Essential Oil Blends - Please give your suggestions!

[meepocow]

Hello lovely soap makers!

I got my delivery of beautiful essential oils from New Directions Aromatics, and am at a bit of a loss where to start! I've done the preliminary research into EO Calc and some of the suggested blends, as well as top/middle/base note blending, but I would LOVE to pick your brains as to which blends you have enjoyed/ found to be lasting using the below!

I would just love to have some jumping off points, as I would like to spend the next few days dropping sample blends on cotton pads and sniffing/ putting them away for a day and coming back to them. Please help me get my EO blending journey started!

• Tangerine Essential Oil - 5 Fold Natural Blend
• Geranium Essential Oil (Egypt)
• Patchouli Essential Oil - Dark
• Lavender 40/42 Nature Identical Essential Oil
• Eucalyptus Globulus Essential Oil 80/85 %
• Lemon Essential Oil - 5 Fold - Natural Blend
• Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil
• Peppermint Japanese Essential Oil
• Rosemary Essential Oil - ct Cineole (Hungary)
• Grapefruit Essential Oil - Pink - Natural Blend
• Lemongrass Essential Oil

I would also like to ask your general usage rates of EO as % of oils in your soaps, for lasting power? I have seen 3-4% suggested?

Thank you!


Leanne

 

[Zany_in_CO]

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/essential-oils-education.81265/

 

[Zing]

When I first started blending, this was a big help: https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/bl...s-for-soapmaking-starter-essential-oil-blends . Also, this sub-forum has a lot of good suggestions -- see all the responses I got on my recent Patchouli question. Search for @Mobjack Bay 's post on lots of blends that they tested.

In general, citrus with litsea cubeba last longer. Also the folded citrus last longer than plain citrus. My most popular and best-selling is 45/45/10 rosemary / lemongrass / cedarwood.

Which peppermint do you have? There is peppermint 1st distilled and 2nd distilled. One I don't like. The one I like smells like candy canes. Peppermint can get tingly in, um, all the places, so I use the 3% or lower recommendation from eocalc.

For usage rates, I do not use a general one-size fits all like 3% or 4% of oil weight. I use eocalc.com to get the usage rates. In general I use the usage rate that has the highest recommended amount because essential oils can and do fade over time.

I used to do a lot of cotton ball testing, still do. But I really like eocalc's blends! I've blindly tried many and have never been disappointed. Have a great time! I'm loving your newbie energy!

 

[AliOop]

^^what Zing said.

One of my EOCalc favorites is Gentleman’s Lavender. You can leave out the clary sage or use another herbaceous type of scent instead of it.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

All 11 EOs work well as "single note" fragrances with the exception of Litsea Cubeba aka "May Chang". It functions best as an anchor in citrus blends.

litsea cubeba last longer. Also the folded citrus last longer than plain citrus.

essential oils can and do fade over time.

Since EOs are known to fade in about 6 months, consider blending with a complementay FO to "stick" the scent.

Adding the blend to a bit of the oils, or dry additive like clay, used in the recipe before hand also helps.

Search for @Mobjack Bay 's post on lots of blends that they tested.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/eo-blend-test-results.88400/#post-952021

 

[Vicki C]

All of the above. And - some time ago @Misschief suggested equal parts lavender, peppermint, and rosemary, and I owe her a big thank you because this has been one of my top sellers!
I don’t have good luck with grapefruit, tangerine, or lemon - agree with @AliOop to mix with litsea.
Have fun!

 

[dibbles]

I agree with @Zany_in_CO about the EOs being nice as single notes with the exception of litsea cubeba. It is one of my favorites and I love it on it’s own. I like it better than lemongrass, and as far as using it to anchor flighty citrus EOs, I find that they fade anyway and the litsea is the fragrance I can smell. It is also lovely to blend with.

 

[lsg]

You might try here: Aromatherapy, Herbs & Essential Oils

 

[Zany_in_CO]

This is all good advice but if it's blends you want for the EOs you have on hand, I'm at a loss because my faves tend to be more complex. However this might help...

Top 10 Essential Oils and Blends

 

[Vicki C]

This is all good advice but if it's blends you want for the EOs you have on hand, I'm at a loss because my faves tend to be more complex. However this might help...

Top 10 Essential Oils and Blends

Would love to hear your complex blends if they aren’t trade secrets

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Would love to hear your complex blends if they aren’t trade secrets

I'll think about that. Maybe I'll make a new thread "Zany's Blends".

 

[meepocow]

When I first started blending, this was a big help: https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/bl...s-for-soapmaking-starter-essential-oil-blends . Also, this sub-forum has a lot of good suggestions -- see all the responses I got on my recent Patchouli question. Search for @Mobjack Bay 's post on lots of blends that they tested.

In general, citrus with litsea cubeba last longer. Also the folded citrus last longer than plain citrus. My most popular and best-selling is 45/45/10 rosemary / lemongrass / cedarwood.

Which peppermint do you have? There is peppermint 1st distilled and 2nd distilled. One I don't like. The one I like smells like candy canes. Peppermint can get tingly in, um, all the places, so I use the 3% or lower recommendation from eocalc.

For usage rates, I do not use a general one-size fits all like 3% or 4% of oil weight. I use eocalc.com to get the usage rates. In general I use the usage rate that has the highest recommended amount because essential oils can and do fade over time.

I used to do a lot of cotton ball testing, still do. But I really like eocalc's blends! I've blindly tried many and have never been disappointed. Have a great time! I'm loving your newbie energy!

Thank you for the suggestion re EO calc usage rates, very helpful!

This is all good advice but if it's blends you want for the EOs you have on hand, I'm at a loss because my faves tend to be more complex. However this might help...

Top 10 Essential Oils and Blends

Thanks I will check it out! As a new soap maker, I thought I would start with the EOs I see discussed the most often, and made sure to get in some of those middle and base notes to anchor. Really do feel like a (rather fragrant) mad scientist now!

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Really do feel like a (rather fragrant) mad scientist now!

Enjoy the journey... it lasts for a lifetime!

 

[curlycoat2]

Definitely put the eo you have into the eocalc (www.eocalc.com) and suggested blends will appear. You can select more than one eo. There are some beautiful blends on there and they are up to date I believe with the IFRA suggested usage rates as well so that will be a good thing too.

 

[Linda105]

This is all good advice but if it's blends you want for the EOs you have on hand, I'm at a loss because my faves tend to be more complex. However this might help...

Top 10 Essential Oils and Blends

Hello lovely soap makers!

I got my delivery of beautiful essential oils from New Directions Aromatics, and am at a bit of a loss where to start! I've done the preliminary research into EO Calc and some of the suggested blends, as well as top/middle/base note blending, but I would LOVE to pick your brains as to which blends you have enjoyed/ found to be lasting using the below!

I would just love to have some jumping off points, as I would like to spend the next few days dropping sample blends on cotton pads and sniffing/ putting them away for a day and coming back to them. Please help me get my EO blending journey started!

• Tangerine Essential Oil - 5 Fold Natural Blend
• Geranium Essential Oil (Egypt)
• Patchouli Essential Oil - Dark
• Lavender 40/42 Nature Identical Essential Oil
• Eucalyptus Globulus Essential Oil 80/85 %
• Lemon Essential Oil - 5 Fold - Natural Blend
• Litsea Cubeba Essential Oil
• Peppermint Japanese Essential Oil
• Rosemary Essential Oil - ct Cineole (Hungary)
• Grapefruit Essential Oil - Pink - Natural Blend
• Lemongrass Essential Oil

I would also like to ask your general usage rates of EO as % of oils in your soaps, for lasting power? I have seen 3-4% suggested?

Thank you!


Leanne

Instead of lemongrass, try bergamot