I hope that someone can address my curiosity. I have around 20 artisan soaps across approximately 7 soap makers. Some soap scents, like those made by Mike at Mike's Natural's, smell personally crafted. Several of Mike's soaps have single notes, of course. Other soaps, like several made by Stirling or PAA, are scent dupes and have a more commercial or combined scent where single notes are not really identifiable. Are these scent dupes usually purchased from a fragrance company or are they developed and mixed by the artisans?
Shaving soap scent dupes & other soap fragrances
- Thread starter Dov Shaves
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Normally mixed up by the artisan from what I know. That’s how the actual scent can vary so much between clones or the artisan can add in their own little twists in homage.
Big soap makers like Sterling probably work with a professional perfumer or have one on staff. I’d be really surprised if they didn’t. Smaller soap makers usually buy there fragrances from fragrance oil suppliers. Lots of homage fragrances available. I mix some of my own fragrances for my own soap making enjoyment. It’s not exactly easy and takes a while to get the formula right. I have a great essential oil bay rum I worked hard on for a while. I also experiment with fragrance oils but thats another topic. To wrap it up... it can be either.
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- #4
Appreciate the comments. Thank you.
The last I heard, Stirling was a small business run by a husband and wife. Perhaps they have worked with a perfumer, but I doubt they employ one in house.
I've had a good bit of experience with fragrance oil suppliers making scented candles. My take is that most Stirling fragrances come directly from the fragrance oil suppliers. Some scents may be house blends of fragrance or essential oils, but not built from fragrance molecules like a purfumer would.
There are a bunch of fragrance oil suppliers, and most have, for instance, a Green Irish Tweed dupe. There are differences among these suppliers. Then, too, how the FO interacts with the soapmaker's base affects things, as does how much of the FO is used, the temp at which it is added to the batch (this affects in particular the citrus or other topnotes in terms of strength and depth), and the particular chemicals/EOs used in the fragrance blend (e.g., rosewood EO doesn't react the same way as Ho Wood oil, which is often used to approximate rosewood in blends). There are also custom perfumers who dupe on demand, and I'm sure some artisans hire their services, too.
I believe Stirling subcontracts out the manufacturing/packaging/fulfillment. Stirling is not a basement operation.
I agree.
Many of the soap makers use just essential oils or fragrance oils. Some (probably very few) also use fragrance molecules like those that are used to make colognes and purfumes. You're more likely to find these used with the makers offering the more unique complex scents.
I know that Grooming Dept uses these fragrance molecules in addition to essential oils. For example, in the Mallard Lavender duck fat shaving soap 92 fragrance aroma molecules are used. Somewhere in the seventy some range for the Incense & Rose scent that I really enjoy.
I know that Grooming Dept uses these fragrance molecules in addition to essential oils. For example, in the Mallard Lavender duck fat shaving soap 92 fragrance aroma molecules are used. Somewhere in the seventy some range for the Incense & Rose scent that I really enjoy.
Look on Stirling's facebook page. It appears to me they make all their soaps in house from all the chemical containers sitting around. They just recently expanded and will have a single building with manufacturing and retail according to the pictures.
You may be confused with who Stirling is. Unless there has been a major change over the last few months they have always been a mom/pop operation. I would never call them a "Big soap maker" they are artisan in every sense of the word.
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- #13
Great thread. I really appreciate this conversation. It would be nice to hear from Stirling or one of the other soap makers that offer a lot of dupes but I suspect they'd rather keep the information confidential. Understandable.
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- #14
Stirling's new retail and soap making location.
Pretty sure Stirling is still a ‘basement’ operation. Rod and Mandy are very hands-on and most if not all is done on premises.
Great summary! Thanks.
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- #17
Also, responding to #chibi, Rod and Amanda have been running Stirling out of two buildings on their property in Booneville, AR. See Rod's YouTube video below. However, they recently moved the operation to a commercial location (photo above) and Rod posts some of that information on the Stirling Facebook page.
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