Scent is personal — and so is skin. Here's how we choose what goes into each bar.
Every scented product we make uses either an essential oil or a fragrance oil, and we get asked about the difference often enough that it deserves its own explanation. Neither one is automatically "better" — they just work differently, and we choose based on what a formula needs.
What's the Difference?
Essential oils are extracted directly from plants — the peel, leaf, flower, or resin — through steam distillation or cold pressing. Nothing is added; the scent is entirely what came from the plant itself. That also means the scent profile is limited to whatever nature provides, and some plants simply can't produce a stable, skin-safe essential oil in certain notes.
Fragrance oils are blended scent compounds, often combining naturally derived and synthetic aroma molecules to create notes that don't exist in a single essential oil — think Black Raspberry & Magnolia or Salt Air. Every fragrance oil we use is phthalate-free and paraben-free, so you get a wider range of scent without those specific additives.
Why We Use Both
- Essential oils — our choice when a single, true botanical note is the goal, like the lavender in our Tallow Bar Soap with Honey & Lavender or the citrus in our Charcoal Citrus Bar Soap.
- Fragrance oils — our choice when a scent calls for complexity a plant alone can't offer, like the fruity, layered notes in our Watermelon or Coconut & Vanilla bars.
What About the Hormone Concern?
You may have heard that fragrance oil can disrupt hormones — and that concern isn't baseless. It traces back to phthalates, chemicals historically used in some fragrances to help scent last longer, which have been studied for potential hormone effects. That's exactly why every fragrance oil we use in every scented product is phthalate-free and paraben-free — so you get the scent without that specific concern attached to it.
Have Sensitive Skin? Go Unscented
If your skin tends to react to scent of any kind — essential oil or fragrance oil — we keep several completely unscented options in the line for exactly that reason. No essential oil, no fragrance oil, just the base ingredients. Our Naked Goat Milk Tallow Bar Soap and Charcoal & Deep Mud Clay Facial Bar Soap are both formulated completely scent-free, so you get the same skin-loving ingredients without any added aromatics.
Where You'll Find It
You'll find the essential oil approach in bars like Charcoal Citrus Bar Soap, fragrance oil in bars like Watermelon Goat Milk Tallow Bar Soap, and the unscented option in Naked Goat Milk Tallow Bar Soap — so whichever your skin prefers, there's a bar built for it.
Handcrafted in small batches in Pennsylvania. All fragrance oils used are phthalate-free and paraben-free. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition.
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Charcoal Citrus (Essential Oil) → Watermelon (Fragrance Oil) → Naked Goat Milk (Unscented) →