Is it safe/smart to use 'food-grade' extracts in shaving soaps or creams? I was out shopping today and ran across $.99 lemon, orange, and vanilla extract and thought to myself "This would be a very inexpensive way to make my own scented creams/soaps. Add a drop or two to a bowl full of lather and you have scented cream (Specifically thinking about using it in KMF unscented). The only ingredients listed on the lemon were alcohol, water, and lemon oil. The only ingredients on the orange were alcohol and orange oil. Alcohol and water are both products that are in routine facial products, so I'm not so sure either of those would matter. But then the oils....I'm not sure about those.... Is this a good idea or no?
I don't see where you would run into any problems. The only problem I could see cropping up is a possible allergic reaction. People use "extracts" all the time for topical applications (that means for use outside the body) they call them "essential oils" and add and mix them with safflower oil to make massage oil. If you can rub it on your *ahem*, lower cheeks, it stands to reason that you can use it on your upper cheeks as well. Start slowly, you may find some scents overpowering and a couple drops may be enough to scent a whole tube or jar of shave cream. Way to think outside the box. Now I need to Google lime essential oil. See what you made me do?
You might want to take a read through this thread, to include the links imbedded there, before you make any decisions.
:sihns011 Some things are harmless but a few others can be lethal. Like wintergreen I think. Too much and you have respiratory issues and die. Menthol on the other hand, you can use it all day long and be fine, might make yourself uncomfortable, but no death unless you eat it. Be careful and Google the hell out of it before you add it, just to be informed.
Food extracts are NOT the same as essential oils. They are also not good for cold process soapmaking as the alcohol messes with saponification and tracing. Not sure about melt and pour or lotions, but I would suspect they are not recommended. I have done, however, the Van der Spice thing to my homemade shaving soap, mixing old Avon aftershave into the microwave melted soap. It looked ugly, but smelled good.
I have used a few different essential oils on my skin over the years (hippie stuff from Whole Foods) with no ill effects so far. I do not put them on my soap puck because I figured they might affect lathering and I'm struggling a bit with that already.
