# Rose Geranium and Patchouli



## soapgeek (May 17, 2020)

Hi,

I'd like to try to make a cp batch with rose geranium and patchouli - does anyone have any advice regarding this type of blend (such as, does it need anything to else to fix the scents, or do the two work together really well as a duo...) 
I'm new to soapmaking and trying to learn from the results I'm getting, and also don't want to waste the oils if this is a blend that doesn't really work well together?
Thanks in advance for any advice or pointers


----------



## cmzaha (May 17, 2020)

My first question would be how many batches you have made? Rose Geranium is a very fast accelerating Essential Oil if you are speaking of essential oil. Patchouli is an easy EO to work with but both are very strong and very overpowering EO's. You might want to go with hp if using Rose Geranium. I will leave it up to someone else's opinion for percentages of mixing the two since I do not think I would like them together.


----------



## Belindasuds (May 17, 2020)

pollyhowarth said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to try to make a cp batch with rose geranium and patchouli - does anyone have any advice regarding this type of blend (such as, does it need anything to else to fix the scents, or do the two work together really well as a duo...)
> I'm new to soapmaking and trying to learn from the results I'm getting, and also don't want to waste the oils if this is a blend that doesn't really work well together?
> Thanks in advance for any advice or pointers




Rose/Geranium and Patchouli blend well together scent-wise – a lovely mix. Rose/Geranium is very expensive though and like many florals, it has a tendency to accelerate the batter. Personally I use it sparingly and mostly opt for Palmarosa EO in my soap making. Palmarosa is a grass and as an EO it has a nice, sweet, floral, rosy, geranium-like scent.

Over time, most scents will fade, particularly EO's. It's more or less inevitable however Patchouli is a base note (a strong one too) and as such, will assist in "anchoring" the other EO's in your blend. It would be good to consider adding a top note to the blend to round things out. Bergamot would be a nice one to consider, that scent-wise, goes well with both rose/geranium and patchouli.

Some people use kaolin clay to help anchor scents. I'm not sure how effective it is in doing so, but I like to add it anyway because of it's other benefits.

Certain base oils can also affect the final scent of cold process soap too – something to keep in mind. Also the temps at which you soap can lead to certain scents reaching their "flash point".


----------



## soapgeek (May 17, 2020)

cmzaha said:


> My first question would be how many batches you have made? Rose Geranium is a very fast accelerating Essential Oil if you are speaking of essential oil. Patchouli is an easy EO to work with but both are very strong and very overpowering EO's. You might want to go with hp if using Rose Geranium. I will leave it up to someone else's opinion for percentages of mixing the two since I do not think I would like them together.


Thanks for replying... 

I've made 6 batches of cp so far in total, some successful, a couple not.  I'm not planning on doing any hp soap though...

I don't mix with a stick blender, I do it by hand with a whisk and I'm not adding any colours or doing swirls, just plain soap - will that make a difference do you think?


----------



## soapgeek (May 17, 2020)

Belindasuds said:


> Rose/Geranium and Patchouli blend well together scent-wise – a lovely mix. Rose/Geranium is very expensive though and like many florals, it has a tendency to accelerate the batter. Personally I use it sparingly and mostly opt for Palmarosa EO in my soap making. Palmarosa is a grass and as an EO it has a nice, sweet, floral, rosy, geranium-like scent.
> 
> Over time, most scents will fade, particularly EO's. It's more or less inevitable however Patchouli is a base note (a strong one too) and as such, will assist in "anchoring" the other EO's in your blend. It would be good to consider adding a top note to the blend to round things out. Bergamot would be a nice one to consider, that scent-wise, goes well with both rose/geranium and patchouli.
> 
> ...


Thank you!

I can add oils to a maximum of 3% dilution (UK/EU), would you blend to the full 3% with these oils, or dilute further?

I think I should buy a bigger quantity of EOs so I can play around... I've only got a 10ml bottle each of the rose geranium and the patchouli, so don't want to mess up the blend.

Would 50% patchouli and 50% rose g
geranium work, or would that be too heavy on the patchouli?

I need to get brave with scents, I'm a bit scared of them at the moment as I don't have much experience of them - this is such a huge learning curve!


----------



## SeaSuds (May 17, 2020)

When considering what EO's to buy I gleaned a lot of useful information from this thread: Longest lasting EOs


----------



## Belindasuds (May 18, 2020)

pollyhowarth said:


> Thank you!
> 
> I can add oils to a maximum of 3% dilution (UK/EU), would you blend to the full 3% with these oils, or dilute further?
> 
> ...



It's hard to say because it really comes down to personal preference. 
Personally I would opt for the full amount with the following ratio:

5 parts Bergamot 
3 parts Patchouli
2 parts Rose/Geranium

This blend considers not only the scent, but how it will behave in cold process soap. Bergamot and Patchouli are both considered EO's that don't accelerate. Having 80% of your blend non-accelerating will help to reduce any acceleration caused by Rose/Geranium.


----------



## Virgogoddess (May 18, 2020)

Where is a good distributor for essential oils?


----------



## l-jholmes (May 18, 2020)

I've done well with buying smaller quantities of EOs from Brambleberry, Mountain Rose Herbs, and the Now brand found on Amazon.


----------

