Essential rose oil with pink petals
Anna-Ok/iStock/GettyImages

You can take total control over how you smell by creating a one-of-a-kind quality fragrance. Essential oils are the concentrated, volatile oils that are found in plants that give them their scent and flavor. These oils are the potent fragrances that are mixed together with other oils and solvents to create designer perfumes. If you are going to create your own perfume you should make sure that you are not allergic to the plant oils, and make sure they are safe to use on the skin since they are so concentrated.

Choose Oils

Decide on the strength that you want your perfume to have. The strongest concentration used is about 30% and is called 'perfume extract' and goes all the way down to 3% for 'body splash'. If you are making a perfume oil though, you will want to use a total of 10% essential oil for your mixture. The other 90% will consist of an odorless carrier oil such as jojoba or olive oil.

Choose which essential oils you want to use. If you are mixing oils, only use 2 to 4 different oils and make sure that they harmonize. Stick with a few scents from the same scent family such as florals or fruit.

Decide which essential oils will be your base note, middle note and top note. The base note is the scent that is noticeable the longest after it has been on your skin. The middle note also stays for an extended amount of time but not as long as the base note. The high note is generally the most identifiable scent when you first apply it to your skin.

Making the Fragrance

Add the base note oil to the measuring cup with the dropper.

Add the middle note oil to the measuring cup with a dropper.

Add the high note oil to the measuring cup. If making perfume oil, these essential oils should only make up 10 percent of your overall mixture.

Add the carrier oil to make up the rest of the equated amount. In perfume oil, the carrier oil will be 90 percent of the mixture.

Mix well with a clean spoon and pour into a dark colored-glass bottle with a tight seal to preserve the oils.

Tips

  • You only need a few dabs on your skin at a time, since the essential oils are so strong.