How Much EO to add to recipe???

[Chris Opdyke]

Hey Guys,
New to the forum and did a search and couldn't find what i was looking for. I am going to make my first batch of soap. My recipe is 50 oz olive oil, 15 oz distilled water and 6.3 lye. What would be the correct amout of EO to add??? thx for your help!

 

[BattleGnome]

What EO are you hoping to use, each EO and fragrance oil (FO) has a different useage rate. You can use much more lavender EO than you can cinnamon or tea tree. Certain EOs are also discouraged in soap, citrus just doesn’t want to stick around most of the time.

Both Magestic Mountain Sage and Brambleberry have fragrance calculators that can help with your figuring.

 

[lsg]

I usually use .5 oz per pound of oils. Having said that, I agree with Battle Gnome, that certain EOs are to be used in a smaller amount. Check the descriptions of each oil used, with supplier recommendations.

 

[Chris Opdyke]

Thx for the help and yes I was looking to use a citrus for my first batch, I will start looking at some other EO’s and FO’s. Thanks for the help!!!

 

[dixiedragon]

Brambleberry and Majestic Mountain Sage both have lye calculators.

Sadly, though, citrus EOs don't stick well in soap at all! Also, they can make a soap harsh because they strip away oils - which is why orange oil is in so many cleaning products. I would suggest lemongrass, citronella or litsea cubeba.

 

[Chris Opdyke]

thx for all the help everyone! i used the calc on bramble and it cam out to 3.02 oz, does this sound about right???

 

[DeeAnna]

A batch with 50 ounces is quite large for a first time effort. The usual advice to beginners is to make soap using about 16 oz (500 grams) of oil for the first few batches.

IMO it's all about building skills, and it's better to make 3 smaller batches and gain competence through repetition. Another benefit of several smaller batches is you can experiment with different fragrances and/or different amounts of fragrance. And if something goes wrong for a batch, there will be less soap to fix or discard.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

As well as being able to make changes to the recipe without having mountains of soap stacking up around the place!

 

[jcandleattic]

The problem I see with the MMS and Brambleberry calculators however, is in my experience from back when I tried them, they do not take the IFRA usage amounts into consideration. So once you have those usage amounts, you can adjust as necessary.