Investing in Essential Oils

[lsg]

Patchouli, tea tree, lavender, orange 10x, lemongrass, Litsea, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary. I make and sell a lot of straight up patchouli.

You can use patchouli as a base note in many blends.

 

[szaza]

Hmmm.. picking 5 is hard! I'd probably try to get 5 different types of scents so you have a versatile range. For example floral (lavander, ylang ylang, palmarosa - I never used geranium, but that would also be an option), green/herbal (peppermint, rosemary, petitgrain), citrus (litsea, citrus fruits, lemongrass), woody (cedar, fir) and spicy (ginger, cinnamon, clove - these can only be used sparingly to avoid sensitivity, I use eocalc.com to be safe).
It seems like your mind is already set on lavander, peppermint and litsea, which are safe options to start with. Though it also sounds like you really enjoy florals. If that's the case, going for safe and universally loved scents might not give you blending options that you're looking for. If you only want to buy 5, why not get 5 that you really like and only worry about how well they'll blend between them instead of trying to find universally well-loved and easy to blend EO's that you 'don't mind'? Maybe I completely misunderstood what you meant by that, but I think you could consider taking a risk by getting ylang ylang and petitgrain instead of lavander and peppermint. In my experience/opinion the 'easy to blend' EO's need other scents to blend with to be interesting anyway.
Patchouli is often used and it's a great base note, but it's pretty overpowering and always detectable in a blend, so if you don't like it I wouldn't start with that for your first 5.
To recap, based on the idea that you like florals (which I know I could be wrong about), I'd probably choose Ylang Ylang, Petitgrain, Litsea, Atlas Cedar and Cinnamon (or ginger) and I'd later add lavender, peppermint, patchouli, rosemary and orange to increase your blending options.

Just as a side note, petitgrain is a very green scent (to my nose at least, I'm not an aromatherapist and I don't know what category it officially belongs to) and unfortunately it doesn't smell anything like neroli, even though it's from the same tree.. Petitgrain is a very nice scent though and I love it in blends

 

[l-jholmes]

I would get a mix of top notes, middle notes and base notes in the scents that you like so that you can make blends that are well balanced.

 

[KiwiMoose]

As an aside - I make a beautiful rose FO soap that I add a small amount of Patchouli to, just to anchor the rose scent. You can't smell the patchouli at all, but the rose becomes a good strong scent that lasts for ages. I like to think that the patchouli is doing its job there.

 

[dippy]

Thanks so much everyone, you have given me lots to think about. Based on what has been said I think I am going to go for more than 5 to give me a bit more versatility. I like the idea of covering all bases of floral, green, citrus, woody etc. I prefer light floral and citrus but I am also thinking about family members who I will be making for who have different ideas of what is nice.

I have to think about anchoring and creating balanced blends so I might up my list to 7 or 8 bearing in mind what has been said. I assume EOs have a decent shelf life once opened. Should they be kept in the fridge?

 

[dippy]

I have just been looking at the EO calc - its amazing! Thanks for the tip atiz

 

[szaza]

Should they be kept in the fridge?

I keep them in the fridge just to be on the safe side of things but I don't think that's strictly necessary. My EO's all have expiration dates on them that are +-1 year from when I buy them, but honestly I use them after that (of I haven't finished them by that time) and haven't had a problem yet.

 

[abirose3]

You should also look at the EOcalc website -- they have some great blends, and you can get a sense of what are the most prominent EOs in those.

I'm New at using this forum. I use Melt and Pour Goat Milk Soap. I just do this for my own personal use and to give as gifts. On the EOcalc website, how do you determine what percentage to use for top, middle, base note essential oil blends? As an example, a Patchouli, Geranium, & Lavender blend. I just never know what percentages to use to get the usage blend. I don't think I should use 33, 33, 34 percent. As I said I'm new to this and only make maybe one to four bars at a time with trying different EO blends. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Zing]

Good luck sorting through all these opinions! Mine are
cedarwood (every soap has at least a titch)
lavender (my wife would be happy if I only used this, for me I like it blended especially with litsea cubeba)
litsea cubeba
orange 10X
lemongrass (gift recipients go CRAZY with this one)

Limit of 5 is tough! I also love rosemary, myrrh, frankincense, peppermint (watch the usage because it can make for a truly tingly sensation in all places). I haven't been able to afford patchouli but was given a small bottle and I can't wait to get more.

When I started soaping, this guide was super helpful and I go back to it again and again:
https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/top-ten-essential-oils-for-soapmaking-starter-essential-oil-blends/

 

[Aromasuzie]

I haven’t tried black pepper EO, but I do like it in some FOs I have had. How much do you use to get the scent?

I would say you would need quite a high percentage in a soap blend as Black Pepper is not a particulary strong smelling oil. If you we're going to put in a massage oil blend, I'd say go for it as it's excellent for increasing circulation, and reducing any sort of muscular aches. All the essential oils everyone is mentioning is there due to strong aroma and "staying power". The citrus oils are disappointing but that's not surprising as they contain "top notes" and evaporate the quickest and unfortunately oxidise the fastest as well. I can certainly understand why everyone has moved to fragrance oils and it simply comes down to fragrance staying power and price. I will continue to stick with essential oils as my nose can tell the difference but I will pay for it via my wallet

 

[Susie]

Lemongrass is my go-to for everything. I also adore cinnamon bark, clove bud, nutmeg, spearmint, and wintergreen. Lemongrass is cheap, and stands in well for those citrus EOs that I can't get to stick no matter what I do. I make a "spice" blend that smells like grandma's house at the holidays, but you have to be careful about how much of those you use. Refer to the IFRA suggestions and stick to them. I don't like peppermint, but if you do, it adds a nice note to lots of stuff.

 

[atiz]

I'm New at using this forum. I use Melt and Pour Goat Milk Soap. I just do this for my own personal use and to give as gifts. On the EOcalc website, how do you determine what percentage to use for top, middle, base note essential oil blends? As an example, a Patchouli, Geranium, & Lavender blend. I just never know what percentages to use to get the usage blend. I don't think I should use 33, 33, 34 percent. As I said I'm new to this and only make maybe one to four bars at a time with trying different EO blends. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I'm not an experienced blender. But I really like many of their "premade" blends. It will list the exact percentages if you go under "Browse Essential Oil Blends", and then click on the blend.

 

[abirose3]

Thank you Atiz. I did look through the blends and found the blend percentage I was looking for the Patchouli, Geranium, & Lavender. There is another blend I am interested in, in finding percentages, Patchouli, Grapefruit, & Geranium. The only combustion that I could find was:
Clove Bud 3%
Peru Balsam 4%
Patchouli 10%
Grapefruit 51%
Geranium 8%
Bergamot 24%

Since I do not want to use the Clove Bud, Peru Balsam, & Bergamont. How would I distribute those percentages to Patchouli, Grapefruit, & Geranium.

If anyone can help me I'd appreciate it.
Thank you!

 

[Carl]

Patchouli, tea tree, lavender, orange 10x, lemongrass, Litsea, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary. I make and sell a lot of straight up patchouli.

I second this!

This is almost my exact set of essentials. I keep every one of the above plus Cedarwood, Anise, Basil, and Cinnamon Leaf.

 

[dippy]

Wow it is really interesting to see what people like and use. Common themes running through many of the posts. I got my essential oils today. In the end I went for Lavender, Lemon, Orange, Litsea, Petitgrain, Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Peppermint. I know it's not 5 (oops, my bad ).

I am going to see what I can do with these initially and then will get a few more for my birthday in the summer. I was thinking Cedarwood, Ylang Ylang and Patchouli and poss Lemongrass.

I hadn't tried Petitgrain and was looking forward to trying it and it is such a familiar smell to me. I think I must have it in one of my current beauty products that I use regularly - not sure which one though.

I am slightly frustrated that there has been a delay on my main soap supplies order so I can't make anything yet just plan things. So this afternoon I have looked at EOCalc and put a few blends on cotton wool balls wrapped in tinfoil - can't wait to smell them in a day or two.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Thank you Atiz. I did look through the blends and found the blend percentage I was looking for the Patchouli, Geranium, & Lavender. There is another blend I am interested in, in finding percentages, Patchouli, Grapefruit, & Geranium. The only combustion that I could find was:
Clove Bud 3%
Peru Balsam 4%
Patchouli 10%
Grapefruit 51%
Geranium 8%
Bergamot 24%

Since I do not want to use the Clove Bud, Peru Balsam, & Bergamont. How would I distribute those percentages to Patchouli, Grapefruit, & Geranium.

If anyone can help me I'd appreciate it.
Thank you!

I would suggest using a cotton ball test:
Make sure you write down each blend to track it.
On a cotton ball, put
6 drops grapefruit
2 drops patchouli
2 drops geranium
Place in zip lock bag. In 15-30 minutes, take a sniff. If you like it, go with those ratios. If not, start over with a fresh cotton ball and choose new amounts, adjusting based on what you think it needs more / less off. If you can stick with 10 drops for each test, then the math is easy, once you find a pleasing combination.
Your final soap / outcome may not smell exactly like the cotton ball, but it will be close.

 

[abirose3]

I would suggest using a cotton ball test:
Make sure you write down each blend to track it.
On a cotton ball, put
6 drops grapefruit
2 drops patchouli
2 drops geranium
Place in zip lock bag. In 15-30 minutes, take a sniff. If you like it, go with those ratios. If not, start over with a fresh cotton ball and choose new amounts, adjusting based on what you think it needs more / less off. If you can stick with 10 drops for each test, then the math is easy, once you find a pleasing combination.
Your final soap / outcome may not smell exactly like the cotton ball, but it will be close.

Thank you Nona's farm, I will try that!

 

[Green Butterfly]

Tea tree, lavender, patchouli, Eucalyptus, peppermint. These are my top five

 

[Adeliepenguin]

Can you mix essential oils and fragrance oils to create a blend? I have lots of fragrance oils like blueberry, pineapple, peach etc but think they’re a bit boring together and I have loads of essential oils I have exasperated blends out of now

 

[KiwiMoose]

Can you mix essential oils and fragrance oils to create a blend? I have lots of fragrance oils like blueberry, pineapple, peach etc but think they’re a bit boring together and I have loads of essential oils I have exasperated blends out of now

I do this in almost every batch I make