Wikipedia says:
“Essential oils are volatile and liquid aroma compounds from natural sources, usually plants. They are not oils, in the strict sense, but often share with oils, a poor solubility in water. Essential oils often have an odour and are therefore used in food flavouring and perfumery. They are usually prepared by fragrance extraction techniques.” (details of some are included below)
You might notice that I stress the word “Natural” regarding soap making and later you will find that the recipes I use, are “Vegan” friendly, too. Well, the “vegan” is for the benefit of my daughter who is also my main tester and the “natural” because I simply want the best ingredients. I am usually able to assess the quality of what goes into my soaps because I forage locally for suitable plants, growing in their wild state. I also grow others organically in our home garden and greenhouse.
Living on the coast of North East England, means that we can also wander down to the beach and gather seaweed and even collect some “North Sea” sea water, to obtain the sea-salt, after distilling it. In my younger days, I could obtain sea salt from my island neighbours. There, on the shores of the Philippines Sea, they created a series of sand walled lagoons just like large sand-castle walls. The incoming sea-water became trapped there between tides, and the intense heat of the tropical sun, evaporated the water leaving the dried salt, which they harvested. These pools were known as “salt pans”. The weather here in the UK is, unfortunately, not quite as kind or predictable. In theory, there are four separate seasons but over the last thirty years, I have known June days when we have had all four of them in one afternoon.
Because it is not always possible for me to establish exactly, the origins of some ingredients, I now prefer, where possible, to process my plants and seeds, at home, to release their essential oils. (named because they contain the “essence” of the particular plant) I already have a home distiller which uses Steam Distillation to extract the essential oils and also creates aromatic waters (hydrosols) as a by-product. It is also possible to use the Cold Press Expression method which squeezes the oil out of the plant’s seeds, nuts and fruit peel, using a press, as basic as a hand-crank machine which clamps to a table edge or an electric domestic machine, the size of a home food mixer, fine for a hobbyist like me who just makes small handcrafted batches.
These two methods are the only ones I use. There is another seemingly very good one which I am presently investigating, although the cost of the machine appears to be too expensive for us, at the moment. This method is called Supercritical Fluid Extraction or sometimes “Co2 Extraction.” It is the stuff we all breathe out, called carbon dioxide. I understand that the process uses no nasties, does no harm to the plants or the environment and leaves no nasties behind. However, my research continues.
Some, usually large, commercial producers, use the Solvent Extraction method. This uses food grade solvents such as “hexane” and “ethanol” to isolate essential oils from plant material. Unfortunately the chemicals partly remain in the oil and the resulting liquid may appear in ingredient lists as “fragrance oil, absolute, concrete or perfume”. Apparently, this process produces a stronger and longer lasting fragrance but I will stay with “natural.” There are about ten further methods but I see no merit in using any of them for my soap making.
INCI names. There is an international covention which establishes unique names for the oils, waxes, etc. used in cosmetics so that they can be cleary identified. INCI is an abbreviation of “International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients. Each commercial product is required to list it’s ingredients along with their INCI names. (eg. Coconut oil (Cocos nucifera) )
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