Re:Soap perfuming sillage (?) and fixative observations

[Guest guest]

Hello Ron,

When I make citrus soap, a soap with " healing " herbs, or a soap to match one of

my perfumes - I rebatch those.

I take my plain soap which is already done " cooking " and then I add my herbs,

flowers, ground citrus peels, infused oils, E.O's ... to naturally scent it.

 

Adding a little ground citrus peel (dried) along with the E.O's helps to

strengthen the scent as does not exposing these delicate E.O.'s and herbs to the

lye.

When you rebatch, grate up your plain soap, add a small amount of warm water and

let the soap disolve overnight.   Then warm it up (~not hot~) and get it all

stirred and mixed well over a double boiler to make sure it is smooth and there

are not chunks  - turn off the heat and then add your E.O's so that the heat

doesn't cause them to evaporate into the air.

 

It is not as strong of a scent as the soaps that have the fake stuff, but it is

pleasant, natural  and healthy. 

Organically Yours,

 

http://organicgiftsbydiana.mybisi.com/

 

http://www.squidoo.com/AllNaturalPerfume 

[Guest guest]

Are you using Litsea Cubeba? I have heard that is a good fixative for citrus

oils in soap.

Petra

[Guest guest]

>

> Hello Ron,

> When I make citrus soap, a soap with " healing " herbs, or a soap to

match one of my perfumes - I rebatch those.

> I take my plain soap which is already done " cooking " and then I add

my herbs, flowers, ground citrus peels, infused oils, E.O's ... to

naturally scent it.

>  

Hi ,

thank you for posting this response. Without intending to drag this

perfume group into a topic on soap crafting I admit that rebatching is

one answer to working with fragile and/ or sensitive EO's and other

plant products.

As rebatching has never been one of my favorites due to the resulting

texture of the finished soap I seldom do this and look for a way to

work with CP and whatever modifications I can. Of course, there's no

getting around the extreme alkalinity of sodium hydroxide.

I guess that I was surprised that the addition of Labdanum to this

particular blend resulted in the scents being muted as much as they

were. It's almost like I did not add enough scent but in using the

soap, the scent is all there. I am going to experiment a bit more with

this and see if I can amplify the citrus scent and at the same time

get it to stay.

Thanks

Ron

[Guest guest]

>

> Are you using Litsea Cubeba? I have heard that is a good fixative

for citrus oils in soap.

> Petra

>

>

[Guest guest]

> Hi Petra,

> thanks for your reply on this. Litsea makes for a good citrus

> fixative so I have heard and may need to experiment with this in small

> amounts. Is it just me or does Lisea have the similar " dirty lemon "

> scent that Lemongrass has? Perhaps it was just the sample that I had.

>

> Thanks

> Ron

>

Yeah, I'm not all that fond of it either, but maybe in small amounts it

could be worked into the recipe?

Petra

[Guest guest]

yes!!!! A soaper not far from me brought me some of her lemongrass cp. I like

the first whiff of lemongrass but that after scent.......nope......verbena? Love

it. She left some litsea and I've used it in blends with orange, lemon , and

other fruit oils and it worked. Litsea is good on its own imho. The first thing

I noticed about my friend who has a site, was the scent was so cleanly lemon and

it was the litsea.  In a pinch I've used litsea in place of a regular citrus eo

and am very pleased with it.

 

Now I have a 4 ounce bottle, I also use it to set my verbena/basil . It just

sets that so well . I just did a wash for someone with oily hair with

lemongrass, MY sage, white or silver, can't do the clary or the eating type,

basil and i have to say, its one nice smelling wash. Very clean.

 

Evie

[Guest guest]

I wish to thank those of you who see the value of rebatch or 'milling'. Natural

perfumes have a role in this area. I'd rather use the eo's in place of fo's as

much as I possibly can. Right now it seems citrus and basil or lemongrass and

sage or verbena and sage are still popular for mens soaps....these can be done

in a very economical way and you can harvest your sage and basil etc....when

your customer who appreciates fine scent in general, you'll find they are as

fussy with their choice of scent in soaps. Its easier for me to use the real

deal and at least  know whats in it. So do they.

 

Everytime it comes out better than the fo. There are cautions to eo's and I

think online there is an eo calc you can use for various eo's for the max

percentage to use safely in any product from soap, cream, shampoo, balms,

perfumes etc.....the trend I'm seeing in younger men is they are becoming very

concsious of their choice of scent and in taking care of their skin and

hair......since I'm ocd about a line of products, this is good for me.

 

These young men are buying lines and they want the same scents in their entire

hiegenic line and use their scent to simply freshen.

 

There is a PDR type book that pharmacists used to be able to purchase from

Europe...this was about 10 years ago and at that time it was about 300.00. I

wish I had purchased one.

 

This will give you the 411 on various herbs, traditional uses, terms

geograpically and why not to rely on 'names' given to a plant as they very state

to state, generation to generation and nation to nation.......then they have the

active components, medical interactions and I really cannot stress this

enough....there are instances that some eo's should never be used....this book

also gives you info on what it traditionally is used for, the amounts that are

considered safe and a cross reference to medications....and

contraindications.....I love grapefuit......because I am on meds that would be

come toxic should I ingest it, my pharmacist also told me to not use this on a

daily basis as the skin absorbs much of what is put on it. So those on blood

thinners should not use salves or perfumes , teas from plants with high levels

of salicylates...... If I find that eo calc I'll post a link. I just ran across

that a few weeks ago and failed to book mark it.

 

I know I have my eposure to oils this past three days at a max.....my mouth

tastes funny.

 

Back to the gloves........

 

That said.......I was told to not make a tincure, eo or decoction of mimosa as

it was narcotic....I had three of those trees in my yard.....had I known that

you may have seen me play like a koala bear munching mimosa.

 

I'd like to see some of the member's here put together a good book. From basic

info to the precautionary methods as well. So many books are out there but with

someone like me who has transitioned from medicines to scent and natural

product, its like I'm now learning the other side of this coin so i have much to

learn. I can blend a salve or make a tea that can help you, but smelling nice is

a whole different ball game......and from what I've been discovering........not

economical by any sense of the term. I do have stock I get in prebuys but

nothing like what I see some of you refer to.

 

So, teach us sensei's!

 

evie

[Guest guest]

Reply-

Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:44:45 -0000

Subject: Re:Soap perfuming sillage (?) and fixative

observations

> Hi Petra,

> thanks for your reply on this. Litsea makes for a good citrus

> fixative so I have heard and may need to experiment with this in small

> amounts. Is it just me or does Lisea have the similar " dirty lemon "

> scent that Lemongrass has? Perhaps it was just the sample that I had.

>

> Thanks

> Ron

>

Yeah, I'm not all that fond of it either, but maybe in small amounts it

could be worked into the recipe?

Petra

To me, Litsea has a sweet vanilla undertone that I like in cleaning products

but not soap.

Dorothy

[Guest guest]

i'n not petra but its no near what i had and infact, cleaned up the lemon grass

but i like verbena better and use litsea with that and it really 'sticks' that

fresh lemon scent. i didn't want lemonn that made me pucker either..

 

evve