Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
When tincturing dried materials, there are a few things I consider for aging and recharging.
The more delicate parts of the plants can generally do with less time in the alcohol or oil before changing out for new material, such as flowers, leaves, etc.
The denser or woodier parts of the plants, including roots, seeds, thick stems, resins, etc. I let sit in the alcohol or oil for longer before recharging, anywhere from 1-3 months between recharges.
For dried material, powdering it often helps improve the extraction faster into your menstruum.
With oils, sometimes gentle heating will accelerate speed of extraction. You wouldn’t want to heat alcohol in that way though, due to its flammability.
You won’t be able to measure your TDS in oil, but you should see the TDS increasing in your alcohol extracts/tinctures with each recharge, until it reaches it’s maximum threshold. If you are leaving your plant material in the alcohol for a month to three months before recharging, you will not be missing too much from the old plant material you change out. Your TDS will definitely go higher if you swap out for a new batch of your aromatic material as opposed to letting the spent material age longer in the alcohol.
Resins are trickier to recharge, as they are dissolving a lot of the resin into the alcohol, so I have found they don’t recharge well. They can also clog your sprayers or leave stickiness on the skin if used in high percentages, so that is something to consider. Anya can speak to this better, as she has worked with these for her perfume White Smoke.
Burgundy Pitch’s scent is a bit fainter, so it isn’t surprising to me that you aren’t getting a huge scent transfer from it. Can you smell it if you apply a bit to your skin? Sometimes heat will activate the scent a bit.
I hope this helps address some of your questions, please let me know if you have more questions or if I missed something for you.
Thanks!
Michael
Welcome Megan!
It’s nice to have you at the Natural Perfumery Institute. It sounds like you have some neat materials to work with from your experiences with tinctures and oil infusions. I think you will find the information in the perfumery course a great way to build on that knowledge and learn the structure and methods to take your perfumery to a refined and reproducible art!
At this time, we do not have many videos to accompany the course material, though that is an area we are working on expanding. In the meantime, the text book does lay the steps for the exercises down very nicely and I have found them easy to follow. Any questions that do come up, please ask in the forums and we will gladly try to assist.
The iBalance 100 looks like a nice scale! As there isn’t an assigned scale for the class, there aren’t specific instructions for a particular model scale. Most of your scales will have similar buttons though, so the steps in the textbook should be easily adaptable to your scale. Did your scale come with an instruction manual? If not, you can find it online here:
https://myweigh.com/resources/manuals/My%20Weigh%20iBalance%20i101%20User%20Manual.pdf
It looks like you have your power button, your units button, and your tare button is labeled as Z.
In the course material, Anya references this video for the basic functions of a scale:
When I create my dilutions, I always use the weight/weight method. I find it most accurate, and it seems to be the accepted standard in the industry.
Using the example in the textbook, if you are using the 1/4 oz (7.5ml) bottles for your dilutions, you will create a total of 6 grams of material. Let’s say Lavender essential oil.
Turn on your scale and wait for it to display 0.00g. If the units are not in grams, use the unit button to change the units to grams.
Place your empty vial without the dropper or cap on the scale. It will read a weight for the container. Press the tare button, or Z button on your scale, so it reads 0.00g.
Using a pipette, transfer 0.60g of lavender essential oil to your vial on the scale.
Tare the scale again to read 0.00g.
Now add 5.40g of your 190 proof alcohol to the vial on your scale.
Seal your vial and label it appropriately, with the name of the oil, the method used- weight/weight (W/W), and if you are going to do both oil and alcohol, I would indicate Alc on the label too.
Now you have your 10% dilution of Lavender Essential Oil to work with in your coursework and formulations.
I hope this helps. If you have specific questions about the exercise or need further assistance, please reach out to us and we will see what we can do.
Again, welcome to the class and we look forward to studying with you!
Michael Singels
Adjunct Faculty/Former Student
Greetings Megan and welcome to the Natural Perfumery Institute!
At this time, there are not many video sections available for the modules, but the textbook walks through the steps very carefully. We are hoping to expand to include some videos in the near future, as we have just migrated over to a new platform for the website.
Working with scales can be a bit intimidating at the beginning, but once you learn the buttons and run through a few measurements, it will swiftly become second nature. We have students using several different scales in the course, so we can’t give instructions for every scale out there, but the text does cover the basic buttons common to most scales to start you off with. Your scale often will have a short operating manual to familiarize you with the specific buttons and features unique to it. Did you get such a manual with the iBalance 101? It looks like a nice scale! If you didn’t get a manual with it, you can download it here:
https://myweigh.com/resources/manuals/My%20Weigh%20iBalance%20i101%20User%20Manual.pdf
From what I am seeing, you have your power button to turn it on. Use the units button to set it to measure in grams. Your tare, or zero out, button is the Z. With those, you should be able to do your dilutions.
What size
bottles are you using? Have you read the module for creating your dilutions yet?
If you let me know what specific questions you have, I can try to help further.
Just a rough example for making 10 grams of a 10% diluted lavender essential oil-
I would place my empty 15ml vial on my scale and turn it on. It should read 0.00g
I would use a pipette to add Lavender essential oil until my scale reads 1.0g. This will be approximately 1 milliliter of essential oil, but can vary a bit due to the specific gravity of your individual oil.
I would then tare my scale. Mine has a button that says Tare. Yours is the Z button.
I would then add my 190 proof alcohol to the vial using a pipette until my scale reads 9.0g.
Now seal your vial and label it. Be sure to include the details on your label, the specific lavender you diluted, the percentage, the base if you are creating both oil and alcohol dilutions, etc.
I hope this helps, and welcome to the course!
Michael Singels
Hi Susan and all,
This is Michael Singels, joining you from Great Falls, Montana after the last many years in Colorado Springs, CO.
I started natural perfumery back around 2010 I think, as a branch off of herbal medicine and aromatherapy. I started with the Natural Perfumery group on Yahoo and was hooked! I later studied with Anya formally, and have been playing with scent ever since.
I also spent some time after my studies doing perfume reviews on CaFleureBon and enjoyed seeing other people’s talents and unique perspectives through their olfactive works.
It was a sad loss as the Yahoo groups quieted down and were eventually archived, so I hope we can get a thriving and active community going here in the online classroom!
Welcome to all, and please jump in and participate, start conversations, and feel free to share input or advice as to how we can improve the student experience for you!
Best wishes and fragrant blessings!
Michael Singels
NPI Graduate, Adjunct Faculty
