Informal Survey: Dilution Vessels

[Guest guest]

Question:

What type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute your

concretes and absolutes?

Do you create and keep your diluted material in the same vessel?

I ask this because I started using oval brown glass dropper bottles

(got a case of 'em at the local thrift store for $10 -- yee-ha!) and

then started buying and using chem-lab glass dropper bottles

for mine, and I keep wondering what everyone else uses. I have a

penchant for uniformity in my vessels. I don't know if that's

because of ease of storing when all the containers are the same size

and shape, or if it's because I'm part Norwegian (a large part) and

we Square Heads are known for our anal-retentive adherence to

symmetry and order.

Do others in this group use uniform size and shape bottles, or just

anything that you have at hand?

Just curious,

Andrine

[Guest guest]

>Question:

>

>What type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute your

>concretes and absolutes?

>

>Do you create and keep your diluted material in the same vessel?

>

>I ask this because I started using oval brown glass dropper bottles

>(got a case of 'em at the local thrift store for $10 -- yee-ha!) and

>then started buying and using chem-lab glass dropper bottles

>for mine, and I keep wondering what everyone else uses. I have a

>penchant for uniformity in my vessels. I don't know if that's

>because of ease of storing when all the containers are the same size

>and shape, or if it's because I'm part Norwegian (a large part) and

>we Square Heads are known for our anal-retentive adherence to

>symmetry and order.

>

>Do others in this group use uniform size and shape bottles, or just

>anything that you have at hand?

>

>Just curious,

>Andrine

Andrine,

I have never done anything with concrete soI could not offer my 1 cent worth

there. For messing around with blends, I basically recycle the bottles the

EO's come in (I am a stingy git )

Anyway, I would not use the dropper cap. I once swapped out the regular cap

with a dropper cap thinking it would make things easier. Well, the EO bottle

tipped over and was lying on it's side for months. The EO soon soften the

Ylang, YLang (

regards,

Poh Yee

excellent find in your local thrift store )

_________________________________________________________________

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[Guest guest]

> Question:

>

> What type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute your

> concretes and absolutes?

>

> Do you create and keep your diluted material in the same vessel?

(snip)

> Do others in this group use uniform size and shape bottles, or just

> anything that you have at hand?

>

> Just curious,

> Andrine

Hi Andrine,

I love uniformity. I tend to dilute tiny amounts because I create

tiny amounts of perfume so I use two dram clear glass vials. I like

the small amounts because I can test samples in them without taking up

lots of storage space and I like the clear glass so I can see how

soluble everything is, what color everything turns etc. I don't like

orifice reducers at all. I think of my work station as a miniature

perfume lab. Everything is teeny, tiny.

[Guest guest]

At 09:41 AM 12/5/2006, you wrote:

> > Question:

> >

> > What type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute your

> > concretes and absolutes?

> >

> > Do you create and keep your diluted material in the same vessel?

>(snip)

> > Do others in this group use uniform size and shape bottles, or just

> > anything that you have at hand?

> >

> > Just curious,

> > Andrine

Hi A

I've often recommended http://taj-perfumes.com/bottles.htm for their

gross boxes (or maybe 100 ct., depends on the bottle) for great

prices and delivery. I think they ahve $7 flat rate USPS Priority,

and they can really cram stuff in there. You can call them to max out

the box ;-) Of course, I make a lot of big tinctures, and use

anything available, like jelly jars, olive jars, etc, lol.Oy, my

cabinet is wacky looking, all sorts of stuff in there.

Anya McCoy

Anya's Garden of Natural Perfume http://anyasgarden.com

Artisan Natural Perfumers Guild http://artisannaturalperfumers.org

Natural Perfumers Chat Group

/

[Guest guest]

>From: " " <jessica@...>

> > Question:

> >

> > What type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute your

> > concretes and absolutes?

> >

> > Do you create and keep your diluted material in the same vessel?

>(snip)

> > Do others in this group use uniform size and shape bottles, or just

> > anything that you have at hand?

> >

> > Just curious,

> > Andrine

>

>Hi Andrine,

>I love uniformity. I tend to dilute tiny amounts because I create

>tiny amounts of perfume so I use two dram clear glass vials. I like

>the small amounts because I can test samples in them without taking up

>lots of storage space and I like the clear glass so I can see how

>soluble everything is, what color everything turns etc. I don't like

>orifice reducers at all. I think of my work station as a miniature

>perfume lab. Everything is teeny, tiny.

,

Using clear vials is definitely a good idea for the solubility aspect, but I

thought all EO's must be stored in dark bottles? Can someone please confirm

this?

thanks

[Guest guest]

>

> Hi A

>

> I've often recommended http://taj-perfumes.com/bottles.htm for

their

> gross boxes (or maybe 100 ct., depends on the bottle) for great

> prices and delivery. I think they ahve $7 flat rate USPS Priority,

> and they can really cram stuff in there. You can call them to max

out

> the box ;-) Of course, I make a lot of big tinctures, and use

> anything available, like jelly jars, olive jars, etc, lol.Oy, my

> cabinet is wacky looking, all sorts of stuff in there.

>

>

> Anya McCoy

> Anya's Garden of Natural Perfume http://anyasgarden.com

> Artisan Natural Perfumers Guild http://artisannaturalperfumers.org

> Natural Perfumers Chat Group

> /

>

Thanks for the link, I'm always looking for good deals on bottles.

On the whacky looking cabinet, don't worry about it - I have not

only one, but two " herbrooms " . Over time the various bottles,

containers etc have spread throughout the house, forever claiming

more space. I use whatever works. I'm always looking for nice

bottles, but canning jars are good, too. Enough of any type of shape

or size, give a sense of uniformity. The odd ones keep it

interesting. I am however in the process of reclaiming some of the

living space they occupy. Amazing how passions can take over LOL

[Guest guest]

I use amber-colored 30 ml dropping bottles - Anya

provided a link to the place quite some time ago and I

cannot recall the name of the place and I'm away from

my home computer - but it's a lab supply place. I

ordered a vast number of those dropping bottles - not

bad prices either - and keep my dilutions in those.

The little red bulbs were a tad tricky to get on the

droppers, but I got the knack down eventually.

From an aesthetic point of view I would love to see

all my aromatics in clear bottles (sea buckthorn is so

beautiful!), but because of the degradation from

light, I use amber and cobalt blue.

Alfred

in San Francisco

[Guest guest]

Andrine Olson-Kirschenman <midvale808@...> wrote: Question:

What type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute your

concretes and absolutes?

Do you create and keep your diluted material in the same vessel?

I ask this because I started using oval brown glass dropper bottles

(got a case of 'em at the local thrift store for $10 -- yee-ha!) and

then started buying and using chem-lab glass dropper bottles

for mine, and I keep wondering what everyone else uses. I have a

penchant for uniformity in my vessels. I don't know if that's

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Do others in this group use uniform size and shape bottles, or just

anything that you have at hand?

Just curious,

Andrine

Hi Andrine

My vessels are dark green and I usually top it with a gold screw

top........sizes are from 10ml (which actually are more) and 50ml

sizes.....these are just kept in a darkened cupboard ( which originally came

from my old studio and is painted with eco paint and blue pigment-(which gives

soft aqua tones) for the keeping of diluents... work in

progress..etc...........vintage perfume. I dilute at first within a chemist

glass beaker and then pour into the vessel. There is no filtering at this

point.

Janita

ascent

www.hayspace.co.uk

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.

[Guest guest]

> Using clear vials is definitely a good idea for the solubility aspect, but

> I

> thought all EO's must be stored in dark bottles? Can someone please confirm

> this?

>

> thanks

I was referring to dilutions. My straight EO's are kept in dark

bottles, not that it would matter much, everything is stored in wooden

boxes inside a cabinet or fridge. Light is a non-issue.

[Guest guest]

>From: " " <jessica@...>

>Reply-

>

>Subject: Re: Informal Survey: Dilution Vessels

>Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 08:52:35 -0600

>

> > Using clear vials is definitely a good idea for the solubility aspect,

>but

> > I

> > thought all EO's must be stored in dark bottles? Can someone please

>confirm

> > this?

> >

> > thanks

>

>I was referring to dilutions. My straight EO's are kept in dark

>bottles, not that it would matter much, everything is stored in wooden

>boxes inside a cabinet or fridge. Light is a non-issue.

>

>

thanks for the clarification. No wonder I see various vendors selling their

natural perfume in clear bottles.

Poh Yee

_________________________________________________________________

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[Guest guest]

> <snip> What type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute

> your concretes and absolutes?

<snip>

>

> Just curious,

> Andrine

>

Thanks to all who have answered so far. I just found myself curious

and also wondering if there was a better way when I came up with

this post.

Alfred, it sounds like you are using the same type of bottles as I

am? Square little guys from the chem-lab store, with red rubber

bulb on to, with a glass dropper inside, known in chem-lab circles

as dropper bottles. They were exorbitantly expensive in my

local chem-lab store (Science Art N More) at over $2 each, but I've

found them as little as $1.11 each online. That still sounds a tad

bit much to me. Has anyone found them for less than that? Am I

just stuck in the last century when it comes to the cost of things?

I just know that someone somewhere is buying these little bottle for

next to nothing and everyone else is middle-manning the heck out of

them.

I'm thinking of getting a bunch of little dram bottles as well. And

I tend to agree about using clear glass for this. I like to be able

to see down to the Nth degree what is visibly taking place in my

experiments. I'm kind of not happy about using my brown glass

dropper bottles for this type of experiment, as I have been so far

but at $10 for a complete case, I just couldn't say No. And so far,

I've only used my bottles for the oils I've been distilling

myself. I only bought ten of them because I didn't like the price

but wanted to test them out.

One thing that I've noticed when using bottles with a rubber bulb on

the top in conjunction with Everclear is that the rubber

disintegrates from the fumes of the alcohol (imagine what that stuff

could do to the innards of a human bein'). So I find myself delving

into bottle neck size and cap size research so I can replace all of

the rubber bulbs on my case of brown bottles. A little trouble

there too -- either you get a good price for about eleventy-umpteen-

million caps, or someone wants to sell you 10 or 12 for $0.50 each.

I know that's cheaper than getting the leventy-million but it's the

principle of paying half a dollar for a little itty bottle cap.

I'm still hoping more folks will chime in -- I'm liking hearing what

we're all using.

More later!

Andrine

[Guest guest]

> > Alfred, it sounds like you are using the same type of bottles as I

> > am? Square little guys from the chem-lab store, with red rubber

> > bulb on to, with a glass dropper inside, known in chem-lab circles

> > as dropper bottles. They were exorbitantly expensive in my

> > local chem-lab store (Science Art N More) at over $2 each, but

I've found them as little as $1.11 each online.

I found this site

(http://www.specialtybottle.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom & ID=12)last

week and have placed an order (which has not yet arrived) after having

received a sample of the 5/8 dram shortie bottle.

Some bottles I think are particularly noteworthy are the 1-, 2-, and

4-dram bottles with droppers. Though I've not yet used them for the

purpose I have in mind, it seems to me that they'll save my oils (make

'em last longer).

My intention is to store my larger bottles in a locale other than my

mixing station and refer back to them whenever my small dropper

bottles need a refill. If I have 4 ounces of a highly volatile oil (or

any other oil really), I've found that I just don't want to open that

jar frequently. My envisioned solution is to damage a much smaller

sample (1 dram worth?) in my blending explorations.

And the price is reasonable, I think. .54 cents to .81 cents

depending on size and quantity purchased.

Well, now I'm off to do some " real " work of the income-producing kind

(since I'm not yet a professional perfumer).

~

P.S. Going through the myriad of posts is a real treat. My, my you

all are a generous bunch, and I'm loving learning from every one of you.

[Guest guest]

At 05:00 PM 1/2/2007, you wrote:

> > > Alfred, it sounds like you are using the same type of bottles as I

> > > am? Square little guys from the chem-lab store, with red rubber

> > > bulb on to, with a glass dropper inside, known in chem-lab circles

> > > as dropper bottles. They were exorbitantly expensive in my

> > > local chem-lab store (Science Art N More) at over $2 each, but

>I've found them as little as $1.11 each online.

>

>

>I found this site

>(http://www.specialtybottle.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom & ID=12)last

>week and have placed an order (which has not yet arrived) after having

>received a sample of the 5/8 dram shortie bottle.

Ouch. You got hosed. I've always recommended

http://taj-perfumes.com/bottles.htm and they're in the Link section.

Half price what you paid. Plus, for that $7 shipping, they use a flat

rate box, and can cram a lot of other bottles in it for you, making

for quite a deal.

Anya McCoy

Anya's Garden of Natural Perfume http://anyasgarden.com

Artisan Natural Perfumers Guild http://artisannaturalperfumers.org

Natural Perfumers Community Group

/

[Guest guest]

(edited by moderator to remove top post)

At 05:00 PM 1/2/2007, you wrote:

>I found this site

>(http://www.specialt ybottle.com/ index.asp? PageAction= Custom & ID= 12)last

>week and have placed an order (which has not yet arrived) after having

>received a sample of the 5/8 dram shortie bottle.

Ouch. You got hosed. I've always recommended

http://taj-perfumes .com/bottles. htm and they're in the Link section.

Half price what you paid. Plus, for that $7 shipping, they use a flat

rate box, and can cram a lot of other bottles in it for you, making

for quite a deal.

Woohoo! You rock, Anya.

Now I can return the other order when it arrives. Even with the return shipping

and shipping rate for the second company, I'll save a great deal of moolah!!!

I'll have to check that link section, huh.

~

[Guest guest]

--- In , " " > > What

type of vessel do members of this group use to dilute your

> > concretes and absolutes?

> >

> > Do you create and keep your diluted material in the same vessel?

> (snip)

> > Do others in this group use uniform size and shape bottles, or just

> > anything that you have at hand?

I just recently switched to 1/3 oz ground glass top bottles for

dilutions and smaller containers for my blending table. I got them in

cases of clear, blue and green. The reason I went this route is because

I don't have a blending 'organ', I put all my blending EO in a small

wooden cabinet with short drawers. I thought it would be easier to

label the flat glass tops so I could see them better, and because

they'd be neater looking and, less risk of deteriorating tops

contaminating my expensive eo and absolutes.

It hasn't been a good idea so far, beyond the expense, the ground glass

doesn't stay sealed properly. They don't spill when tipped, but when

you reach in to pick up a bottle, the top comes out.

I think rubber topped dropper containers are probably still easier,

because you don't have to worry about cross contamination while

blending and it's just more convenient.

When ruining expensive EO, I mean blending, I use a consistent 10%

across the board dilution so I can smell where I'm heading better. If a

blend works out, I remake it from my notes in full concentration. Yes,

I keep the dilution in the same vessel. Less to clean up:).

[Guest guest]

--- helenae02 <helenae@...> wrote:

> I think rubber topped dropper containers are

> probably still easier,

> because you don't have to worry about cross

> contamination while

> blending and it's just more convenient.

>

Has anyone else found that alcohol-based tinctures and

blends evaporate quickly in rubber dropper topped

bottles? I have almost completely lost some small

tinctures in this type of bottle.

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

> Has anyone else found that alcohol-based tinctures and

> blends evaporate quickly in rubber dropper topped

> bottles? I have almost completely lost some small

> tinctures in this type of bottle.

The only things I put in the dropper bottles is oil dilutions. I'm

new to perfume blending, so when I dilute, I use fractionated coconut

oil and not alcohol for all my small blending bottles.

It's new for me to dilute for blending, but given how many mistakes I

have and will be making, I didn't want to play with whole drops. When

I come up with something decent and want to test dilutions, I go back

to the larger bottles of scent and recreate in full strength.

I never thought of evaporation from the dropper bottles with alcohol.

That's interesting. How do people get around that?

Also, what kind of dropper bottles are you using? I got my dropper

bottles from SKS (the green 1/3 oz kind). I've never used them to

hold anything with alcohol, only oil based, but I probably will end

up putting alcohol tinctures in them too ... do these evaporate too?

The tops are tight and of what appears to be good quality.

Also, last spring/summer, I made some tinctures using vodka,

everclear or gin (for the juniper berry sparkle). Most of these are

still very alcohol smelling... after months. I think I put enough

organic materials in that they should be stronger than they are. Do

you all tincture in perfumers alcohol for blending?