I’ve finally started testing EOs for scent retention and acceleration behavior. I picked out six floral or grassy(?) EOs that I thought might accelerate trace. All of the EOs are from Camden Grey. I used them at 3% ppo to match what I’m doing in parallel FO testing. I was surprised that Palmarosa moved as fast or faster than Ylang Ylang and that Patchouli was pretty average. My recipe is 35% tallow, 10% refined Shea, 25% coconut and the rest liquid oils. The oils were at 90 F when I added the lye, which was probably a little cooler. I mixed the batter to a stable emulsion using a mini blender. The EOs were mixed in with a small spatula and left to sit undisturbed between observations, which were frequent at the beginning and then more spread out (up to 5 min intervals) towards the end. The batter in the small cups was 80F
+ after an hour, which is when I stopped recording.
From slowest to fastest for trace stages (as explained below):
Ghost trace (dripped batter leaves a ghost trace on the surface of the batter, but there is no relief)
Amyris, Geranium, Patchouli, Pettigrain
Palmarosa, Ylang Ylang
Ribbon trace (a ribbon of batter will stay on the surface for at least 1-2 minutes)
Geranium, Patchouli
Amyris, Pettigrain
Palmarosa, Ylang Ylang (the Palmarosa was looking a bit clumpy at this stage)
Soft Peak (just getting to the same look as the soft peak stage of beaten egg whites; easy to tap out)
Patchouli
Pettigrain
Geranium
Amyris
Ylang Ylang
Palmarosa
Stiff Peak
Amyris (did not reach this stage in an hour)
Geranium
Patchouli
Pettigrain
Ylang Ylang
Palmarosa
I covered the cups and put them on a heating pad at high for 2 hours. I‘m thinking now that I may repeat this with the EOs at 6% for the scent retention comparisons I will do over the coming year.
I would like to know if the relative patterns are consistent with the experiences of others. For example, do Amyris and Geranium behave well for you compared with Ylang Ylang and Palmarosa? And what about Patchouli. I heard a lot about it accelerating, but it was middle of the road to slow in this test.
ETA:
@HowieRoll @szaza @KiwiMoose @lsg @Jackie Tobey If you have had similar experiences with these EOS, or have had results that are inconsistent with what I observed, especially for Palmarosa, I would love to know. TIA.