How To Make Perfume
By Richard Wong, Fri Dec 9th

Whether it’s for personal or family purposes, marketing purposesor intended as a gift for some friends or family, perfume makingis in fact an easy task that you can do by yourself or withothers. Creating something personal, of good taste and reallyuseful such as perfume is a truly great thing, not only becauseit teaches you a couple of new things, but also because it’sbound to boost your confidence, not to mention maybe the mostimportant aspect… having fun.

If you try to google your way to some perfume making knowledge,you’ll notice you have a lot to choose from, just because thereare plenty of ways and different recipes to try. The mostimportant thing is for you to know what you’d like to obtain:

1. What type of perfume would you like to make? (eau de cologne,perfume concentrates, maybe even after-shaves or whatevercrosses your mind)

2. What would you like the perfume to smell like? (soft / strongsmell, sweet / manly odor / unisex, long lasting or not, and soon and so forth)

Depending on your answers to the previous questions, you shouldmake out a list of ingredients. When compiling this list, youshould have in mind the characteristics of the ingredients you’dlike to add to your recipe. If you’ve already got a recipe tofollow, that means you won’t bother experimenting and givingmuch thought to the ingredients you should add, maybe slightlyadjust the quantities to obtain a more personalized perfume, butif you haven’t got your ingredients list yet, here are a coupleof things you should know.

The first rule of perfume making is that you should experimentas much as you can. It’s a fact that some of the greatestperfumes were created because somebody

said something like… “andwhat if I put these two together?”. Perfume making an art andthat’s why imagination and a great sense of smell can overcome alack of experience or knowledge.

The second most important thing is that there are 3 keyingredients to a perfume recipe: essential oils (extracts fromvarious plants, organic or non-organic, that combined, give youthe smell of your perfume), pure grain alcohol and water.

Another thing you should know about oils, plant extracts is thatthere are 3 different types of oils which will ultimatelyinfluence the smell of your perfume in time. The base notes willbe the scent that will stay the longest on your skin and that iswhy it is usually added first in the mixture. The middle noteswill also influence the smell of the perfume for a pretty longtime, although not as long as the base notes, while the topnotes will give the perfume its specific scent when justapplied. The top notes will be added to the mixture after themiddle notes and may be followed by some other substance tobridge the scents. It is very important that you mix theextracts in the given order and that you use a sufficientquantity of each type, usually the same for all three.

Last, but not least, here’s a list of the most easily found oilsthat may lead you to your dream perfume:

1. Base notes – sandal wood, vanilla, cinnamon, mosses, lichens,ferns;

2. Middle notes – lemongrass, geranium, neroli, ylang-ylang;

3. Top notes – orchid, rose, bergamot, lavender, lemon, lime.

One more thought to take into consideration above all… have fun!

About the author:For more information check out my website athttp://www.perfumeinfo.info