As an artisan soap maker, I belong to more than a few soap making and other body products groups on various social media sites. It is in one of these groups that I have stumbled across many, many folks who use essential oils in their soaps and then post inquiries about why their EOs fade after a period of time. They ask what can be done to make their scent blends "stick" or last longer and are often given advice that the addition of clay or other ingredients will help. Yes, clay will aid in making an EO "stick" in a bar of soap ... but that is not addressing the reason that a smell fades in the first place.
In the case of essential oils, whether or not your fragrance lingers in the finished product lies in what type of oil you are using to scent your soap batch. Are you using a single Top Note, like Lemongrass?Or a Top/Middle Note, like Lavender?
EO Top Notes will give your products a burst of scent, but tend to fade after a period of time, after the terpines (the molecules that create the smell) have dissipated. In the case of soap, the EO that is closest to the surface will fade ... only to reappear as the bar is used.
Your Lemongrass soap scent has not "disappeared", its scent is simply no longer on the surface of your product. Lavender EO will last a bit longer because it's both a Top and a Middle Note ... it has longevity in its application and you will continue to smell it much longer than a simple Lemongrass EO scented soap product, though not nearly as long as it would if you included sandalwood or cedarwood in your EO blend.
In soap making instances, when faced with the addition of any number of essential oils to my finished product, I tend to include some sort of Base Note to my EO blend. Base Notes serve to anchor the entire EO blend, giving it longevity in the finished product. In short, my soaps scented solely with essential oil blends last significantly longer than those scented with one or two EOs ... and the batch doesn't require the addition of some sort of clay to the recipe to anchor the scent profile.
In the case of my recent kombucha soap recipe, I used 9 essential oils, balanced between Top, Middle, and Base Notes. It took a day or two to research the EOs I was using, as to their individual properties and how they fit together into the whole blend, and an hour or so to figure out the math to create the amount needed for a 12 pound batch, but in the end, the surface smell of this soap will outlast my simple Lavender & Lemongrass soap without the need to add clay to my recipe.
There is a wealth of information on the interwebs about basic aromatherapy and how to use EOs in your soapmaking (and other projects). In general, I keep the following in mind when creating my EO blends:
Top Notes (30% of your EO blend)
The majority of essential oils are classified as top notes.
Top notes evaporate fast. They are fresh and uplifting in nature.
Middle Notes (50% of your EO blend)
Middle notes normally give that extra punch to the blend and have a balancing effect.
They are very soft in nature.
Base Notes (20% of your EO blend)
Base notes are very heavy, the scent is very solid, and will linger for a long time.
These fragrances are very intense, rich and relaxing in nature.
AromaWeb has some incredible information on their website about essential oils and their profiles ... they are one of my go-to places for instant information when I sit down to blend a new smell. Most importantly, they will tell you if your searched oil is a Top, Middle, or Base Note, what it blends well with, and max usage rates (if there are any).
I know this is lengthy ... and I hope it helps at least one person in their soap making endeavors =)
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