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How do people successfully dissolve essential oils in carrier oils to make perfume?

post #1 of 11
2/26/10 at 5:40pm
Thread Starter 
I have been searching and reading threads all day so please bear with me. If you could lead me to any threads for help on this subject that would be greatly appreciated. Eventually, I would like to make some perfume oils with essential oils and fractionated coconut oil. I do not plan on using alcohol in my formulations. My understanding is that there are some substances/essential oils that will not mix well with the carrier oil. What does one do in that case if they want to use one of those particular essential oils/substances? I am wondering how the perfumers who make pure perfume oils manage to do this. Thank you for your time.
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post #2 of 11
2/26/10 at 5:54pm
From what I've read, the key is time. An absolute or oil needs to sit in solution for as long as it takes to mix (which can be weeks, if I read correctly). I'm about to find out, as I have oakmoss absolute and fractionated coconut oil with my latest scent experiment.

Edit: or not, as the oakmoss mixed easily.

Edit 2: The waxier substances are apparently the more difficult to mix w/FCO... I've also read that mixing these with some EO can help.
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post #3 of 11
2/26/10 at 6:07pm
Thread Starter 
I appreciate your help. Let me know how it turns out...if you have time.
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post #4 of 11
3/1/10 at 1:47pm
In my experience most EOs disolve in most oils. If an EO doesn't like oil, it's probably more like an oil or alcohol than an oil. The problem of mixing alcohol and oil is very much the same as mixing oil and water or oil and vinegar. I've had problems disloving some accords in oil - I think the accord must incorporate at least some alcohol. And I've have problems disloving some EOs in alcohol. Try an experiment with a small amount of the EO and enough oil to get you to the percentage you want in your final perfume oil.

Percentage makes a difference. I have an EO that settles out at 10% in alcohol but disperses at 1% in the same alcohol.

Time may make a difference if the mix is cloudy after a day. But if the EO is sulking at the bottom of the bottle, refusing to have anything to do with your dispersant, time probably won't help.

Finally there is the professional chemist's solution to mixing oil and water - surfactants. These are molecules that have one end that likes to associate with wather and another end that likes to associate with oil. I have not tried these since I've seen some 'guides' that suggest you have to get exactly the right amount of surfactant and that amount is not simple to calculate.

There are other oils besides coconut oil. I haven't experimented enough to find that the oil I select makes a difference.
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post #5 of 11
3/1/10 at 2:41pm
If it doesn't dissolve in oil after swirling it around for a a few min, it 99% of the time won't ever dissolve, so you macerate it in oil, so the oil absorbs as much fragrance as possible. To macerate; add un-dissolvable EO/absolute to oil and agitate every day for about a month. Then separate the EO/absolute from the carrier oil and use that oil impregnated with the smell of that EO/abs. to impart that fragrance into your perfume.
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post #6 of 11
3/1/10 at 7:21pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you ECaruthers and Artemisia with all the additional info. It will be awhile before I can get anything to experiment with cost wise, so I am trying to educate myself prior even though the best thing will be actually working with the materials. At least it feels like I am doing something. Your posts will come in very handy. Peace
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post #7 of 11
3/4/10 at 5:07pm
And the EO (Lavender Barreme) took a while to blend, actually a couple days, during which it was visible (inconsistencies in the shaken dilution, I know no other way to describe this) but now it seems to be fully incorporated. Unfortunately the Lav is a bit too strong... or perhaps it simply evaporates much quicker than the accords. (I'm thinking the latter, thus the heavy Lav hit on the top.)
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post #8 of 11
3/4/10 at 5:59pm
Thread Starter 
Actiasluna, that is strange that it took so long for the Lavender EO to dissolve. I still am just learning and reading about making perfume so it will be awhile before I get a chance to experiment again. A few years back when I tried making perfume it was a disaster lol. I added vanilla extract to a base with essential oils and 50% vodka and added water lol. None of it incorporated.
This time I am going to research things a lot before I take a bigger leap. Thanks for the update.
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post #9 of 11
3/5/10 at 1:36pm
I also once tried adding vanilla extract to an oil. I thought it would be conveninet because real vanilla EO is expensive and there are other flavored extracts that would be fun. I'm embarased to admit that I only read the ingredients list after I saw what a mess the mix was. sugar, water, corn syrup, ...

At least I experimented with only a little. I've used the rest of the extract for cooking.
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post #10 of 11
4/8/10 at 2:55pm
I am having a hard time dissolving an EO with my Jojoba + Jasmine Absolute oil blend. The EO is Australian Sandalwood, several years old. It smells beautiful and it's deep orange in color, not super thick and viscous but still very substantial. It does not seem to want to disolve into the carrier. I'm not sure what to do, except keep shaking it and wait. Eventually I might try dissolving the EO in some alchohol, then adding the alcohol + EO mixture to the carrier in a dish, and waiting for the alcohol to evaporate, thus leaving the EO infused into the carrier. If anyone has anymore ideas, please post!
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post #11 of 11
7/25/11 at 12:29am
bump !!
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