My own "Fragrance" it n CP Soap

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So last year I distilled some dry herbs and essential oils in a diy blend of witch hazel and 75% isopropyl alcohol (1/3 cup alcohol, + herbs and EO then topped off with witch hazel). It was my own "thieves blend" that I bottled for bug repellent. Then after bottling some I topped it off with more witch hazel. It's now sat for a year and smells so good. I really want to try putting like 1-2% in my CP Soap to try scenting it but I'm not sure if it'll do something funky. So I'd be using it in place of Fragrance and soaping normally at cool temps - it's ok if the scent doesn't come through, I just want to know if it'll not set up properly it have any issues otherwise. Does anyone know for certain? I'm not opposed to experimenting and sharing my results if it's an unknown, but if someone knows that it'll absolutely not work I'd appreciate the response!
 
You've made an alcohol-water infusion. Essential oil distillation is quite a different process.

If you're not expecting the soap to be scented by the infusion, then are you expecting the "thieves blend" benefits to survive in the soap? Or is there another reason why you're thinking about adding the infusion to soap?

I appreciate that the scented material makes the infusion smell really good, but I doubt it will scent the soap. The amount of scent chemicals in an infusion is waaaayyyy lower than the amount of scent chemicals in a true essential oil. EOs are typically used at 3% or so in soap for only a light scent at best. I posted something about this recently in a similar thread -- Creosote/Chaparral Soap
 
You've made an alcohol-water infusion. Essential oil distillation is quite a different process.

If you're not expecting the soap to be scented by the infusion, then are you expecting the "thieves blend" benefits to survive in the soap? Or is there another reason why you're thinking about adding the infusion to soap?

I appreciate that the scented material makes the infusion smell really good, but I doubt it will scent the soap. The amount of scent chemicals in an infusion is waaaayyyy lower than the amount of scent chemicals in a true essential oil. EOs are typically used at 3% or so in soap for only a light scent at best. I posted something about this recently in a similar thread -- Creosote/Chaparral Soap

I suspected as much. I guess it was just high hopes that the scent would come through but I knew that it was unlikely, I just had to ask to be sure. The intention yes was for the fragrance but I wanted to know if it would perhaps not saponify fully/harden, volcano, seize or become otherwise unusable. I was really only going to be ok with it not coming through if it still resulted in something that I could use ( I despise wasting - I will spend 20 minutes scraping every little morsel of soap that I can). Thank you so much for confirming for me.

Alcohol will generally cause your soap to seize, so unfortunately, your blend would be a no-go for CP soap.
Thank you for your input, I wondered this too, I knew that was very likely if I subbed my water for it, that's why I wondered if the small amount used for fragrancing it would have the same result. But it seems that there's just no chance in it working - if only it worked that way, I think we'd all be making our own infusions to scent with 😂
 
I will update this post by stating that I did end up using this infusion as a water substitute instead - using a large container and slowly adding my lye while sitting in my kitchen sink. It did start to volcano a wee bit while making my lye solution but I was able to stir it down. Once it was time to make soap, it slightly riced then once I got my stick blender scraped off it was solid in the bucket. So I put a lid on it for 10ish minutes and it gelled and went smooth enough to stir and scoop. I did add a little bit of an essential oil blend of lavender, rosemary and sweet orange with just a couple drops of clove at a much lower rate than what I would normally use - just to give that solution a lil boost because I could tell it would fade after making it a lye solution. It's not the prettiest of soaps, but the scent is mild, earthy and does have touches of what I was looking for. I probably wouldn't do it again (unless people absolutely love it). I just thought I'd share that it wasn't impossible, it does make soap, but whether or not you should is a matter of personal opinion 😆 (it's the brown lumpy soaps on the left)
 

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