Fragrance Oil Usage Rates

[Shaun]

Hi Folks

Say you have two oils in the recipe one of which has a usage rate is listed as 5% and the other listed as 6% does that mean (Lets say a 1Kg batch) that i can use

50ml of the first AND 60ml of the second or is thier a calculation to do that i am missing.

I think you can do this because you are not increasing the concentration of either one. Am i right

Thanks in advance

shaun

 

[privatekane]

Have you used the Eocalc? It is great for this. I am new to soaping, so I don't know the exact answer, but that has helped me a lot for amounts.

 

[GemstonePony]

All your measurements should be in weight, not volume, so I'm not sure why any ml of FO is included in your question.
Maximum use rate for 1000g of oils would be 25g one FO and 30g of the other for a 50/50 split. The use rates get split by their percentage of the FO or EO blend.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

Ditto what @GemstonePony says but where ever you bought your FO's from should have a safe recommendation amount for their FO's. If not refer to your local regulations

 

[gloopygloop]

Hello Shaun, I note that you are in the Scotland UK and we have strict guidance as to the amounts of EO / FO in soap and cosmetics. If you are just making for yourself then that is up to you but with a risk of a potential allergic reaction. If you are selling soap or giving to friends then you are required to have a cosmetic safety assessment and these will always guide you on the amount the assessor decides is an adequate and safe amount of EO /FO usually this falls to a maximum of 3% but more often it is 2% and certainly for some Eos which are known sensitisers can be less. Ditto what was said above that you need to work with all weight and not mix weight and volume. IFRA guiltiness as far as I know ( I do not sell by the way but I did have an assessment a long time ago which is now invalid ) are not the same as allowed in your actual soap. Worth familiarising yourself with all of this before chucking in a lot of FO /EO.

 

[DeeAnna]

+1 for everything the others have said about safety and IFRA and assessment rules.

Also there is another consideration -- too much of any additive can cause problems such as the soap being too soft overall or liquid weeping out of the soap or soft pockets in the soap.

Using your example, one fragrance is skin safe up to 5% and 6% is okay for the second. I think you're proposing to put a total of 11% fragrance in the soap. That much non-soap liquid will likely to cause problems in the soap.

In my experience, about 6% TOTAL is the maximum amount of fragrance that seems to reliably work in my soap. So I'd put about 3% of one and 3% of the other for a total of 6%. Or 2% and 4% for a total of 6%. Or whatever.

If there was a fragrance that I wanted to use that was limited to 2% for skin safety, I would limit it to that 2%. If I wanted to blend it with a second fragrance with a higher skin safety limit (say 11%), I would still limit the total amount of fragrance at 6%. I wouldn't add 11% of the second fragrance.