How to Make Homemade Perfumes
Throughout history people have been anointing themselves with oils and perfumes. Today's perfumes are most often created or combined with chemicals to increase their potency and shelf life. But this doesn't have to be the case. Making homemade basic perfumes can be an easy process. Here's how to make the easiest natural perfume.
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Things You'll Need
- Flower blossoms or fresh herbs
- Distilled or spring water
- Glass dish or bowl
- Cheesecloth
- Glass or stainless steel cooking pot
- Dark glass bottle with stopper
- Glass funnel
- Plastic wrap or cover for the bowl
Instructions
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1
Decide on your scent. Choose your flowers or herb and pick them as fresh as possible. Flower blossoms should be picked early in the morning, while the dew is still on the blooms, as soon after full flowering as possible. Herbal leaves should also be picked in early morning if possible, and the leaves should be a healthy color, with no discoloration. Whatever you choose should be something that has a strong scent.
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2
Immediately after picking, chop your material. You will need about 2 cups. Place the cheesecloth over the bowl so that the edges of the cloth are hanging over the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle your fresh material over the cloth.
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3
Pour 4 cups of water over the cheesecloth and material. Make sure that the water completely covers the flowers or herbs. The cheesecloth edges should remain hanging over the sides. Cover the bowl and let stand overnight.
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4
Uncover the dish and, using the edges of the cheesecloth, gently lift the flowers/herbs from the bowl. Gently squeeze the cheesecloth and chopped material to remove any additional water. Place a clean piece of cheesecloth over a glass or stainless steel pot. Slowly pour the scented water through the cheesecloth to make sure no material particles remain. Simmer the scented water until approximately 2 teaspoons of concentrated scent remains.
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5
Using glass funnel, pour remaining scent into a glass bottle and seal. Allow to cool before using. This will keep for about 1 month.
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Tips & Warnings
Ratio is about 2 : 1 - waters to flowers/herbs. To make more scent, increase the amount of water and chopped material. 2 cups of water to 1 cup of chopped flowers/herbs will simmer down to about 1 tsp of scent.
Try any of your favorite flowers. If the flower is only lightly scented, you may need to increase the amount of chopped material.
Once you have a number of different scents made, try mixing them for more complex fragrances.
