Funny smell - why?

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volya

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I made Chocolate Orange CP soap and first it smelled exactly how the name says - yummy, like a dessert. But after about a week the smell went awry and not pleasant at all, I would say even weird, I can't describe it - there is no chocolate and orange notes... I'm puzzled what had happened with my yummy soap and what is the reason.:roll: Ok, I have a guess that the ingredients I used to scent the soap made this transformation. For scent I used: Orange essential oil x5, Cocoa absolute, real chocolate, natural flavor (oil based and the one with partial alcohol). I think that this complicated combo of flavors is the culprit.
What do you think?
Did you used natural flavors (the ones for lip balm) to scent the soap?
 
I'm no expert about this one, but I wonder why you used natural flavor in a soap. It's not an edible product. Also natural Fragrences don't seem to make it through saponification well from what most people say. I don't know but good luck.
 
I try to use only naturals, not synthetics like FO, therefore I used the natural flavors.
 
I don't use lip balm flavoring because they don't stick in CP & the alcohol in them can cause problems with seizing.
Cocoa absolute does not stick well in CP at all and real chocolate fades in soap.

How much Orange eo & cocoa absolute did you use?
 
2 T Cocoa absolute and 4 TB Orange EO x 5 per 3 lb of total oils weight.
 
I would assume that your scents morphed/faded over time. Sad though, it sounded yummy. Maybe it had something to do with the alcohol in your "flavoring" added.
 
4T of orange x5 seems like a lot for 3 lbs to me. I just made a 4lb batch of orange /sandalwood and used 2.5T of orange x5 to 2T sandalwood, and all I can smell is orange. I expect some of I will fade, which I'm hoping will bring out some of the sandalwood.
 
I would assume that your scents morphed/faded over time. Sad though, it sounded yummy. Maybe it had something to do with the alcohol in your "flavoring" added.

That was my first thought as well, but since I'm first time dealing with flavors in the soap, I don't know for sure. I am going to experiment with very small batch and will do the same but will skip the one with alcohol this time.
The scent is not faded, it's still strong but different (has almost nothing with orange and chocolate) and not pleasant. My hubby says it's fine, but you know, he is man and men don't know about scents much :)
I forgot to mention that this batch was not gelled, I refrigerated if it may be related somehow to the issue.

I tried to find some info on using natural flavors on the Internet but couldn't find any. If you know something, please, let me know! I just want to keep my soaps as natural as possible and in the case with chocolate I wanted to add more chocolate flavor, so it will not fade with time.
Thank you!
 
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Personally I would never waste an absolute in soap, waaaay too pricey for a wash off product. There are "natural" (without opening the debate on what that means) ways to scent your soaps, but I think that flavorings are simply not going to work. Stick with EO's and please make sure you use them safely.
 

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