Fragrance Oil Properties

[Goldsmith]

I'm quite new to soapmaking and am doing CP.
I have been interested in doing some things with sandal wood Eo but feel off my chair when I saw the price, however it looks like the FO are much cheaper.

Just wondered if someone can get me up to speed with FO?
Do you have to use more than you would if you were using EO ?
Do they hold their scent as well as EO ?

I saw a 1 to 1 ratio recipe using sandal wood and all spice that is supposed to be a dead ringer for old spice if I can find both in FO

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks !

 

[lsg]

I don't know if you can find allspice f.o. but I know you can find a good sandalwood f.o. Camden Grey has allspice essential oil for a reasonable price and they also have sandalwood fragrance oil. I like the sandalwood fragrance oil from Wholesale Supplies Plus better than that from Camden Grey. Just use the e.o. and f.o. together. It should work fine.

 

[Goldsmith]

Wow that's great, didn't know you could combine FO and EO

Thanks

 

[Hazel]

Do you have to use more than you would if you were using EO ?
Do they hold their scent as well as EO ?

Amount to use - it depends on the FO. Some strong ones you might only want to use .5 oz ppo. Others may be weak and you need to use a higher amount. Some FOs stick forever and others fade in a few weeks or months. Like everything else, there are some good ones and some bad ones. You might want to look at reviews about FOs for research before deciding to purchase. Some links for reviews:

Fragrance Oils Chart

http://soapscentreview.obisoap.ca/ - This site does require a paid email addy to sign up to help prevent spammers.

You can also find duplicates for a scent at http://www.fragranceoilfinder.com/catalog/index.php

I have heard of some Old Spice FOs available at different suppliers. There have been comments made about Old Spice FOs in the past which you can search for more info. But I think the general consensus was Oregon Trails carries the best Old Spice dupe (but don't hold me to this since I'm just passing on what I read about it).

I saw lsg has already mentioned combining a FO with an EO. I've done this several times and I've been quite pleased with how well the blended scents stuck in the batches.

 

[Goldsmith]

I have a recipe that I have been using:

Lard ...........464 grams
Canola oil......330 grams
Olive Oil........100 grams
Coconut Oil....350 grams
lye...............171 grams
water...........350 grams

How much FO would normally be used for a batch this size ?

 

[Goldsmith]

Amount to use - it depends on the FO. Some strong ones you might only want to use .5 oz ppo. Others may be weak and you need to use a higher amount. Some FOs stick forever and others fade in a few weeks or months. Like everything else, there are some good ones and some bad ones. You might want to look at reviews about FOs for research before deciding to purchase. Some links for reviews:

Fragrance Oils Chart

http://soapscentreview.obisoap.ca/ - This site does require a paid email addy to sign up to help prevent spammers.

You can also find duplicates for a scent at http://www.fragranceoilfinder.com/catalog/index.php

I have heard of some Old Spice FOs available at different suppliers. There have been comments made about Old Spice FOs in the past which you can search for more info. But I think the general consensus was Oregon Trails carries the best Old Spice dupe (but don't hold me to this since I'm just passing on what I read about it).

I saw lsg has already mentioned combining a FO with an EO. I've done this several times and I've been quite pleased with how well the blended scents stuck in the batches.

Great info Thanks !

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome! I can't say how much FO to use for your batch. It really depends on the FO. I generally use between .5 oz ppo to .8 oz ppo so for 1244 g batch I may use 38 g up to 62 g fragrance. If a FO is very light, I might use 1 oz ppo and add 77 g. I think...I'm not used to calculating FOs by grams although I weigh them by grams for a batch.

What lye calculator are you using? I use soapcalc.net and it has a box for entering how much FO you want and it will do the calculation for you.

 

[Goldsmith]

I'm not using a lye calculator yet, just got my recipe out of a book
still getting my feet wet really

 

[Hazel]

You still want to double check all recipes from books or online. Typos do happen and you could end up with either a lye heavy batch or one which doesn't have enough lye to properly saponify.

I like soapcalc because it's so easy to use but there are others you might prefer. Some others which people like:

http://www.brambleberry.com/pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx

https://summerbeemeadow.com/content/lye-calculator-and-recipe-resizer

https://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php

You could also google to search for others.

 

[Relle]

What Hazel said and here's the link for soapcalc -
http://www.soapcalc.net/
I ran your recipe through soapcalc and got this -
Lye - 177.6g
Water - 472.7g

 

[Goldsmith]

What Hazel said and here's the link for soapcalc -
http://www.soapcalc.net/
I ran your recipe through soapcalc and got this -
Lye - 177.6g
Water - 472.7g

The recipe that I had seemed to come out all right
Do you think I should change the lye and the water after all ?

 

[Hazel]

You don't have to change the lye and water if this works for you. Relle calculated the recipe with a 5% superfat and without a water discount (approx. 27% lye concentration) which is why her answer shows higher amounts of lye and water.

The recipe you have is approximately 8% superfat and has a water discount. The lye amount comes out to approximately 33% lye concentration. Generally, the higher the lye concentration, the faster the oils reach trace so people who are starting out tend to not discount the water. It gives a little more time to get used to the process and recognize the stages of emulsification, light trace, medium trace and heavy trace. Also, using slightly more water allows for a little more time if you want to add color and do swirls.

I checked your recipe on soapcalc and if you want a softer scent, you could just add 55 g of FO. You could add more if you want a stronger scent. However, you do want to check what the recommend maximum usage amount is for your fragrance. I've seen some FOs which state 3% is the highest amount to use for safety. This would only work out to approximately 37 g for your batch size. A FO which is safe at 6% would be approximately 74-75 g and a FO with a recommended 5% maximum usage would be 62 g. It really does depend on the strength of the fragrance and what you personally prefer.

 

[Goldsmith]

You don't have to change the lye and water if this works for you. Relle calculated the recipe with a 5% superfat and without a water discount (approx. 27% lye concentration) which is why her answer shows higher amounts of lye and water.

The recipe you have is approximately 8% superfat and has a water discount. The lye amount comes out to approximately 33% lye concentration. Generally, the higher the lye concentration, the faster the oils reach trace so people who are starting out tend to not discount the water. It gives a little more time to get used to the process and recognize the stages of emulsification, light trace, medium trace and heavy trace. Also, using slightly more water allows for a little more time if you want to add color and do swirls.

I checked your recipe on soapcalc and if you want a softer scent, you could just add 55 g of FO. You could add more if you want a stronger scent. However, you do want to check what the recommend maximum usage amount is for your fragrance. I've seen some FOs which state 3% is the highest amount to use for safety. This would only work out to approximately 37 g for your batch size. A FO which is safe at 6% would be approximately 74-75 g and a FO with a recommended 5% maximum usage would be 62 g. It really does depend on the strength of the fragrance and what you personally prefer.

Many thanks Hazel ! :clap:
This clarifies a lot
Doing another batch today sometime and will try the stronger scent