Learn How You Can Make Your Own Perfume

Perfumes come in a menagerie of names, scents and containers. Many names not associated with perfume are suddenly marketing their own scent and style. Something most don't know is that the actual process of making perfume is extremely simple. So easy, in fact, that anyone who can come up with some basic ingredients can make perfume in their own home.

To make your own perfume, you'll need a few basic ingredients plus some time and interest on your part. Most of the ingredients you'll need are available in any grocery store or market, though scented oils may require a more specialized store. Many boutiques sell the oils you'll need as fragrance products or candle additives, so you won't need to find a specialist in perfumes or an expensive supplier.

Here's your basic ingredients list: essential oils for scent (more on these later), pure grain alcohol (vodka, brandy), distilled or purified water, and a container to put the finished product in. Before you run out and start buying the ingredients, let's look at little closer at what they are and how they'll be used in the production of perfume.

First, the essential scent oils. These are usually sorted by weight into "scales" which are similar to music. These notes vary from high to low and are the foundation for building an overall scent. Thinking of it like music with the final product being a chord (several notes played at once), your scent should be a harmonious balance of smells blended together. Top notes include orange, lemon, peppermint, grapefruit, and most citrus and light plant scents. Middle notes are generally flower-based, such as coriander, basil, rose, lavender, and so forth. Deeper, lower notes are the "base" for your scent and include most woods and tree oils such as patchouli, sandalwood, frankincense, and such. Combining a good base note with a harmony of medium and high scents will create a lingering, tantalizing blend of scents and makes for a successful perfume.

Now that you have an idea of how to blend scents to make your orchestration of perfume, you'll need to know ratios for mixtures. Most perfumes are between 70 and 80 percent alcohol, about five percent water, and the balance is the scented oils. The mixture of oils is to the formula, according to how heavy some aspects of the scent are to e compared to others. Most scents are lighter on the base or low notes and a bit heavier on the middle and a little heavier than that on the top notes to make for a balanced scent overall. Experimentation is the easiest way to find the proper balance for your creation.

As mentioned, the water you'll use should be distilled or purified to avoid any impurities in the water from interfering with the scents used. Often, regular tap water has low amounts of sulfur, chlorine, and other chemicals that can react with scents to make for horrible results.

In addition, the alcohol used should be as 100% (highest proof or alcohol content) as possible. This should be a grain alcohol with little of its own scent, such as vodka or brandy. Saki (rice wine) is also common for oriental scents. Remember that what you're after is the alcohol itself, not the palatable attributes of a drink. In addition to all this, color can be added to the mix using simple food dyes, but the color of the final product is usually dictated by the ingredients rather than by adding dyes. Still, you should know it's possible.

Finally, once you've experimented and found a mixture which you like, you need to store it for easy use. Perfume bottles (old ones that have been cleaned out or new ones purchased at a specialty store) can be interesting creations in their own right, but remember one thing: the sun is perfume's enemy. Direct exposure to sunlight will destroy your scent over time, so utilizing UV-blocking bottles (dark bottles) is essential. A cool, dry, dark place to store large containers of your product for distribution into smaller ones is best.

On a final note, make sure to keep formulas listed for your creations as even a single drop or a couple of changes to alcohol type or water amounts can completely change the final scent. Above all, have fun!