So you would like to make your own scent? Possibly you want to make something for a partner or friend? Well, this will be a good place to start. In this story, we will explain a little about us (Kitsune Perfumery) and then help you understand some basic things about perfumes and how to make one (oil based) just for yourself.
Kitsune Perfumery has been around since 2014 and was started as a hobby. We make various things from perfumes to colognes, bath products and massage items as-well-as other things. I first started it after taking a while learning about the processes in order to make perfume for my wife and then my mother.
Now enough about us, lets get into what we are here to do. Making perfumes in general sound simple but in reality, there is a lot that is done to make that perfect scent. Many scents you find in the stores are all synthetic and can contain up to or more than 80 additional chemicals, some of which are banned in places outside the USA (were we are based). Many of these chemicals are used for different things which we will explain. Now understand everything in a perfume is a chemical even if derived from something natural.
Fixatives
A simple way to explain what a fixative is would be an item used to help fix the scent to your person be it on your hair, clothing or skin to make it last longer. There are some natural ones but many of these are chemicals, the most simplest would be alcohol found in spray perfumes also known as atomized.
The alcohol used in perfuming is ethanol, the same type of alcohol in drinking spirits. The difference is that it is altered to make it undrinkable by adding stuff like Bitrex. If you ever used hair spray and got some in your mouth, that extremely unpleasant, sour taste is Bitrex. The process or making ethanol undrinkable is called denaturing.
Another item that is added to ethanol to denature it could be IPA or Isopropyl Alcohol but this is rarely used in perfuming. Instead items like Tertiary Butyl Alcohol and denatonium benzoate, Benzene, Methanol, and Hexylene Glycol are used. Though Methanol and Benzene is not used in reputable perfumes because of their toxicity.
If you are using an oil based perfume and not alcohol and wish to keep it natural or as close to natural as possible, the base scent you select will work as your fixative. Some natural scents take longer to express themselves or dry off the body than others which typically make them a base note. What that is will be explained later.
Solvents
Another part of the perfume that is used are solvents. Solvents are something that are used to dissolve the aromatic components of the perfume. Some solvents works as fixatives as well. Take alcohol as an example. Alcohol has three functions in the perfume. First is to dissolve (solvent) the oil in the solution. The seconds is to fix (fixative) the scent in place and the third is to promote lift or carry the scent up and off the body.
There are many types of solvents but for the purpose of this article, we won't get in to it further.
Aromatic Component(s)
Aromatic Components are the scent you smell from a perfume. These can be natural or synthetic. One thing you need to understand is that synthetic scents are no more dangerous than natural and in many cased more safe.
How can a synthetic scent be more safe you might ask? Well it comes down to the science. A natural scent component will contain many, at times hundreds, of molecules that do nothing for the scent but are naturally there in the oil. A synthetic or isolate will be just the chemical that makes up the scent part of that natural item or a synthetically created scent to mimic something.
If you ever had a candle or perfume that smells like strawberry or another berry, it will almost always be made from synthetic scents. Some things like berries require so many of the berries to make one ounce (30ml) of the oil that it would make the oil cost 10s of thousands of dollars and I don't think you want to pay for a $15,000+ candle that smells like strawberry.
Essential Oils are natural oils extracted from various things be it roots, leaves, branches, flowers and more. They are made in to viscous golden oils and can be cheap to very expensive. We won't go into how they get the oils as that can be an story of its own. A cheap example would be lavender oil which at the time of this writing can be got at around $28 for 32oz (480ml). An expensive oil would be Rose where one ounce (30ml) would cost you about $300-400 as it can take over a hundred pounds of petals to produce that one ounce.
A note on essential oils. They are not all made equally. If they are cheaper than normal, they are probably adulterated. Oil adulteration is a major issue on places like eBay and Amazon. The most common way they do this is by mixing a carrier oil into them to dilute the expensive oil. Carrier oils are oils that carry no scent and don't dissolve in standard solvents. You probably use these often day to day. Cooking oils like Olive, Grapeseed, Coconut, etc are all types of carrier oils. These to are used in perfumes but never in atomized ones which they will not work in and will fall out of the solution to collect on the bottom of the bottle.
If you buy an essential oil, there are ways to test to see if they are adulterated. One way is to take a milliliter of it (20 drops) are put it in 3ml of 100% alcohol then shake. If the solution separates and oil falls to the bottom, more than not it has been diluted with carrier oil. There are other ways but that is outside the scope of this article.
Materials Needed
Alright, we have gotten past the basic parts and now we need to explain the things you need to work with. A basic perfume doesn't need many materials to make. Below is a list.
- Roller bottle
- Carrier Oil or wax
- Aromatic Components (Scent)
- Vitamin E oil
Roller bottles can be purchased online from many places. The best are those with metal balls and made of glass. Typically they are made in 10ml but can be larger or even smaller.
Carrier oils, as explained before, would be something like olive oil, sweet almond, fractionated coconut or grapeseed. A wax used would be jojoba oil. Yes I said oil after jojoba but it isn't actually an oil as it is really a liquid wax at room temperature so they just refer to it as an oil. Silly, I know.
Aromatic Components (Scent) can be purchased online in many places. I would suggest getting those that are therapeutic or aromatherapy grade. You can get cosmetic as they will be cheaper but they will be lower quality. Do not get food grade, they are overpriced and not needed. Do not get soap grade as they are lower than cosmetic. You can use as little as one or as many as you want but need to be careful.
Vitamin E oil is used to help preserve the oil perfume in a natural manner. The easiest way to get these is in pill form and then break them open into the roller bottle. You only need 2 capsules worth per 10ml bottle.
Understanding Scents
Scents are classified into three types when it comes to perfumes and are called notes. These would be top/head, middle/heart and base.
Top/Head notes
The scents that are perceived immediately after a perfume is applied. The top note consists of scents with light molecules that evaporate quickly. Examples would be citrus like orange, lime and lemon.
Middle/Heart notes
Shortly after the top note begins to dissipate is when you will start to smell the middle/heart note(s). The heart notes are considered to be the main body of the perfume, and in addition to escorting the head notes out, they also serve to mask the often unpleasant initial impression of base notes, which become more pleasant with time. Heart notes are also referred to as “Middle Notes”. Examples of these would be florals like rose and ylang ylang or herbal scents like black pepper or sage.
Base notes
The base note accord is the longest lasting of the 3 accords, and begins to reveal itself with the heart notes of a fragrance. Together they serve as the main theme of a perfume. The base notes mold the perfume together and tend to be deeper or rich. Base notes are generally not experienced until at least 20-30 minutes after a perfume’s application. This time period is typically called the “dry down”.
A good resource for scents and what their note status is would be: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Complete_Guide_to_Essential_Oils/A_to_Z_of_essential_oils
Making Your Perfume
Woo...that was a lot. I know but the information above is important or you won't get a good scent. There is much more we can explain but for it is not needed for now. Lets get in to the reason for this article.
First things first you need to select your notes. For a start try to select one of each type. We are going to provide you with a simple, basic perfume that you can make with us.
The oils you will need are rose (heart), lime (top) and vetiver (base). You can get synthetic rose as there are many out there that are great and cost far less than real. To start you can get 10ml to 30ml (1oz) bottles of each so the cost isn't too much. We use jojoba oil (wax) for the carrier as this is good for the skin, helps fix the scent longer and dries slowly.
- Start with your cleaned and dried roller bottle on the table.
- Add in the Vitamin E from 2 capsules
- Add 2 drops of vetiver
- Add 6 drops of rose
- Add 4 drops of lime
- Fill to the neck with jojoba oil
- Out on the roller and then the cap and shake.
It is as simple as that when mixing them together. You can then roll it on each of your wrists and smell from about 6 inches away. Do not rub them together as it will force your skin to absorb the perfume faster and can ruin the scent. Smell it again after 5 minutes and then around 20-30. You will see how the fragrance evolves as it dries.
The reason for the smelling distance is because the scents will lift at different rates and you won't get the full experience with your nose against your wrists.
Conclusion
We hope this helped you understand somethings about perfumes as well as how to get into making your own. There are a few things to wrap up before we end this article.
When you are choosing scents, some partner well with others while some don't at all. Search for the scent you want, say orange and add "blends well with" to it in a search engine and you will find vast amounts of information telling you where you can look and choose what to mix together.
When you want to test how scents smell together or by themselves, use card stock strips, never smell from the bottle. Dip the strip in the bottle and hold it about 6 inches from your nose for single scents. When you want to see how they mix together a basic way is to dip each of the strips in your oils. Hold the top note at 6 inches the heart note at 8 and the base around 10 and then put them below your nose and allow them to lift toward your nose. Don't wave them. They will blend together in your nose and give you an idea of how they blend. Adjust as needed, closer to the nose to simulate more of the scent and further away for less.
Thank you for reading our story and good luck at creating your own scents!
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