Wednesday 9 September 2015

Essential Oils and Thickening Liquid Soap

The only information I have been able to find about the effect of EO’s on viscosity of the soap is that the Citrus' thins it.

Cedarwood                         Thickens
Cypress                             Thickens
Frankincense                      Thickens
Lavender                            Thickens
Lemon Grass                      Thickens
Lemon Myrtle                     Thickens
Rose Geranium                   Thickens a lot.  Reduce salt thickening. Try 2% first.
Tea Tree                             Thickens

Twice I have had salt thickening fail when I mixed a blend of Cedarwood and Rosemary in natural liquid soap shampoo.  Either of them alone was fine.

Curdled salt thickening in liquid soap
I thickened a batch of natural liquid soap with salt.  I added Cypress and Lavender.  It thickened a little more but the moment I added Cedarwood the mix went whitish and shortly after the curdled thickening rose to the top of the soap.

Because I am not a scientist, the blend may not be the problem - this is just an experience I have had.

I have thickened the soap with the salt first - not taking too much care about amounts.  Then when I added the EO the thickening has "undone" and the mix turned the whitened colour.  I have added more unthickened soap and the whiteness goes and it thickens up again as the salt saturation is lowered.

Without EO's I have thickened soap with salt till it is a gelatinous blob but have only had that happen with Rose Geranium Oil.  It seems that for some reason other EO's don't like this"over thickening".

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