Fragrance Oil Stinks!

[squarepancakes]

A month or so back I was trying to make some coffee soap. Wanting a nice coffee scent, I bought and tried a new coffee FO. Big mistake here, buying from a new supplier and not doing a small batch test. The FO caused my soap to seize up but I managed to somehow save it by HP.

That said, after cut and curing, the soap works as it ought to, but instead of the lovely coffee fragrance it's supposed to have, it smells like moist damp rotting herbs. It stinks so badly that I dont even cure it together with my other bars as it's just so overwhelming. Very unpleasant. So here I am, trying to tap onto the collective knowledge of our community here, how can I salvage this!

A couple of ideas I had:
1. I saw a couple of those charcoal deodoriser, not sure if I contained the soap and deodoriser together it might get rid of the smell
2. Slice it up and use it as confetti/terrazzo soap, scenting the new base with a stronger smell
3. Rebatch and add another FO in
4. Be resigned to the scent and give them to friends recovering from flu/covid and cant smell

 

[KiwiMoose]

Haha to number 4!
Use it as confetti - but then I do that a lot so that's my go to.

 

[TheGecko]

I have a FO that smells like heaven OOB (the reason why I bought 16oz before testing), but burnt my nose-hairs after saponification...really harsh chemical smell. It was just four bars, so I stuck them on a back shelf away from my other soaps and forgot about them. Then about three months later, while reorganizing my shelves I ran across them and the scent had changed. While they weren't quite the heavenly scent OOB, their was no trace of that harsh chemical smell either. So I figured that it was just a scent that needed a real long cure time. Which was fine, except that it also massively discolored. Now I don't mind embracing the brown when appropriate, but this just wasn't a 'brown' soap for me and so I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Then along came @Todd Ziegler and his ZVCS (Ziegler Vanilla Color Stabilizer) and not only did it eliminate the discoloration, but it also eliminated the harsh chemical smell.

My suggestion is to stick it somewhere out of the way for a few months. In the meantime, look up ZVCS and do a test batch and see if that doesn't help.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

My suggestion is to stick it somewhere out of the way for a few months.

Yup. That's what I would do. Out of sight, out of mind! Stinky FOs in general mellow out after a good cure. Cross fingers and hope for the best. It may surprise you after all. That has been known to happen. You also may want to go back to the supplier to read reviews. Also, post one to warn others.

 

[squarepancakes]

Yea I usually always check for reviews prior to purchasing, but their site does not have any reviews at all, which honestly isnt weird since Singapore doesnt have a huge soaping community. Most of the time hobbyists would source from other countries or buy from the soap studios they soap at since it's less of a hassle. This place just happen to be a new local supplier I'm trying since it would be terrific if I can get my FOs from them in the future - I usually import from Korea/Taiwan/US and shipping time + cost is always a killer. I also do know of other local soapers who have bought raw material from them (additives such as clays and botanicals) with no issues, but I guess their FOs are a no-go.

I did email them asking about the FO prior but their answer was simply "yes it's soap-safe". But from this experience, it's probably only MP soap-safe. I've trashed the bottle and will probably stick to them only for the additives.

I have approximately 1kg of soap, so I'll most likely leave half to do a long cure and hope for the best and use the other in a confetti/terrazzo soap then.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

I have a FO that smells like heaven OOB (the reason why I bought 16oz before testing), but burnt my nose-hairs after saponification...really harsh chemical smell. It was just four bars, so I stuck them on a back shelf away from my other soaps and forgot about them. Then about three months later, while reorganizing my shelves I ran across them and the scent had changed. While they weren't quite the heavenly scent OOB, their was no trace of that harsh chemical smell either. So I figured that it was just a scent that needed a real long cure time. Which was fine, except that it also massively discolored. Now I don't mind embracing the brown when appropriate, but this just wasn't a 'brown' soap for me and so I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Then along came @Todd Ziegler and his ZVCS (Ziegler Vanilla Color Stabilizer) and not only did it eliminate the discoloration, but it also eliminated the harsh chemical smell.

My suggestion is to stick it somewhere out of the way for a few months. In the meantime, look up ZVCS and do a test batch and see if that doesn't help.

Just a heads up. If you do a search for the homemade VCS, use ZCS in the search engine because that's what the permanent thread is titled. It will make it easier. I'm talking to everyone in general but I hit reply to you instead of a general reply.

 

[ArcticBanshee]

Yeah I had the same olfactory reaction with BB’s Cardamom Chai FO. The chemical smell stinks in the soap I just made. I planned on giving the whole batch to my bf anyway, but I’ll suggest to him to wait a couple of weeks, and I’ll keep a bar of it well wrapped to check on a month from now. When I’ve recovered. Lol