Creating a New Soap Scent – Day 3

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Today everyone was back at work after the Thanksgiving holiday so I had them all smell the scent blends I had created last week.  I have pretty much zeroed in on wanting to create two new scent blends – Lemon Zest and Lavender Mint.  Last week I had created a number of blends that I and my staff smelled and rated.  Today I had them smell the blends again and see how they had “aged” in a week.

Here is the original synopsis of the scents we tested with our comments from today:

1. blend of lemon, lemon eucalyptus and pettigrain – (everyone liked this okay)  This was our #2 pick for the Lemon Zest scent.  Better response that from a week ago.
2. blend of geranium, lemon and pettigrain – (one out of four liked this.  we had a comment yesterday from a customer that this sounded like a great blend for her.  It made for a soft blend and my main problem with it was that it wasn’t lemony enough.  Perhaps we might refine this to bring out the geranium a little more and use it as a floral blend in the future.)  Some of us still liked this but not for Lemon Zest.  Maybe this spring we can do a version of this scent.  I think it might be great for Mother’s Day.
3. blend of lemon, lemon eucalyptus, pettigrain and rosemary – (a big departure from the original blend suggested by Rainbow Meadows but this was 3 out of 4 people’s pick for the lemon scent, which by the way we are planning on calling Lemon Zest.)  This is still #1 choice for Lemon Zest.  Hopefully we can test in some soap next week.
4. blend of lemon, lavender, pettigrain and lemon eucalyptus – (everyone liked it but it wasn’t as punchy as the one above and therefore I don’t feel that it will come through in the soap as well.)  This one had really faded during the last week and that was in a glass cylinder.  Imagine what would happen in a bar of soap!
5. blend of lavender, bergamot mint and cypress – (nice but it didn’t seem distinctive enough from our other lavender blends.)  This scent really opened up and bloomed during the last week but it just didn’t seem to have quite enough mint coming through to be the winner for our Lavender Mint Soap.
6. blend of lavender and peppermint – (three out of four of us simply loved this one.  guess you simply can’t please everyone.)  Still the crowd-pleaser and the one we are planning on testing in soap next week.

Next week when we pour our regular soap pours I plan on pouring a little mini pour in some test containers to see how our proposed blends do.  Essential oils are not always predictable in soap – how the scent comes through, if it is strong enough, if it holds up, if it causes the soap to seize.  These and other issues are what we will be analyzing in our soap trials.