Fragrance Oils

[wbocrafter]

How do you know how much fragrance oil to add to your recipe and when or what part of the process do you add it?

Also, I would like to make a recipe that would fill 8-16 oval soap molds. How would I modify a recipe to get just enough for those molds?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[dixiedragon]

The manufacturer should list the amount. Generally it falls between .5 oz and 1 oz PPO (per pound oil). I'll admit it - I go to the fragrance calculator at Majestic Mountain Sage or Brambleberry, pick something similar, and use that number. And I also measure by volume, not weight. (I'm a baaaaad girl. )

ETA: Brambleberry's calculator is for oils + water. Which I think might be the only one that does. So if you are making a batch with 20 oz of oils and 10 ounces of water, if you go to the calculator at Majestic Mountain Sage, put in 20. At BB, put in 30.

How big are the molds? if the manufacture's page doesn't say, fill one with water.

1 ounce of water by volume = 1 ounce of water by weight. Oil is close enough to use this for determining how much soap. So, if your molds hold 4 ounces of water, and you want to make 8 bars, you will need 32 ounces of soap.

Soap batter is approximately 1/3 water and 2/3 oil. So, in this case, you want a batch that is 20 or 21 ounces of oil.

Notice that there is a lot of rounding up or down in my method. There are more precise methods, but this one works for me.

 

[earlene]

How do you know how much fragrance oil to add to your recipe and when or what part of the process do you add it?

Also, I would like to make a recipe that would fill 8-16 oval soap molds. How would I modify a recipe to get just enough for those molds?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Your second question. See the stickied thread in the Lye-Based Soap Forum section titled How to figure how much oil for mold. Link here. For oddly shaped molds where measurements are harder to get, refer to this link, skip to item #3.

First you determine the amount of oil needed. Then in your lye calculator, you use the function to resize your recipe. Which lye calculator do you use? It is easy in SoapCalc. First put your recipe in as usual and calculate. Then change the #6 item (Recipe Oil List) to Percentage, then change the #2 item (Weight of Oils) total weight to your result from the above calculation. Then click calculate again, and your recipe is resized to fit your mold.

This may be slightly off, but it will be extremely close to filling your molds perfectly. I always like to have one or two extra small individual molds to put any extra leftover batter into in case I need them.

ETA: Cross posted with DD, even though mine is 20 minutes later, I had not refreshed my browser & did not see DD's reply until posting mine.

 

[wbocrafter]

What do most soap makers use: essential oils or fragrance oils? If you use fragrance oils will the fragrance stay with the soap or will it lose it's smell over time?

 

[kchaystack]

What do most soap makers use: essential oils or fragrance oils? If you use fragrance oils will the fragrance stay with the soap or will it lose it's smell over time?

I would say most use both, and a few use only EO's.

As for staying power, the answer is sometimes. There are FO's that fade just like there are some EO's that don't. But really all scents are going to fade over time. Maybe it will take years in some cases - but nothing lasts forever.

 

[dixiedragon]

A lot of us tend to use FOs because they are less expensive. Also, many of them are specifically formulated for soap. Some fragrances are difficult - there's a whole thread here dedicated to the search for the perfect coconut FO that actually smells like coconut. Citrus is another tricky one - these also tend to fade fast. Patchouli EO is too expensive for most of us to consider soaping with, but good patchouli FOs are not easy to find either.

 

[apples]

To get the weight of soap in a cavity mold, I usually measure the water weight. Fill the mold with water and weigh the water.

I've got it quite precise, about the same as the soap batter weight not considering the water evaporation during cure. the soap shrinks when water evaps depending on the recipe.

 

[IrishLass]

I only use FO's in my soap (except for 10x orange EO, which soaps great and is long-lasting), and I use anywhere between 1.875% at the low end to 6.25% ppo at the highest end (which translates to .3 oz to 1 oz ppo).

I've chosen to not use anything higher than 1 oz ppo (6.25%) because it's not worth it to me in terms of expense, plus too high of a usage rate beyond that has sometimes caused softness and/or seepage issues in my soap. If any of the FOs I've tried turns out to be too light in my soap at 6.25%, I'll use it for body butters, perfumes or lotions instead.

Exactly how much I decide to use within those above parameters depends on 3 factors #1- the actual recommended usage rate; #2- it's strength/longlastingness in my soap; and #3- how it behaves in my soap batter. Whenever I can get away with it, I always use the least amount possible that doesn't go over 1 oz ppo/6.25%.

In regard to when I add my FO: it depends on the FO and how it behaves, and/or what I'm trying to do swirl-wise. Sometimes I add it to my oils before I add the lye, sometimes I add it to my batter after adding the lye at the emulsion stage, sometimes I add it to only a portion of my batter, etc... What I'm saying is that you can rest easy that there's not a single 'set-in-stone' way in which they all 'must' be added across the board. Whichever way works best for your formula is the way you should go.


IrishLass

 

[dixiedragon]

My preference is to scent heavy. I like it when my 1-year-old bars still have scent.

EOs I use for soap: lavender, mint, clove, cinnamon, cedar. These are all fairly cheap and smell good in soap. I also use tea tree EO for its antibacterial, anti-fungal, etc properties.

For non-soap products I LOVE rose geranium EO. It's a very good rose scent -better than any FO I've found. Soft, rich, floral with a hint of green. To expensive (IMO) for soap, but dirt cheap compared to actual rose attar.