Safety of essential oils in bath/body products?

[throughthebarricades]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and am hoping I am posting this in the correct place.

I am new to making bath and body products and am working on formulations.

I have started to research essential oils and I'd like to use them to fragrance my products (lotions, creams, body washes, etc.), but a few things concern me. I've read some essential oils can be dangerous to pregnant women, and others can cause all sorts of reactions. Obviously I'd like to avoid this and am wondering if there are any guidelines on what is reasonable (concentration-wise, like %) so I don't harm those using my products.

For example, I want to make a peppermint foot cream, but I have read that peppermint essential oil can be dangerous to pregnant women. However, I have never seen a "don't use if pregnant" warning on any lotions/creams out there and I imagine a lot of them do use essential oils. I want to handle these ingredients safely so I have nothing to worry about, but I can't seem to get any straight answers. I hope that you folks on here can help me out or at least let me know what your experience is.

Thanks a lot

 

[Lindy]

Very few essential oils are recommended for women who are pregnant or nursing. Newborns should not be exposed to essential oils either until they are at about 3 months old.

For a healthy adult a therapeutic dose is 5%, for seniors, children and people with compromised immune systems 3% is considered therapeutic, babies it is 1%.

For a safe product that doesn't require warnings you need to be beneath these benchmarks. If you want to be using essential oils a lot for scenting then I would recommend that you learn all you can about aromatherapy since essential oils are basically over the counter drugs. In the UK you have to know the components of the essential oils as some of them require allergen warnings and others are being discontinued due to severe health risks. So learn what you're working with to keep yourself and your customers safe....

That was the reason I took my Clinical Aromatherapy training is I wanted to know what I was dealing with and how best to use it. I am now certified and I can tell you that I now know how much more I need to learn. I now tend to use FO's for fragrance since that is what they were designed for whereas EO's are of a healing tradition.

Okay off my soap box....

 

[throughthebarricades]

Thanks for the advice

I am on the fence about this... I have asked around and about 50% of people say the same as you do, while the others say that you put a negligable amount of essential oils in the products anyway so it's not like you're using enough to do any harm. Yet others say that it's a myth that essential oils can do any harm - period.

I think like you suggest I will start by using fragrance oils. My goal has always been to have nice smelling products - not to offer some sort of medicinal benefit. I just find that the essential oils have some lovely scents. Of course safety is my #1 concern so I will be very careful and maybe even take a course as you suggest.

Any other thoughts anyone?

 

[thebathsociety]

My difficulty in choosing essential oils vs. fragrance is that several of the people that I have asked prefer a natural bath product - no chemicals, no preservatives, etc. They consider fragrance a chemical and prefer to stick with items that use EO's.

I haven't started a business yet as I am still experimenting with bath bombs and MP soaps, but this is the wall I keep banging up against - a natural product with more rules to follow, but a loyal following, or a more common product with cheaper, more accessible ingredients.

My worry is also the oils that have warnings (specifically for pregnant women). I have researched all the oils I purchased, but as I intent to work in small batches, making sure that my oils are 1-2% for safety is a lot harder.

I have also considered using fruit extracts, but they are so hard to find!

 

[soapbuddy]

My difficulty in choosing essential oils vs. fragrance is that several of the people that I have asked prefer a natural bath product - no chemicals, no preservatives, etc. They consider fragrance a chemical and prefer to stick with items that use EO's.

I haven't started a business yet as I am still experimenting with bath bombs and MP soaps, but this is the wall I keep banging up against - a natural product with more rules to follow, but a loyal following, or a more common product with cheaper, more accessible ingredients.

My worry is also the oils that have warnings (specifically for pregnant women). I have researched all the oils I purchased, but as I intent to work in small batches, making sure that my oils are 1-2% for safety is a lot harder.

I have also considered using fruit extracts, but they are so hard to find!

Just so you know fruit extracts are harder to preserve. Which preservative are you using now?

 

[throughthebarricades]

@thebathsociety: I know what you mean!! It really is hard to know what to do.

 

[thebathsociety]

Just so you know fruit extracts are harder to preserve. Which preservative are you using now?

I am currently not preserving my bath bombs, and I am most likely going to give up MP soaps as it is such pain to prep and clean up. I am not preserving my bombs as most of my intended consumers won't want any in their products. As I am making small batches intended for immediate use, this shouldn't be too much of a problem (unless extracts go bad in heat, which will be a problem come summer).

@ttb It's been plaguing me for months. My other issue with using EO is that a lot of the health agencies require that not only you list any ingredient (which is easy), but also any chemicals that result from those ingredients (which requires lab work or a super wealth of knowledge). I know lemon and orange oils can produce limonene, but things like linalool, etc. baffle me. A lot of bath companies on Etsy don't use them, but as it's the law...

 

[throughthebarricades]

Limonene? I've seen that ingredient but didn't realize that it came from reactions with the essential oils. I guess I will have to thoroughly research if I use any of these oils.