Working With Stinky Ingredients - Part 2

Late last year, I asked a few fellow formulators who use predominately natural ingredients if there were any particular ones they would categorize as stinky and hard to work with.

There was a literal flood of replies.

Apparantly, I am not the only one who finds some ingredients a little, pretty, awfully, ridiculously challenging to work with.

The Stinky Winners

Here's some of the most 'popular' nose-crinkling ingredients my fellow green formulators (and I) may or may not choose to work with due to their inherent smell

• Cocoa butter
• Unrefined shea butter
• Lanolin
• Wheat germ oil
• Argan oil
• Neem oil (the all time winner and receiver of most votes)
• Carrot seed oil
• Tamanu oil
• Pomegranate seed oil
• Evening Primrose Oil
• Raspberry Seed Oil
• Kelp powder
• Spirulina
• Tea Tree Essential oil
• Valerian Essential Oil
• Soapnuts

A portion of these ingredients have some wonderfully skin-loving properties that are difficult to simply disregard.

So, how do we deal with all this stinkiness?

Work With, Not Against

Over the years, creating a pleasantly scented product with (some) inherently stinky ingredients has slowly but surely made its way into my regular formulating routine.

After years of trial-and-error and experimentation, it has almost become second nature to me. And even though there are some limitations, it is indeed possible to 'bend' a stinky ingredient or 2 into something entirely different with no need of masking the smell.

The answer: work with, not against.

The trick: get your perfuming nose on and compose your scent to include said stinky ingredient.

You doubt?

It's perfectly ok. I didn't think it was possible until I tried it either.

Next time, I'm going to show you how to get your perfuming nose on!

Stay tuned!