How to Make Perfume

Do you want to craft your own scent? Or maybe you’re looking for a unique DIY gift idea. You can create your own delightful scent with ingredients bought from the supermarket.

Table of Contents

Understanding the science of perfume

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Know the different flavors. Perfume is a combination of scents, also known as “incense floors”. When you spray perfume on your skin, it moves through these layers in the following order: ^{[1] X Research Source}

Top notes are the first scent you smell. They will also be the first to fade, usually in about 10-15 minutes. ^{[2] X Research Source}
The middle notes appear when the top notes disappear. This is the heart of the scent, determining which category the fragrance belongs to – for example, oriental, woody, fresh, or floral. ^{[3] X Research Sources}
The base notes will emphasize and adjust the middle notes, also known as the base of the perfume. They form the base of the perfume, making the scent last for about 4-5 hours depending on your skin. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

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Get acquainted with the popular top notes. These include basil, citrus, grapefruit, lavender, lemon lime, green lemon, mint, orange blossom, rosemary, and sugar orange. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

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Get acquainted with the popular middle notes. These include black pepper, cardamom, chamomile, cinnamon, cloves, fir leaves, jasmine, lemongrass, orange blossom, nutmeg, rose, rosewood, and ylang-ylang. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

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Get acquainted with the popular base notes. These include cedar, cypress, ginger, patchouli, pine, sandalwood, vanilla, and vetiver. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

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Know the ratio. When mixing scents together. You will start with the base note, then the middle note and finally the top note. The ideal ratio for blending notes is 30% oil, 50% middle, and 20% base.

Some perfumers recommend combining 3-4 dominant notes at most. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

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Understand the basic formula. To make a perfume, you need more than just the top, the middle and the base: you also need something to blend them together.

Your process begins with a carrier oil. Popular choices include jojoba oil, almond oil, and grapeseed oil.
Next, you must slowly add a few drops of the top, middle, and base notes to the base oil.
Finally, you’ll add an element that helps bring all the ingredients together. Alcohol is a popular choice because it evaporates quickly and helps diffuse the fragrance’s notes. ^{[9] X Research Source} Another option among homemade perfumes is high-quality vodka, which has an alcohol content of about 80-100 proof (40% – 50% alc/vp).
If you’re looking for a solid perfume (like lip balm), you can use melted beeswax as a fixative instead of alcohol or water.

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Identify the notes in your favorite perfume. If you are unsure of how to build your fragrance, you should consider the ingredients of your favorite perfume.

If you have trouble finding ingredients or classifying them into many layers, the Perfumista website will be a great source for you to learn the scents of many famous perfumes. ^{[10] X Research Source}

Know the materials you need

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Look for dark glass containers. Many people recommend using dark containers because they help protect your perfume from light, as it will shorten the life of the perfume.

You also need to remember to make sure your glass container doesn’t contain any previous foods, as any lingering scent will spread to your perfume.
The exception to this would be when you really want to use the scent of a product that used to come in a glass jar (Warning: unsalted butter – banana – chocolate will taste better than it smells!).

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Buy carrier oils. A carrier oil is an oil that will spread the scent of a particular perfume onto your skin. They are usually unscented, and are used to dilute concentrated oils and fragrances that can irritate the skin.

You can use almost anything as a carrier oil. You can even use olive oil if you don’t mind the scent.
A famous perfumer soaked rose petals in extra virgin olive oil, and then combined it with vitamin E oil to stabilize it. ^{[11] X Research Source}

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Buy the strongest alcohol you can find. A popular choice for many craft perfumers is high-quality vodka, with an alcohol content of 80-100 proof (40% – 50% alc/vp). Other craft perfumers prefer alcohol. 190 proofs (80% alc/vp) more.

Popular choices for 190 proof alcohol include neutral organic grape wine and cheaper Everclear, made from grain alcohol. ^{[12] X Research Source}

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Choose your scent. Your perfume can be made from many different ingredients. Common fragrance agents for perfumes include essential oils, petals, leaves, and herbs.

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Decide on a method. The method of making perfume will vary slightly depending on your ingredients. Two common fragrance agents used in perfumery are plant materials (flowers, leaves, and herbs) as well as essential oils; The method for each type will be different.

Use fresh flowers, leaves or herbs

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Buy clean glass containers. The type of container is not as important as the ingredients: just make sure that a) it’s clean and b) it’s glass. The container should also have a tight-fitting lid.

Perfumers often recommend dark glass, as it can prolong the life of the scent by protecting it from light.
Avoid using containers that have been used for food, even if you’ve cleaned them, as the glass can pick up odors.

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Look for an unscented oil. Popular choices used for perfumes include jojoba oil, almond oil, and grapeseed oil.

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Choose flowers, leaves, or herbs with a scent you like. You should remember to collect materials from plants at a time when their fragrance is strongest and when the leaves have dried. Drying them will cause them to wilt and the scent to be less intense. ^{[13] X Research Source}

You can collect and dry more plants than you need, in case you want to use more to enhance the scent of the oil later.

Use essential oils

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Collect materials. You need the following ingredients:

2 tablespoons carrier oil (jojoba, almond, or grapeseed oil)
6 tablespoons alcohol 100 – 190 proof
2.5 tablespoons bottled water (not tap water)
30 drops of essential oil (at least 1 for each note: base, middle, and top)
Coffee filter
Hopper
2 clean glass containers

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Put 2 tablespoons of carrier oil in a glass jar.

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Add essential oils. You will want to add about 30 drops total. Start with the base note, then the middle note, and finally the top note. The ideal ratio is 20% base notes, 50% middle notes, and 30% top notes.

Pay attention to the scent you’re adding: if one scent is stronger than the rest, you need to use less so it doesn’t overwhelm every other scent.

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Add alcohol. Use high quality alcohol with high alcohol content. Vodka is a popular choice among artisan perfumers.

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Let the perfume bottle stand for at least 48 hours. Close the lid and incubate the perfume for at least 48 hours. You can brew for 6 weeks, at this time the scent will be strongest.

Regularly check the perfume bottle to check the scent.

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Add 2 tablespoons of bottled water. Once you are satisfied with the fragrance, add 2 tablespoons of bottled water to your perfume bottle.

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Shake the bottle vigorously. Do this for 1 minute to make sure all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

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Transfer perfume to another container. Using a coffee filter and funnel, pour the perfume into a clean, dark glass jar. You can also transfer it to a nicer container if you want to turn it into a gift.

You can label the jars with ingredients and dates to easily keep track of how long they can last. This way you will know whether you should do more or less in the future.

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Try different varieties. To make solid perfumes (like lip balm) instead of sprays/liquids, you can replace filtered water with melted beeswax. You can add it to the perfume and put the warm mixture in the container to let it solidify.

You can buy beeswax at almost any health food store.

Advice

Don’t go overboard with your scent. You should smell each ingredient and really consider whether or not they are compatible with each other. Too many layers of incense will ruin the perfume bottle.
To clean a glass container, you should rinse it with as hot water as possible, then place it in the baking sheet and dry it in the oven at 110 °C.
Consider making a perfume with the scent of your favorite foods and drinks – for example, you can make a perfume that smells like an Indian tea (bottle) using cinnamon or orange oil. sugar, clove oil and cardamom oil. ^{[15] X Research Source} Another example is pumpkin pie that includes the following essential oils: cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, and orange.

Warning

Avoid adding fruit juices to perfumes, as they can cause the perfume to freeze or go rancid. In addition, lemons will make your skin photosensitive, which means that applying a product containing lemon juice to your skin will cause your skin to burn.

Steps