Fading Essential Oil Scent for Hot Process Soap

[Jenergie]

Hello Everyone-
I am a beginner soapster and have only made hot process soap thus far. My concern is, my essential oil blends that I add to my soaps do not create a lasting scent. Right after curing, the scent is good but after week or two, the scent is completely gone. I only use therapeutic grade EOs, and use up to 100 drops (5ml) per a batch that would make (7) 4 oz bars. I add the oils in after the batch has cooked, so I don't think I am cooking them out. Also, if I were to double the amount of EOs that would not be cost-effective. I definitely want to stay away from synthetic fragrances, since I want to keep my soaps all natural.
Any suggestions to help preserve the scent? TIA

 

[galaxyMLP]

You are using about 0.5% fragrance (in this case essential oil) per pound of oil (PPO). That is really low. No matter what you do, typical FO's and EO's will not be strong enough at that % (I'm referring to ones that don't have very low restricted uses like cinnamon and clove).

You should be using EO's at at around 1-6% depending on safe usage and how strong you want the scent.

Therapeutic grade is not a regulated term so it doesn't mean much. For soap, you want to look for "pure essential oil". You can find many EO's priced very well to make soap with. For example, the Bulgarian lavender I buy is $14 for 4 oz. I know this stuff isn't fake either because I've tested it. I use about 3% PPO.

Edit: You also want to measure all of your ingredients by weight in the future so that you can get a good idea of what % things are in your soaps. It helps to trouble shoot and keep track of where things are going.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

As above!

Also, add it after the cook but let the soap cool down somewhat (but not too much, I actually had a soap start setting up in me IN THE POT!) and then get it in to the mould as soon as possible to try to prevent the EO being heated too much.

You don't say how long you're curing for, too - of course, at such a low percentage of scent I can imagine it fades quickly, but with the 5% total scent it should last through the 4 week cure (I find that HP needs more than the 4 weeks cure, more like 6 weeks) and still be smelling nicely

 

[galaxyMLP]

I read "curing" as cooling for some reason. Thanks for catching that TEG!

 

[Jenergie]

Thank you everyone for answering....
I suppose I was putting too little of a percentage of EOs in my batch and I will try to base it on percentages per .lb of oil. I typically use pure organic oils from Mountain Rose, so this would up my cost considerably. I may need to switch to non-organic. But thanks again for all the helpful responses!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Thank you everyone for answering....

I suppose I was putting too little of a percentage of EOs in my batch and I will try to base it on percentages per .lb of oil. I typically use pure organic oils from Mountain Rose, so this would up my cost considerably. I may need to switch to non-organic. But thanks again for all the helpful responses!

Out of interest, are you the Jenergie of JenergieNaturals on etsy and Facebook?

 

[Susie]

Often EOs also will fade from the outer layer of soap, but once you have used a bar 2-3 times, suddenly the scent is back. So, you may find it has more scent than you think, even though you used too little.

 

[Jenergie]

Out of interest, are you the Jenergie of JenergieNaturals on etsy and Facebook?

Yes, Craig, that would be moi! I have been creating skincare products for years, but for some reason soap-making always intimidated me. I think that had to do with using lye. Now, I am more comfortable with the process, but as a newbie, need to perfect my recipes and methods. That is why I joined this forum So far I have only made hot process soap, but would like to venture into cold-process territory. Any advice or pros and cons between the two?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Hot process allows a specific superfat, unlike cold. You can use some different ingredients better in one than the other (stearic in hp, milk in cp as an example) and I find cp needs much less of a cure in general because of the extra water used in hot process.

But as a priority I suggest you check out the labeling section about what is and isn't allowable to say in marketing and labeling a product