Honeysuckle Bath Salts and Bath Oil: Disperse the Absolute
Do not drop honeysuckle absolute into a running bath. It is not water soluble, so it floats as a film of undiluted oil that ends up on your skin, and the fix is a dispersant or a carrier oil, not more stirring. This post works out a bath oil and a set of bath salts around that fact. Both are formulations from published guidance and arithmetic; we have not made or tested them, so make a small batch and patch test first.
Honeysuckle Absolute
Our own Honeysuckle Absolute, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
From $13.99
Shop Now →What the bath guidance actually says
The Tisserand Institute, writing on essential oils in the bath, says they "are not water soluble", so pouring them straight in leaves "a film of undiluted essential oils sitting on top"; much of that film "is now attached to your skin" and "often sting[s]" (Tisserand Institute, Bath Safety). An earlier Hana Tisserand article puts it as a "high risk of irritation, since undiluted droplets of essential oil attach to the skin" (Tisserand Institute, Bath safety). These pages are about essential oils. A honeysuckle absolute is a different material, a hexane-then-ethanol extract, but the physics of a floating, water-insoluble oil is the same, so we apply the reasoning to it and label that as inference.
The same page lists the dispersants it recommends: Solubol, polysorbate 20, polysorbate 80 and a modified tapioca starch product. For polysorbate 20 it gives 2 to 3% of essential oil as ideal and says it is "not suitable for carrier oils"; for polysorbate 80 it gives "up to 20% with carrier oils" and a 5% maximum for essential oils alone. The wording of those figures is ambiguous (the page does not say whether the percentage is of the oil or of the finished blend), and the page itself repeats one instruction that looks like a copy error, so check the supplier's data sheet for the dispersant you buy. Separately, a New Zealand retailer's polysorbate 20 page suggests "5 to 10 times the amount of Polysorbate 20 relative to the oil phase" as a starting point and recommends small test batches (Go Native, retailer page). Those two sources do not agree on a single ratio, so we use the retailer's 1:5 in the salts and the Tisserand 20% reading in the oil, and call both starting points.
Two further points from the Tisserand pages. First, carrier oils on their own "will not disperse into the water": they float and cling to the tub and skin, make the bath greasy and slippery, and the page names fractionated coconut or jojoba as less greasy options, with polysorbate 80 the better choice if you want a carrier oil dispersed. Second, a Tisserand article says some substances "do not work as emulsifiers" and that Epsom salts have "a false reputation for being suitable" (Tisserand Institute, Bath safety II). Salt does not disperse oil. If a recipe says to "mix oil into Epsom salts and the oil will dissolve", this is the claim to distrust.
Our position
For the bath, you need either a dispersant or a carrier, and the cleanest design uses both in a concentrate you can measure: a bath oil with polysorbate 80, and bath salts with the absolute premixed into polysorbate 20. Our guidance for skin, 0.5% to 2% in a carrier oil with a patch test first, describes a leave-on dilution, not a tub. The Tisserand pages we read give no per-bath amount, so the rest is reasoning: we apply our 0.5% to 2% range to the concentrate, then compute what that gives in a tub.
Recipe 1: bath oil, 100 g
| Ingredient | Grams | % of batch |
|---|---|---|
| Fractionated coconut oil (or jojoba) | 79.5 | 79.5 |
| Polysorbate 80 | 20.0 | 20.0 |
| Honeysuckle absolute | 0.5 | 0.5 |
Weigh the absolute into the polysorbate first and stir until clear, then add the carrier oil and mix. The absolute is thick when cold; warm the bottle in your hand for a minute. At relative density 0.989 (the batch on our published certificate), 0.5 g is about 0.5 ml, roughly 10 drops at about 20 drops per ml, though droppers vary and weighing is better.
Per bath: shake the bottle and use one tablespoon. We estimate that at about 14 g (the density of the blend is our assumption). That delivers about 0.07 g of absolute, roughly 1 to 2 drops. In an assumed 150 litre tub (150,000 g of water), that is under 1 part per million. The number looks tiny on purpose: the concentration that matters is what sits on your skin, and a dispersed oil is spread through the water instead of lying on top of it.
Recipe 2: bath salts, 500 g
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| Bath salts (magnesium sulfate, sodium chloride, or a mix), dry | 500.0 |
| Polysorbate 20 | 2.5 |
| Honeysuckle absolute | 0.5 |
Here the polysorbate is five times the weight of the absolute (the lower end of the retailer's 5 to 10 times), with no carrier oil, which suits the polysorbate 20 guidance. Stir the absolute and polysorbate together in a small cup until clear, drizzle over the salts in a wide bowl and mix with a dry spoon, breaking up any clumps. That is 0.5 g across five 100 g baths, or 0.1 g (about 2 drops) per bath, about 0.67 parts per million in the same assumed tub.
Keep the jar dry and airtight. Salts take up moisture, and a damp salt jar with an oil-and-surfactant coating is a place we would not want to rely on for months; make this in batches you will use within weeks, and discard if it looks wet, clumpy or smells off. That is reasoning, not a tested storage claim.
The slip hazard is the bigger risk
A CDC report on 2008 emergency department data estimated 234,094 nonfatal bathroom injuries among people aged 15 and older, 81.1% caused by falls, 68.3% in or around the tub or shower, with the highest rate (515.3 per 100,000) among people 85 and older (CDC, MMWR, 2011). It says nothing about bath oils; the connection is ours. Since the Tisserand page says carrier oils make a bath greasy and slippery, use a non-slip mat, step out carefully, and rinse the tub afterwards. Anyone with balance problems should ask a physician or physical therapist before adding any oil to a bath.
Who should skip it
- Sensitive or reactive skin. A bath puts the whole body in contact. Patch test on the inner forearm first, and discontinue if irritation occurs, as our safety copy says.
- A jetted or whirlpool tub. We have no source on oils and surfactants in jetted tubs; read the tub maker's manual before using anything.
- Baths for children, babies or pets. Our safety copy says to keep the absolute away from children and pets. Ask a pediatrician or veterinarian.
- Pregnancy or a medical condition. We make no safety statement for any group; ask your physician.
We do not know of an IFRA Standard naming honeysuckle absolute in the library you can read (IFRA Standards library, only part of which we could read), and we publish no IFRA certificate, so we cannot quote a limit for a bath product.
Where to buy, and next reads
We sell only the absolute. Fractionated coconut oil, jojoba, polysorbates and salts come from a soap or cosmetic supply shop; ask for the data sheet for the polysorbate. For the leave-on side see the body oil, the whipped body butter and the sugar scrub, and for dilution see skin basics. For a carrier choice, see best carrier oils.
Weigh the batch, premix the absolute into the dispersant, and never put neat drops into the tub.
Honeysuckle Absolute
Honeysuckle Absolute from our own shop, in sizes from 0.5 oz to bulk.
From $13.99
Shop Now →Sources & Further Reading
- Tisserand Institute. Bath Safety: how to use essential oils safely in the bath. tisserandinstitute.org/safety/bath-safety
- Tisserand H., Tisserand Institute. Bath safety. tisserandinstitute.org/learn-more/bath-safety
- Tisserand H., Tisserand Institute. Bath safety II: Dispersing essential oils. tisserandinstitute.org/learn-more/dispersing-essential-oils
- Go Native (retailer), Polysorbate 20 product page. gonative.co.nz/polysorbate-20
- CDC, 2011. Nonfatal bathroom injuries among persons aged 15 years or older, United States, 2008. MMWR 60(22). cdc.gov/mmwr/mm6022a1
- IFRA, Standards library. ifrafragrance.org/safe-use/library