FOs?

[dixiedragon]

What did you use this year? What do you love? Anything that makes you think of holidays / winter / Christmas - doesn't have to be marketed that way!

A lot of holiday FOs - such as Sugared Spruce - will discolor and (IMO at least) the scent just doesn't "work" with an "embrace the brown" color scheme. Which is why I've yet to soap Sugared Spruce and I'm just using it in lotion. Many wintery FOs beg for a crisp white, and it seems so many contain vanillin!

ETA: I'm going make a list of recommended FOs here in the original post.
AHRE - Sparkling Snowflake, Country Christmas (light discolor), Satsuma (mixed with clove EO - slight discoloration)
Brambleberry - Cranberry Chutney (discolors light tan, easy to cover)
Mad Oils - Snow Witch
Nature's Garden - Mistletoe & Ivy, blend 50/50 of Basalm FO and Peppermint FO, Wintergarden
Nurture - Winter Wonderland
Peak - Cranberry Citrus, Applejack & Peel
Pure Fragrance - Apple Jack & Peel (my bottle actually says Southern Garden Scents, but I emailed and they said it's the same formula)
WSP - Spiced Cranberry, Mistletoe, Orange & Clove, Peppermint Stick

 

[dibbles]

Have you tried Mad Oils Snow Witch? I love that one, and while it's not purely 'holiday' it is wintery and frosty to my nose. It doesn't discolor and is easy to work with, it sticks well and is strong. I use it at a lower rate than most of my other FOs.

 

[mx5inpenn]

I used NG's Mistletoe and Ivy in some gift soaps. Also not strictly "holiday" but definitely a wintery scent. I had no problems with it and no discoloration.

 

[Obsidian]

Cranberry chutney from BB. It's tangy and fruity, no spice or sugar in this one.
It may discolor to a very light tan but it should cover easily.

For a nice blend, 50/50 balsm fo and peppermint fo from nature's garden. Balsm is a great pine, not fake or overly strong. Peppermint fo isn't as sharp/herbaly as the eo, it smells nicer and lasts longer.
This is a favorite blend of the family.

 

[dixiedragon]

I love Snow Witch! I do feel it's more of a grown-up scent, I'm looking for something that I just love as a kiddie Christmas scent...that doesn't discolor.

 

[shunt2011]

I did Cranberry Citrus from Peak as well as their Apple Jack and Peel. Wintergarden from NG is pretty nice. I didn't make it this year but last year made cupcake soaps with a light blue base, white frosting with glitter and sparkly blue snowflakes. I sold them out in 1 show.

 

[Stacyspy]

I did WSP's Spiced Cranberry, WSP's Mistletoe, WSP's Orange and Clove, and Nurture's Winter Wonderland. I didn't have any discolorations that I see. I colored the cranberry pretty heavily, but the others not so much.

 

[snappyllama]

MO Snow Witch is such a favorite of mine. I didn't make any this year since I still had a bar from last year that retained almost all of its scent even after spending all year hanging out with other soaps!

This year my mostly non-discoloring ones were:

AHRE Sparkling Snowflake. It was very easy to work with and no discoloring. It's a light, feminine scent. I would order it again. It smells a little like laundry detergent, but in a good way.

AHRE Country Christmas. It's okay - very piney. I think it would be better in a candle.I had a light beige discolor with it on the portion I used with TD. Not bad, but I don't think you could get a white-white with it.

WSP Peppermint Stick. Very potently pepperminty (made my eyes water for the first week during cure anytime I went into my craft room). It settled down though and is exactly what you would expect. No discolor at all. Slight acceleration.

ARHE Satsuma mixed with some Clove EO. Slight orangey discolor - but pretty fitting for the scent. It's nice enough and had pretty good scent retention, but I'll probably go back to BB Orangex10 EO next time since that smells more umm juicy to me (if that makes sense).

 

[wearytraveler]

I'm going to be giving away soap next year for Christmas and I'm planning the batches for that for mid January (There are only 361 days till Xmas 2017 so I have to get a movin'!). This thread was very helpful and it seems MO's Snow Witch will be my choice since it's gotten good write-ups here and it sounds like the scent will stick for the 11+ month cure!

Thanks for the info in this thread!

ETA: I just looked and this FO contains phthalates. I might have to skip on this one.

 

[dixiedragon]

Snow Witch is really lovely. I have some that I think are 2 years old that still smell great. When I have a basket of soaps, everybody picks that one up, sniffs...then picks it back up and sniffs again before going on to the next one. It's really unique.

 

[Susie]

I only used FOs from WSP as I got two sample packs last year, one of which was a holiday pack.

WSP-Cinnamon Candies is true to the name. I colored it red, and the red stayed true. The scent stuck as long as I could keep it, which was not long. I only got to use my test sliver.

WSP-Santa's Tree Farm smells awesome OOB, and as a bar, just not the same. It completely changed. The scent morphs, but is still good. I used that uncolored with two cocoa lines. It looks like marble, according to my hubby and my son.

The rest were mentioned above.

I used quite a few of WSP's FOs that changed the color that the scent were worth the color change, but that is not what this thread is about.

 

[dixiedragon]

Thanks for the tips. Many FOs are worth the color change, but this year I wanted to do a winter color scheme soap for kids with crisp, brilliant white and found myself lacking options.