Infusions: anyone tried ginger? *update Jan 10

[surf girl]

This is kind of in the same ballpark as welder's question about herbal powders.

Mr surf girl asked that, if, as I'm considering doing, I make a shampoo bar, could I please scent it with ginger. (1) He loved the old Body Shop ginger shampoo back in the 90's and (2) he's the cook of the house, and has a pile of organic ginger that he wants me to use.

What I would like to try is infusing my oil with ginger, and also, as suggested by welder in his thread, making ginger tea for dissolving the lye. Has anyone tried scenting soap with ginger in either of these ways? Result?

My experiences with oil infusions (all in olive oil or olive pomace oil) thus far are:
Lavender - excellent
Rosemary - excellent
Cedar - good
Orange and lemon peel - abysmal

 

[surf girl]

OK, so I did some experimenting. I tried infusing chopped ginger in warmed oil. Nada. No ginger fragrance. So then I sauteed some ginger, not enough to get any icky "fried" smell, and dropped it back into the oil to infuse some more. There is a mild ginger smell, but not much.

The ginger tea I made, however, is VERY fragrant.

So, I'll try a batch of soap in the next day or two and see what scent I have left at the end of it.

 

[heartsong]

x

hi! just caught your post.

i have read that ginger essential oil can cause negative reactions to people with sensitive skin and can feel almost a burning sensation.

i would suggest using a ginger f/o.

www.fragranceoilfinder.com

www.scentforum.com

http://soapscentreview.obisoap.ca AWESOME SITE!

 

[surf girl]

I could go with a purchased oil, but mr surf girl was hoping I could make use of his pile of ginger. And I do like to have fun with stuff around the house. So I was just wondering.

Thank you very much for the links - I may end up going that route if my chemistry experiments are unrewarding

Oh, and thanks for the warning re the irritation possibility!

 

[carebear]

I use ginger EO at a fairly low level in balms just FOR that warming... but yes, proceed with caution.

 

[heartsong]

x

i never thought to use it in balms-would that be helpful to someone with arthritus-maybe in their hands?

 

[surf girl]

Well, here's an interesting thing re ginger frangrance. I rebatched my carrot soap disaster a couple of days ago, and scented it with patchouli and lemongrass. Mr surf girl swore it smelled like ginger, and I told him he was nuts (smelled like lemon to me). However, since I chopped up a lot of ginger this afternoon for my little infusion-o-rama whilst sitting next to a table full of soap, I had ample opportunity to compare the two smells. And yes, in a side by side sniff test, the lemongrass/patchouli combo does, in fact, smell a lot like ginger. A lot. Almost the same, in fact.

 

[welder]

Okay, here's a thought:

If ginger oil may cause reactions, maybe the water soluble ingredients in the tea will be totally safe in reasonably concentrations.

To avoid accidently boiling off the ginger oil out from the shredded ginger and into your tea water, just remember that ginger oil will be lighter than the tea, so it will float to the top of the ginger tea. After setting the tea to steep, pour the tea off the shredded ginger pulp, then either skim the top off the ginger tea & discard it (because the oil will be on the top), or else draw the tea off the bottom, leaving the oil floating on top to be discarded later.

Just an idea.

 

[surf girl]

Thanks, welder man, that's a good idea. (Oh, are you a man?) I think I'm going to try a very small batch of just a few bars, and see if it is to peppery on the skin. And we'll see if it retains the nice fragrance. A project for tomorrow evening, perhaps.

Today, after 24 hrs of infusing, the olive oil does smell quite gingery. I may make a second batch with re-steeped tea and oil, if I have time, to make them stronger.

 

[welder]

Thanks, welder man, that's a good idea. (Oh, are you a man?)

Well, that's the going rumor. My wife & toddler think I am anyway...

 

[surf girl]

Phew - didn't want to be all sexist in my bulletin-board-gender-assignment.

 

[IanT]

hahahaha..

i like you guys and gals


k... my 2 cents... I think with herbs (leafy ones and flowers) infusions in oils work better... for roots and tubers i think boiling lightly in water work best...



anyone ever tried doing that with sugar cane?

i only use non-synthetics so this thread is relevant to me in a big way

 

[surf girl]

OK, so I made a wee test batch last night (9oz) to try out the ginger infusions. I have no idea whether there was any point to keeping things cool (I mean, who knows, heat could have brought out even more ginger smell, right?) but I was worried about cooking the smell right out of it. So I had the oil at around 90F and the lye-ginger tea mixture at around 80F (used ginger ice cubes). No gel.

This morning, the soap smells gingery. Not strong, in-your-face gingery, but definitely ginger. It's a sort of "Oh, this smells nice...aha, ginger!" smell. Like fresh chopped ginger.

We'll see how it progresses.

 

[IanT]

that is awesome!! please keep us informed!! glad it came through!!!

im interested to try this now!