How to Make Perfumes

Keep your perfume in a glass bottle.

You can make perfumes at home with a few basic ingredients and a bit of knowledge. To make perfumes you can call your own, follow these simple steps. You will need alcohol, essential oils and distilled water. Your perfume should be 70 to 85 percent alcohol, 15 to 30 percent essential oils and at least 5 percent distilled water. For alcohol, use perfumer's alcohol or vodka. Choose three to four essential oils that you like, keeping in mind that there are different "notes" in perfumes: base notes, middle notes and top notes. Base notes stay on the skin the longest, while the middle and top notes are lighter and evaporate more quickly.

Things You'll Need

• Perfumer's alcohol or vodka
• Essential oils
• Distilled water
• Colored glass perfume bottles

Instructions

1. Blend three or four fragrant oils in a glass bottle. Use the basic ratio of 3 drops of a base note, 2 drops of a middle note and 1 drop of a top note to every 1 oz of alcohol. Base notes include cinnamon, cedar wood and patchouli as well as sandalwood and vanilla. Middle notes include clove, lemon grass and geranium. Other middle notes are nutmeg, neroli and ylang-ylang. Vanilla and lavender are also middle notes. Top notes include lemon, lime and bergamot. Add your base notes first, then your middle notes and finally the top notes. Mix the essential oils gently.

2. Pour the alcohol into a dark glass bottle, remembering to use 1 oz of alcohol for every 6 drops of essential oils. Stir the fragrant oils drop by drop into the alcohol. Stir slowly, dispersing each drop before adding the next.

3. Let the oil and alcohol mixture sit for at least 48 hours.

4. Add distilled water, drop by drop. Add enough distilled water to make up 5 percent of your perfume's total volume. Stir until completely dispersed.

5. Put your perfume in a cool, dry place and allow it to mature for three or four weeks.

6. Filter the aged perfume through a coffee filter to remove sediment.

7. Pour perfume into a colored glass bottle and close with a stopper.

Tips & Warnings

• Vintage perfume bottles can often be found at swap meets, garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores.

• Substitute 100 proof vodka for perfumer's alcohol.

• Brandy may be used as the alcohol, but it has its own aroma that may or may not mix well with the oil fragrances. The same is true of flavored vodkas.

• Don't use tap water. It must be distilled.

• When experimenting, record your steps. Make note of the number of drops of each oil you used. You don't want to discover a brilliant new fragrance and not be able to replicate it.

References

• Aromatherapy at Home: Make Perfume with Essential Oils
• Wavelengths Natural Health: Aromatherapy Essential Oil Perfume Making
• Beauty, Soap and Bubbles: How to Make Homemade Perfume
• Minimalist Beauty; DIY Natural Perfume -- The Alcohol Based Method; Dawn Michelle; June 2011