Essential Oils / Melt and Pour soap

[Lorraine]

I want to add some Tea Tree Essential Oil to my M&P soap base but I have no idea as to what amount of this oil would be safe to add per pound. I want to add enough for it to be effective but not so much that it might become toxic! Any help would be much appreciated!

TIA~

Lorraine

[Wick'n'Wax]

I want to add some Tea Tree Essential Oil to my M&P soap base but I have no idea as to what amount of this oil would be safe to add per pound. I want to add enough for it to be effective but not so much that it might become toxic! Any help would be much appreciated!

TIA~

Lorraine

Hiya, in my safety assessment, for tea tree oil, theres a limit of 1%

hth

[Lorraine]

Thank you for your reply! I'm surprised at such a small amount that is safe! I'm VERY mathmatically challenged but figured out that 1% of 16oz (soap base) would be 0.16---correct?? Not sure how to even measure that. Would that equal like 1 or 2 drops from a dropper? Seems like so little. I realize the essential oils are potent!

I did find a recipe for an Antiseptic Soap:

4 ounces M&P

1 TBSP Tea Tree oil

1/2 TBSP Lavender oil

1 drop coloring

Not sure about this recipe tho! Seems like way too much EO's in such a small amount of soap base! Scares me! LOL!

Maybe you can help me figure out how much would be the maximum amount (in 16 oz of soap base) by drops or teaspoons???

Thanks again~

Lorraine

[doris]

I use tea tree and lavender on my skin ALL the time, I consider them to be extremely safe. I do think the amounts of eo listed for your "recipe" would cause problems with the way the soap hardened. 4 oz is about a regular bar of soap, or about 113 g., 1.5 tbsp of eo is about 22.5 ml, which are roughly equal to grams, that would mean 1/4 to 1/5 of your soap would be eo; that's 20-25%: REALLY high. I have never done melt and pour,, but I think the amount of eo to use would likely be less than 1 oz/lb. 1 oz/lb is sometimes too much in cp, where the lye eats away some of the eo, in mp I think it would be too much.

[Darbla]

I think I read somewhere that you use half as much EOs as FO. So if you normally use 1 oz of an FO, go with 1/2 oz total in EOs. So I'd use 1/2 oz in a pound of soap.

[kandlekrazy]

I'm way to new to answer about the EO's in MP but as far as safety with tea tree oil, we use it directly on our skin with no problems. I've put it into MP at 1 oz (approx 2 tablespoons) pp and it was fine, hardened fine, no different than using 1 oz of any other oil. It was a recipe for an antiseptic bar that I can't find anymore and stupid me didn't print out or bookmark. Works great for acne for my son. The tea tree I have was not sold as an EO...it just says pure tea tree oil...not sure if there is any difference.

[Lorraine]

Thank you all so much for your help!

I think I'm going to start out with about 30 drops per pound of base and then take it from there. I was just so afraid to use too much but you are right, Kandlekrazy, about people using tea tree directly on their skin! You all have given me some solid information to consider! Thanks again for sharing your knowledge! Much appreciated!

Lorraine

[prairieannie]

I wonder if that recipe meant 4 pounds of soap instead of oz? It would make more sense to me if that were true. I use tea tree EO quite often and I think what you are planning to do will work just fine! Good luck!