Cotton Candy Essential Oil

Savor the sweet smell of cotton candy with this sugary cotton candy essential oil recipe! The candy blend pays homage to the beloved fairground treat and can be used in countless ways, from diffusing to home fragrance and skincare recipes. Included are 3 delicious base blends and 10 yummy variations for flavored cotton candy.

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DIY cotton candy essential oil blend

As a kid, I loved strolling over the county fair and exploring the attractions with our parents. They would take us to the spring festival at Brent Cross every year, and I cherished every second of it. The lights, the music, and of course, those delicious candy smells infusing the warm spring air.

One of those smells I love to this day is cotton candy. I mean, everything about cotton candy is intriguing! The soft, cloud-like texture and gorgeous pastel colors paired with the sweet candy aromas. Pure candy magic!

After sharing a couple of gourmand blends last year, I decided I might as well add a sweet-smelling cotton candy essential oil recipe to the bunch.

And honestly? Cotton candy essential oil is easy to make at home and smells every bit as good as the cotton candy you can get at the fairground. Probably even better because it’s free of any synthetic, potentially harmful materials found in commercial cotton candy fragrance oils.

And once you have conjured up a bottle of this sweet-smelling potion, I can think of so many ways to use it. Aside from diffusing, you could create cotton candy candles. Or stir the blend into skincare recipes and make cotton candy scented soap, lotion, or body mist.

Because of the spring carnival, I will forever associate cotton candy with springtime. My other spring blends include cherry blossom essential oil, rain essential oil, and fresh linen essential oil.

What does cotton candy smell like?

But first, what does cotton candy even smell like? Cotton candy is a fluffy confection where sugar is melted and spun until it resembles cotton. It smells like sweet, caramelized sugar with added flavors like vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate.

Essential oils for cotton candy blend

What essential oils smell like cotton candy?

You’ll find a few essential oils that smell like cotton candy, caramel, and sugar, including tonka bean, ylang ylang, and benzoin resin.

Add to that vanilla-scented oils like vanilla oleoresin or Peru balsam, and you end up with a deliciously sweet and surprisingly authentic cotton candy scent oil.

Let’s take a closer look at each oil and learn what makes them so perfect for cotton candy essential oil!

Tonka bean absolute

Tonka bean absolute is manufactured from seeds of the Cumaru, a tropical tree. The oil has the most decadent gourmand scent you could imagine: rich, sweet, and powdery, laced with delicious notes of vanilla, caramel, and toasted almonds.

The caramel-like notes make tonka bean the heart of my cotton candy blend.

Tonka bean used to be somewhat tricky to track down. Luckily, one of my favorite suppliers, Plant Therapy, now carries tonka bean absolute. I highly recommend their oils; the quality is incredible!

The absolute has a paste-like consistency at room temperature. Cleverly, Plant Therapy added a thinner to turn tonka bean into a pourable and easy-to-work-with product.

I first discovered tonka bean absolute when I set out to recreate Lush’s twilight scent for my lavender sleep spray recipe.

Benzoin resin

Benzoin resin is made from the gum of Styrax tonkinensis, a tree native to Southeast Asia. The oil features a creamy, sweet, and vanillic smell with subtle spicy undertones.

As a fixative, it helps to make the blend last longer and is the perfect base for gourmand scents.

The oil has a sticky and thick consistency, which is why I like this benzoin resin from Mountain Rose Herbs. It contains organic ethanol to improve pourability and mixes well with the other oils.

I also used benzoin to scent this homemade sweater weather candle and years before that in this charcoal bath salts recipe.

Ylang ylang

You might be surprised to find a floral oil on this list, but ylang ylang’s rich, sweet notes are the perfect complement for any candy blend.

You’ll often find 3 offerings of these oils, ylang ylang complete, ylang ylang extra, and ylang absolute. While you can use all three, I recommend ylang ylang extra as it has greater tenacity and a sweeter smell.

Peru balsam and vanilla extracts

A cotton candy scent wouldn’t be complete without warming vanilla notes. Typically, I would suggest vanilla oleoresin or vanilla absolute for this scent component. But unfortunately, the prices for vanilla extracts have increased dramatically due to worldwide vanilla shortages.

Plant Therapy offers a delectable botanical vanilla extract that poses a wonderful alternative to oleoresins and absolutes.

My preferred choice for cotton candy is Peru balsam. The oil has a rich vanillic aroma with subtle, balsamic cinnamon notes.

The ever so slightly smoky undertones in Peru balsam highlight the caramelized nature of cotton candy. It’s also more cost-effective than any other vanilla extract.

Essential oils for cotton candy flavors

Cotton candy comes in an almost endless variety of flavors, ranging from bubble gum to cherry and even bacon-flavored (outrageous, I know). The classic candy floss flavors are apparently pink vanilla and blue raspberry.

We already covered vanilla. Here are a few essential oils you can use to customize your cotton candy essential oil:

• Mint: Peppermint, spearmint, and wintergreen can be used to lend your cotton candy blend a minty note.
• Chocolate: Chocolate is a popular cotton candy flavor, and cacao absolute allows you to recreate the flavor in essential oil form.
• Coconut: Massoia bark is an eo with coconut nuances. And who wouldn’t love a coconut cotton candy scent? You could also buy this coconut pulp CO2 extract.
• Citrus fruits: And let’s not forget about citrus oils. Lemon, sweet orange, lime, and grapefruit are ideal candidates for cotton candy essential oils with a sparkly note.

Isolates and extracts

For the next set of aromatics, we’ll be crossing over from essential oils to the world of perfumery. These scents, which include delicacies such as strawberry, banana, or apple, not only smell like actual fruits, but they are also all-natural, not synthetically made.

• Strawberry: Strawberry liquid is one of the most extraordinary aromatics I recently discovered. With a smell similar to strawberry jam, it’s perfect for strawberry cotton candy.
• Banana: Natural isoamyl acetate is an organic compound that smells like ripe, sweet banana. It’s perfect to create yummy banana cotton candy.
• Apple: If you crave an apple-scented cotton candy blend, add this apple liquid.
• Raspberry: Blue raspberry is a classic flavor, and raspberry rose liquid is just the thing you need for a blue raspberry cotton candy essential oil.
• Melon: This natural melon isolate provides a crisp, refreshing melon scent that contrasts beautifully with our sweet cotton candy smell. This is currently sold out, but I hope it comes back in stock soon.
• Pear: Liquid pear offers a nectar-like aroma softer than apple and citrus, perfect for those who desire a mild fruity scent.

My thoughts on isolates

All of these aromatics are provided by Hermitage Oils, an Italian-based family business that specializes in essential oils, absolutes, CO2 extracts, and natural isolates.

I live in Europe, and most of these scents are very affordable and easy to access for me. Of course, I understand that these products may not be easily accessible for everyone and are totally optional.

I included them anyway to highlight just how creative and inventive aromatherapy can be once you venture a little outside of the traditional.

And in case you are wondering: isolates are isolated parts of essential oils, extracted explicitly for their scent notes. They don’t offer the same aromatherapeutic benefits as the more complex essential oils.

I consider them helpful extensions of my oil repertoire and think they make fun additions to this playful cotton candy scent blend.

Cotton candy essential oil blend

Simple candy cotton blend

As I did with my sugar cookie scent, I want to provide easy and more complex versions to make this blend fit for essential oil collections of any size. This easy cotton candy blend requires only 3 staple oils and gives off an incredible candy scent.

• 5 drops ylang ylang
• 3 drops Peru balsam
• 1 drop cassia (omit or use cinnamon leaf if intended for skin care)

This recipe makes the perfect cotton candy diffuser blend. It’s sweet and playful and fun. Simply add to your diffuser and enjoy the smell of county fair cotton candy in your home.

You can substitute Peru balsam with vanilla aromas such as vanilla oleoresin, vanilla absolute, or a botanical vanilla extract.

And in case you want to add this cotton candy fragrance oil to a beauty recipe, be sure to use cinnamon leaf essential oil or copaiba oleoresin instead of cassia. Cassia is highly irritating and should not be used in skin care.

Authentic candy cotton blend

This cotton candy scented oil is as close as you can come to the real thing without making fresh candy floss. The blend emulates the sugary, caramelly notes of fluffy, soft cotton candy. If you close your eyes, you can almost taste it!

• 14 drops tonka bean
• 7 drops ylang ylang
• 5 drops Peru balsam
• 2 drops benzoin resin
• 1 drop cassia (omit or use cinnamon leaf if intended for skin care)
• 1 drop Atlas cedarwood

The blend starts out strong with tonka bean, ylang ylang, and Peru balsam for those sweet sugar nuances. Benzoin resin adds depth and complexity and creates the illusion of caramel aromas.

A drop of cassia introduces a spicy, ever so slightly burnt note that you get when sugar melts. And then we have a drop of Atlas cedarwood to offset some of the sweetness and round out the scent profile.

When diffusing this blend, you’ll only need 4 to 7 drops because it’s so intense. And if using a nebulizer, you can probably get away with just 3 to 4 drops.

I used this cotton candy essential oil recipe to fragrance homemade body butter, and the scent is fantastic. It smells so luscious and decadent. Ylang ylang is dominant at first but makes room for the candied aromas of tonka bean and benzoin after a while.

As I’ve mentioned before, swap out cassia for cinnamon leaf for skincare recipes. Use copaiba oleoresin in case you have sensitive skin.

Fruity cotton candy blend

When I looked up cotton candy blends online, I came across this recipe. It had been shared by quite a few people, so I’m not sure who created it in the first place. Since it features simple oils, I wanted to include it here too to offer you more options.

• 3 drops pink grapefruit
• 3 drops ylang ylang
• 1 drop vanilla (can sub for Peru balsam)

I really love this scent. Ylang ylang and vanilla create these sweet candy floss-like aromas, while grapefruit adds a fruity, sparkly note.

I think my simple and authentic cotton candy blends smell more realistic (if that’s what you’re after). Still, it’s a fun candy diffuser blend, and kids will absolutely love it.

The original recipe suggests vanilla. Peru balsam works in a pinch if you can’t find vanilla absolute or a botanical vanilla extract.

Unlike the other blends, I want to mention that this one isn’t my creation. If you know who came up with it, please let me know so I can credit them properly.

Flavored cotton candy scent variations

Now that we know 3 delectable vanilla-scented cotton candy blends, I want to play around a bit and create a couple of cotton candy scent variations.

All of these scent variations are really simple to customize. You take the base blend and add your aromatics of choice. I have listed a few ideas below, but you can create so many other scents following this easy formula.

As I’ve mentioned before, some blends enlist isolates and fruit extracts typically used in perfumery. They are a little harder to access in some places.

#1 Mint cotton candy

• 5 drops ylang ylang
• 3 drops Peru balsam
• 2 drops peppermint
• 1 drop cassia

#2 Chocolate cotton candy

• 4 drops ylang ylang
• 3 drops tonka bean
• 2 drops cacao absolute
• 1 drop cassia

#3 Mocha cotton candy

• 4 drops tonka bean
• 2 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops coffee
• 1 drop cassia

#4 Lime cotton candy

• 5 drops ylang ylang
• 3 drops Peru balsam
• 3 drops lime

#5 Strawberry cotton candy

• 4 drops tonka bean
• 2 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops strawberry liquid

#6 Banana cotton candy

• 4 drops tonka bean
• 2 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops isoamyl acetate* (banana isolate)

* This isolate is offered as a 50% alcohol solution. You should have no problems mixing it with your oils, especially since tonka is also diluted in alcohol. If making this blend in larger quantities, you may reduce the amount of banana isolate since it’s quite potent.

#7 Green apple cotton candy

• 4 drops tonka bean
• 2 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops apple liquid

#8 Watermelon cotton candy

• 4 drops tonka bean
• 2 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops melon isolate

#9 Blue raspberry cotton candy

• 4 drops tonka bean
• 2 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops raspberry rose liquid

#10 Coconut cotton candy

• 4 drops tonka bean
• 3 drops ylang ylang
• 2 drops massoia bark

How to make cotton candy essential oil

Now that you have all of your essential oils together, the easy part is here! Follow these simple steps, and you’ll have sweet cotton candy essential oil in no time.

1. Open bottle. Remove the dropper cap from a 5 ml amber glass essential oil bottle. The recipes make only a few drops, but you can double, triple, or quadruple the quantities to make greater amounts.
2. Add essential oils. Place a small funnel in the bottle’s opening and add the essential oils into the funnel. You can do this step without a funnel, but this method helps to avoid spills.
3. Close bottle. Reattach the dropper cap and screw the lid on tightly.
4. Blend. Gently shake the bottle to combine the oils and optionally apply the printable label.
5. Rest. Let the blend develop for 1 to 2 days before use. The fragrances need time to mingle together and can change a little during this period.

Tips for success

My cotton candy essential oil blend is so simple, you really can’t go wrong. Still, I have 3 tips to share to make creating custom essential oil blends a success. Read on to learn more!

• Customize the scent. Consider this cotton candy blend as a suggestion. This is just my take on candy essential oil and what I feel smells close to a cotton candy fragrance. Everyone’s sense of smell is different, so feel free to play around with my formula and try different ratios to make the cotton candy scent perfect for you.
• Clear your palate. Smell coffee beans or ground coffee if you need to clear your smell palate while blending.
• Age the blend. I recommend resting your mixture from anywhere between a few hours to 2 days in a cool, dark area before using it. Waiting is hard, I know, but maturing helps the oils combine. The fragrance will develop depth and complexity during this time. Benzoin resin, in particular, takes some time to blend together with other oils.

Usage suggestions

Aromatherapy & home fragrance

Diffusing is the easiest and quickest way to enjoy your candy floss scent. Simply fill the basin of your diffuser with water, add 3 to 6 drops of the cotton candy oil mix, and start it up.

Perfume & body mist

For a gorgeous cotton candy perfume, dilute the blend in your favorite carrier oil. And to make body spray,mix 50 drops candy scent with 2 fl oz / 60 ml perfumer’s alcohol or high-proof vodka and store in a fine mister bottle.

Bath & body products

Cotton candy is a delightful addition to bath bombs, sugar scrub, soap, body butter, lotion, lip balm, and many more.

The blend contains a great number of essential oils, which can cause skin irritation. I recommend that you only use the blend at a concentration up to 1.5% in your formulation.

You also need to make sure that your citrus oils (bergamot, lemon, lime) are steam-distilled. Otherwise, they can cause a phototoxic reaction if your skin is exposed to the sun.

Storage tips

Be sure to store your candy cotton blend in a dark, dry place such as a cabinet, drawer, or essential oil box. Sunlight breaks down the oils’ delicate makeup and alters the composition of a fragrance.

You want to keep the bottle sealed when not in use. Essential oils oxidize when exposed to air, and the blend’s balance will change.

Humidity is another factor that affects the quality of oils and can lead to unwanted chemical reactions. Again, keep the bottle close so that evaporation can’t occur.

I recommend 5 ml or 10 ml essential oil bottles for storage. I painted my bottle with pink acrylic paint and a layer of glitter to customize the bottle.

More foodie blends

Cotton candy is a delicious scent. It’s sweet and comforting and always reminds me of springtime! Try my other food-inspired blends if you love gourmand scents as much as I do.

• Sugar Cookie Essential Oil
• Candy Cane Essential Oil
• Pumpkin Spice Essential Oil
• Gingerbread Essential Oil
• Cranberry Essential Oil
• Champagne Essential Oil

FAQ’s

Is cotton candy essential oil aromatherapeutic?

Yes! My cotton candy essential oil recipe offers aromatherapy benefits. The warm, sweet aroma of this blend brings a sense of calm and creates a relaxing atmosphere. It’s a beautiful scent to ease nervousness in children and diffuse to get ready for bedtime.

Is cotton candy essential oil edible?

No! As mouthwatering as the blend smells, essential oils are not safe for consumption and must never be used for food preparation. Instead, try something like LorAnn’s cotton candy flavor oil.

Is homemade cotton candy essential oil safe for pets?

It depends on how you use the blend. Diffusing essential oils around pets shouldn’t be a problem as the oils are highly diluted. Diffusing vanilla-scented oils can even have a calming effect on dogs who experience nervousness.

I also always leave a door or window open when I’m diffusing, so my cats have the option to move to another location if they don’t like the smell.

That being said, you should never apply the eo blend to your pet’s fur. Cassia and cinnamon are toxic for cats and dogs as they may lack the enzymes to metabolize these oils.

Is cotton candy fragrance oil natural?

No, most likely, cotton candy fragrance oil is not natural. The term “fragrance oil” usually indicates that the scent was developed in a lab and synthetically made. In contrast, essential oils are sourced from plant materials.