# EO scent amounts?



## Island Creek Farm (Jun 16, 2010)

I'm new to soaps, and having smelled a "basic" batch of lye goats-milk soap (smelled like wet cardboard), I wanted to add an EO so I didn't end up with a whole batch of cardboard soap. I went to MMS's calculator and it estimated 3-12 Tablespoons of EO for one batch...this seems like a TON, seeing that a 1oz bottle of grapefruit EO was $9

Did I get something wrong?

Recipe calls for 104 ounces of fats (was planning on using 96 of veg. fat and 8 oz olive oil)
1lb lye
1/2C honey
1c hot water (to dissolve honey)
4c goat milk


----------



## 2Sticks (Dec 13, 2007)

Hi Amanda,
I think that your numbers are off and also you have no hard oils in the recipe. I would thik it would take a very long cure time.
Ideal range Your recipe
Hardness 29 - 54 25 
Cleansing 12 - 22 0 
Conditioning 44 - 69 71 
Bubbly 14 - 46 0 
Creamy 16 - 48 25 
Iodine 41 - 70 92 
INS 136 - 165 114 

I would also be very weary using hot water, may be asking for a volcano! Seems lye heavy also. Are you planning on using the Goat Milk frozen?
I made a batch of soap 2 days ago 112oz and used 5 oz of Fragrance oil. I'm not sure with the Eo. Each FO use would depend on the strength of the paticular FO. I'm sure Vicki, Michelle , Athena or one of our other experienced soap makers can give you all the details.


----------



## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I can't tell how much eo using tablespoons. A good rule of thumb is 1 oz ppo. So using your recipe that would be 6.5 oz eo. Not sure where you got your eo, but you should be able to get a LOT more oz for $9. Also, I would add something like some clay or litsea cubeba eo, otherwise your pink grapefruit scent will end up being no scent pretty quickly.


----------



## Island Creek Farm (Jun 16, 2010)

The recipe was in the Dairy Goat Journal last month...not one I should try? I liked that it had olive oil and honey, along with quite a bit of milk...

I did run it throught the lye calculator, and it came up with about 12 oz, not 16 oz


----------



## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

I would work on your oils and put in some coconut (at least a third of the total oils), swap the vegetable for safflower or sunflower oil and you can use more olive oil. I just don't like vegetable oil. Putting in some Shea butter would raise the hardness. Then, run the recipe again through the calc and see what the lye is. I use milk that is frozen in ice cube trays for soaping. Think Cool if not Cold.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I'm sorry but not a soul on here would ever recommend you use a recipe that is cups and tablespoons instead of ounces or grams...I know it sounds harder to use a scale but soaping can be dangerous, lye burns, and soap that is lye heavy burns, and most recipes like this simply make your fail...first Dairy Goat Journal is written by just plain ole folks, so unless you know them personally, have tried their soap or run the recipe through the lye calculator at thesage.com run away.

Some basic facts. Veggy oil is really just soybean oil, and olive oil is still oil  For the best soap you really want to use some butters....lard, tallow, shea etc...if you are going to use only oils, at least use some coconut oil, gives you bubbles instead of the snot that all oil soaps give. Nobody can tell you how many ounces per pound of oils (how many ounces of scent to put into a pound of soap) With FO's it's generally one ounce per pound of soap...BUT there are scents that are super strong, for instance if you used a fragrance oil that had some cinnamon and clove in it, and used it at 1 ounce per pound...it may tingle your nether regions when you use it  And nobody can tell you how much essential oil to use...first stop buying it by the ounce and dram, that is the biggest rip off there is. First it's always cut because they know people are going to use it undiluted on their body, but also the expense, and also not knowing from one batch to the next how much to use. With mints, eucalyptus, tea tree, listea etc..they are so strong 2 ounces could scent a 10 pound batch...but citrus fades, and lavand er etc...smells like medicine on it's own and is temperamental....all of this you find out by starting small.

Even if you are against lard, maybe you aren't against tallow and could buy some. Start with the walmart recipe. No honey (it heats up everything) we want your first couple of batches to teach you how to soap, once you have some plain bars under your belt, then start with essential oils all of us use, purchased from places we do...or go with something simple like unscented oatmeal goatmilk and honey...using a couple of TABLESPOONS of honey not 1/4 cup  

The recipe is silly, amateur hour time. And it will only make you think what we all do everyday on this forum is to hard. We are not all rocket scientists 

Read carefully through the instructions on the walmart recipe. When you think you have it, do a batch. IF you don't want to do 7 pounds the first time, than re-size it down to 4 pounds using thesage.com simply click re-size after you have put the original recipe in. It make beautiful soap, and the nice thing is when you come back with a disaster, because the walmart recipe is so fool proof, we can then help you blame it on the scent or not stick blending enough or or or or  It's fun, but it is a chemical reaction you have to learn. Vicki


----------



## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

I read that article in the Dairy Goat Journal and was appalled with both the instruction AND the recipe. I thought it was very irresponsible. There was another article in there that I couldn't believe either, but I can't remember what it was. I pitched it.


----------



## Island Creek Farm (Jun 16, 2010)

whew..thanks guys!

Glad I didn't try it then! Got the WM recipe, will give it a go!

What's the difference between tallow and lard? I should know the answer, but, LOL, I don't!
(I know they used to make rush dip candles w/tallow...compliments of doing renaissance fairs for YEARS)


----------



## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Tallow rendered fat from cows, lard from pigs.


----------



## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

To answer the OP question about how much EO to use. I use the same amount as I use for FO. At least .5 up to 1 oz per pound of oils depending on the EO. Citrus fades without another EO such as Litsea or patch or Whatever you choose to use as an anchor. 
Even with an anchor I do not hve good luck with citrus. 

I made Orange soap yesterday and used a blend of orange FO and 10X Orange EO. We will see how that goes.


----------

