Fixing the smell of essential oils

[daisy8]

My soaps loose their smell very quickly. (Within 6 - 8 weeks.) I only use essential oils. I use about 4 EO g to 425 gr soap oils. Is there a way of ensuring that the smell remains longer in the soap? Do some EO last better than others?

I use Bergamot, Lavender, Frankincense, Myrrh, Tea Tree, Geranium and Jasmine (though I think the Jasmine was watered down a lot before I purchased it.)

I prefer that I don't use Fragrance Oils because as far as I am aware they have a chemical make-up, and I'm aiming that the soaps are natural and vegetarian.

With thanks for any input.

 

[Lotus]

Hey, I don't work in grams at the moment. But, it is comparatively advised that your EOs be about 5% of your oils.

As far as Jasmine goes. I wanted a Jasmine EO so badly, but found that there is actually no such thing as a true Jasmine EO, because the petals are too fragile to undergo the process. So anyone advertising it as such, you should be wary of. If you want that scent, you'll want to go with FO, but since I don't use FO, I'll have to see if one day, I cave in and do it.

 

[soapsydaisy]

You lost me with the grams, lol. I use .3 to .5 ounces of essential oil per pound of oils. I usually anchor my EOs with some kaolin clay, it seems to help.

I just used a converter to figure out grams to ounces. It seems that 425 grams is about 15 ounces and 4 grams is .14 of an ounce. You might want to try 6 or 8 grams of EO to see if that sticks better for you. I usually use .3 ounces of EO for a pound of soap. Try 3 grams of Tea Tree and 5 grams of lavender, that ratio usually sticks pretty well for me. Good luck.

 

[Lotus]

Thank you! I didn't feel like converting the grams to ounces. I'm glad someone did. : )

 

[daisy8]

Thank you so much for the input. I am really using far too little essential oil it seems. That's good to know. I will up the amount and see how it goes. Sorry about the gms, it's what we use here, I forgot to convert for the board.

 

[VanessaP]

1oz ppo is roughly 6%. I don't know anyone who uses 6% in EOs. FOs, yes, but not EOs because they are SO much more potent and have potential health risks and some have such low usage rates.

The usage rate of EOs is based on aromatherapy usage rates which is 2-3%, which is between 0.3 and 0.5oz ppo, which is 18 to 30g per kilo of oils.

 

[innerdiva73]

I have added my base note in powder form ( like sandalwood, Myrrh, Frankinscense) and later added my mixture of my essential oil to help anchor the scent. If you love mixing like me, I let my mixture sit for 1 week before i soap. This allows the oils to fully fuse with each other.

 

[Lotus]

Everyone has their own idea of how much fragrance to add based on their own personal preferences. But a general guideline that most use is about .7 - 1 oz of eo ppo. I always use 1oz ppo!! Since 425 gram is very close to 1lb of oils, you probably need to be adding close to an ounce of eo...you should be using anywhere from 19-28 grms of eo. That's probably your main problem.

You can also try to anchor the scent by using cornstarch or clay as mentioned. Always get your oils from a reputable supplier. Blending more than one oil also helps anchor fragrances. But in the end you'll still have to start with enough, to stay strong.

Hope this helps.

Hey, you might want to correct this for clarity! I imagine you mean grams, here. Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. You'd have to be making a REALLY big batch of soap to be using that many ounces of EO. : ) edited quoted post

 

[Lotus]

You know, though. I recently made a batch with an EO blend. And I used the ratio of 4:2:1 for top note, middle note, and base note, respectively, and my base note is the majority of the scent. I really need to get this ratio figured out. Unless it's simply that Cedarwood is a particularly strong scent and should be minimized in all cases? I don't know. Some extra weigh-in on this factor, would be nice.

 

[innerdiva73]

You know, though. I recently made a batch with an EO blend. And I used the ratio of 4:2:1 for top note, middle note, and base note, respectively, and my base note is the majority of the scent. I really need to get this ratio figured out. Unless it's simply that Cedarwood is a particularly strong scent and should be minimized in all cases? I don't know. Some extra weigh-in on this factor, would be nice.

What works for me when using strong notes like Cedarwood and Star Anise is if your mixing an oil, only add 1 or 2 drops just to give the scent a slight boost and let it sit for about an hour and come back to it. Your nose can play a trick on you sometimes especially if you are constantly sniffing and adding as your creating your scent.

 

[new12soap]

a general guideline that most use is about .7 - 1 oz of eo ppo.

That is WAY too much essential oil. Some essential oils are safe at higher usage rates, many are not safe at far far less. The general guideline for essential oils is a maximum of 3%. They are unregulated drugs and should be used with great care.

For your recipe of 425g of oils, you are currently using a little less than 1%, you could go up to 12g of EOs pretty comfortably.

I know that a lot of people want to stay with "natural" scents, but everything you are using is a chemical, and please do not think "natural" is the same thing as "safe". Arsenic and poison ivy are both natural. Just something to think about.

 

[Birdie Wife]

In the UK we are not allowed by law to use more than 3% essential oils by the weight of the finished soap . Assuming the water portion will eventually evaporate, I use 3% weight of oils so 30g in 1kg of oils. It's by far the most expensive part of the soap!

 

[dcornett]

Good thing I only do a couple soaps with eo...guess I'll be recalculating the amount of eo that goes in them!!!