Cedarwood EO--Yuck

[Fireside]

I was going to suggest orange and will be interested to hear how you think that soap turned out. Blending has changed my opinion of a lot of EOs that I find heavy or otherwise dislike on their own or as anything more than a small percentage of a blend. My list includes Virginia cedarwood, basil, ylang ylang, geranium and probably others than I’m not remembering right now. For basil, I’m down to adding a few drops or less for a blend that totals 25-30 g. That turns out to be enough to give the blend just a hint of basil.

The sweet orange helped a lot. My yucky-smelling soap smells pretty good now. I think that's what I need to do from now on: Just use a few drops of the "heavy" EOs--cedarwood, basil, patchouli, cinnamon--in any blends I create.

 

[Zing]

Glad you found a solution. Cedarwood lover here! I mostly use it as a bass note at 10% in almost every soap I make. I also like 50 50 cedarwood bergamot. Have you heard about eocalc.com? Those blends have never done me wrong, except for once.

 

[Fireside]

Glad you found a solution. Cedarwood lover here! I mostly use it as a bass note at 10% in almost every soap I make. I also like 50 50 cedarwood bergamot. Have you heard about eocalc.com? Those blends have never done me wrong, except for once.

Thanks! Yes, others have mentioned eocalc and how it hardly ever steers them wrong. I just don't think about it until I come here for advice and people suggest it. Maybe I will remember it in the future before combining scents.

 

[AliOop]

The sweet orange helped a lot. My yucky-smelling soap smells pretty good now. I think that's what I need to do from now on: Just use a few drops of the "heavy" EOs--cedarwood, basil, patchouli, cinnamon--in any blends I create.

FYI, even a few drops of cinnamon (or clove, nutmeg, thyme, basil) EO will accelerate your soap like crazy. They all contain eugenol, which is a known accelerator.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

FYI, even a few drops of cinnamon (or clove, nutmeg, thyme, basil) EO will accelerate your soap like crazy. They all contain eugenol, which is a known accelerator.

From a quick web search, it looks like the eugenol content in varieties of basil can range from very low to >20%. I looked it up because the type of basil EO I have doesn’t cause notable acceleration, even when used at higher percentages. I bought what I have through Brambleberry, but that was at least two years ago.

 

[Shelley D]

Hmmm. If there's a cilantro-hating gene, there must also be a cedarwood-hating gene and I must have it.

I added about a half ounce of sweet orange and it helped a lot. It smells more citrusy and less...I haven't quite been able to describe how cedarwood smells to me. The word that comes to mind is petroleum, although I don't know how crude petroleum smells. Cedarwood just smells how I imagine crude petroleum smells.

Thanks again for everyone's input. It was fun to watch this thread go from help-me-make-my-soap-smell-better to this-is-the-EO-I-can't-stand to there's-a-gene-for-that.

I also found it interesting--looking at this thread and "similar threads"--that a lot of people never use EOs and just use FOs.

Yes, the threads tends to flow from one thing to the next, but it makes for excellent reading!

 

[AliOop]

From a quick web search, it looks like the eugenol content in varieties of basil can range from very low to >20%. I looked it up because the type of basil EO I have doesn’t cause notable acceleration, even when used at higher percentages. I bought what I have through Brambleberry, but that was at least two years ago.

Good to know - mine accelerates quite a bit.

 

[Linda105]

Every time I use cedarwood EO in a blend, I hate the result. Others love cedarwood, I apparently don't. Mine is Himalayan cedarwood. I've looked at previous posts regarding cedarwood (which is how I know others love cedarwood) but I haven't found what I'm looking for, which is this: what to add to a rebatch I'm going to do that currently has a blend of 41% lemon EO, 38% cedarwood EO, and 21% rosemary EO. I think it stinks but I don't know what to add to the rebatch to make it stink less. In my EO arsenal I have those three plus sweet orange, lemongrass, spearmint, peppermint, patchouli, black pepper, tangerine, tea tree, basil (and sweet basil, if they're different), eucalyptus, and cinnamon leaf.

The orginal batch was 28 ounces of oils and was another failed attempt at swirling. The above blend, incidentally, was from a book of scent recipes, except that the rosemary was supposed to be lavender but I didn't have lavender so I used rosemary because I read that cedarwood combines well with rosemary. It didn't for me.

Any ideas on which of those EOs might make my lemon/cedarwood/rosemary blend smell better? Thanks!

Adding a touch of sweetness to your lemon, cedarwood, and rosemary blend can help round out the scent and provide a more balanced aroma. Here are a few essential oils that might work well to achieve that effect:
Sweet orange essential oil has a naturally sweet and uplifting aroma. It can add a bright, citrusy sweetness to your blend without being overpowering.
You can try Benzoin essential oil also. It has a warm and vanilla-like scent.