How To Make Your Own Perfume

by Tony Kelly

What you will need:

  • Distilled water
  • Perfumer’s alcohol
  • Coffee filters
  • Strainer
  • Coloured glass bottles with stoppers
  • Dropper
  • Funnel
  • Wooden spoon
  • Non-metal bowl
  • Essential oils (see recipes below)

Instructions

1.  Pour the alcohol into your bowl. Add the essential oils one drop at a time into the alcohol in the bowl, stirring slowly after each addition. Make sure that you stir slowly, but long enough to completely disperse the oils

2.  Allow the blend of oils and alcohol to stand undisturbed for 48 hours

3.  Add the distilled water. Stir it slowly until it is completely dispersed.

4.  Place the mixture in a cool, dark place where it won't be disturbed for at least three weeks. This will allow the perfume to mature.

5.  Filter the resulting pure perfume through a coffee filter to remove any sediment that may have formed. Bottle your perfume into glass bottles with a stopper. Enjoy it as you would any commercial perfume.

 

Recipes

Here are a few recipes for you to try. These will help to start you off, but don't be afraid to experiment and tweak them as you see necessary, or if you are feeling adventurous you could try creating your own blend. If you have any recipes of your own please feel free to post them in a comment.

 

Rain Shower

5 drops Bergamot
3 drops Sandalwood
5 drops Cassis
1 cup distilled water
5 teaspoons of perfumer’s alcohol

 

English Country Garden

5 drops Valerian
5 drops Chamomile
3 drops Lavender
1 cup distilled water
5 teaspoons perfumer’s alcohol

 

Amaze Perfume

2 cups distilled water
3 tablespoons perfumers alcohol
5 drops hypericum perforatum essential oil (St. John’s wort)
10 drops cypress essential/fragrance oil
10 drops rosemary essential/fragrance oil

 

Citrus grove
5 tsp perfumers alcohol
1/2 tsp distilled water
15 drops lemon oil
10 drops bergamot oil
10 drops bitter-orange oil
5 drops grapefruit oil
5 drops lemongrass oil
4 drops benzoin oil
2 drops cedarwood oil

 

Tips & Warnings

  • Don’t be afraid to experiment with a fragrance recipe. Learning how to make your own fragrances is as much about experimentation as about following recipes. Just keep a notebook of everything you do so that if you do discover how to make the perfect perfume, you can duplicate the results. Remember that one less or one more drop of an essential oil can change the fragrance of a perfume entirely.
  • Be sure to test the ingredients by placing a single drop of each on a discreet area of skin to check for any adverse reactions. If redness or irritation ensues after 24 hours, reformulate the ingredients to suit you.
  • Be sure to use coloured glass bottles, this is because the coloured bottle serves the dual purpose of both looking attractive and helping to shield the contents of the bottle from UV light that can eventually cause a fragrance to deteriorate. The perfumer’s alcohol acts as a preservative/fixative but coloured bottles add just one more layer of protection.

Perfumers alcohol is available to buy online at MistralNI.co.uk (Business users) and MistralIE.co.uk

We also stock a range of fragrances and other perfumery related products.

by Tony Kelly