Almond FragranceUpdated 10 months ago

Category: Fragrance 
Sourced from: Cassia Plant 
Country of Origin: China
Certified to: Nothing yet! 

Our natural almond fragrance, also called benzaldehyde, is naturally extracted from the cassia plant. Benzaldehyde can be irritating to the skin if it’s in a leave-on product, like a lip balm or lotion. Considering that we only use it at less than 1% in a rinse-off product, it shouldn’t cause any irritation to the skin.

When creating a natural almond fragrance, the key is to obtain an ingredient that occurs in nature— one that can be extracted without chemical intermediates and still impart the distinctive note associated with almonds. 

In our case, that ingredient is benzaldehyde, and it is obtained from a relatively common essential oil: cassia oil. Cassia oil is the product of the distillation of the terminal branches and leaves of the Cinnamomum cassia tree. Natural benzaldehyde occurs when cinnamic aldehyde, which forms 80% of the oil, degrades. Fractional distillation purifies the extract and is conducted without the aid of synthetic chemicals. 

Natural benzaldehyde is used widely in the flavor industry and in fragrances. The ingredient we use for our almond fragrance is natural and should not be confused with synthetic benzaldehyde, which is petroleum-based.

Why not use almond oil? Bitter almond oil (sweet almond oil has no fragrance) actually contains prussic acid (i.e., cyanide), which is toxic! To get enough almond fragrance out of bitter almond oil, we would have to use so much that we would risk having toxic levels of cyanide in our soaps.

Found in: Almond Pure-Castile Liquid Soap, Almond Pure-Castile Bar Soap