Fragrance vs. Essential Oils

In general, fragrance oils tend to be more affordable than essential oils. There are famous and much beloved scents that can only be found in a fragrance oil. Some fragrances simply cannot be mimicked through essential oils.

Fragrance oils fall into the FDA's jurisdiction and their "trade secret" law. This means that the manufacturer of the fragrance oil does not have to disclose the ingredients used in making their fragrances. Basically you may never know what in the world is really in a fragrance oil, but they do have guidelines in place to ensure the general safety of the product.

Fragrance oils are synthetic (man-made), produced by chemists in Laboratories. The majority of candle fragrances are created using fragrance oils. There is no plant or bark that naturally smells like cotton candy.

Essential oils are derived from plant matter, such as the leaves, stems flower buds and bark. These oils are also used in proven aromatherapy methods to calm the mind, body and soul.

Soy vs. Paraffin

Paraffin wax is a heavy hydrocarbon that comes from crude oil. Paraffin waxes are produced by refining or separating the waxes out of crude mineral oils. Obtained from the ground, crude oil is a compositionally varied product, consisting of a mixture of hydrocarbons. Another name for crude oil is fossil fuel. Crude oil is transported to refineries where it is refined into finished products by complex processes. One of the many products derived from refining is lubricating oil. It is from the lube oil refining process that petroleum waxes are derived. There are three general categories of petroleum wax that are obtained from lube oil refining. They include paraffin, microcrystalline and petrolatum. Paraffin waxes are derived from the light lubricating oil distillates. Paraffin waxes contain predominantly straight-chain hydrocarbons with an average chain length of 20 to 30 carbon atoms.

Soy wax, on the other hand is made from vegetable matter. Soy wax is a vegetable wax made from the oil of soybeans. After harvesting, the beans are cleaned, cracked, de-hulled, and rolled into flakes. The oil is then extracted from the flakes and hydrogenated. The hydrogenation process converts some of the fatty acids in the oil from unsaturated to saturated. This process dramatically alters the melting point of the oil, making it a solid at room temperature. The leftover bean husks are commonly used as animal feed. The U.S. grows the vast majority of the world's soybeans, primarily in Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.

While petroleum based paraffin wax is a limited resource, soy wax is a renewable resource that is limited only by how many soybeans we can grow. It is also beneficial to farmers who sell soybean crops, as well as lasting almost twice as long as paraffin wax.

Read more

Just got a NEW Cookbook!!

I'm very excited to cook my way through "The Blissful Chef" Christy Morgan's new cookbook Blissful Bites.  She is a local Vegan Gal from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  This book is categorized by course and also by season which helps vegans or fellow plant enthusiasts eat local fresh produce whenever the "gettin is good".  

I have a created a photo album on Facebook to document my journey into the Bliss! Also, if you want to read my review on Amazon, please do.  Today is the first official day of publication for the cookbook so check out your local bookstores, request it if it's not there or purchase it online.

You can follow Christy @TheBlissfulChef on Twitter.

My connecting with Christy has opened up a lot of doors in just a short time. Her boyfriend runs DallasVegan.com, offering a plethora of local vegan information! She suggested joining the group Vegan101 through Meetup.com where I have also found a lot of other vegan groups in the DFW area and am looking forward to all the great Dallas events! This week is Dallas Vegan Drinks...Two of my favorite words :)

Until next time...keep Absorbing Life!