Make Your Very Own Perfume

I remember when I was little my grandmother used to make some sort of perfume out of rose petals and I used to play with them, trying to do the same thing. But I didn't have enough knowledge. Anyway, the fact is that the ingredients a perfume is made of represent about ten percent of the entire price. The rest of the price lies in packaging, commercials, taxes, and so on. So making your own perfume should be indeed a lot cheaper than buying a ready-made one from the store. Why do women sometimes spend so much money on expensive, refined perfumes? I believe most people would agree with me that commercials play the most important part in this. That is why I thought of trying to make my own perfume. I can choose the fragrance I like, I can be sure of what that perfume contains, and also spend much less money on it.

One of the main advantages of making your own perfume is that you can be sure to maintain the very natural essence of those plants or flowers. Since you do not use any additives, preservatives or chemicals, you no longer have to worry about allergies or other bad chemical reactions with your skin. Of course, maintaining the natural essence is one of the advantages of making your own perfume. You don’t have to worry about added chemicals and preservatives going onto your skin and drying it out or even worse having a severe reaction to it. Of course, you might have an unpleasant reaction to certain essential oils, that's why one should check the effects of a sample first.

The strength of your perfume depends on the percentage of water, alcohol and essential oils that you use. The strength of your aromatic liquid or perfume depends on the ratio of essential oils to water and alcohol. The most potent perfume formula is made of: 15-30% essential oil, 70-85% alcohol, and the rest of it or at least 5% spring water. The idea is to use only spring or distilled water. As for the alcohol, the best recommended one is vodka, but it can be replaced with brandy. The thing is brandy usually has its own aroma, and this may affect the purity of the fragrance. One may also color one's perfume, by using a vegetable food dye. Perfume should be preserved in sterilized bottles and kept away from sunlight and sun warmth.

It is highly recommendable that you note down the exact quantities that you use, the exact concentration of each ingredient. One single drop of fragrant oil essence can change the entire composition. That is why you can play with different percentages of the ingredients and maybe even create an excellent perfume. In order to make it last as long as those bought from real stores, you have to keep the perfume in dark colored recipients.

There are three usual steps to follow in order to make your own perfume:

1. Mix 15-30% of different essential oils with 70-85% (100 proof) vodka, you stir them slowly, cover and put them in a cool and dark place for 48 hours.

2. Mix 5% spring water/distilled water and stir again carefully and thoroughly, then you keep it again for 48 hours.

3. Finally, you pour the obtained liquid through a coffee filter (so as the final product is pure and without any sediments) and then to a dark colored, sterilized recipient.

The question is, how do you know which essential oils go well together. A suggestion would be to try different combinations by pouring a drop of different oils on a paper towel or something like that. At any rate, because all of the ingredients blend together, in time, your perfume may have a different fragrance than at the beginning, but it can still be a really great one.

Here are some examples of essential oils that you can try in order to make your very own perfume.

For one perfume:

-two drops of lavender oil

-four drops of carnation oil

-three drops of juniper oil

-two drops of jasmine oil

-three drops of ylang-ylang

For another perfume:

-two drops of patchouli

-two drops of lavender

-three drops of ylang-ylang

-one drop of jasmine

Enjoy combining and make your own perfume!