Tags
base notes, diy, handmade perfumes, head notes, heart notes, how to guide, how to make perfume, natural perfumes, perfume making tutorial, perfume oil, tutorial
If you’re a perfume junkie but tired of wearing the same scents as everyone else with access to Bloomingdales, maybe it’s time you learned to make your own bottle of perfume. The good news: it’s really easy to do and if you already know what your favorite ingredients are, you’re set. The mildly annoying news: the ingredients you use and the amount therein can change a perfume from amazing to awful in a snap. Making your own perfume is all about patience and experimentation… but if you like playing mad scientist/alchemist and you’re dedicated, then it’s really quite a lot of fun.
This post has moved! To learn how to make your own perfume oil, here is the link to the article at my new blog.
Great post! I’ve wanted to make my own perfume before, but it always seemed hard to tackle. Thanks.
Not at all! Have fun, and if you have any questions, you know where to find me
I went to the site. You have some beautiful bottles. Reading the description of your perfumes, I could almost smell them as I read.
Thanks Robyn! I checked out your blog. I have been interested in trying a sugar scrub, but I have really sensitive dry skin. Any recommendations?
I have dry skin too, so I ended up adding a bit of jojoba oil in a bottle of cream scrub that I bought rather cheaply…it did the trick for me.
The result was smooth skin that wasn’t oily or dry…and my skin didn’t flake or chap as the days went by. For an all-natural DIY approach, maybe mixing shea butter or natural lanolin with refined sugar or sea salt would work? Sugar is the mildest scrub for the body because it moisturizes…but I’ve heard tell that sea salt has minerals that replenish the skin.
Great info! I definitely will try that. Thanks for writing
love this article J – concise but wickedly funny. I brought a bunch of essential oils back from Thailand, so I’m excited to get started on my very own scent! Now I feel ready!
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This sounds amazing, I can’t wait to try it!
Yes! Let me know how it goes. It’s addicting
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Thanks for such a super helpful post! I’ve messed around with EOs and FOs for a while but am just getting serious and this was a great post to read. Actually I like your whole blog, long live crafty nerdy cat ladies!
Thank you so much for this informative post! I was wondering what happens if you’d like more than one chord. Do you ass all the base notes and then all the heart and head. Or do you add one chord at a time?
You can do it either way. For me personally, I just put in the notes one at a time because it makes it easier to deal with larger quantities so I’m not having to switch pipettes and such. Hope that helps!
I think that If sometimes I made my own self made perfume, I would never use it. I would it to much, so I would love to keep it
Would safflower oil also work? i happen to have some on hand
Yes! In fact, that’s a great way to make perfume/skin care oil from naturals like flowers. Check out this article: http://open.salon.com/blog/deborah_dolen_1/2011/05/20/how_to_make_perfume_enfleurage_method_-_by_dolen
Hi, thanks for the post!
I really love the smell of sandalwood and am planning to use it as the base note for my first DIY perfume. I already bought the essential oil – East Indian (Santalum album). I was told it’s the best quality but my goodness it costs quite a fortune…anyway I was also told that it could be too strong on the skin if not correctly diluted, so I was wondering if the formula you mentioned here can still be applied or if further dilution is needed.
Thanks again
I’d say it depends how much you’re going to use. If you’re only using a small amount for the base this formula should be fine, but if you’re just making an all or mostly sandalwood perfume I’d say do extra dilution just to be safe. You never know how your body will react. Maybe a 50-60% instead of the 80.
Math always trips me up! How would I do a 2 part dilution for carrier oil? Thank you!
It really depends on the size of your bottle/amount you’re making. The easiest way is to figure out what percentage perfume oil you want. If you want something really low because you have sensitive skin do 30-50%. So then you just go to wonderful Google and type in 30% of 5ml or however much your bottle is, and Google will helpfully say, why that’s 1.5ml. That means you’d have 1.5ml total of perfume oil and the rest of your bottle you’d fill with carrier. Hope that helps some
Thanks for the great info!! I have been into perfume oils for a couple years, but always just bought other companies already made scents, so this should be fun. Already have my first attempt brewing!!
Thank you so much for sharing this. Since the Fragrance oils are already diluted with Carrier oils, do I still need to add it? I am planning a DIY perfume activity using all Fragrance oils in a 5 ml. roll on bottle. I would greatly appreciate any tips. Thank you in advance!
Yes, even though fragrance oils have been diluted, it’s not enough that you want to just put fragrance oil on your skin (it won’t kill you but definitely not the best plan). I’d follow the same 60-80% oil to carrier ratio. Hope that helps and good luck!
Just curious….if I want to make a perfume oil from just ONE note, do I just add the carrier and let it sit for a month?
Yup! You’ve got it
You probably won’t even need it to sit that long since it’s just the one note.