ResolvableOwl
Notorious Lyear
So I have this tiny bottle of vetiver EO which has the viscosity of molasses and is IMPOSSIBLE to dose. It'll maybe last for the rest of my life – still it has a two year best-by date (and I have a huge talent to miss best-by dates).
A candidate for dilution? Between 1+2 or 1+9 in a neutral carrier oil. Just which? HO sunflower oil would be easiest to access for me, but probably too viscous by itself. MCT oil/fractionated coconut sounds appealing, but still won't be as runny as most other EOs are. Castor oil would be my favourite, weren't it honey-thick by itself. What about ethanol? Propylene glycol? IPM? Cetiol/undecane? Jojoba? Squalane? Ester oil/biodiesel? Cyclomethicone?
Another, more or less related question: EOs are air sensitive. Oxygen attacks EOs, alters (and ruins) scent profiles, eventually resinifies into a sticky mass. The shelf life of EOs is limited by oxidation – All just like it is the case with unsaturated fatty oils! For the latter, the addition of antioxidants (ROE, BHT etc.) has shown good effectiveness. Now, essential oils are just as well mostly highly unsaturated hydrocarbons & their derivatives. Why it seems that nobody has tried antioxidants to protect EOs from oxidative decay?
To bring it all together in practice: It appears tempting to blend 4 g vetiver EO + 16 g MCT oil + 1 µg (50 ppm) carnosic acid from ROE.
One downside is that all this appears (unless I was exceptionally untalented or out of luck to find sources in the interwebz) essentially undiscovered terrain. I have only my nose to judge if that strategy is any good, no fancy gas chromatography or IR spectroscope. On the credit side, we're doing basically this all the time when soapmaking (combining and diluting fragrances, unsaturated oils and antioxidants, to have viable shelf life upon air contact), so it can't be all off.
A candidate for dilution? Between 1+2 or 1+9 in a neutral carrier oil. Just which? HO sunflower oil would be easiest to access for me, but probably too viscous by itself. MCT oil/fractionated coconut sounds appealing, but still won't be as runny as most other EOs are. Castor oil would be my favourite, weren't it honey-thick by itself. What about ethanol? Propylene glycol? IPM? Cetiol/undecane? Jojoba? Squalane? Ester oil/biodiesel? Cyclomethicone?
Another, more or less related question: EOs are air sensitive. Oxygen attacks EOs, alters (and ruins) scent profiles, eventually resinifies into a sticky mass. The shelf life of EOs is limited by oxidation – All just like it is the case with unsaturated fatty oils! For the latter, the addition of antioxidants (ROE, BHT etc.) has shown good effectiveness. Now, essential oils are just as well mostly highly unsaturated hydrocarbons & their derivatives. Why it seems that nobody has tried antioxidants to protect EOs from oxidative decay?
To bring it all together in practice: It appears tempting to blend 4 g vetiver EO + 16 g MCT oil + 1 µg (50 ppm) carnosic acid from ROE.
One downside is that all this appears (unless I was exceptionally untalented or out of luck to find sources in the interwebz) essentially undiscovered terrain. I have only my nose to judge if that strategy is any good, no fancy gas chromatography or IR spectroscope. On the credit side, we're doing basically this all the time when soapmaking (combining and diluting fragrances, unsaturated oils and antioxidants, to have viable shelf life upon air contact), so it can't be all off.
