Change a fragrance oil to cured scent?

I was wondering if anyone here knows by accident or on purpose if you can get a fragrance oil to safely change into the cured in soap version of itself without being in soap.

Here's the explanation...one of the first scents I got when I started soaping was Marrakesh from BB and it became my favorite but only in cured soap. OOB it has a sweet/food note that I really don't care for. In soap it's spicy but warm and dry. It loses the sweet food smell and becomes amazing (to me).

I would love to have lotion that smells like the in soap version so I can smell it all day, but is it even possible?

This scent has been discontinued and I only have 8 precious ounces to make last so that's why I'm asking instead of experimenting. My brain says possibly heat, air exposure, or maybe a higher ph ingredient that's safe for skin and ok in lotion (would need to research if such a thing exists). I did put some in plain lotion about 6 months ago, and it's never changed much from oob so I do know time and/or the lotion environment won't do it.

I would love to know if anyone has any experience with this or if it's just better to quit wishing for the impossible lol

Unfortunately there's really no way to do that. I have found that scents certainly can smell different from one application to another. They act different once exposed to lye. I have several I disliked oob but loved in soap. I would recommend making a small batch of lotion and test it that way to see what happens. You may really like it.

It might be worth putting a few drops on a cotton ball and putting that in a baggie for a week or so, then coming back to sniff it. It may just be the initial hit needs to evaporate in order for the fragrance to mellow out.

And if it doesn't, at least you only used a few drops to test.

Your question makes me wonder, what would happen if an EO/FO was exposed to lye then used it a lotion or other application. Would that help morph it enough? Would it be possible to neutralize all the lye and make it safe enough for other application? It doesn't feel safe to me (and definitely not something to experiment with if you have a limited amount of FO) but my brain wants to argue that enough math could make it possible

Thank y'all for the replies! Unfortunately it doesn't change enough in the lotion and the scent is way too sticky sweet (think, ate too much candy bellyache sweet). Put the lotion on once and ended up trying to wash it off/ take a bath in the sink at work. Now every so often I just open the lid to see if it has magically changed into awesome, shake my fist at the bottle, and put it back until next time.

I may have to sacrifice a tiny bit to see if leaving it to evaporate might work. Maybe the sweet part of the scent will disappear some.

I kind of had the same idea about the lye or possibly just the high ph environment morphing the scent in soap, but of course being lye, that's not really an option. In the minor playing with lotion making I've done, I did notice ph adjusting products on sites like LotionCrafter, but that would be the beginning of an experimenting rabbit hole that's best left alone for the reason I'd be doing it.

The best answer may be to just find a new favorite that behaves better. Where's a sample sale when you need one?!?!?!

What if you take a small amount of a 30% lye solution, add in the eo and then add in enough baking powder or citric acid to neutralize the lye?

I know some lotions have sodium hydroxide. One of my little ones wated to buy me a lotion and chose Jergens Shea Butter. It has sodium hydroxide listed right before the fragrance. The one acid i see to balance it off is tocopheryl acetate. That's a blend of synthetic vitamin E, i think synthetic, and acetic acid (vinegar pretty much). It is the last ingredient listed. I am guessing the acetic acid neutralized the sodium hydroxide. There may be a different neutralizer, but the big words don't jump out to me as acidic in nature other than that. I agree with Gent on trying a small amount in naoh, and neutralizing it. Try it with a different fo first, one that morphs in soap, and see if it works before trying it on your fave fo.

Maybe try a few drops on a cotton ball and microwave it?

Great ideas!

I was ready to give up, but I think I'll go ahead and play mad scientist in the kitchen come this weekend.

I'll post back when I find out if anything works or not!

Here are the results of the very informal FO scent morph test I did:

To note, my nose isn't that great due to all year seasonal allergies and I may have missed minor changes to the scent that others would notice. All in all to my nose, this particular fragrance stayed pretty true with mostly just large variations in the sweetness levels.

Marrakesh from BrambleBerry

Exposure to air- 3 drops on a cotton ball. 1 day so far. Scent is staying the same as oob more or less. Total scent is becoming more faint. If the scent would eventually change, the unsanitary open air conditions would make this not ideal for lotions.

Heating- 3 drops on a cotton ball. Microwaved in 10 second intervals multiple times. Scent actually became sweeter the longer it was cooked. The exact opposite of what I hoped for happened.

Exposure to lye- 4 drops in a 33% lye solution. Scent morphed into what I wanted within 1 minute (lost the sugary sweetness). Success!!! After 5 minutes to see if any other changes happened, neutralized with citric acid. (Thank you DeeAnna for the quick easy math!!!) Note: FO did start getting the fatty globules like milks do in the lye solution.


I appreciate everybody for chiming in with all the suggestions!

eta: I posted a little too soon for accurate results...checked today when i was crunching up the powder to throw in the laundry soap since it's laundry day, and the sweetness had come back a little bit in the sample exposed to lye. It was still waaaaay better than oob, but just not right for me.
While this might have been a fail, it was super fun and I learned first hand that abusing scents will change them.