MFH - Experiments & Materials

[MaxFromHolland]

Some muddy looking boilerwater from the oak bark distillation.
Pleasant fragrance, dry woody, some sweetness. Want to do a liquid-liquid extract of it, but this time i try to add the oil and evap the water as opposed to shake and separate.
This way i end up with a mix of oil and solids that can further macerate a while. Curiosity and such..
View attachment 53499

Im also trying a tincture of some of the spent bark. Just a small jar to test if its at all useful.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Upcoming experiment 🙂
I made this coconut cream-infused oil and blended some with amyris and some with copaiba. The amyris variation i like most. Now i want to try to dissolve some coconut cream in water, add amyris and distill it to recover the amyris, hopefully with a modified scent (lactic creamyness added). Would simplify things a lot.
First step is to stop forgetting to buy the coconut cream when shopping.. 😬

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Upcoming experiment 🙂
I made this coconut cream-infused oil and blended some with amyris and some with copaiba. The amyris variation i like most. Now i want to try to dissolve some coconut cream in water, add amyris and distill it to recover the amyris, hopefully with a modified scent (lactic creamyness added). Would simplify things a lot.
First step is to stop forgetting to buy the coconut cream when shopping.. 😬

Funny transparant layer of oil..

 

[Mr.P]

Funny transparant layer of oil..View attachment 53540

so this is what you got when you distilled the amyris / coconut cream mixture?

have you thought about doing something like a traditional attar, where the receiver is filled with some neutral oil and then you distill some low yield material into that oil? Apologies if we already had this discussion...

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Some muddy looking boilerwater from the oak bark distillation.
Pleasant fragrance, dry woody, some sweetness. Want to do a liquid-liquid extract of it, but this time i try to add the oil and evap the water as opposed to shake and separate.
This way i end up with a mix of oil and solids that can further macerate a while. Curiosity and such..
View attachment 53499

This method is waaay to slooow, despite the strirring i think there stil remains to much oil at the surface, hindering evaporation. Apart from that annoying detail, the smell gets more and more interesting as it concentrates more and more.
I should save up for a rotovap, but unfortunately in my country the market for used machines is around zero.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

so this is what you got when you distilled the amyris / coconut cream mixture?

have you thought about doing something like a traditional attar, where the receiver is filled with some neutral oil and then you distill some low yield material into that oil? Apologies if we already had this discussion...

Yes this is water + cream + amyris in the vessel, distilled.
I started slow and it stopped after the clear oil ended up in the receiver. Then i increased the boiling somewhat and got the milky fraction. I could have put the Amyris in the receiver but i assumed that the coconut cream scent will not transfer that way.

I did some low yield into jojoba when I just began. Also did some into amyris. So oil in receiver 'attar style'. But those were just experiments using hay.
It works though, the vial with a few drops of pure hay and the one where i had amyris in the receiver share a lot of similarities, the later having the benefit of being a usable amount. But its not a wearable scent 🐰 obviously.

The only swipable distillate so far is patchouli. I def. wish to steer the distillations towards truly fragrant material and do the barks and such trough extraction. That works much better in capturing those scents.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Funny transparant layer of oil..View attachment 53540

Botteled the 2 fractions seperate. The milky one is very viscous, not odorless but nothing pronounced. I smell some light coloured wood and a distant condensed milk sweetness.

The clear one is more liquid. I smell more of a transparent resin than wood. Camfer like sharpness and that condensed milk somewhere in the background but without any sweetness.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Liquid-liquid extraction simplified

Haha, so having this jar of oakbark boilingwater with good scent, ofcourse i wanted to capture it in oil. I figured to mix water and jojoba then let the water evaporate while stirring.

Such nonsense:
- put scented water + oil in jar with stirbar
- close jar
- stirr w/o heating for desired time*
- put jar in freezer for a day
- scoop the solidified jojoba out of jar
- put it briefly on paper kitchen towel to get rid of attached water
- put jojoba in bottle
- recover bar before cleaning jar 🙂

Clean & simple. No unwanted evaporation of scent while stirring.

*Or shaking method.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

After distillation i put a good hand full of the spent oak bark in a jar with some alcohol. I just finished evaporation & transfer to jojoba.
2 take-aways:

- Both smell similar, the liquid-liquid extract is stronger but is 700ml boilerwater > 10 ml jojoba while the other is abt 50 gram of spent wood > 10 ml jojoba. Obviously the LL method is much cheaper w/o alcohol

- so it is possible to first distill - then extract woody material and end up with something useful. Thats worth exploring if you are distilling something expensive

Oh, the result is a sweet and woody scent, nice to add a touch of brown to a blend that smells a bit light.

(I would even swipe it as is for im a sucker for these type of woods🙂)

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Playing with schisanda berry co2 extract, to my untrained nose it has an interesting fruit-spice-incense smell. Layered with guaiac wood and oak bark on my left hand, adds a lovely woody base and some sweetness that seems to lift the fruit note. Would be nice to try add a hint of fresh green but staring at the shelves doesn't spark inspiration yet..

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Playing with schisanda berry co2 extract, to my untrained nose it has an interesting fruit-spice-incense smell. Layered with guaiac wood and oak bark on my left hand, adds a lovely woody base and some sweetness that seems to lift the fruit note. Would be nice to try add a hint of fresh green but staring at the shelves doesn't spark inspiration yet..

'Woody base' might not be the proper term as in the dry down the wood fades first, leaving sweet red fruit with a hint of incense to enjoy.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Started some incense powder tinctures. Write about those later if worth while. Then continued my little layering experiment. Just to test i wanted to put a microdot of oud on my wrist, but somehow 3/4 gallon dumped off the dipstick on said wrist. Experiment failed, but i smell good 🙂

 

[MaxFromHolland]

'Woody base' might not be the proper term as in the dry down the wood fades first, leaving sweet red fruit with a hint of incense to enjoy.

Made small trial blend, needs to settle for a while before i know if&what to modify.
Decided not to add more ingredients.
For curious minds:

Bāzār
0,5 parts guaiac wood ess. oil
0,5 parts oakbark alc. extract
1,5 parts schisandra co2 extract

Thats all.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Warming up: steam distillation of
Cocoa husks in patchouli

Pardon the blurred image, camera refused to focus and i only had patience for 3 tries 🙄

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Warming up: steam distillation of
Cocoa husks in patchouli
View attachment 53679
Pardon the blurred image, camera refused to focus and i only had patience for 3 tries 🙄

I'm not getting any oil from the husks. So im essentially doing a liquid-liquid extraction, where the hydrosol, while passing trough the patchouli in the receiver, can donate some of its scent. At least in this way im not getting any dust and such in the patch as the condensate is clean.
The hydrosol smells of dark chocolate, with a tea-vibe if that makes any sense..
I've reduced the driprate and keep it running overnight.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

I'm not getting any oil from the husks. So im essentially doing a liquid-liquid extraction, where the hydrosol, while passing trough the patchouli in the receiver, can donate some of its scent. At least in this way im not getting any dust and such in the patch as the condensate is clean.
The hydrosol smells of dark chocolate, with a tea-vibe if that makes any sense..
I've reduced the driprate and keep it running overnight.

Smells pretty horrible.
Oh well..

(But as learned by now: just sit it on a shelf and revisit later, mysterious magic sometimes happens)

Tho this might not be my day given some vague delivery service just notified me of delivery of parcel at the neighbours. Neighbours being an 150 units apartment complex <insert strong language of choice> 😕

 

[Mr.P]

Smells pretty horrible.
Oh well..

(But as learned by now: just sit it on a shelf and revisit later, mysterious magic sometimes happens)

Tho this might not be my day given some vague delivery service just notified me of delivery of parcel at the neighbours. Neighbours being an 150 units apartment complex <insert strong language of choice> 😕

Most of my extractions were more pleasant after a couple of weeks than they were on day 1. I was a little surprised by it although my experience with distilling oils was similar. For some reason I just didn't think there would be some equivalent of "still notes" for a solvent extract like this.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Most of my extractions were more pleasant after a couple of weeks than they were on day 1. I was a little surprised by it although my experience with distilling oils was similar. For some reason I just didn't think there would be some equivalent of "still notes" for a solvent extract like this.

It is distillation of cocoa husks into patchouli. But the husks produced little to no oil. So is was more of an infusing the patch with the hydrosol passing trough. There was no offnote in hydrosol but the patch and cocoa just clash big time.
I had expected them to match because when i blend patch eo with patch extract, the result is pretty nice (the extract has this dark caramel note). So i figured chocolate would be nice as well.
Will see how it transforms over time, indeed.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Friday concentrated a propolis tincture down to 10ml and added equal amount of jojoba. Then put it on the stirrer for 12 hrs.
Today removed the remaining alcohol and separated the oil from the 'concrete'.
Then put concrete in a bottle to infuse some amyris. It no longer has the strong scent (that moved to the jojoba) but maybe just enough to give the amyris a earthy woody base.
I dont think i would be able to filter it, so either the concrete sinks to the bottom, allowing me to pull the oil, or i have a bottle of scented glue..

Yes, camera is still having issues😕

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Friday concentrated a propolis tincture down to 10ml and added equal amount of jojoba. Then put it on the stirrer for 12 hrs.
Today removed the remaining alcohol and separated the oil from the 'concrete'.
Then put concrete in a bottle to infuse some amyris. It no longer has the strong scent (that moved to the jojoba) but maybe just enough to give the amyris a earthy woody base.
I dont think i would be able to filter it, so either the concrete sinks to the bottom, allowing me to pull the oil, or i have a bottle of scented glue..
View attachment 53754
Yes, camera is still having issues😕

Managed to separate the oil, which is now dark viscous and slightly sticky. It was just a matter of pouring as the remaining concrete moved much slower.
Compared to the initial jojoba-based extract this has fewer topnotes, but the presence of the amyris enriches the base nicely without smelling the amyris directly.

I think i like to use a bit of this material in a blend with agarwood (incense powder) extract and maybe a trace of champaca to create a 'Cambodi-inspired attar'.