Hi lovelies! I have a guest post for you today by Olivia Golding, a versatile writer who has a love for fashion and beauty. She spends much of her time blog-hopping in order to accumulate the best tips, and over time she’s developed some of her own. Today Olivia shares with us how to make your own perfume!
{Photo credit: Indie Fixx}
Perfume makes a great gift as it is a really personal choice. Impress your loved one or a friend even further by making it yourself. Before you begin, you’ll need an idea of which scents suit the person, and which ingredients can be combined to create the perfect scent. So let’s take a closer look at some of the fragrance families out there.
There are six different types of fragrance to be aware of. The ingredients within them suit different people and also different types of occasion.
Citrus scents are lively and energetic. Infused with tangy citrus fruits, they are best suited to daytime wear and ideal to wake you up first thing in the morning. There’s a reason why so many popular shower gels are citrus scent based.
Floral fragrances are sweet and romantic and can either be one single note or a combination of various flower scents to create a classic feminine scent. They’re ideal for ‘good girls’ and the perfect fragrance to wear on a daytime date.
Fruity scents are pleasing to the nose and often combine bright and familiar smells of apple, peach, berry and mango. They can also be blended with florals to create sweet smelling scents.
Woody or chypre scents tend to be created from earthy base notes of bark and moss. They are less “pretty” than other scented categories but not necessarily masculine. They evoke a sense of no-nonsense femininity, ideal for the powerful woman to wear to work.
Oriental perfumes are generally the most seductive and sexy scents. They invite a sense of the exotic and blend earthy animalistic base notes such as musk, combined with sweeter top notes of vanilla or amber. This is the perfect scent to wear out in the evening with a pair of killer heels.
Oceanic scents are more modern. This type of fragrance uses a blend of synthetic compounds to create natural aromas such as mountain air, ocean spray or clean linen. They are suited to active or sporty women who love to be out in the fresh air and surrounded by nature.
Okay, so by now, you should be able to identify yourself (or the lucky person receiving the handmade perfume!) with one or more of these scents so now it’s time to learn how to make a perfume.
You will need:
1. Fragrance oil or essential oil. Fragrance oils (you can buy them here) are much cheaper than most essential oils (buy essential oils here), which are pressed from flowers and fruit. You can get your hands on orange, other citrus scents and some herb essential oils for a reasonable price however, so it is always worth comparing.
2. Perfumer’s alcohol (buy it here).
3. A bottle to store your new perfume (You can buy them here. Choose from vials, roll-ons, atomizers, etc!)
Here’s how you do it!
Step 1: Mix a few drops of oil on a piece of cotton wool until your nose is happy with the mix. It’s generally a case of trial and error but you may find it helpful to group your notes: floral, woody, fruity, etc, and have a balance of each of them to give your perfume structure and depth, making it last longer.
Step 2: Once you’re happy with the blend, dilute the scent with perfumer’s alcohol. Eau de toilettes require 10% perfume oils and 90% alcohol. If you’re after a stronger blend, go for a 20/80 ratio. That means that for a 50ml bottle of eau de toilette, you’ll need 5mls of perfume oil blend and 45mls of alcohol.
And there you have it – your very own perfume, created to smell exactly how you want. There will always be less expensive options – like cheap perfumes available at the Perfume Point – but with the simple steps above, what could be more rewarding than developing your own unique aroma?
