Clove equals Soap on a Stick

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Wow. So many interesting stories about using Clove EO. Thanks everyone for sharing. Looked at the soap this morning and let's just say it is one of my more "rustic" soaps. Only 4 bar mold recipe so no harm no foul in terms of wasted materials. Also, just wanted to reiterate the amount of clove in the soap. My original post was a tad misleading. My percentages listed was based on the blend itself not on percentage of oils. My recipe used 400g of oils/fats. The blend was 5% of that 400g which gave me 20g in the blend. Of that 20g the clove was 10% of it which was 2g thus making the clove amount .5% of total oils which would be considered skin safe. Didnt want people thinking I was going all rogue and making unsafe soap.
 
I have several recipes using clove oil and I haven't had trouble with tracing too quickly, especially when used in combination with orange EO, which slows down trace. Whenever I use an accelerating EO, I also use a decelerating one to counteract the effects. And I use a very small amount. Here are some decelerating EOs:
Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon Myrtle, Lemongrass, Litsea Cubeba (aka May Chang), Peppermint, Rosemary, Spearmint.
Orange, Lemon, Lime & Grapefruit.
So orange/clove, lemon/thyme are good combos. I also try to soap cooler when I'm using one of the accelerating EOs. Most of those EOs that accelerate trace are only safe in very low percentages and a little goes a very long way!
 
Only used my milk frother for maybe 10 seconds and bam!!! Soap on a Stick.
TIP for Soap. on a Stick: If a batch starts seizing, I set my timer for 5 minutes and walk away. When I come back, the soap is going into gel phase and it's super easy to stir up and pour into the mold. :thumbs:

TIP for using Cinnamon & Clove:
Mix 1 part Clove Bud EO + 3 parts Cinnamon Bark EO and store it on the shelf for whenever I want to spice up a blend.

75 ml Cinnamon Bark
25 ml Clove Bud
100 ml TOTAL (3.4 fl. oz.)

3 oz. Cinnamon Bark 85g
1 oz. Clove Bud 28g
4 oz. TOTAL 113g
 
Its really not perfectly skin safe, only recommended at 0.5% maximum. Its can burn like hell and it was withdrawn from pharmacies as a cure for tooth ache when many people seriously burned their gums. Even at low percentages it can irritate the intimate body parts. I LOVE the aroma of clove and wish it was not so limiting, I dont know if this is the same for Clove FOs though
It is still sold for tooth pain. It's even sold for baby teething; my daughter used Herbs for Kids,
Gum-omile Oil.
 
Wow. So many interesting stories about using Clove EO. Thanks everyone for sharing. Looked at the soap this morning and let's just say it is one of my more "rustic" soaps. Only 4 bar mold recipe so no harm no foul in terms of wasted materials. Also, just wanted to reiterate the amount of clove in the soap. My original post was a tad misleading. My percentages listed was based on the blend itself not on percentage of oils. My recipe used 400g of oils/fats. The blend was 5% of that 400g which gave me 20g in the blend. Of that 20g the clove was 10% of it which was 2g thus making the clove amount .5% of total oils which would be considered skin safe. Didnt want people thinking I was going all rogue and making unsafe soap.
BAD A$$ 🤪
 
Essential Oil Safety by Tisserand and Young recommends limiting clove bud to no more than 0.5% for use on skin.

Yes, but I knew what they meant. And I can go as high as 0.6% without any issues. But I am also a methodical test, change one tiny bit, and test, change one tiny bit, and test soaper. So, I know my safe limitations. I also don't see any need to go higher than 0.6%, as clove bud EO is potent. I just needed enough to balance out my other EOs.
 
Certainly not here in the UK and I doubt in the EU either.
You can certainly get it in the chemist here in Ireland and I've had it recommended to me by an NHS dentist when I lived in the UK so it's not that outrageous.
When I tried it, a bit dabbed on with a cotton bud did the trick and caused no ill effects, but I've also seen it suggested to soak a cotton ball in it and bite down, which I image would be more likely to cause problems...
Back to the soapy topic, the reason I know it's still sold here is because it was one of the first EOs I used in soap, along with cinnamon! A very small amount of each, certainly, but I'm amazed I got away with it since I was trying one of those lazy Susan swirls.
 
I just got a four bar mold to test fragrances. What would happen if you did the final mix of fragrance oils with clove in the mold itself? I am thinking as long as I don’t do any swirls, I could bring soap up to emulsion and pour it in the mold, then stir in the fragrance oil. What do you think?
that's how I did my additives test -- and I watched peppermint accelerate the one bar portion quite quickly. My guess is that the only drawback would be proper distribution. I just used a chopstick, but it seemed to have worked ok.

@SoapDaddy70 I've found that Patchouli also seems to accelerate trace as well.
 

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