PassionSunKiss

Hey all! I've been searching the web and I was wondering if off the bat you guys knew of any vendors that sell 2 oz lotion bar tubes that were phthalate free? I know WSP says on their site that theirs DO contain phthalates. I wrote to BB and SKS and I probably will not hear from them until sometime next week. Any help is appreciated! TIA!

Thanks guys! I appreciate you looking. I don't think it's a new scent, but then again I don't usually follow BBW scents like I used to as a teen. I went onto their website and they don't sell that particular fragrance any more so It may have been discontinued or it was a limited edition fragrance.

Hey guys! I am wanting to start to experiment with lotion bars. One recipe I was looking at asks for IPM and I know it's not a required ingredient, but I was wondering if there was an alternative to this ingredient? TIA!

I'm totally in love with BBW Sea Side Bloom! It says it has notes of California Poppies, Fresh Apple, and Water Lillies. Does anyone know of any dupes or something similar? TIA!

Just Scent has it, but I'm not sure if they require a minimum order or not. HTH!

Hey all, I'm trying to make some roll on perfumes, and I was wondering what % you think I should go by? For example, almost all of NG's FOs say 5% maximum use, but when I check the IFRA certificates, the skin safe max will range between 5%-66% and some IFRA certs actually say "No Restriction". I've tried making some roll ons at 5% at NG's suggestion and you can hardly smell the FO after like 30 minutes. I was wondering what you thought the average, safe % was and why certain vendors have a % much lower than the IFRA limit?

TIA!

Does anyone have any experience with any "natural" emulsifiers in lotions/body butters? I'm trying to move to a more natural line. Currently I use between 9.2%-9.5% e-wax in my recipes, but have no idea what the equivalent is when using another emulsifier. I thought about using beeswax as an emulsifier, then I stumbled onto an article that states it's not an emulsifier.

Some of these I've read as being thickeners, but this is what one website said were "natural" emulsifiers:

Beeswax
Candelilla
Carnauba
Cetearyl alcohol
Cetearyl wheat bran glycosides
Cetearyl wheat straw glycosides
Decyl glucoside
Jojoba
Lecithin
Quince seed
Rice bran wax
Sucrose cocoate
Vegetable glycerin
Xanthan gum

I've been experimenting and two questions that popped into my head was: if you have a blend that has 4-5 different scents combined, how do you know which note is which? How about when blending with blends? I've seen some scents where the final result was a mixture of 3 different blends, which of course, consists of God knows how many different notes. 

I dunno who does, but my hubby wears this and I love it! I too would love to know who makes a dupe. I'd love to make some bath and body products.

When I am working on a blend I use perfume test strips or q-tips (which I cut in half) and put them in a small glass jar with a lid; kind of like what baby food jars come in.

Have you had any luck with just combining the oils together in the jars? What are the benefits of using Q-tips? Thanks for your help!

In my opinion the scent morphs over time with the q-tip/ziplock bag method. When I use that method, which really isnt very often, I always make sure to smell the combined scent in the bag within an hour of placing them in there. If I wait much longer the scent doesnt smell very good. But again, that is just my opinion based on my experiences.

That seems like what I'm experiencing with that morphing and all. What other method do you use? I'm not dealing with waxes so unfortunately I cannot combine them in a wax. I'm thinking I'll probably have to do it with a carrier oil or something. I just dont know what other things I could put my "experiments" in other than baggies, which are cheap and disposable.

Ok I went ahead and used the q-tip method on several blends. They ALL smelled terrible when I placed them in the baggies together (is that normal?).  I probably made a total of 30 baggies. I've randomly picked two blends and placed them in a ziplock bag three days ago. Today I have given them the sniff test dividing the piles into "Oh, that smells good" pile, a "maybe" pile, and a "absolutely not" pile. The good pile is something I could see adding more scents to or leaving them as is. My question is, do I judge what I should combine based on how they smell initially together or the result three days later?

I started out using Peak's helpful info. Its actually from the old candletech forum board before it became craft server. Alan at Peaks kept a link and I'm glad he did. Its got some good blending ideas. Here's the link:

 

http://www.candletech.com/candle-making/tips-and-tricks/scent-mixing-ideas/

Awesome! This link is very helpful, thank you!

Are there any basic FO's that you guys would recommend for a beginner?

Wow everyone! Thanks for the plethora of awesome information!   I will definitely have to try these methods. Does everyone find this to be a very time consuming tasks? I hope it's not too frustrating. How many FO's do you guys have? I'm in the process of ordering more, concentrating more of the straight FO's that aren't blends. I have about 30 blends or so.

I'm curious about how to blend FO's to create my own fragrances (for bath and body products), but I have several questions that don't seem to be answered on the web. Most articles online are dedicated to EO's, making this even more of a head scratcher. Blending seems pretty intimidating to me , making it hard to know where to start.

When you are creating your own scent, do you use FO's that are strictly one scent (ie: just strawberry) or do/can you use a blend (ie: strawberry cheesecake)? Will using a blend mess something up since your arent controlling the notes?

Is there some kinda ratio, percentage, or formula that you would recommend? I read on an online article that you're supposed to use a formula of Base: 20% Middle: 50% Top: 30% or even a 50/50 blend.

I've marvelled at some of the blends that people have supposedly created on their own, but the descriptions of their scents contain like 6 scents and I'm thinking "How the heck do they do this?". Are they blending blends with other blends?

My head is spinning with the several hours of research and not getting anywhere. Any advice is much appreciated and thank you for letting me pick your brain!

Awesome guys! Thanks for the quick replies!

Ok, I'm new to this whole roll-on perfume thing. I'm using FCO as my carrier and was wondering do I need to use a vanilla stabilizer on FO's that contain vanilla? I tried mixing the FCO with an FO/stabilizer and something, I'm guessing it's the stabilizer, is floating at the top of the vial. It looks weird. I was wondering, if I just decide to not use the stabilizer will my mixture turn brown? I wasn't sure if browning only applied to lotions and soap. TIA!

Oh yeah! And be sure to assign each EO to their own plastics. These plastics do have a tendency to absorb the scents they are used with and you wouldn't want to mix the scents or contaminate the parent EO bottles. LOL sorry for all the posts!

Oh, I forgot to mention PET or PETE can be used as well. So pretty much avoid anything that isn't PET, PETE, or HDPE, but never STORE EO's in them undiluted. Websites just state that those plastics are safe for diluted storage, but not undiluted storage. There isn't anything definitive for undiluted passage (ie: passing through a tube, etc) of EO's in those plastics, but I imagine that since the EO's aren't sitting there for months on end that it should be relatively safe. You may need to change out whatever tubing or filters you're using after some time. Just pay attention to the quality of the plastic before each use, rinse them with soap and water when done, and if they're starting to feel gummy or gritty, change them out. HTH!

HDPE is the only plastic that even harsh acids cannot penetrate (take a look at the bottom of your bleach bottles or cleaning supplies). From my studies this is the only plastic that, with time, will not deteriorate. Other plastics, with time, will slowly deteriorate the plastic causing the particles in the to leech into your formulation. HTH!

I've been looking forever and ever on how to label diluted EO's and all I can find are websites talking about how to label neat EO's. Anybody have any idea? I've even looked on the FDA website and have had no luck. Any advice? TIA!

Hey guys! I was wondering if anybody had any problems with their blends deteriorating the orifice or lids of their amber vials? I just didn't know how many years customers would be able to keep them for. I've been doing a lot of homework on EO's and I do understand they need to be stored in a dark, cool place (preferably in amber glass vials in the fridge), but does it matter what material the orifice and lid are? I read somewhere that if the EO's were to be touching any kind of plastic for periods of time it needs to be HDPE plastic. When I go to different websites, they either don't list the kind of plastics the orifices and lids are, but this one store says their products are made from polypropylene or Phenolic plastics. Will those hold up for years? May I get your two cents on the matter? TIA!

ChrisR what kinda stuff have you heard about YL? New Directions eo's look really good!

Old Glory, I'll have to check out Camden Grey. I never thought to look there. And your analogy of eo's being like wine makes complete sense!

Tall thank you for your advice! :-)

Hey guys! I've been doing countless amount of hrs on finding which companies have the purest form of EO's minus additives and ethyl vanillin. So far it seems Young Living seems to be a great company to go with, but their prices are . I was just curious are EO's the kinda thing that "you get what you pay for"? TIA!