Produced from the peel of the orange fruit, orange essential oils are well known for their bright and fruity scents. Popular in a wide variety of projects, orange essential oil is commonly used in cleaning products. Bramble Berry carries four varieties of orange essential oil: Orange Valencia Essential Oil, 10X Orange Essential Oil, Red Brazilian Mandarin and Tangerine Essential Oil. All are fantastic, but have various properties that make them distinct.
Orange Valencia Essential Oil: Citrus sinensis ‘Valencia.’ Two clinical studies found that orange essential oil reduced anxiety and improved mood (2005 study of 200 patients; 2000 study of 72 patients). Best used in melt and pour, room spritzers or sprays as it does not hold up well in cold process. It is distilled using the cold pressed method.
10X Orange Essential Oil: Citrus Sinensis. A great option for cold process soap, this essential oil is extremely concentrated. When used in cold process, it turns soap a beautiful orange color. It is produced from the orange peel using a cold pressed and fractional distillation method.
Red Brazilian Mandarin Essential Oil: Citrus Reticulata. Produced by cold pressed distillation in Brazil, this essential oil has a slight bitter note.
Tangerine Essential Oil: Citrus Reticulata. Slightly sweet, this essential oil is produced in the USA by cold pressed distillation of the outer peel. While it does not stick well in cold process soap, it’s wonderful in other wash off products.
Orange essential oils are considered a strong photosensitizer. This means when applied to the skin, it becomes more sensitive to ultraviolet UV light (sunlight). This causes the skin to burn and become damaged more easily by the sun, or other source of UV light. Because of this, use extreme caution if using orange essential oil in lip balm, lotions or other leave-on products. Sunburned skin is no fun! Other essential oils that may cause phototoxicity are lime, lemon and bergamont.
The Juicy Orange and Sweet Rose Cold Process Soap uses 10X Orange Essential Oil because it’s extremely concentrated and appropriate for cold process.
When using orange essential oil in cold process soap, the best option is 10X Orange Essential Oil. Why? 10x Orange Essential Oil is incredibly concentrated, and is able to hold up in cold process soap. The term, “10X” actually means, “ten fold,” which refers to how many times the oil has been concentrated.
Our 10X Orange Essential Oil is folded via fractional distillation, which filters out unnecessary components and concentrates all the “good smelling” components. In the Juicy Orange and Sweet Rose Cold Process tutorial, 10X Orange Essential Oil is used to create a soap that smells bright, cheery and juicy! We recommend using .7 to 1 ounce 10X Orange Essential Oil per pound of cold process soap.
Orange essential oils are brightly colored, so be sure to take that into consideration when using them in your projects. Shown above is Red Brazilian Mandarin Essential Oil; notice the beautiful orange hue! Using 10X Orange Essential Oil, and Red Brazilian Mandarin Essential Oil results in some discoloration, as shown below.
Have you used orange essential oils in your projects lately? I love the bright, happy scent it gives!
Is this what’s used in those orange scented liquid soaps that are so good at removing oil, grime and ink from skin? I love those soaps, especially the gritty ones.
I’m not entirely sure! They may be scented with orange essential oil, it smells nice and fresh. We’ve found the best way to remove oil and grime is using exfoliants. They scrub away that grime and leave your hands nice and clean! I’ll link some recipes using exfoliants below. 🙂
Easy Scrubby Body Wash: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/scrubby-body-wash-diy/
Mechanic Cold Process Soap: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/mechanics-cold-process-soap-bar-tutorial/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Hi!
How photosensitising are citrus essential oils? Do you think it would be safe to use pink grapefruit essential oil in a perfume?
Thanks heaps!
-Cadence
Hi Cadence!
We definitely don’t recommend using citrus essential oils in any leave-on products. Even a small amount can cause sensitivity to the sun. Best to be safe and use another essential oil. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Essential oils: https://www.brambleberry.com/All-Oils-C23.aspx
Hi Kelsey!
Thanks heaps, that information is useful for me 🙂
Do you know some non photosensitising citrus (or ones that smell similar) essential oils?
Thanks heaps!!!
-Cadence
Hi Cadence!
Absolutely! Litsea Essential Oil has a lovely citrus scent and isn’t a photosensitizer: https://www.brambleberry.com/Litsea-Essential-Oil-P3824.aspx
Bergamot Pure Essential Oil is another great one: https://www.brambleberry.com/Bergamot-Pure-Essential-Oil-P3414.aspx
You can also add Lemongrass Essential Oil, which is citrusy and earthy. Petitgrain Essential Oil is extracted from the bitter orange tree and has citrusy notes, as well as wood and bright green notes. 🙂
Lemongrass: https://www.brambleberry.com/Lemongrass-Essential-Oil-P3822.aspx
Petitgrain: https://www.brambleberry.com/Petitgrain-Essential-Oil-P6340.aspx
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I am pouring 7lb batches of soap using 6 ounces of 10x orange and the scent is barely noticeable. I also incorporate kaolin clay to hold the scent. any suggestions would be helpful.
Hi Jim!
Hmm, that’s strange! We’ve found that about 5.6 ounces of the essential oil in 7 pounds of soap gives you a nice strong scent.
We choose all our fragrance and essential oils based on how they smell after six weeks of curing in soap. The essential oil should start becoming more noticeable as it cures!
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
What an awesome and informative post! I love orange essential oils! So bright and sweet! I really want to order some of your 10x Orange EO to try in CP soap. How does the Red Brazilian Mandarin hold up in CP? I would love to see a post like this on the different kinds of Lavender EOs!
Hi Olivia!
So glad you found the post helpful! Red Brazilian Mandarin Essential Oils, like other citrus essential oils, will fade in cold process soap. However, you can anchor it with a deeper scent, like Patchouli Essential Oil. 🙂
Red Brazilian Mandarin Essential Oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Red-Brazilian-Mandarin-P5664.aspx
Patchouli Essential Oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Patchouli-Essential-Oil-P3420.aspx
Also, we have a blog post on Hungarian Lavender Essential Oil you may like! You can find that here: http://www.soapqueen.com/bramble-berry-news/sunday-night-spotlight-hungarian-lavender-essential-oil/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
How photosensitive though? I always hate those sorts of warnings without a qualifier. How much becomes an issue? An ounce? A gallon? 1/32 of an ounce? I eat a lot of citrus and drink a lot of Earl Grey and I never seem to have an issue with getting sunburned.
Hi Cutter!
Even the tiniest amount of the essential oil can cause photosensitivity. We recommend not using citrus essential oils in leave on products like lip balm or lotion. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I have in fact! I used Orange Essential Oil in some bath bombs with fine pink Himalayan sea salt – still in the testing phase but hubby and I both love it!
Hi Mary!
That sounds awesome! So nice and bright – perfect for baths. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry