Essental Oil Ratio

[Goldsmith]

I have a Lard, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, and Canola Oil Soap recipe that I am going to use for my first soap making attempt.
The total amount in grams of everything including the lye and excluding the water is 3470 grams
I would like to use essential oils to scent it in the ratio of

3 Lavender
1 Rosemary

Can anyone give me an idea of how to figure up how much essential oil to use in this batch ?

I dont have a clue :shock:
Thanks

 

[Seifenblasen]

If you are using fragrance oil, go with the manufacturer's recommended usage rate. For CP it is usually a percentage of the weight of all the oils.

The safe usage rate of essential oils is 3% or lower. The percentage is the TOTAL amount of essential oils combined.

You may want to jump over to the aromatherapy, essential oils and herbs forum as there are more information on this subject.

For example, if the total weight of all your oils is 3000g, 3% would be 90g, which means you would use 67.5g lavender and 22.5g rosemary.

BTW, you may want to experiment with a smaller batch, say, around 800 to 1000g of oils. 3000g plus batch is a lot, especially for a first attempt!

*Edited to be consistent with safe essential oil usage guideline of this forum.

 

[Goldsmith]

I think I will cut my batch in half

 

[Goldsmith]

I wonder how many grams a couple of fluid ounces of essential oil would way
Havent ordered any yet :roll:

 

[Seifenblasen]

1 fluid oz. = 29.57 ml. For water, 1 ml = 1g. As to essential oils, they have different specific gravity. For example, sweet orange is about 0.89. So 1g of sweet orange will be approximately:

1 / 0.89 = 1.12 ml

Therefore 2 fluid oz. of sweet orange weighs:

2 x 29.57 / 1.12 = 52.80g

In most cases, essential oils weigh slightly less than water.

Many suppliers, such as Bulk Apothecary or Brambleberry, sell essential oils by weight instead of volume.

 

[Goldsmith]

Thanks for the heads up
That was exactly what I needed to know

 

[Lindy]

Seifenblasen the reason you shouldn't go above 3% with essential oils is because they are therapeutic, not because they may be skin irritants. Even Lavender essential oil is therapeutic and needs to be respected.

Please everyone take the time to research the essential oils you are planning on using. There is a lot of good information out there.

 

[Seifenblasen]

Understood. My rationale is, according to this interview with Robert Tisserand (link below), 40% of the esters in lavender EO react with lye in CP. Doing a SUPER rough back of the envelope calculation, out of the 5% I use, 40% of which will decomposed into an acid salt and alcohol. If I use 5%, only 3% of the EO will remain as somewhat of an EO.

http://roberttisserand.com/2011/06/esse ... evin-dunn/

I agree with you for lotions and other leave on products that we should not go over 3%. For CP, very often a significant portion of the EOs reacts with lye and becomes "inert". In that case could I safety go slightly higher?

 

[Lindy]

Seifenblasen according to Robert Tisserand the therapeutic properties remain active even in soap which is why 3% is the highest recommended even in a wash off product. The reasoning behind is that for certain situations, (alcoholics, babies, compromised immune systems, high blood pressure, etc.,) 1.5% is therapeutic so at 3% we are already above that however it is considered generally safe. In leave-on products you should be at the 1.5%. Essential oils were never developed for scenting personal care products, they were developed for therapeutic use. In France it is my understanding that Certified Clinical Aromatherapists and essential oil treatments are covered by health care.

In North America we tend to poo poo aromatherapy and the treatments associated.

 

[Seifenblasen]

I still am not 100% in agreement, as rose, jasmine, sandalwood were developed in the East as personal scents during the time when Europeans hardly bathed.

However, for the sake of this forum, I will keep my opinions to myself and adopt the 3% maximum usage rate.

 

[Lindy]

You do know that all three of those can cause early labour in pregnant women and have been used to create abortions right? None of them are safe to use during pregnancy. It is one of the reasons I so strongly recommend knowing your oils. The good news is that most people, including aromatherapists can't afford those oils.

I am simply asking that you know what you are doing. We consider soapmaking a hobby when it is actually chemistry and that includes what we add to the soap. There is nothing wrong with using EO's in your products as long as you are willing to learn EO safety. Of course people will & can do what they want even though they've had what the safe levels are....