Aromatically challenged

[ilove2soap]

OK, I have been a hobbyist soapmaker for over a year and have the worst luck with producing strongly scented soap. I LOVE strong scents and purchase fragrance oils from reputable companies like WSP, Elements, and Southern Soapers, but after a month or two many lose their scent. I almost always soap CP at 1 oz pp of oils. Now in all fairness, there have been a few fragrance oils that are great, but not many. I have used clays to help with fragrance retention. Am I missing something? Can I use more than 1 oz per pound of oils? Before I started making soap I used to purchase from a lovely seller on Etsy. After I would recieve those soaps (which were very fragrant) I would put them in my dresser drawers to make the clothes smell nice. Well, yesterday I found two long forgotten bars from that seller in the back of a dresser drawer. They were over a year old and STILL smelled amazing. One was scented with fragrance oil and one with essential oil. Why don't I have better results with my soaps? Any thoughts, hints or suggestions?

 

[cmd439]

Do you check the flash point before you soap to make sure the heat is not too much for the particular fo?

 

[soapbuddy]

Have you tried not gelling?

 

[agriffin]

I'm just posting this and it might be a stupid response...

But when I am standing in my soap room and pick up a bar of soap...I can't smell it at all. But if I take it out of the room away from other soaps...I can smell it. Can you take one of the older soaps away from all of the other soaps and see if you can smell it?

 

[ilove2soap]

Thanks for the responses. I let all my soaps gel. I didn't know that could make a difference! Maybe the next batch should go in the freezer and see if that will make a difference!
I never considered the flashpoint. This may sound stupid, but I'm not exactly sure what the flash point means to soapmaking. Does the fragrance oil "burn off" if the soap gets too hot? That is certainly something to consider as I make a lot of milk and honey soaps which get pretty toasty. I thought flashpoint was geared more toward hp soapmaking.
I do try to get the soaps away from each other when doing the sniff test. Sometimes some of the scent returns when I use it in the bath, but as I give a lot of soap for gifts I like them to smell strong when a friend or family member opens the gift bag! I hate to have to tell them what the soap is supposed to smell like because the scent has all but disappeared.

 

[PrairieCraft]

I'm just posting this and it might be a stupid response...

But when I am standing in my soap room and pick up a bar of soap...I can't smell it at all. But if I take it out of the room away from other soaps...I can smell it. Can you take one of the older soaps away from all of the other soaps and see if you can smell it?

Oh good, I thought I may have ruined my sniffer cus I can't smell a damn thing anymore. My whole house has turned into a soap room. I practically have to shove a bar up my nose to smell anything. There have been batches that I think have very little scent, but someone who doesn't live here will say smells wonderful. I'm thinking they are just trying to be nice to me. Crazy soapers.

 

[honor435]

flashpoint is more for shipping, not soapmaking, I add my eos, fos to hot soap and its fine. We talked about this before on past post, look it up.
I dont know why your soap smell is fading, I use ng and peak at 1oz pp, and it still smells much later, depending on which fo.

 

[cmd439]

I never considered the flashpoint. This may sound stupid, but I'm not exactly sure what the flash point means to soapmaking. Does the fragrance oil "burn off" if the soap gets too hot? That is certainly something to consider as I make a lot of milk and honey soaps which get pretty toasty. I thought flashpoint was geared more toward hp soapmaking.
.

The flashpoint is the temperature at which it begins to evaporate. It can't be shipped in a method which will go above this temp. Also, say if you get a very hot gel or cpop something that goes above the flash point, you will lose scent. This is why I put certain fo batches in the freezer, but not others--aside from a non-gel or gel standpoint. I do have a cpop planned but I plan on using a high flash point fo.

I don't really know much about HP so I can't really comment on that.