I purchased small quantities of patchouli from a few different suppliers just to compare quality. Once my family and a few friends learned I was making soap, all I've heard is, "Where's the patchouli soap? When are you going to make patchouli lavender? I WANT PATCHOULI SOAP!" Eh-hem. Maybe if you purchased enough well-aged patchouli on your own credit cards and turned it over to me, I could afford to make the rest of the soap?
Really not impressed with the BB Patchouli FO, or any other company's patchouli FO for that matter. My nose says it's the real deal or nothing, and my husband's nose concurs.
The latest patchouli EO candidate arrived from a well-known soap supply company, that is not BB. It arrived with a certificate of analysis, states the country of origin is Indonesia, and under the "odor" heading, it states, "Sweet herbaceous, woody. Complies." Nope. Dirt, dirt and more dirt and if there is anything sweet about this stuff, it's still buried under all that dirt. What really surprises me is another line on this certificate. "Shelf Life: 8 months from date of purchase." Now that's a new one on me. Doesn't patchouli get better and better as it ages? Why would any patchouli, or any other EO for that matter, have an expiration date? Assuming, that is, that it is properly stored in a cool dark place? Can anyone enlighten me?
I did manage to find a decent, fairly affordable (for MY budget anyway) patchouli EO and finally soaped a test batch with it. Hoping that'll hold the patchouli fanatics at bay for a while. They only have another month to wait for it.