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I like avocado oil in lotion and in soaps. I can use it on my face without any problem but I can also use olive oil OOB. Avocado has a different fatty acid profile than sweet almond oil. It is a good choice for the winter months. I like to substitute macadamia during the summer months because...

Please make a list of the ones you bought and let us know how you like them. If you don't keep soaps for a long time, their FOs may work just fine except for the ones that discolor badly and lather ugly yellow. There were several I liked when first poured that ended up morphing after a long...

After trying some 30 of their FOs in soaps, I decided not to use their FOs for my soaps. Even the ones I liked initially morphed with a longer cure and lost their complexity. There are few exceptions. Their Frankincense and Myrrh is super strong and overpowering but when poured at a lower...

I so need to update this thread because a number of the FOs that I haven't reviewed yet survived a long cure and are quite nice soap scents. This post is only an updated description of the process I use to make the testers: I try to keep my testing as similar to my regular soaping process...

I'm about to update the Fragrance buddy review thread with the description of my process. As I wrote it, I realized that I don't do anything special. I just pour a lot of small soaps. I tried to put some observations that hopefully will help you avoid some of the mistakes I made. An...

I have no recommendations for blends with Patchouli. I just want to highly recommend LP's Cedarwood blend. It is so lovely! I'm grateful she opted to share it and I can't imagine anybody not liking it. My swap soap still has a strong scent at 9 months.

Don't ever do that! It's like playing with a bomb and hoping it won't go off. If you add lye to the appropriate amount of liquid, the temperature will come close to boiling. It is safer to start with cold water (refrigerated) and even some frozen water to help cool it down. Add the lye in...

Do you think it smells like a darjeeling tea or does it smell more floral like the white tea FOs? I poured 2 tea testers today, one from Nurture and the other from Flaming Candle. I still don't trust my nose 100% after the flu, but both of these have citrus and/or floral notes. They are...

I just finished a batch today. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and describe the process. It's really a regular soaping session. I just pour a lot of 30 to 40g testers. I aliquot the FOs a day or 2 before into small pp tubes and add a little clay if I think they need it. I can pour 40 to 50...

I made a mistake of walking into Nordstrom around Christmas and they had a long display of Jo Malone's colognes. I ended up liking most of them. They are fresh, clean and mostly unisex. I thought they would be perfect in soap if they work for cp. The majority are not available from FO...

I'm still looking for the Fig scent from A Garden Eastward and their White Tea and Ginger. I've ordered many Fig scents but nothing compares, same for the WT&G. I'm also still looking for a good dupe for L'Occitane Milk and Linden soap scents, also a good malty Black Tea FO and a Ginger FO...

I get my oils from Soaper's choice. I always get the organic oils when available. I call the warehouse to make sure what I'm getting is food grade before I order. We use the oils for food, not just soap.

Would you please consider getting the Keemun Tea duped or asking Nurture soaps to dupe it? Getting a good tea FO isn't easy. I tried the BB Black Tea and my experience with it was similar to LenaRenee's. Initially, it smelled like somebody dumped liquid smoke in a cup of black tea. It...

What happens with clay and other solids we add to anchor fragrances is a process called adsorption. This is best described as an association or reversible attachment between the fragrance molecules and the clay. The process may protect some molecules that are partially resistant to lye by...

It's the pH of the soap that is the enemy of most EOs and fragrance compounds. If the compounds are not stable in high pH, they are going to react and turn into something else that may not smell like anything to us. Sometimes the reaction is reversible. The scent may come back some as the pH...

What is the pH of your EDTA solution? There are 2 different EDTA chemicals available. Depending on which one you used and if you didn't correct the pH, it could use up some of your NaOH and increase the superfat making for a softer soap longer.

What Susie said. FCO makes crappy soap. It's the stuff that makes homemade soap drying and unpleasant. Buy the regular coconut oil and save yourself a disappointment.

I'm off to order. I'm looking forward to testing new FOs. I haven't sent the TCS FOs for duplication yet. I should be able to mail them out this coming week.

You need to rule out some of the simpler more obvious problems before going into the more complicated. I think you didn't have enough KOH to saponify all your oils. Even a small residual oil will cause clouding and a film to form. 0% superfat is never perfectly accurate because KOH purity and...

Thank you so much. I'm a hobbyist but I share my soaps with about 50 people so I'm at a point where I buy the FOs I like in larger volume. I'm not in a hurry for these. I have enough to last me till the end of the year. For most of them, I'll be able to send you enough to test in advance so...