Guest guest Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Hi folks, When figuring the dilution for adding essential oils to a product, does one figure in the amount of other essential oils or just the base? For example, let's say I want 1% peppermint... I could add 0.5g peppermint oil to 49.5g carrier oil. Now if I also add 5g cedarwood oil, the total mixture will be 55g... so do I still consider this a 1% peppermint dilution, or is it now 0.91%? Is the cedarwood considered to be at a 10% dilution or a 9% dilution? Is this just splitting hairs? Blame it on the Plant Aromatics book ;-) -Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 29, 2005 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 Josh, Dilutions are really pretty easy. If you want to know how much to add for a specific percentage, multiply the total by the percentage. If total product is 50g, then 1% is .5g. That is 50 x .01 If you want to know what percentage you used, divide the individual amount by the total amount. In your example, once you are at 55g, the EO " blend " of peppermint + cedarwood (5.5g) is 10% of the total (5.5g / 55g). The cedarwood is 9.1% (5g / 55g) and the peppermint is .9% (.5g / 55g). When someone suggests to not exceed 2% EO (as an example) they mean the total EO blend not each one. However, there may be some EO's that should not be used at that high a dilution rate. For example, in a massage blend I might use a total of 2% of an EO blend; but if I wanted to use a single EO, I would follow the guidelines for that individual oil. Each product type may have different dilution recommendations depending on the usage. HTH... Linda Wallen Village Treasures - Tow, TX Village WebWorks - www.villagewebworks.com On Behalf Of Joshua Alexander Friday, July 29, 2005 4:33 AM proper dilution method Hi folks, When figuring the dilution for adding essential oils to a product, does one figure in the amount of other essential oils or just the base? For example, let's say I want 1% peppermint... I could add 0.5g peppermint oil to 49.5g carrier oil. Now if I also add 5g cedarwood oil, the total mixture will be 55g... so do I still consider this a 1% peppermint dilution, or is it now 0.91%? Is the cedarwood considered to be at a 10% dilution or a 9% dilution? Is this just splitting hairs? Blame it on the Plant Aromatics book ;-) -Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 30, 2005 Report Share Posted July 30, 2005 Hi Linda, The math I'm good on... I was just wondering if the oil blend is considered part of the " total " spoken of. Making a product with a blend of scents is a bit different than the simple dilutions (one oil, one carrier) used for the sensitization/irritation tests. Of course, today I realized that the guidelines are given by volume and I only have the equipment to accurately measure mass. Guess I'll add some pipettes and graduated cylinders to the shopping list. Best, Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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