Beer Soap Complication

[stu0]

Hello, a couple of days ago I tried to make a beer soap. Now after 4 days it doesn't smell the way it should. I added a lot of cedarwood and blood orange essential oil, but the smell just went away.

Can anyone tell me why is that so?

This is my recipe:
87g lye
174g flat boiled beer (dark lager)
400g lard
200g rapeseed oil
100g olive oil

~20 drops cedarwood essential oil
~20 drops blood orange essential oil

I should also add that essential oils were not natural they were synthetic

 

[Dawni]

So no scent at all from the EOs?

I think you used too less EO for it to scent the whole batch. If you mean you used a fragrance oil, it might still not be enough though FOs stick better.

That or the EOs couldn't get away from the lye monster lol

 

[AliOop]

Instead of measuring EOs by drops, it is much safer to use EOcalc.com to get the correct weight of each EO to use for your batch. Safe usage rates vary greatly from EO to EO, so you may find that you need to use lot more, or a lot less.

 

[stu0]

Thank you for info. But I probably poured in a quarter of my orange EO and for the first two days it smelled really nice, and now there are no hints of orange. Before this recipe I made a lavender aroma soap and I used a tea spoon of EO and the soap still smells nice.

 

[KiwiMoose]

A couple of things -
Beer soap tends to smell a bit more of beer for the first few weeks until the fragrance starts to shine through
You more than likely didn't use enough fragrance - newbie mistake because we are so used to using EOs sparingly. As AliOop has said - you need to weigh them. First time I used them I didn't;t use anywhere near enough - and yes, for my FO 30ml bottles, I pretty much use the entire bottle for a 1 ltr batch
Orange is not a known 'sticker' - it tends to fade

 

[Anstarx]

I should also add that essential oils were not natural they were synthetic

Then they won't be EOs but FOs-frangrance oils.

The total weight of your soap (oil, water, lye together) is 961g. Your EO/FO are 40 drops in total. Typically one drop will be 60 mg-ish so 40 drops makes about 2.4g, that's about a 0.2% concentration.

Check your retailer for the safe amount in soap of your EO/FO and decide your amount from there. If it's safe, I like to use my EO/FOs at 5% of my entire batch, for super strong scents (like a green tea FO of mine) I use maybe 3%, but rarely lower than that. Lye and curing will take a lot of scent away.

 

[SeaSuds]

Also depends what country you are from. If you are in the EU you cannot go above 3%.

 

[stu0]

@KiwiMoose Oh okay so I will wait for some more weeks before i give up. Thank you.

@Anstarx Thank you will measure it next time

@SeaSuds I didn't actually know that and yes I am from EU. Does that includes EOs and FOs? Or is it just for EOs?

 

[DeeAnna]

If the soap is for personal use only, I don't think there are legal restrictions on the amount of scent you can use. If you think you might ever sell your soap, then you do need to learn and follow the rules, get your recipes assessed, and stick with them.

Regardless of whether you might eventually sell or not, you owe it to yourself to use essential oils (EOs) and fragrance oils (FOs) safely, so get familiar with the recommended usage rates for the scents you are using. Your supplier should provide the safe usage rates for FOs -- look for either the supplier's recommendations for soap use or look for the IFRA guidelines. I have some more tips here about IFRA: https://classicbells.com/soap/fragrance.asp

Citrus EOs and FOs tend to not last long in soap, so even if some of the citrusy scent comes back as the soap cures, enjoy it while it lasts. Eventually only the cedarwood will remain, if you've used enough.

 

[SeaSuds]

this is a good thread to bookmark too: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/longest-lasting-eos.77315/

 

[Curtis]

As others have said you definitely added way too little EO/FO. The recipe otherwise looks good. Without the beer you'd not have many bubbles but the beer should fix that. After a good cure it will probably be very nice soap to use, despite the lack of a smell.

As someone who completely forgot to even add my EO/FO a few times I'd say don't despair. You made a mistake but it's definitely a usable mistake!