Back around the turn of the (last) century, synthetic fragrances were just making their debut. Soapmaking manuals and books for the time still gave recipes for scent blending based on essential oils.
My Manual of Toilet Soap-Making by Dr. C. Deite lists a number of scent blends for what were “traditional” toilet soaps at the time.
Here are a few that could be duplicated using the essential oils we have generally available to us now.
The amounts given in the book are for scenting a soap batch using 50 kilos of oil; I’ve adjusted them down so the amounts shown below are for a soap batch containing 5 kilos (11 pounds) of oil. The names of the soaps are as given in the book.
Standard Soap (White)
11 gr ginger-grass oil
8 gr caraway oil
8 gr lavender oil
8 gr thymene
Standard Soap (Orange)
17.5 gr cassia oil
17.5 gr citronella oil
Alpine Flower Soap
10 gr oil of lemons
7.5 gr lavender oil
7.5 gr peppermint oil
6 gr sage oil
6 gr rosemary oil
3 gr cinnamon oil
Alpine Bouquet Soap
10 gr oil of lemons
8 gr lavender oil
8 gr peppermint oil
8 gr sage oil
6 gr rosemary oil
4 gr thyme oil
They all sound great, don’t they?
Shameless plug!
If you want inspiration for developing unique natural soap and cosmetics formulations of your own, or are intrigued by how things were done “back in the day,” get my book!
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