when and why to dilute (add carrier)

[Guest guest]

I'm going through all old messages as was recommended to me on day #1

and am still (several days later) only about 350 messages into the sum

total. Wow, there's a lot here!!! You all are really bright and

really generous.

On one of my my " pressing " questions, I've done searches within this

group's history but have not yet come up with an answer that satiates

my ever-inquisitive mind. Maybe I'm using inaccurate language with

which to ask my questions and so I haven't yet found an answer that's

already been posted. But, regardless of why I've not yet found my

answer, I'm going to ask here and now anyway. I hope any possible

redundancy won't offend anyone (but if it does, I'll live .

So...

I've gathered that many seem to believe it wise to blend the oils

before diluting them in your carrier (alcohol, oil, etc.). One person

said it was so carrier oils wouldn't be wasted. Another said it's so

you have control over the concentration of the finished product once

you create something really nice. e.g., If you dilute 10 essential

oils down to 10 percent each and play with those for accord creations

etc....the final product (once a great accord or even perfume is

created) can only be at most a 10% concentration.

I have issues with this which I'll talk about below. I'm just gonna

ramble...pour my thoughts out. Maybe I'll answer my own question in

the process. But, still, I'd really enjoy feedback from seasoned

perfumers.

One, I can't tell whether rose or any other concentrated substance

will smell nice in perfume form without first smelling it highly dilute.

Two..Yes, so no perfume would be possible at 10% final dilution (but

you'd have your ratios still and could create one from scratch...but,

yes, that new from-scratch batch would then have to be aged...so, time

would be much more of a drawback if using alcohol). But, still,

diluting prior to blending still seems to me to be a good way to save

money and fragrant materials (though maybe not bottles). My

penny-pinching side says....Yeah, so I may waste some jojoba or

alcohol (which aren't cheap), but they're not nearly as expensive as

some of these fragrant materials! If it were me, I'd be really

inclined to use 1/10th of a drop each of ambergris or oud to *test

out* a blend concept instead of a whole drop of each! The ratio of

ambergris to oud would be 1:1...Easily recreated when one's ready to

create the real deal in as high a concentration as one desires. And if

one wanted a 20% resultant concentration for testing (or the final

product), one could start with a 20% dilution of each substance to be

blended. Ambergris in 20% (2 out of 10 total drops), Oud in 20%

(2/10)...1 drop of each equals (2/10) + (2/10) = (4/20) = 2/10 or 20%.

Even though I seem to have convinced myself that pre-dilution is the

way to go...

I'm still wondering about other (as of yet unsaid? or unfound?)

reasons for not diluting before blending...maybe the essential oils,

absolutes, etc. won't bond with each other so well if they're first

allowed to bond with oil or alcohol.

But the pieces of this puzzle might be coming together for me now...

I'm guessing that it's recommended to blend before dilution simply

because different carriers result in a different effect (muffling top

notes, for instance). If one begins the blend with each eo (etc.) of

the blend previously diluted in oil, he/she may not be able to know

that the blend could smell better or even fantastic (versus mediocre)

in alcohol. Options are limited this way, I'm thinking. Oh, and if

someone decides that they want to test in alcohol, they'd have to

create bottles of eo diluted in alcohol before creating an

alcohol-based test blend. And if doing so, each alcohol-diluted eo

would have to be aged (for 6 weeks?) before beginning to create

accords and such. And who has that kind of patience!!!

Okay. I think I've dumped all of my thoughts surrounding this question.

Gonna get back to work now...

~