EO Resources

[Rusti]

There are plenty of blend ideas/charts I see, but I'm curious. Is there a resource available listing how each EO behaves in cold process soap? Does it accelerate? Discolor? Fade whoafast? Sticks best? and so on and so forth?

Right now I'm just using fragrance oils, but I thought it might be fun to make some of my own blends and with my last near disaster trying to do that with two fragrance oils I thought it might be easier to try it with essential oils instead.

 

[dixiedragon]

I've found the reviews on Camden Grey to be a good source of info. I do not know of a "comprehensive" chart of FOs performance in CP. Camden Grey has a lot of EOs and the client base includes a lot of soapers.

 

[Saponomancer]

This is what I'm able to gather going through WPS's reviews on their EOs, I thought it might help:

Anise:
Usage rate: .1%
Acceleration, no discolour

Bergamot:
Usage Rate: 5%
Phototoxic
good staying power
light scent
no acceleration, no discolour

Cedarwood:
Usage Rate: 100%
Good staying power
strong scent
No acceleration, no discolour

Cinnamon Leaf:
Usage Rate: .5%
Strong scent
Accelerates, no discolour

Citronella:
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, no discolour

Clove bud:
Usage Rate: .5%
Strong Scent
Accelerates, no discolour


Eucalyptus:
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, No Discolour

Fir Needle:
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, No Discolour

Geranium:
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
Acceleration, ricing, no discolour

Ginger:
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No acceleration, no discolour

Grapefruit (pink):
Usage Rate: 5%
Phototoxic
Fader
Acceleration, Discolours to pink

Grapefruit (white):
Usage Rate: 5%
Phototoxic
Fader
-no data

Lavadin:
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No acceleration, no discolour

Lavender
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, no discolour

Lemon:
Usage Rate: 5%
Phototoxic
Fader
No acceleration

Lemongrass:
Usage Rate: 6.3%
Strong Scent
no acceleration, sometimes discolours

Litsea Cubeba:
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
no acceleration, no discolour

Orange x15
Usage Rate: 5%
Phototoxic
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, Discolours

Sweet Orange:
Usage Rate: 5%
Fader
No acceleration, Discolours

Patchouli
Usage Rate: 100%
Strong scent
No acceleration, no Discolour

Peppermint
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, no discolour

Rosemary
Usage Rate 5%
Strong Scent
No acceleration, no discolour

Spearmint
Usage Rate: 4%
Strong Scent
No acceleration, no discolour

Tea Tree
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, no Discolour

Wintergreen
Usage Rate: 5%
Strong Scent
No Acelleration, no Discolour

Ylang Ylang
Usage Rate: 4%
Strong Scent
No Acceleration, no Discolour

 

[Rusti]

That was super helpful of you, thank you!

 

[Arimara]

Blending FOs calls for a serious nose development. I'd keep trying and keep researching what notes pair well with what. It would help with blending EOs as well.

 

[Susie]

I would not use peppermint at 5% if I had females around that might use the soap. Just sayin'.

 

[Saponomancer]

I would not use peppermint at 5% if I had females around that might use the soap. Just sayin'.

I've never had a problem with it

 

[Rusti]

Blending FOs calls for a serious nose development. I'd keep trying and keep researching what notes pair well with what. It would help with blending EOs as well.

LOL, if you're referring to my near disaster it wasn't the blend I made, it was the way the batter behaved with the blend in it!

 

[HowieRoll]

This thread is especially useful and timely for me, after having just had an acceleration disaster with an EO blend using Ylang Ylang, Geranium, and Cedarwood (equal parts). As I was standing there staring woefully at a bowl-ful of Play-doh, I began to wonder if there was a comprehensive resource out there I could have checked and seen the writing on the wall that my (ambitious) design plan was not going to play out. In other words, something to save me from myself!

Thanks to everyone's contributions here, especially TheDragonGirl!

 

[reflection]

i've been reading a bit about this today and there's a chart at the end of this interview with tisserand and dunn that shows what the boiling point probably is for common EOs. some EOs tend to change when boiled.

it sounds like HP is easier for getting EOs to stick (sorry if i'm stating the obvious but i am just learning all this) because you can add them after the cook when they won't get cooked off, the folded oils are better for getting citrus EOs to stick and using blends of top, middle & base notes helps EOs stick too. different people use different blending formula guidelines too.

 

[Arimara]

LOL, if you're referring to my near disaster it wasn't the blend I made, it was the way the batter behaved with the blend in it!

Oh, intriguing. I don't always us scents so I have a severe lack of knowledge or a proper nose for bar soaps. Outside of that, I'm moderately decent at best (my sis has a slightly more discerning nose).

 

[joy.]

I would not use peppermint at 5% if I had females around that might use the soap. Just sayin'.

haha! I accidentally made soap with 5% cinnamon oil instead of .05% cinnamon once. Wow. That wasn't fun.

Here's my experience with essential oils:

These hold up really well in cold process soap:

• Rosemary
• Peppermint
• Lemongrass
• Lavender
• Wintergreen*
• Ylang Ylang*
• Clove*
• Cinnamon*
• Cassia*
• Cade*
• Tea Tree*
• Star Anise*

*check ifra.org standards library for skin-safe amounts.

These work relatively well in cold process soap, and generally last at least 6 months from cure:

• Spearmint
• Palmarosa
• May Chang (Litsea Cubeba)
• Citronella
• Benzoin
• Frankincense
• Myrrh
• Cedarwood
• Naiouli

For best results, refrigerate the soap for the first 12-24 hours.

These do not stick around in cold process or hot process soap:

• Orange
• Lemon
• Grapefruit
• Lime

 

[topofmurrayhill]

There are plenty of blend ideas/charts I see, but I'm curious. Is there a resource available listing how each EO behaves in cold process soap? Does it accelerate? Discolor? Fade whoafast? Sticks best? and so on and so forth?

Right now I'm just using fragrance oils, but I thought it might be fun to make some of my own blends and with my last near disaster trying to do that with two fragrance oils I thought it might be easier to try it with essential oils instead.

I like Joy's info better than WSP's. Suppliers just tend to skew optimistic, sometimes extremely. Most of the ones listed by WSP as "strong scent" simply are not. But there are several that can be strong in CP, including lavender, ylang ylang and rose geranium. It takes experimentation to see how the different EOs work for you, how much to use, and to create good blends. Having a varied EO scent offering with CP soap is a fair amount of work. Try it and see how far you want to take it.

The smell of EOs will tend to change somewhat even when they work well in CP. And watch out for lemongrass because it's one of the ones that seems to work but eventually discolors. Don't leave any of your soap white when you use that one, because the shade of yellow it turns is kinda sickly.

I personally lost interest in putting a ton of effort into developing EO blends for CP. FWIW, using them in transparent soap and liquid soap is a pleasure and I've been into that. They don't go through the cold process lye ordeal and smell very true. You can even use the citrus EOs. A number of EOs smell especially terrific and true in liquid soap. Again, that includes citrus and you don't have to use a zillion-fold version.

 

[joy.]

The smell of EOs will tend to change somewhat even when they work well in CP. And watch out for lemongrass because it's one of the ones that seems to work but eventually discolors.

That's so true. And gelling or CPOPing (or HP) will change the scent of some of them, too.

Clove, cinnamon, cade & cassia also discolor tan.