Learning to blend FO's questions

[PassionSunKiss]

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!

[ChrisR]

I know quite a few who blend using the base, middle & top note formula, but I'm not one of them LOL!  I do blend with straight FO's, blended FO's & EO's.  I usually start out by using the q-tip method with a 50/50 blend, let it sit in a zip lock bag for a couple days, then smell it.  If it's what I'm looking for, I go with the 50/50 and candle test, if not, I add another q-tip with the note I'm trying to bring out and repeat the process.  Sometimes my blends are great, and other times I have gotten some real stinkers!  There's nothing to be afraid of, just start mixing some scents you think go together and have fun!! 

[justajesuschick]

You will get a lot of good advice from those with a lot of experience here. 

 

I can share how I do things. I prefer to make all of my melts "straight up" for testing purposes. I take either 50/50 of 2 scents or whatever percentage of which I want and melt those and see what I think in terms of mix and longevity. Not all of my scents play well with others and for me, this is the best way to know how they work before I begin to blend them together in wax. That, of course, is the next step for me. I do the same with scents already in my line. So, I may blend "Strawberry Fluff" with Pineapple as well as trying the straight Strawberry with Pineapple to see which I like best. I had 2 scents that I wanted to test blend over the weekend. Knowing that one was likely to overtake the other, I started at a 70/30 mix and it was just what I wanted. 

 

I do not like to blend more than 3 scents together. I think it gets "busy" and difficult to smell what it is to be. It also gets tricky when I am blending into a single product and mixing a pound or so at a time. That is me, though. I am not a math person. I do not want to have to do the math upfront and figure that if I have 16 ounces of wax that I use .27 of one scent, .32 of another and so on. 

 

Selling to others means that they expect the same scent, melt after melt, batch after batch. I cannot just do a "splash" of this or that. It has to be precise. If making for yourself, I'd still document what you have done. Oftentimes, you will want to make it again and if you have omitted that step, it is all guesswork.

[MarieJeanette]

I confess that I'm not very scientific/clinical when it comes to blending my FOs. I pretty much just mix any FOs together that I think might make a great blend, whether they're single-note FOs or more complex.

First, I start out with a drop of each FO on a Q-tip, and if I like how the FOs are behaving together, I then graduate to the small bottle method where I drip a certain amount of drops or milliliters of each FO into a small bottle (making sure to keep a record of the amounts of each so I can come up with a ratio), and then I let them stew for a day or two before deciding if any further adjustments are needed.

If I like it, I then fill up a 1 oz. or 2 oz. bottle of the blend and test it out.

[TallTayl]

I blend anything and everything. Sometimes a fragrance l needs a boost to make it perfect. Sometimes i hold two caps together and think, hey there's an interesting combo!

I like to put drops on a small square of paper towel folded into a square of aluminum foil. You can tape the foil packets to a sheet of paper to organize and take notes. The foil keeps the scent intact for a really long time and files really well. Bonus that i can send loads of those foil sniffies to people for opinions for the cost of a First Class stamp.

If i like a blend, i move on to Drops in salt in a canning jar. I can shake the jar and heat the salt to see if i like how they play over time.

The only word of caution, if you're making blends for skin use: watch usage limits. Some, not all, eo's and fo's have pretty low safe usage rates. Like Anise, for instance at .1% of the finished product. Blend it to keep the total at or below the target limit.

[Raidell]

Now I'm more of a perfumer than a candle or soap person, so my advice might not be quite what you're looking for, but I do a lot of blending with fragrance oils to make my own fragrances, and sometimes the formulas get really complex. I think the most important thing to making successful blends is to know your oils! Be aware of how strong they are, how they change over time, and how they tend to play with other scents. And if you're going to put it in something, it's good to know how it behaves in product. The best way to get this is to experiment. Play around with oils and have fun! Try stuff out, even crazy stuff. You never know what'll work well until you try! The best part about blending is that there aren't really any rules (except max usage rules, those are sort of important!  )

 

I usually use single notes (just Jasmine, just Rose, just Strawberry, stuff like that) but honestly sometimes blends are really nice to use if you're looking for some specific character that the individual notes don't really give you. Sometimes the blend is better than the sum of the parts. If you're just starting out and buying oils to start with, though, I would recommend single notes.

 

If you're worried about wasting materials, I would suggest the q-tip method, or even just smelling the caps of the fragrance oil bottles together to see if you like the combo. Just be sure to have fun! It's not as scary as it seems!

[megandgarr]

I do tend to blend a lot of fragrances myself, but they are typically pretty straight forward, i.e. cherry limeaide (50/50 cherry & lime) or strawberry lemonade (50/50 strawberry & lemon), etc and then increase or decrease depending on whether one scent overpowers the other. I do on occasion blend more complex blends with about 3 scents but not usually more than that. For example, if I want to make smores I might try blending graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate if I have those scents straight as opposed to ordering a premade smores. I would start out with equal parts and then adjust accordingly. I always keep notes on my "recipes" including the exact percentage so that my end result is consistent from batch to batch. One time (and only once) I got a wild hair and had a mad scientist moment and decided to blend a crazy concoction and it turned out to be one of my very favorites. I think it has 9 scents, but I do have a formula and I usually make the FO in bulk in an 8 ounce bottle so the end result will be consistent. That particular scent has something like .5 oz of this, 2 oz of that, .75 oz of that and so on. 

 

For me blending is trial and error. Sometimes I will do a qtip test, other times I will melt 1/2 of each melt of the scents I am thinking about combining and other times I will just take a chance and make a small batch of it. Most times they turn out really nice. 

[ProudMarineMom]

I like to put drops on a small square of paper towel folded into a square of aluminum foil. You can tape the foil packets to a sheet of paper to organize and take notes. The foil keeps the scent intact for a really long time and files really well. Bonus that i can send loads of those foil sniffies to people for opinions for the cost of a First Class stamp.

If i like a blend, i move on to Drops in salt in a canning jar. I can shake the jar and heat the salt to see if i like how they play over time.

 

 

I like the idea of putting it on a piece of paper towel and wrap in foil.  I have scent strips but the scent fades after a while.  Going to give that a try.

 

Do you find that salt works better for testing a fragrance?  I generally use DPG for FO or water for EO.  Just asking your opinion.  Thanks!

 

     J

[TallTayl]

I like the idea of putting it on a piece of paper towel and wrap in foil.  I have scent strips but the scent fades after a while.  Going to give that a try.

 

Do you find that salt works better for testing a fragrance?  I generally use DPG for FO or water for EO.  Just asking your opinion.  Thanks!

 

     J

salt is just convenient and simple for my easily distracted brain... If it spills, nice easy clean up. It's also a nice visual to remind me that something is in the jar. How many times have I washed the scent jar before realizing something was in there i needed to check up on...

I have dpg, but never think to use it. Have also used IPM to dilute, like for reed diffusers.

[marcuset]

salt is just convenient and simple for my easily distracted brain... If it spills, nice easy clean up. It's also a nice visual to remind me that something is in the jar. How many times have I washed the scent jar before realizing something was in there i needed to check up on...

I have dpg, but never think to use it. Have also used IPM to dilute, like for reed diffusers.

To my sniffer, I find that dpg seems to skew the scent a bit.  Salt is so stinkin easy to play around with scents!!!  

[Scented]

Mixing allows us to offer something that's a little different (for better or worse) than the bigger companies. 

I started with (and still do it) taking the caps off the bottles and grouping them together and then waving them under my nose to see if there's any chance I might like it. If I feel it's missing something, I'll go looking for another fragrance to add to it. Once I've found something I think I might like, I'll do the Qtip tests at 1:1:1:etc. (dependent on how many scents are involved) and I'll do tests with varying amounts ... I will usually double up fragrances that might be considered top notes (citruses) so they stick around. 

Then I'll come back to those ratios and if I do like what they are developing into, I will go to test tubes and play with a couple of combinations to see if some things will round it out like maybe a patch background, amber, oakmoss, sandalwood type of thing.

If I'm using EOs for something other than wax, I mess with only test tubes and go a drop at a time.

I test out in wax for the most part, because I do have a particularly good blend that will only work in tarts after testing it. It requires too much of a wick up that i won't put a wick in it until I can find a particular scent to replace one of the parts. I don't mess with cutting the scents or trying it in salts, because the bottom line is I either want it to burn or do well in soap. One of the combos might work in soap. I haven't tried it yet. It's only been used in sprays and solid perfumes. I can't decide if I want to put it in other applications, though I think soap would be nice for this one. 

So my process might be a little lengthy, but it's what I will do for things that I want to be more than just a limited edition. 

To just get rid of bottles that have enough FO to play around with, I'll just start tossing them together, use and then put under a burn test, which is kind of what I'm doing to get rid of the 8 oz or so of leather I now have left. Since I'm wondering what leather and amber will be like together (as I liked it when the two incenses were drying), the rest of the leather will go towards that perhaps, but I also am thinking about leather and rose and leather and sandalwood and leather and sage ... (just really trying to use up the leather so we HAVE to buy more ... I can't buy till it's gone I am told.) Leather isn't a favorite of mine, but it is among our customers. 

Edited May 28, 2014 by Scented

[PassionSunKiss]

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.

Edited May 29, 2014 by PassionSunKiss

[Candybee]

My favorite blends for soap are a combination of FO and EOs. For example, today I used a coconut lime for my cp soap. I added 1/4 oz lime EO to 2.25oz coconut lime FO. It smells awesome. The lime really pops and its exactly what the scent needed in my soap. Sometimes I just want to make a particular note in a FO to stand out so I look for the EO(s) equivalent. When mixing FOs and EOs remember that you only need half an oz of EO to match one full oz of FO. EOs are stronger so use at half strength as a general rule. But if you want more go ahead and try it. Just remember it will be stronger with the more you use.

 

For candle fragrance blends I like to try mixing FOs in combinations that work together. Eg., cinnamon stix and macintosh apple; lavender and chamomile; chocolate brownies and carmelized pralines; etc. Its easy to start learning to blend FOs that are a primary scent like apple, vanilla, lavender, lemon, etc. But always check out the description as there can be many notes that make up a 'single' scent. Example; check out CS Baby Powder. I mix it with their lavender at 50/50. It makes an awesome 'lullaby' scent but the notes in the powder fragrance are very complex.

 

Its the preblended FOs that can be challenging for blending. You just have to give them a try. I like starting out with a 50/50 blend. I put a little wax in my meltor and add about 1/2oz of the blend I came up with. I then 'burn' the blend in the wax melter to get a good idea how it will work in my candles and tarts. I got my best ideas blending this way and testing them out in my melter. Its more effective that way in my opinion than using the Q-tip test. The Q-tip test just doesn't work for me.

[PassionSunKiss]

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

[Candybee]

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/

[PassionSunKiss]

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!

[PassionSunKiss]

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?

[justajesuschick]

That is why I prefer testing blending once I have FO in wax. A scent has to be good/stand on it's own before I will add it to my line. I established a small line first and now blending occurs more naturally.

 

I took the 30-40 scents or so that I had and blend half of 2, 1/3 of 3 and so on in a warmer dish, heat and get a truer sense of how it will be once I blend both, or all 3 together in wax.

 

You will see here that we are told not to "judge an oil OOB because a scent will change once in wax". Q-tip test for me was the same.

[ChrisR]

If you like the blend after 3 days, put it in wax and see how it does.  Sometimes a good 'sniffie' blend is great in wax or could suck, you'll never know till you test.  On the other hand sometimes a bad 'sniffie' will come alive in wax and smell great.  Unfortunately, there is no set in stone way to tell just by sniffing. 

[megandgarr]

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.

[Candybee]

This is why I prefer not to use Q-tips. I just can't quite make sure if I like it or not. But when I put a little wax in my melter and add a few drops of the blend and burn it I can always tell immediately if I like it, if its strong enough, or mellow enough, or whatever I am looking for. I would much rather use up my precious wax on a tester candle that way than trust a Q-tip scent.

[PassionSunKiss]

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.

[justajesuschick]

Blend them in what product you will be making. Bath salts, lotions, roll on perfumes, reed diffuser base.

[soapbuddy]

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.

[PassionSunKiss]

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!