Aroma mist

[penelopejane]

My sister has discovered an "aroma mist" which she'd like me to copy.

On the bottle it says:
Infused with 100% pure lavender & chamomile essential oils, renowned for their restful properties, this gentle mist is a soothing way to unwind at the end of your busy day.
All our essential oils have been carefully selected to ensure they are 100% pure. They are then blended in a naturally derived base with no artificial ingredients, synthetic fragrances, parabens or phthalates.
Ingredients:Water, Alcohol, naturally derived solubilisers and then lists the EOs.

Would anyone know what "alcohol" or "naturally derived solubilisers" would be used?

 

[BattleGnome]

Denatured or isopropyl? I think there’s also a perfumer’s alcohol but don’t know what it actually is.

The toilet spray I make could be easily adapted to a room mist. My recipe is just isopropyl, canola, fragrance, and color (because I can). Don’t use color and pick an emulsifier and you might be able to make something work.

Maybe sorbitol or lecithin? Based on this article they might work

 

[shunt2011]

I would use either vodka or isopropyl. If it's just for personal use it should be fine. You could add and emulsifier (PS 80 or 20) or just shake before using. I have some perfumers alcohol but haven't gotten around to using it but don't think I'd use if for a room spray.

 

[penelopejane]

Thanks battlegnome and shunt your advice is very helpful.
It’s not a room spray.
It’s a must for personal use - for your pillow you help you sleep or for a hanky to help you de-stress (there are two different formulations)

 

[lsg]

My guess is that the alcohol is perfumer's alcohol.

 

[dibbles]

I used to make a linen spray that I found on the Snowdrift Farm website - which I think is gone now. It used perfumer's alcohol. From my notes, which are ancient - along with my memory. FO 3-7% (mixed with Fragrance Oil Modifier - which I guess is the emulsifier), Formulator's Alcohol (perfumer's alcohol) 20-30% and distilled water 63-77%. No mention of a preservative - which I would now add. The things I didn't know - but if the recipe had called for a preservative I would have added it.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...naturally derived solubilisers..."

Gosh, this phrase tells the consumer absolutely nothing and can easily hide a lot. I imagine the maker is trying to appeal to the crunchy or no "chemical" crowd by not clearly naming any ingredient that can't be found in someone's home pantry or medicine cabinet.

Polysorbates would qualify as naturally derived solubilisers -- they are based on sorbitol and fatty acids.

 

[penelopejane]

^^^yes my sister is definitely in the crunchy brigade but easily duped if she likes the product.

She definitely doesn’t want it to separate so I’ll try those additives. Thank you everyone. So helpful.

 

[reeeen4]

If you looking for something more 'crunchy' another thing you could use is a hydrosol instead, when they distill the lavender and chamomile when the water sepeartes from the oil after the steam has condensed the water is infused with the smell and some of the properties of the oil through the distillation process. You could blend a lavender hydrosol with a chamomile hydrosol. They smell a little different to the EO but they are a natural alternative. Some people don't like the smell as much but I love it.

 

[DeeAnna]

I just want to mention that hydrosols need to be preserved, even though they're mostly water. Either 25% alcohol by weight or a broad spectrum preservative.

One thing I've noted about hydrosols is the scent depends on how the hydrosol is made. I've had two sage hydrosols from different but reputable sources. One smells more like tea or hay (not appealing!) and the other has a lovely sage aroma. I have experimented a little bit with making hydrosols. If you boil the vegetable matter in the water and/or cook the veg matter too long, it's easy to get an over-cooked hay or tea note in the hydrosol. If you support the veg matter above the water so only steam passes through it and stop extracting when the aroma starts to degrade, the resulting hydrosol smells much more true and pleasant.

 

[reeeen4]

Not in Australia, I recently talked to the our representative within our Lavender growers association about this as I have been doing some product planning for our farm and she was telling me there is no requirement to have preservatives in hydrosols in Australia, big companies do batch testing and send a bit away to a lab to test to make sure the microbe activity is at a suitable level. So that's what I'm going to do. She said that hydrosols should last for a year or 2 fine without a preservative as long as the EO quantity in the hydrosol is high enough. It also depends a lot on how the hydrosol was distilled too and for how long but the hydrosol that comes out first is the strongest and usually what is bottled and kept.
I have been using nothing but hydrosols in my soaps, the scent comes through a little.

 

[penelopejane]

Even though I tend towards the crunchy I really prefer the idea of a preservative for water based products.
I keep things for years and expect a lot of other people do too.

 

[shunt2011]

I have to agree with the preservative. I won't purchase a product that is water based without one. All it takes is a bit of bacteria to get into a wound/scratch and you could end up with a an infection or worse. Don't know what a customer may be doing with the product or how long they will keep it or where for that matter.

 

[DeeAnna]

Using a preservative is apparently not a legal requirement for hydrosols sold in the US either, but that doesn't mean it isn't a wise thing to do anyways.

Everyone needs to make their own decisions on this point, however, and I respect your choice to not use preservative in the hydrosols you use. For others who might not know all the reasons why a preservative can be helpful, here are my thoughts --

I agree a knowledgeable manufacturer might be able to make and store non-preserved hydrosols in a sanitary and safe manner, but once a hydrosol gets in the consumers' hands, all bets are off. It takes only a few microbes in the beginning to create a large microbial population as time goes on, so initial tests that come back with low microbe counts aren't a guarantee that a product will remain sanitary over time.

The trace essential oil in a hydrosol cannot be counted on to be an effective preservative. While rosemary EO and thyme EO show promise as a broad spectrum anti-microbials, even their efficacy varies with the variety of the rosemary or thyme used to make the EO/hydrosol. Other EOs have only weak or no preservative ability at all.

Even if we assume a given EO could be a very effective antimicrobial, it needs to remain intimately mixed into the product to control microbial growth and the dosage in the product needs to be sufficiently high to do the job of preservation. The EO in hydrosols is not necessarily mixed into the water phase and the dosage of the EO is not controlled, so there's not much assurance that the EO will do a good job of preservation, even if it could do that job given the right circumstances.

 

[reeeen4]

This is true you never know what a customer is going to do with a product, haven't heard any bad experience yet though in Australia about someone getting an infection or something from a hydrosol, but yes I agree it's something to think about. Not looking forward to having to cross this hurdle when it's time to decide if I want to add preservatives to my hydrosols.

 

[justjacqui]

The alcohol would most likely be denatured ethanol rather than isopropyl alcohol because isopropyl alcohol smells awful.

If you use enough ethanol (>20% ) you can usually get away without using an additional preservative. The more ethanol you use, the lower the level of solubilisers you will need to solubilise the essential oils. If you are planning on selling you will need to consider that at these high levels the product may become a dangerous good due to the flammability of the ethanol.

The solubilisers are most likely Polysorbate 20 or PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil (or even a combination of the two).

It is unlikely that the concentration of essential oils would be greater than 1%.

Hope this helps.