Scent #5 was my least favorite of the S.O.A.P. Panel fragrances out of the bottle. My initial impression was that it smelled a bit like neem oil. Later, I thought I detected some grass notes and a sort of earthiness. After I poured the fragrance out and let it “breathe” for a few minutes, the strongest note I could detect was a grass note, followed by a sort of earthy dirt scent.
As I did with fragrances 1-4, I used a recipe of 45% olive, 25% coconut, 25% palm, and 5% castor oils. The oils were about 90 degrees and the lye mixture was about 100 degrees when I combined them. I used full water in the lye mixture. I used the full bottle of fragrance, which was 26 grams.
I blended to a very light trace.
Then I added the fragrance oil. There were no issues with acceleration, discoloration, or ricing. Indeed, I can’t tell the difference between the soap before and after the fragrance and had to double-check the time on the picture to be sure.
I expected this fragrance to misbehave, but it soaped beautifully. I poured it into the mold and put it away to gel. It actually took quite a long time to gel, so this fragrance should give anyone time to play.
I unmolded it the next day (a little hastily, hence some bent corners that needed a quick bit of reshaping). As you can see, still no discoloration.
There is a little bit of soda ash on the top, as I neglected to spray the tops with alcohol. The scent is still quite strong, but the earthy dirt notes have retreated a bit. It really smells exactly like grass after saponification, and it’s scent remains very true—no morphing at all. It would go well with a nice grass green color. It might be fun as a novelty soap, perhaps for a golfer, but I am just not loving it. I’m giving it a thumbs up for its behavior in the soap, but a big thumbs down on the scent. I think, however, that some folks who really love the scent of fresh cut grass would enjoy it.
This was an interesting review of fragrance #5. The way you described the earthy and grass-like scent really helped me imagine what it might smell like in soap. It’s also helpful to know that the fragrance behaved well during the soaping process with no acceleration or discoloration issues, even if the scent itself wasn’t your favorite. Reviews like this are very useful for soap makers who want to understand both the performance and the scent profile before trying a fragrance.