Teach Soap

I've been doing lots of experimenting with lotion bars. I have a formula I'm happy with for the general purpose hand/elbow/etc bar.
Today was the day I try out my new EOs and FOs.
I have done a lot of research trying to figure out how much to use - lots of conflicting info out there...
Even the ones who print those drops=ml=tsp=oz charts don't agree!
The charts vary wildly - some say that a ml= 20, some as much as 45!!

I know that oils and droppers can change the size of the drop a lot, so I just decided to pull a number out of thin air and use that as a starting point.

I picked 4 drops as my starting experiment

These are the ones I tried -
peach - smells so good it makes me hungry!
wintergreen/teatree - smells...appropriate for a foot bar
beach type - copy of the old Ski and Sea suntan lotion
gardenia - smells sweet, very strong, but not a convincing gardenia flower
cucumber - faintest of all the scents, but smells like real cucumber

Ok - so much for all the background info - my question is:

How long can I expect the fragrance to last? Does it fade with age? Or with exposure to air?
I'd love to be able to make these in batches of 100 or so prior to hitting my first summer markets. They will be sealed in tins, if that helps.
I just want them to still smell "right" in 6 or 8 weeks!

thanks for all your help - nice crew here

They vary because different fragrances have different molecular weight and different strengths. For 1 lb. of lotion bar base, I normally use 1/2 oz. of fragrance, which is approx. 14.8 ml. or 14.2 grams. If you want to go as high as 1 oz. of fragrance per 1 lb. of base, that would equate out to 29.6 ml. or 28.3 grams.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

That makes sense - it's just hard to tell out of the bottle which ones are strong and which ones are not. They all knock me over right out of the bottle

So can I expect the fragrance to fade with time? Or air exposure?

I've kept samples of my lotion bars to see how well they do over time. At 6 months time, the only ones that don't smell as good anymore are the citrus EO ones. The rest are doing fine.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thanks Soapbuddy!

How are you storing them? I hope to put them in the metal tins with a shrink band, and blissfully stack then on a shelf in the cool basement...

How does that sound?

I store them on a shelf in my soap room. I tried tins, but the product discolored over time, so I switched to plastic. Now I'm ok. I think my fragrance or essential oil reacted with the tins.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Wow, I was sad to hear that about the tins! That was my favorite. I did get some plastic ones but did not like them as well as the others. I also tried some of the push up tubes and really liked them, but as I am just giving these away that is a little expensive. Maybe I'll go back to the dollar tree and see what I can find there...

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

If you know someone who buys baby food, those plastic baby food containers work great for lotion bars. The only trouble is that some foods, like carrots stain some of the containers. This is a way to get free containers if you are not particular about the size and shape of the container.

I'll check that out... have a few co-workers that have little ones.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I agree with SB, I used tins in the long ago and far away and loved them, until time proved that they rusted around the edges. If you are just making them for yourself and plan to use them before too long, then maybe it is worth it to use the tins, but definitely not if you are selling or storing for a time. Truly a shame cuz they look so cute!

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Remember, it's not just that we weather the storm, but how we dance in the rain.

Tammy