Big thanks to Lori Nova from The Nova Studio for this Guest Blog. Lori is going to be teaching her amazing swirl technique and colorant class at the Soap Intensive Weekend at Otion this year. Class attendees are in for a huge treat. Lori’s Guest Blog is below:
While preparing for my upcoming 2-Day Soap Making Boot Camp, I began to realize that there are some essential oils that are crucial to me for Cold Process Soap Making. Even though I occasionally use oils that are not on this list, without these oils I would be hard pressed to make amazing soap at an affordable price.
The reasons that I use/choose these oils time and time again is…
1) they smell great in CP soap,
2) they are reasonably priced and I can afford to buy a 16 ounce bottle of them, and
3) many of them blend well with each other, creating dozens or more of possible combinations.
Here’s my Top 10 List:
1: Lavender(use .7 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
2: 5-Fold Sweet Orange (use .5 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
3: Petitgrain (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
4: Lemon (use .9 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
5: Litsea Cubeba (use .5 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
6: Spearmint (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
7: Lime (use .9 ounces per pound of oil/fat)
8: Peppermint (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
9: Rosemary (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
10: Anise (use .5 ounce per pound of oil/fat)
My favorite COMBINATIONS with these ten Essential Oils:
~Lemon & Litsea Cubeba
~Lavender & Litsea Cubeba
~Lavender & Any Citrus (Orange, Lemon, Lime, etc.)
~Lavender & Any Mint
~Lavender & Rosemary
~Rosemary & Lemon
~Rosemary & Spearmint
~Lime & Spearmint (aka Mojito)
~Anise & Lavender
~Anise & Sweet Orange
~Petitgrain & Sweet Orange
~Peppermint & Lemon
~Peppermint & Spearmint (aka Doublemint)
How to figure out how much essential oils to use in Cp soap making:
Refer to “my list” above about for how much is recommended to use per pound of oil/fat.
How many pounds (of oil/fat) does your recipe have?
Let’s say you are making a 4-pound batch of oil/fats (fyi – 4 pounds = 64 ounces)
You multiply 4 x the amount of E.O. recommended.
To demonstrate, I’ll use Anise & Lavender.
Anise is recommended at .5 per pound of oil/fat.
So… 4 (lbs of oil) x .5 = 2.0 ounces of Anise (if you were using only Anise for the entire 4-lb batch).
and 4 (lbs of oil) x .7 = 2.8 ounces of Lavender (if you were using only Lavender)
Since you are using a combination of oils, divide each by 2.
So for Anise, it’s 2 divided by 2 = 1 (ounce of anise for the whole batch, in combo with lavender)
So 2.8 divided by 2 = 1.4 (ounces of lavender for the whole batch, in combo with anise).
So the end result for an Anise & Lavender Soap would be:
1 ounce of Anise AND 1.4 ounces of Lavender
Remember – these are guidelines for Cold Process Soap Making only and this is only a place to start. After making your first batch, if it comes out smelling more like one oil and you want it the other way around, feel free to adjust the amounts until you find exactly the scent you are looking for.
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and find it helpful in scenting your Cold Process soap.
Please feel free to post a comment below and share your favorite “can’t live without” essential oils for CP soap making and also the combinations you love the most.
This is such great information! What is the rule of thumb for essential oils in hot process? Would I use the rebatch option on your calculator? I know it says with hot process you don’t have to use as much fragrance. I don’t want to waste any precious oils if I don’t have to! Thanks so much!
Good morning, Kelly!
We typically keep our hot process recipes at the same fragrance/essential oil rate as our cold process recipe but if you are worried about losing some of the scent/properties, I’d use the lower amount that you find on the fragrance calculator and then go up from there until you find that sweet spot that works for you!
Fragrance Calculator: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
In theory, you can use less because there no active lye when you add at the gloppy oatmeal stage but I like a strong scent, so I don’t decrease all that much.
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Can you explain to me what is French Milling and why would one want to make soap this way?
Hi Kathy!
French milling is actually just a fancy way of saying either hand-milled or rebatch. Rebatch is a process of soap-making where a cold process soap bar has already been made and either the soaper doesn’t like how it turned out and wants to ‘redo’ it using the rebatch method.
Many soapers prefer rebatch because you do not have to handle lye during the process of making your soap. If you are interested in starting rebatch here are a few tutorials you can check out:
Green Tea Rebatch (Teabatch?): http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/green-tea-rebatch-teabatch/
Rebatch – Double Boiler Method: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/rebatch-double-boiler-method-2/
Rebatch soap – Plastic Baggie Technique: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/rebatch-soap-plastic-baggie-technique-2/
How to Make Rebatch Soap: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/soap-queen-tv-presents-how-to-make-rebatch-soap-2/
And our super easy rebatch kit:
https://www.brambleberry.com/A-Rebatch-Soap-Making-Kit-1-kit-P3298.aspx
I want to know where I can find essential oil, mixing guide and a lot more info on max usage for essential oils.
Hi Liza!
Essential Oils can be so much fun to experiment with and use. If you are looking for essential oils to purchase, you can find them on Bramble Berry’s website here:
Essential Oils: https://www.brambleberry.com/Essential-Oils-C157.aspx
And, if you are new to using essential oils, we do have a kit that contains 1/2 ounce samples of some of our most popular EO’s (Essential Oils):
Essential Oils Sampler Kit: https://www.brambleberry.com/Essential-Oils-Sampler-Kit-1-sampler-kit-P4399.aspx
When you are mixing your essential oils, it is totally up to you how you blend them, but here is the book I started using when I first experimenting with blending EO’s.
Essential Oil Book: https://www.brambleberry.com/Essential-Oil-Book-1-Book-P3723.aspx
Last, but not least, we have something on Bramble Berry’s website called the fragrance calculator which calculates safe usage rates for all our fragrance and essential oils. Are you need to do is put in the amount (by ounces or grams) and type of product you are making and choose which essential oil you’d like to add and it will give you a safe usage rate range.
Bramble Berry Fragrance Calculator: https://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Have you ever had soap swell WAY up and heat up when using lavender EO?
Hi Nancy!
Lavender Essential Oil has always worked great for us in Cold Process Soap. Sometimes swell and heating up of the soap is caused by soaping at too high of temperatures.What was the recipe you were using, I’d love to help you troubleshoot what happened! =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
How do you use citrus essential oils without a fixative? Anytime I’ve tried, the smell disappears within a few days.
Good morning, Ornitte! The 10x Orange Essential Oil is going to be the key to getting that citrusy orange scent to stick and work in your soap. We use it at .7 to 1 ounce per pound of soap and it smells juicy, ripe and delicious.
https://www.brambleberry.com/10x-Orange-Essential-Oil-P4441.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I guess my question would be what would you have to change when making rebatch soap or mp soap?
Generally we use more fragrance or essential oil when making cold process soap (about 1 pounce per pound, give or take a little bit). For rebatch and melt and pour we recommend 1/4-1/2 ounce per pound of soap.
We also have a fragrance calculator on the website https://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
-Courtney from Bramble Berry
I just made a peppermint EO soap and it smells so good! Thanks for all the great ideas, sometimes I get a roadblock and can’t think of great combos!
I use Anise to make fisherman soap…I just made a fennel,lemongrass, rosemary soap with 2 jars of smushed baby carrots, and poppyseeds, it smells so good, I want to make more fennl soaps, my entire kitchen smells divine….like a nice clean scent.
I always love lavender….
I love the smell of fennel too. So fresh and yummy!
Courtney from Bramble Berry
I just started making cold process soap. The first batch I made turned out wonderful. However I did not add scent to it because I plan to french mill the soap. I will add these blends to see how they are. I took notes on this blog. Thank you.
Right now Lime is my favorite EO for soaping. It’s fresh and clean and works for both Men and women. It holds up well too.
What a great post! I’ve been so intimidated by essential oils for some reason. This is just the confidence booster I needed:-D
Thanks so much for this post. I’m really new to soap making and I appreciate experiential advice such as this. Wish I had the chance to attend workshops too, but they’re rare, if not non-existent in this part of the world.
Glad that you guys are liking all of this post – spearmint patchouli is my fave EO blend.
That mold is from Kelsei’s Creations:
http://www.kelseiscreations.com/
It’s a lovely mold, isn’t it?
OMG, thanks for posting this! 😀 LIke I need more scents, but this is inspiring!!!
I wish I lived closer too! There needs to be something like this in Geogria. I appreciate the advice regarding EOs; It’s helpful to have a practical “must have” list. Also, I too am looking for a mold like the one pictured.
I am so envious. I wish i lived in CA. I would luv to take the boot camp!!
The essential oils/blends is very helpful.
Great info. I Need to start keeping track of scents and how much to use. Essential oil are not inexpensive and I probably waste way to much.
Thanks for posting this information! I love using essential oils but usually in milled soap. I’ve been wondering about the use and amounts in CP so this is very helpful.
BTW, I have been looking for a mold like the one shown in the picture. Where can I find one?
http://www.SimplyDelightfulCreations.com
This is great. I often forget how much essential oil I need to use. I’m constantly referencing, which I guess isn’t a terrible thing. My fave essential oils, not to sound generic, is lavender. I find that it mixes well with rosemary and lemon.
invaluable invaluable
thank you so much!
i recently opened my anise that
i’ve been rat holing for 10 years
it smelled divine…and said
i must use this one day….
Anise is a neat scent that I forget to play with. Thanks for the reminder!