Lovely, sweet, amazing-smelling dead things.
One day, when the price of patchouli essential oil comes down a bit (and by a bit I mean a lot), I will make a batch of soap scented with patchouli straight-up. Fortunately, a little patchouli goes a long way, and it's great in blends. And I have found that people who hate patchouli - like my mom, for example - like it in a blend.
I bought a bar of Orange Patchouli soap at a farmer's market a couple of years ago and loved it. A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing through my fragrance cabinet and squealed with delight when I found that I had full bottles of both orange and patchouli essential oils. So I made a batch of Orange Patchouli cold-process soap.
For this batch, I used Bramble Berry's 10x Orange and Patchouli essential oils at a 3:1 ratio. I love the 10-fold Orange essential oil because it sticks well in cold-process soap. Citrus essential oils are notoriously fleeting and often fade to almost nothing in soap. The 10-fold Orange is a concentrated essential oil, so it tends to be stronger and better survives the saponification process. This batch of soap smells mostly of orange with a bit of musky earthiness in the background.
Patchouli blends so well with so many other scents. I've tried lavender and patchouli together, too, and that is a wonderful combination. There are so many combos that I think would be fantastic - patchouli and lemongrass, grapefruit, geranium, peppermint, rosemary, sandalwood, or cedarwood ... the list goes on. Experimentation is a huge part of the fun in soapmaking!
How do you feel about patchouli? Love it, hate it? Do you like it by itself, or prefer it in a blend? What are some of your favorite patchouli blends?
Until next time ...
Jenny, such a gorgeous soap. Is the colour from the EOs> It's beautiful. I love Patchouli and especially with Orange. I also do a Lavender & Patchouli too. Not sure I like Patchouli on it's own, but in a blend it's wonderful.
ReplyDeletePolly xx
Thanks, Polly! Yes, the color is from the orange EO. The soap smells heavenly - can't wait to try it out. Orange Patchouli is one of my favorites, and I also love Lavender Patchouli. I'm starting to play more with essential oils and I had to start a notebook just to keep up with all of the blend ideas I want to try! :)
Deleteyour soap looks great..love the color! I'm intrigued by this EO blend...it does sound like it smells wonderful! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, SDsoaper! It is a wonderful blend. It's going to be tough waiting for this one to cure before I can use it! I'm following your blog now, too - your soaps are gorgeous! :)
DeleteI ended up ordering patchouli orange soap from a seller-curiosity was getting the best of me, lol..can't wait for them to get here! I have never used patchouli EO before...my only experience with patch was a patchouli honey FO, so looking forward to the EO soaps. Thanks for the follow! I'm glad to see you started blogging again...I enjoyed reading your last blog! :)
ReplyDeleteSounds good! I hope you'll be inspired to try some new EO blends, especially with patchouli. I think I've also got some Honey Patchouli FO somewhere in my fragrance cabinet that I should probably go find. Thanks for the kind words - looking forward to your blog posts as well! :)
DeleteI absolutely love patchouli either by itself or in a blend. My mom on the other hand cannot stand it. Two of my favorite blends are Lavender EO, Sweet Orange EO, and Patchouli EO (which I call Hippie Fest), and Patchouli EO, Sandalwood EO, and Clove EO (which I call Happy Hippie because it makes me a very happy hippie!). My mom cannot stand either of the blends because she can smell the patchouli. She's a little strange though because she imagines she can smell patchouli in almost anything. But she is plagued with the Happy Hippie scent because I have it as a soap, and as a lotion! Even though I don't live with her (I live across the street), my little brother fell in love with Happy Hippie as well, and he has the soap and lotion as well! So Mom has learned to deal with it lol.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Amber! My mom can handle patchouli if it is a small part of a blend, but she doesn't like it on its own or as a large portion of a blend. I love patchouli any old way! Your two blends sound nice - the Happy Hippie sounds especially good. I will have to play with some blends soon!
DeleteAmber they sound yummy, what r ur ratios, especially for the clove?!?
DeleteOrange Patchouli was one of my hubby's favorite soaps more than 12 years ago. It's also the soap that caused my addiction to flare up again 1 1/2 years ago. Hubby asked, "Hey, you still have all your soap making equipment. Do you think you can make me one batch of Orange Patchouli?" After looking at him like he'd lost his mind, I replied, "Honey, you know I can't make ONE batch of soap." Long story short... I now have a dining room full of soap (again).
ReplyDeleteLove your blog!!!
Hi, Kerrie! Thanks for your comments. I love the story about how you got back into soaping! Soaping is a bit like eating potato chips, I guess - once you start, you can't eat just one chip, and you can't make just one batch of soap. :) I'm so glad that you are back into soaping, and I'm sure your hubby is, too. Thanks again for stopping by!
DeleteJenny, I found your blog when I was considering mixing patchouli with red brazilian mandarin in a body cream. My friend gave me a jug of red palm oil so I decided to make her a body cream. The red palm oil is pretty strong smelling, so I needed quite a bit (about 15 ml) of the mandarin, then added just 3 drops of patchouli (for 20 ounces of cream) which really made the mandarin pop. I also just made some patchouli-peru balsam CP soap, using 1 oz. of each essential oil. You get the vanilla-like whiff of the balsam, then the patchouli in the background.
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