Royalty Soaps and Fragrance Oil Usage

[cerelife]

I love watching Katie Carson's videos because she's just so fun and wholesome! I'm not a big fan of her swirls (I prefer Ione's more delicate swirls for Eve's Garden Soaps), but I like seeing her use micas from her vast supply and I appreciate that she gives the names and suppliers of said micas. And her videos are just happy
BUT...in tonight's Maleficent soap video she poured in what seemed like a bucket load of NG Tricks or Treats FO into her batter and was raving about how the scent was perfect for Halloween.

So I went and checked out this FO with the idea of ordering it, but I made doggone sure to check the usage rate since I made the mistake in the past ordering a big bottle of a FO she used and recommended as the best Apple Cider FO EVER for soap from WSP (and again she seemed to add a lot of the FO to her batter in the video) only to discover later that the usage for this FO in soap AND for everything else skin-wise was 0.10%.

So yeah, the usage rate for NG Tricks and Treats FO in soap is 1%.
This is so frustrating to me. I mean it's totally my own fault for ordering a pound of that FO from WSP without taking the time to check the usage rate first, but it burns my behind that I've got a $40 bottle of oil that I can only use for candles/tarts.
And now she's done it again! Am I crazy or is that WAY more than 1% of FO that she's adding into the batter for the Maleficent soap??

 

[msunnerstood]

She makes pretty large batches of soap. She also mixed in kaolin clay which will displace the fo and increase the volume. Depending on the scent, 1% might be enough for a good result. Katie seems pretty safety focused but you should always check usage rates for yourself.

 

[amd]

I watched the maleficent video yesterday, so I'm working a bit from memory (as I'm at work and can't rewatch it). I happened to be ordering from NG on Saturday and had looked at that FO, but didn't order when I saw 1% usage rate. I too thought it looked like a lot of FO for a 1% usage rate, but noticed she mentioned anchoring with clay as she doesn't normally do that. I assumed because of the low usage rate. The clay will add volume to the container, which may look like there is more in there.

So that said... I took note of how many bars she gets out of one mold (I counted 20 bars), and having one of her bars in my personal stash - they're huge! My suspicion is that her usage rate for this FO is probably closer to the 2% range, as she does not use scent in her piping recipes, so I think she is counting on the bar being used whole, and the unscented piping offsetting the higher amount of FO in the bar portion. So that said, the amount of FO + clay, probably seems like a lot, but for the amount of soap she's making, it's probably not as much as she usually uses. Her bars aren't strongly scented - I got one in March or April, and the scent is mostly gone now - so I suspect her normal usage rate is around 3-4%. Again, just suspicion and guess work from watching videos and knowing her bar size. I always thought she added too little FO in her videos (which is why I suspect she uses a lower usage rate). I don't think she makes soap for long term storage, she intends to ship it all out the door in a month, and doesn't care if a customer keeps it for a month or a year, and if the scent lasts for that long. And honestly, I don't think her customers care either. They buy for the novelty of the soap and her personality.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I watched the maleficent video yesterday, so I'm working a bit from memory (as I'm at work and can't rewatch it). I happened to be ordering from NG on Saturday and had looked at that FO, but didn't order when I saw 1% usage rate. I too thought it looked like a lot of FO for a 1% usage rate, but noticed she mentioned anchoring with clay as she doesn't normally do that. I assumed because of the low usage rate. The clay will add volume to the container, which may look like there is more in there.

So that said... I took note of how many bars she gets out of one mold (I counted 20 bars), and having one of her bars in my personal stash - they're huge! My suspicion is that her usage rate for this FO is probably closer to the 2% range, as she does not use scent in her piping recipes, so I think she is counting on the bar being used whole, and the unscented piping offsetting the higher amount of FO in the bar portion. So that said, the amount of FO + clay, probably seems like a lot, but for the amount of soap she's making, it's probably not as much as she usually uses. Her bars aren't strongly scented - I got one in March or April, and the scent is mostly gone now - so I suspect her normal usage rate is around 3-4%. Again, just suspicion and guess work from watching videos and knowing her bar size. I always thought she added too little FO in her videos (which is why I suspect she uses a lower usage rate). I don't think she makes soap for long term storage, she intends to ship it all out the door in a month, and doesn't care if a customer keeps it for a month or a year, and if the scent lasts for that long. And honestly, I don't think her customers care either. They buy for the novelty of the soap and her personality.

I think your observations are spot on. It’s amazing what good marketing can do.