# Question about orange oil.



## Bullets (Jan 20, 2013)

Im going to make my first batch of soap with all lard. I have a small bottle of orange essential oil sitting in my cabnet. I use it to scent my homemade laundry detergent. Its from now foods and says on the bottle to if i want to use it for anything other than aromatherapy to dilute with a carrier oil. Well i want to add it to my first batch of soap and im wonder how much i should use ppo. Do yall have any advice? I also have peppermint and lavender. Would any combo of the three smell good? I am not very good at figuring out what scents smell good together! Thanks!


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## lizflowers42 (Jan 21, 2013)

You will be diluting it in your lard. Orange and lavender play very well together as does orange and mint!


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## thefarmerdaughter (Jan 21, 2013)

I have used Now Foods Tangerine EO and it faded completely. Citirus EO's  tend to do that, and this Companies's EO's in particular. I would suggest searching the posts on here, and find a way to _combine_ it or _anchor_ it, with other oils.


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## Gryfonmoon (Jan 21, 2013)

I've used orange oil mixed with lavender or peppermint. The orange oil seems to enhance the other scents pretty well. By itself orange essential oil seems to smell almost gross, LOL.


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## lsg (Jan 21, 2013)

If you have some kaolin clay you might try adding a little of it to you soap to anchor the orange scent.  Citrus oils have a tendency to fade if not anchored with another EO or clay.


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## houseofwool (Jan 21, 2013)

When mixing the orange oil with say peppermint, do you do a 1:1 ratio?

I've also seen other mention that the citrus oils tend to last longer in salt bars.  How much salt is required to anchor the EO?  (I am expecting a shipment of orange oil shortly and want to figure this out so I can start using it!)


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## lsg (Jan 21, 2013)

Peppermint is pretty strong so I would probaby do 1 peppermint and 2 orange.  You can test the combinations using Q-Tips and a plastic bag.   Some people use a 1:1 ration of salt to the amount of oils, I use 60%-80%.


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## Gryfonmoon (Jan 21, 2013)

I usually do 1:1 but I like my scents really strong, especially peppermint.


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## houseofwool (Jan 28, 2013)

Hmmm, so this weekend, I did a batch with 2 parts orange oil to 1 part peppermint oil.  I also used annatto to dye the batch a gentle orange color.  Guess what it doesn't smell like at all.    So, I have a very pretty batch of orange colored soap that smells like Christmas.


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## houseofwool (Jan 28, 2013)

My next thought is using salt to anchor the scent, but I'm not sure I want to make a full on salt bar.  Any thoughts on how much salt would be required to help hold the citrus scent?


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## sapone (Jan 28, 2013)

houseofwool said:


> My next thought is using salt to anchor the scent, but I'm not sure I want to make a full on salt bar.  Any thoughts on how much salt would be required to help hold the citrus scent?



You can use a small amount of Lemongrass e/o or Litsea Cubeba e/o to anchor the orange scent. Also, try 1/2 tsp per pound oils of orris root powder as an anchor for scents that dissipate like citrus.


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## houseofwool (Feb 9, 2013)

So, I soaped again today and did it at roughly 80 degrees using litsea to help anchor.  I stuck the molded soaps on my unheated porch (which is roughly 38 degrees right now) and so far it seems that the orange has stuck around, at least a bit.

I did .2 oz litsea to 1 oz orange (not folded) PPO.


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