What do you do with leftover bits of FO's?

[MrsZ]

I have bought a lot of tiny tester bottles of fragrance oils. Some of them I loved, and have reordered. But out of the ones I don't plan to reorder, I am left with a ton of tiny bottles of fragrance oils with just a little bit left, not enough for a whole batch of soap. Some of them I have blended together to make enough of a different scent for a batch of soap. Just curious, what are you all do with your leftover fragrance oils?

 

[dibbles]

I try to blend them, as you do. For the most part, I order enough FO (2 1-ounce or 1 2-ounce) bottles to make a full size batch so I can use it up. If I want to do a test for ricing/discoloration, I will take a little batter from a different batch of soap I am making and make one bar (I increase my batch size a little to allow for that).

With the IFRA changes, some of the FOs I like now have such a small usage rate in soap so I made wax melts with them. With FOs that I didn't like OOB, or for whatever reason, I put them on my local Buy Nothing FB group. Someone usually takes them within a couple of hours.

 

[AliOop]

Another vote for blending and using small bits in wax melts (or shampoo bars, conditioner bars, bath bombs, lotions).

 

[MrsZ]

@dibbles , @AliOop,

I like the wax melts idea. How do you make your wax melts? I have a sister in law that loves wax melts and would love to make some for her.

 

[dibbles]

@dibbles , @AliOop,

I like the wax melts idea. How do you make your wax melts? I have a sister in law that loves wax melts and would love to make some for her.

I think that idea originally came from @Carly B.

I had some soy wax that I don't use often for soap, so I used that at first. They were just for me/a few others. They were fine, but when I ran out of soy wax I decided to buy a soy wax made for tarts. What I didn't like about the soy (GW415) was they were a little softer and had a lot of frosting (like ash) on them. If you are only making white melts, that isn't an issue. I was able to use up the soy wax I had on hand,

I still have a lot of FOs to get out of storage so I bought this wax. It is harder and the fragrance seems to be lasting longer. I just line an old rimmed baking sheet with parchment and pour the wax on that. When it is set I just break it into pieces - like peanut brittle (it doesn't take long, but I usually do this the next day). As I was going through excess 'stuff' I found two silicone oval guest size cavity molds I am no longer using, and those are working great as well. I don't fill those molds completely.

 

[AliOop]

@dibbles , @AliOop,

I like the wax melts idea. How do you make your wax melts? I have a sister in law that loves wax melts and would love to make some for her.

Because I don't have any candle wax on hand, I looked for something using ingredients that I already had in my stash. Eventually I tried this recipe from The Nerdy Farm Wife, but with FO instead of EO, and without the natural colorants (because I was too impatient for infusing at that time).

With all the CO in the recipe, I was sure that they would be too soft, so I used some 96º CO that I had on hand, and poured them into little guest soap molds. They did feel greasy to the touch at first, but firmed up after a few days of air drying.

Overall the melts have been hit, and I plan to make some more for our Ladies' Christmas Boutique. I also plan to try making some with palm oil instead of CO96. Since I don't like PO in soap, if it works in wax melts, that will be an awesome way to use up the PO that I have on hand, too.

 

[CLMP]

It's funny you guys mention this as I have just spent the day yesterday learning how to make perfume with perfumers alcohol and also with almond oil, to use up the small amounts of FO's I have to make Christmas gifts. It only takes a small amount of FO to make a bottle of perfume. I just made a couple of perfume samples this morning using fresh cut roses with fresh vanilla and a peach perfection They smell pretty nice. I smell of roses right now cause I put it on lol.

 

[Relle]

Overall the melts have been hit, and I plan to make some more for our Ladies' Christmas Boutique.

Better get moving 4 1/2 weeks to go. The Christmas Boutique ladies will miss out.

 

[AliOop]

Thanks for increasing my stress level so kindly reminding me how time is ticking away.

If you don't see me much on SMF for the next few weeks, it's @Relle's fault

 

[Relle]

Thanks for increasing my stress level so kindly reminding me how time is ticking away.

If you don't see me much on SMF for the next few weeks, it's @Relle's fault

Yep, my fault, you could, just saying you could, make extra goodies and send via Oz, I am a lady too, I think and it is Christmas.hehe and if I didn't keep you on track who would.

 

[MrsZ]

Thank you all for the recipes and ideas!

 

[dibbles]

I also plan to try making some with palm oil instead of CO96.

I also have palm I am trying to use up. If you try this let us know how it worked.

 

[dmcgee5034]

I have one of those water diffusers and I’ve been using my tiny bits of FO in it, too.