Quick Guide: How To Make Perfume In A Few Easy Steps
Everyone wants to smell good, but few have considered how to make perfume from scratch. While designer fragrances are luxurious and special, they usually come with a hefty price tag. Plus, new research is coming out from the National Institute of Health on the potential side effects of synthetic chemicals used to make those scents. Whether you’re learning how to make perfume as a side hobby or as a sweet gift for best friends, you get the added bonus of knowing where every ingredient came from. You just might find your new favorite hobby, and you could discover you have a hidden talent for combining scents.
Jump to Section:
- How Can I Make My Own Perfume?
- What Are The Ingredients For Making A Perfume?
- What is The 30 50 20 Rule For Perfume?
How Can I Make My Own Perfume?
While a typical designer fragrance can range from $75 up to several hundred dollars for just an ounce or two, you can learn how to make perfume for a fraction of the cost. Plus, you can curate the exact blend of scents that appeals to you. You’ll need a few basic supplies, and you might already have everything you need at home.
Using a particular formula, you can easily make your own perfume at home (more on that below). Start small and consider conducting a sniff test of your chosen essential oils together before mixing. That way, you know you like the combination, not just each scent isolated. This makes a sweet activity to do with your girls. Try it as a Galentine's Day craft, because it's part experimentation, part social project, and you walk away smelling fantastic.
The three ingredients you need to make perfume are alcohol (at least 190 proof), essential oils and distilled water. Learning how to make perfume is a bit like conducting a science experiment, so you'll need some patience to get the perfect blend down. The type of water is also essential. Using tap water in place of distilled water can lead to less-than-pleasant scents. You can add a touch of glycerine if you like, but this is optional.
Start by getting to know your natural ingredients, namely the oils. Have you ever smelled a perfume in a store and loved it, but not been able to put your finger on what exactly you liked about it? Or, perhaps you love a specific Yankee Candle scent? Start by going through your collection of oils and breaking them up into categories, like woodsy, floral or citrusy. Then, take your time over days or weeks and train your nose to pick up the subtle differences between them. It’s similar to a sommelier, picking up on the slightest notes and hints in a glass of wine.
Once you feel confident in your scents, start to think about combinations that would suit your preferences. The next step is mastering accords. Some might say you never truly master it, as knowing how to make perfume is as much an art as a science. An accord is a harmonious blend of two or more notes (ingredients) that create a new, single, complex scent. That is to say, it no longer smells like one note or the other, but of something entirely new.
You will continue to run experiments throughout your journey on how to make perfume. You might love grapefruit and sandalwood individually, but combining them might not create the pleasant scent you expected. Start by creating a few basic accords that work, and you can lean on to make more complex scents. Also, keep in mind that different ingredient concentrations will affect your accord. Keep a notebook of “recipes” to keep everything straight, and treat learning how to make perfume like a science experiment. In the meantime, start sniffing everything you come in contact with or order a smell training kit online.
Once you’ve established some go-to accords, consider that good perfumes have top, mid and base notes. Which accord or scent do you want to hit your nostrils first, and which scent do you want to linger in the background?
The last key piece of how to make a perfume is coming up with a “brief,” as it’s called in the industry, also known as a backstory for your scent. What does this scent evoke?
How To Make Perfume
Now, for how to make a perfume: depending on the size of the container you are using, your main ingredient will be alcohol. Generally, for alcohol-based perfumes (which most are), the ratio is 70% alcohol, 20% scent oils and 10% distilled water. You’ll need to do some math to figure out how many cups or ounces of each you need based on your container. Here's the 3-step method to making perfume:
1. Combine Alcohol + Oils
Combine your alcohol and pre-determined scents in your desired container. Make sure to sanitize it very well before starting.
2. Let It Age
Perhaps a surprising step in how to make perfume is that you need to let it age. Depending on your preference, the time could be as short as 48 hours or as long as a month. Make sure you cover your container with a lid and store it in a cool, dark place to age. After you’ve aged it, give it a sniff and make sure you like how it smells. If not, you can always add another scent, but just note that you will need to let it age again, even if just for the 48-hour minimum.
3. Add Water (and Glycerine)
Now that you have a fragrance that you like, it must be diluted before it can be worn. Add distilled water to the above percentages. You can also add a small amount of glycerine to help preserve the freshness of your scent if you desire. You might be transferring your finished product to a decorative or spray bottle — just ensure that you wrap it with something or choose a dark colored glass to protect and preserve the contents, just like good-quality olive oil.
What Are The Ingredients For Making A Perfume?
Perfume is a broad category that includes several items with varying levels of scent strength. Things like perfume oil, aftershave, eau de toilette, eau de parfum and even eau de cologne are their own things. For clarity, we won’t dive too deeply into that; instead, we'll focus on the basics of making a basic perfume; in other words, a spray that smells good.
It consists of three basic ingredients:
- Alcohol is the base for most perfumes, and the higher the proof, the better. If you can get Everclear, that’s ideal.
- The second component is the oil (where the scent comes from), and it is most commonly essential or absolute oils.
- The third required ingredient is distilled water, but you can always add some glycerine to thicken up your scent just a tad.
How to Make 100% Natural Perfume?
The classic “recipe” for how to make perfume uses all-natural ingredients like water, essential oils and a bit of alcohol. There are ways to make alcohol-free perfume, more on that below. Alternatively, you can use flower petals.
How to Make Perfume From Flowers?
You can easily learn how to make perfume from flowers, if you prefer a bit of a longer process and something even fresher. You’ll need to steep fresh flower petals in alcohol, consistently yet gently mashing them and stirring them for several days or weeks. This only works with fragrant flowers, like rose petals or gardenia. You’ll need to strain your finished product before adding water and using it. Also, don’t grab those artificially-dyed flowers, like the bright blue and purple rose petals, because your alcohol will turn that color and can stain your skin or clothes when you go to use the perfume.
How to Make Perfume Without Alcohol?
Some perfumes don’t use alcohol, but the critical distinction is that they are considered perfume oils, not usually eau de perfume. Instead of alcohol, you can use a nourishing oil as the base of your perfume. Mix it with flower petals or essential oils and let it steep for a while. Oils like jojoba oil or fractionated coconut oil are good choices to make a roll-on perfume.
What is The 30 50 20 Rule?
As you might be aware, scents like perfumes have top, middle and base notes. This refers to the scent that hits your nostrils first, the one that you pick up on after and finally, the lingering aroma. The 30-50-20 rule for how to make perfume refers to how much of your overall scent should be the top, middle, and base scent. In this case, 30% should be the top notes, 50% should be the heart or middle notes and the last 20% should be the lingering base note.
When it comes to crafting or hobbies, learning how to make a perfume might not be top of mind. But hopefully you can see how simple and accessible it is to make perfume at first (even though it can get super complicated). It can be a great girls' night idea or one of many things to do during a slow girls' weekend. Not only is knowing how to make perfume handy, but you can also save money by copying designer fragrances. The more you make and the more time you spend studying scents, the better your creations will become.
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