blending essential oils

[CTAnton]

well folks it's like this...I purchased a bar of soap the other day called
Out of India...according to the manufacturer its a blend of 9 essential oils from patchouli and lavender to cinnamon cardamom coriander clove and more..thats just the four of the ones with c as the first letter! Its here in front of my computer scenting the whole area...like being in a spice store!I love it ! I do find it fascinating and a bit of a quandary how they can sell a bar with that many oils for 4 bucks....especially considering the costs on some if not all of them. I can't imagine this is simply a matter of buying in bulk.
So I guess I have 2 questions:
1. How do they do it cost wise?
2.How does one go about blending such a intoxicating and complicated smell? From my limited knowledge one would buy the oils mentioned, pipette out various drop amounts onto a cotton swab, enclose all in a bag or jar and basically whiff away...
Many thanks to all of you who answered my previous questions...

 

[Dorymae]

You need to realize that no matter how many oils were blended for a scent they will still only use about .5 - 1 PPO. So if you make a lavender loaf with about 3 lbs of oil, (about 5lbs of uncured soap) you would use between 1.5 ounces and 3 ounces of scent. If you made your soap with the nine oil blend at the highest ratio you would only use .333 ounces of each scent to reach the full 3 ounces of fragrance.

So even if you used some expensive EO's you are using so little that it makes the blend much more affordable per bar than you would think. Buying in bulk can drastically cut your cost per bar when you realize that bulk does not mean 25 lbs at a time but means drums of 400 lbs at a time.