# Do you measure FO's & EO's by volume or weight?



## TinyVineyardSoaps (Jan 19, 2014)

So it occurred to me that maybe I'm not measuring my fragrances correctly?  Most of my customers like the potency of fragrance in my products, but I'm going to branch into using more EO's and know I need to be more cautious with them since you're to use a percentage per weight of oils. (I know that rule applies to FO's, but EO's seem to have more health impacts to consider.) which makes me wonder. Should I measure the fragrances by weight or volume? I've been going by weight for pretty much everything (oils, butters, etc) for my CP soap and lotion bars, including the fragrances.  Is that correct or am I worrying needlessly?


----------



## coffeetime (Jan 19, 2014)

I use grams. I also use Soapmaker 3 software which calculates my scent for me.


----------



## Kansas Farm Girl (Jan 20, 2014)

I always use weight for everything, just because that keeps consistency. If I need a % of oils and switch from weight to volume the total I add would change. I don't have a comparison for FO/EOs but I do have a spreadsheet that tells me the weight equivalent of volume measurements of the various oils.  For example, if you use 10 oz of olive oil, that is 10.9 oz if you measure by volume. That is true for several liquid oils but babassu oil is 10 in weight and 11.1 oz in volume. lard is 10/10.8 and sweet almond is 10/10.5. These that I have mentioned, in these differences, are between 5-11% change of the weight. So, for me I go with weight for everything.


----------



## lsg (Jan 20, 2014)

I measure by weight using a digital scale.


----------



## Twiggy (Jan 20, 2014)

Here to - weight!


----------



## shunt2011 (Jan 20, 2014)

I measure by weight as well.


----------



## dixiedragon (Jan 20, 2014)

I do mine by volume. My scale measures in fractions rather than decimals, so the smallest I can get is 1/8. It goes from 1/8, 1/4, 1/2.

Plus, I just "grew up" as a soap maker measuring my FOs and EOs by volume.


----------



## QueenBeeSoap (Jan 21, 2014)

I measure my fragrance oils by volume in mL using plastic transfer pipettes (love them!).  I usually make small batches and my scale doesn't seem to reliably pick up on very small quantities of fragrance oils, so I get more consistent results this way.  Everything else (water, lye, oils, etc.) I measure by weight in grams.


----------



## Nevada (Jan 21, 2014)

Here's a good thread on weighing and pouring



TinyVineyardSoaps said:


> So it occurred to me that maybe I'm not measuring my fragrances correctly?  Most of my customers like the potency of fragrance in my products, but I'm going to branch into using more EO's and know I need to be more cautious with them since you're to use a percentage per weight of oils. (I know that rule applies to FO's, but EO's seem to have more health impacts to consider.) which makes me wonder. Should I measure the fragrances by weight or volume? I've been going by weight for pretty much everything (oils, butters, etc) for my CP soap and lotion bars, including the fragrances.  Is that correct or am I worrying needlessly?


----------



## judymoody (Jan 21, 2014)

Weight.  You can get a great reliable scale from TKB trading that measures to the 1/100th gram for around $13.  I think it's called the itty bitty scale.

For EOs, this forum recommends a maximum of 3 % for EO amount with respect to soaping oils weight.


----------



## Skatergirl46 (Jan 21, 2014)

I measure by weight with a digital scale. It's more accurate than the volume measurement.


----------



## soap_rat (Jan 22, 2014)

I go by volume.  Most EOs are a little less dense than water so I just convert grams to mL.  (If the EO is has an IFRA limit I check the density to make sure going by volume won't mean going over).  I use a glass syringe and was using plastic transfer pipettes (10mL and 25mL) but quite a few EOs dissolve plastic so I am shopping for glass.  If you're interested in a syringe or a glass transfer pipette I'll tell you what to look for.


----------



## Saponista (Jan 22, 2014)

I measure by volume in a small glass measuring cylinder. I nabbed it from work when they were skipping a load of glassware. I think you can buy them online though.


----------



## tweetibyrd (Jan 23, 2014)

I always measure by weight, I think its more accurate also.


----------

