Monday, June 4, 2012

Liquid Soap Using Glycerin - Essential Oils

As I mentioned in my first post on this method I decided to do some experiments with scents.  I started with essential oils because that is what I use in most of my bar soaps.  My recipe was 90% Olive Oil, 10% Castor Oil and I substituted Glycerin for the water.  I diluted using 1 part soap paste to 2 parts distilled water.  I took 1 ounce of diluted soap and added 1% (0.01 oz) essential oil.  My notes are based on immediate reactions, after about an hour and one week later.  They all sat, covered, on my kitchen counter for the week.  I also didn't notice any of the scents changing.  Here are my results:


Lavender & Eucalyptus
 Lavender French:  turned into cloudy jello, after a week, still jello but clear.  I'm going to try thinning this out later and see what happens.

Eucalyptus:  turned cloudy and thick.  After a hour it was clear and a bit thinner.  A week later it had a clear, thick layer on top with thinner soap underneath.




Orange & Peppermint
Sweet Orange:  First it turned cloudy then clear and seemed like it was going to be thin.  After a week it is a light orange colour and is the same thickness as the base soap.  Surprise!  Usually orange EO thins liquid soap and so far it hasn't.  I will definitely be watching this one.

Peppermint Japanese:  this one turned thick and had lots of tiny bubbles suspended in the soap.  The bubbles have gone away and it is now clear and thick.


Spearmint & Citronella
Spearmint:  At first cloudy and a bit thicker, it has now cleared and is thick, much the same as the Peppermint.

Citronella:  As you can see in the picture it also turned cloudy and a little thicker.  After a hour it was clear with tiny bubbles suspended in it.  It is now thick and clear after sitting for a week.




Lemon & Rosemary
Lemon 5 Fold:  This EO turned cloudy and didn't seem to want to mix in very well.  I had to mix it again after a hour it looked like it had separated.  After a week it is clear and slightly thicker than the base soap.

Rosemary French:  This behaved almost the same as the Lemon except it got thicker and had cloudy pockets.  After a week it has cleared up and thinned out.



Anise & Patchouli
Anise Star:  Started out cloudy then turned clear and thick with tiny bubbles.  Now the bubbles have gone away but it is still thick.

Patchouli Light:  Let me start by saying "This smells like dirt!"  I'm sorry I know lots of people love 'Patch' and I don't know if it is supposed to smell that way or if it is because it is Light.  Anyways this clouded up like the rest, but it is now clear and the same consistency as the base.


Vanilla
 Vanilla 10 Fold:  I figured vanilla would discolour to brown but I wanted to see how it would affect the thickness of the soap.  So here you go brown, very thin soap.  I think it would work great in foamer bottles.






Now I am going to put these away and check on them in a month to see if there have been any changes.  If you would like to see more (or bigger) pictures check out my Flickr photostream.  If you have any questions please leave them in the comments and I will try to answer as best I can.  Coming up next, Fragrant Oils.


4 comments:

  1. There is a great explanation about the Essential Oils and their benefits. EO is really help in many ways.

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  2. Just wanted to say thank you for this blog post!! I made a Sweet Orange EO and BB's Vanilla Oak liquid soap and got up this morning to find it liquid. Googling led me here and it's a relief to know that it's possibly a trait of Sweet Orange and not my stuff up...

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    Replies
    1. Glad I could help, hopefully it will thicken back up for you. The vanilla fragrance could also be the culprit.

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