Collect needed items:
Water
Fragrance or Essential Oil of Choice (I’m going to use Fresh Fruit Salsa Fragrance Oil)
Polysorbate 20 or Polysorbate 80 (I’m using Polysorbate 80)
Scale
Glass Beaker or mixing jar
Notebook or paper for math work (optional)
Containers for Room Sprays
Recipe as a Formulation:
5% Fragrance or Essential Oil
5% Polysorbate of choice
90% Water
Wait a minute! How do I determine how much fragrance oil and polysorbate I need? That is an easy question.
For today’s post, I’m using a 2 oz PET Bottle, Size 20 (101-1141). We need to simply move the decimal point from behind the 2 to in front of the 2 to get 10 % of the entire bottle.
Example: 2.0 —- 0.20 = 10% of 2 fl oz
Divide the 10% in half for the needed 5% of fragrance oil and the other 5% of Polysorbate. Weigh the needed amount of fragrance oil and Polysorbate, and then fill the bottles. Once the bottles have been filled with the needed amount of our fragrance and Polysorbate mixture, you can add the water.
Wow! That was amazingly easy! Tomorrow we are going to cover making perfumes and body mists, so stay tuned! (Wait! I’m not a radio announcer, so what am I doing?)
Next week is our Bath Tub Pleasure Week! Bath Fizzies for the kids and the kids at heart, bath oils for those leisurely evening baths, and bubble bath for bubbly entertainment! Wow! This is going to be so much fun!
What would the recommended percentage be for a preservative? It would most definitely need one. Thanks!
I made some body spray the other day, and it smells is fantastic, but it came out cloudy. I would really like to learn
how to make it crystal clear. I also wanted to know can you use Polysorbate for perfumery? And lastly, please explain
to me what this means. I’ve heard these terms before, percentages and parts, it has always confused me. I’m a bit
more cryptic and need a visual like 5% = 30 ml of fragrance or 5% = 30 ml Polysorbate and 90% = 1 gallon water to
fill 100 2.oz bottles. I hope I’m making sense to you. Thanks
Think in terms of dollars and pennies. 5% of a dollar is 5 pennies. It is also 5 parts of 100. If terms like 1 gallon, 1 pint and 12 ounces is confusing to you, convert to metrics. Everything is done in pennies, dimes and dollars; or ones, tens and hundreds.
The body spray we did is 5% fragrance oil, 5% polysorbate, 90% water. So, 5 pennies worth of scenting oil, 5 pennies worth of emulsifier, and 90 cents worth of water.
It is best to remember that your UNITS OF MEASURE must stay the same. So, 5% of 1 gallon is 0.05 gallons. You won’t measure 0.05 gallons, so you will need to convert this. Why convert if metrics allows you to keep the same unit of measure all the way through?
This is how I do a room spray: Place a bottle on the scale. Press TARE. Fill the bottle with water to my desired fill line. Weigh the filled bottle on the tared scale. The weight of the water is very close to what the spray will be when I am finished. If the weight is 340 grams of water then I do the calculations from there. 340 g * 5% = 17 g fragrance. This means I also need 17 grams polysorbate. Mix the scenting oil and the polysorbate together. 340 – 17 – 17 = 306 This means I need 306 grams of water. I add the 17 + 17 gram mixture to the bottle and then add 306 grams water, or top up to 340 grams. Shake well.
Does this help?
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve been wanting to make my own room sprays for a while now, Just haven’t got around to trying it yet. I can’t wait to make this, it’s so simple! I can’t wait until next weeks bath week! Bath fizzies are what sparked my interest in making bath & body products. This is becoming my favorite blog!
I also was wondering what type of preservative you would use……especially if we were going to market these room sprays. Is the cloudiness just something you have to put up with?
timtoys & crissyp-
A preservative is not necessary for room sprays even if you are going to market them. If you want to use a preservative, Liquid Germall Plus is great for high water content products such as (water/ps 80) room sprays. I would use at a rate of 0.5%.
The cloudiness won’t go away, but you can use any of our dyes to color the room spray.
I hope this information helps both of you!
Thanks Andee! Yes, I understand it much better. Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me. I is greatly appreciated!
I know this is an older post, but I’ve been thinking (dangerous!) and so I wanted to ask. Would this be an good method for making light body sprays as well as long as they are preserved?
Thanks!!
timtoys-
Thinking is never dangerous! (Unless you are some big hulking French brute who thinks he can marry a book reading fanatic of a girl named Belle.) You can use this method, or you can e-mail techsup@thesage.com for more assistance. As I said earlier, a preservative system is not necessary.
FYI: 20% alcohol will “preserve” your room, linen and body sprays. Alcohol also clears the solution.
FYI: If your product is cloudy, add another 5% polysorbate 20 until it clears. With some FOs and some EOs the ratio may go as high as 4:1; meaning 4 parts polysorbate to 1 part FO/EO. The polysorbates are designed to “solubize” or dissolve oil in water. Although they are interchangeable, it is recommended to use Poly 20 with non-foaming products like mists and sprays; Poly 80 with foaming products like liquid soap.
TIP: Ditto what Andee said about using the metric system. Make a 100 gram or ml “test” batch. Grams or milliliters convert easily to % — 100 grams = 100%. With percents in place, you can easily resize the batch to make whatever amount you want — even going back to the imperial system and make a gallon at a time.
EXAMPLE:
5 ml fragrance
20 ml polysorbate 20
20 ml alcohol
55 ml water
TOTAL = 100 ml
CONVERT to %
5% fragrance
20% polysorbate 20
20% alcohol
55% water
GALLON BATCH
5% = 6.4 fl. oz. fragrance (.05 X 128)
20% = 25.6 fl. oz. polysorbate 20 (.20 X 128)
20% = 25.6 fl. oz. alcohol (.20 X 128)
55% = 70.4 fl. oz. water (.55 X 128)
128 fl. oz. TOTAL
Another question for the room sprays… is this recipie safe on fabric? Thanks…
Rainy,
The recipe is safe on fabric. The only possible concern I would have is watching the finish on furniture, because the fragrance you use might damage the finish. It is a very faint possibility, but I would rather be safe than sorry. Several members of the staff use this for a clothing or bedding spray.
Hope this helps!
I made the spray and 5% FO turned out to be too strong for me personally. So I was wondering if I lower the Fragrance Oil to 2% do I still need to use 5% polysorbate?
Some fragrances will require more polysorbate than fragrance, others don’t. We try to match the two items, then we increase the polysorbate when extra emulsifying is needed.
How do you know if more polysorbate is needed? I just made 4 different scents using 5% polysorbate and 5% FO or EO. After a few days it looks like some of them have separated and are clear with some bubbles at the top. Does this mean more polysorbate is needed? Should they always be cloudy if the ratio is correct?
You should first test the fragrance/polysorbate mixture. If the fragrance is emulsified there, then you shouldn’t have a problem. Bubbles are not something we base emulsification on, or not. If you want a clearer product you will need more polysorbate. You are not guaranteed a clear product, this process won’t allow all fragrances to be clear, some just remain cloudy.
I made this room spray yesterday, using Gingerbread & Spice FO from MMS and only 3% each of the FO and Polysorbate 20. It smells wonderful, but today the spray in the bottle is a nice shade of orange/rose color. I did add some Rubbing Alcohol like Zany suggested, would that make it turn color or is it that there’s vanilla in the FO? It’s a pretty spray but I wonder if it will stain anything. Any thoughts?
Kathy
The color is probably oxidation of the fragrance oil. This happens and is part of what causes vanilla scents to turn brown. It can stain so I would suggest not spraying fabrics or walls directly.
What kind of alcohol is used? I heard it is not rubbing alcohol. Thank you.
You are correct. It is not a rubbing alcohol. If you want to sell your room sprays you will need a SD alcohol. (Special denatured alcohol.)
Pingback: Adventures With The Sage » Blog Archive » Fragrance Testing in Cold Process Soap: Emmett, Osmanthus, Cucumbers & Melons and Frosted Cupcake