Adding scent with pipette fluid volume measurement

[soapopera]

Recently I felt adding scent by weight seems a bit of a waste as some drops will still stick on the measuring container when you try to pour it into the soap mixture. I'm thinking to switch to those disposal plastic pipettes which I can pump and squirt directly into the oils before blending. I want to know how you folks convert the weight to fluid volume. Just say I need 8grams of fragrance, and the normal conversion from grams to mililiters would be 8ml (provided if it's water). Now I feel some EOs are of different weight, no? How much would you use in mililiter conversion? Any ideas?

 

[agriffin]

Fragrances vary when it comes to weight. I weigh mine so I can't help you.

 

[NancyRogers]

Because FOs and EOs can have different weights by volume, there is no way to accurately do this. I know it's not the answer you were looking for. Been there. I was thinking along the same lines when I was making some bath fizzies.

 

[carebear]

Further, the markings on those dispo-pipettes is really not at all accurate, nor consistently incorrect.

I go by weight - if you are using a pipette to dispense it anyway, why not dispense it into your wax directly rather than into a separate container first?

But really, how much fragrance oil does your measuring container hold onto anyway? It takes about 20 drops to make even 1 ml. Make sure you use one of a reasonable size to minimize waste since the surface area will be small.

If you want to do accurately by volume, you need good glass pipettes of lab quality with gradations on the side and you need to know how to use and clean them. Then to convert the weight to volume you need to know the specific gravity/density. But be aware that the SG is temperature dependent... Ain't nothing simple LOL.

 

[sharnofshade]

I don't think you'd need to do any calculations at all, as long as you have an accurate enough scale.

1. Set your pipette onto your scale.
2. Hit tare (or make a note of how much your pipette weighs)
3. Draw FO into your pipette.
4. Set pipette back on scale and see whether you've drawn the right weight of FO.
5. If the weight is too low, draw in more FO. If it's too high, squirt some back into your FO bottle.
6. dispense correct weight of FO directly into soap.

This lets you keep your recipes measurements in weights, without leaving any excess FO on unnecessary weighing cups.

 

[jadiebugs1]

I don't think you'd need to do any calculations at all, as long as you have an accurate enough scale.

1. Set your pipette onto your scale.
2. Hit tare (or make a note of how much your pipette weighs)
3. Draw FO into your pipette.
4. Set pipette back on scale and see whether you've drawn the right weight of FO.
5. If the weight is too low, draw in more FO. If it's too high, squirt some back into your FO bottle.
6. dispense correct weight of FO directly into soap.

This lets you keep your recipes measurements in weights, without leaving any excess FO on unnecessary weighing cups.

I'm thinking......"what a mess that will make!" IMHO...

 

[sharnofshade]

I'm thinking......"what a mess that will make!" IMHO...

I use this method when I'm working with resin and silicone, and there's no mess at all. Liquids stay compeltely inside either the pipette or the final container, with none going anywhere else.

Is there something specific about FO that would make this process messy? I don't use FOs, so I might be missing something obvious.

 

[soapbuddy]

I only go by weight. If I had to use pipettes, I would need a lot of them and that would add to my cost.

 

[soapopera]

Thanks for all the feedbacks. I'm going to rethink my methods. Actually I've thought about measuring with volume instead of weight because I'm thinking more on the aromatheraphy aspect. Most books I've read on aromatheraphy uses dilution by volume instead of weight. Also I want to use pippettes because the EOs I've got come in those droppers that dispense per drops. It took forever for it to drip into a container. And my scale have like a 4 minute self turn-off mode. There's been a few times especially in the midst of dispensing thick oils like Patchouli, the scale turned off before I could get the correct weight.

 

[judymoody]

I have one pipette for each EO or FO I use. I label them and use them for one specific scent each (so no need to wash/introduce water). I then draw up the FO/EO and transfer what I need into a glass jar on my scale. Virtually no mess or waste. I can use a pipette many times before it fails.

I tried the toothpick along the edge of the glass bottle trick and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think it varies according to the relative viscosity of the EO/FO.

Hope this helps!

 

[madpiano]

I use FOs by volume and EOs by weight.

Reason? too much wasteage measuring and ordering FOs in larger than I need. My main FO supplier sells FOs in 50ml and 200ml bottles. My oil weight is 1800g, so theoretically I should add 54g of FO. I take the chicken way out and add one 50ml bottle. This way I know I am definitley under the maximum allowed amount but not that far, that the smell disappears. Oil is lighter than water, it works for me. If I would order the 200ml bottles and weigh, I would always have an odd amount left in the bottle.

 

[Deda]

When I'm doing an itty bitty test batch and I want only a few grams I set the bottle on the scale, zero out and then suck out the amount I need with a pipette.

Still using weight, not volume, but easy peasy.