How to Make Perfume
By Richard Wong

Whether it's for personal or family purposes, marketing purposes or intended as a gift for some friends or family, perfume making is in fact an easy task that you can do by yourself or with others. Creating something personal, of good taste and really useful such as perfume is a truly great thing, not only because it teaches you a couple of new things, but also because it's bound to boost your confidence, not to mention maybe the most important 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 there are plenty of ways and different recipes to try. The most important 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 aftershaves or whatever crosses your mind.) 2. What would you like the perfume to smell like? (soft / strong smell, sweet / manly odor / unisex, long lasting or not, and so on and so forth.)

Depending on your answers to the previous questions, you should make out a list of ingredients. When compiling this list, you should have in mind the characteristics of the ingredients you'd like to add to your recipe. If you've already got a recipe to follow, that means you won't bother experimenting and giving much thought to the ingredients you should add, maybe slightly adjust the quantities to obtain a more personalized perfume, but if you haven't got your ingredients list yet, here are a couple of things you should know.

The first rule of perfume making is that you should experiment as much as you can. It's a fact that some of the greatest perfumes were created because somebody said something like… "and what if I put these two together?". Perfume making an art and that's why imagination and a great sense of smell can overcome a lack of experience or knowledge.

The second most important thing is that there are 3 key ingredients to a perfume recipe: essential oils (extracts from various plants, organic or non organic, that combined, give you the smell of your perfume), pure grain alcohol and water.

Another thing you should know about oils, plant extracts are that there are 3 different types of oils which will ultimately influence the smell of your perfume in time. The base notes will be the scent that will stay the longest on your skin and that is why it is usually added first in the mixture. The middle notes will also influence the smell of the perfume for a very long time, although not as long as the base notes, while the top notes will give the perfume its specific scent when just applied. The top notes will be added to the mixture after the middle notes and may be followed by some other substance to bridge the scents.

It is very important that you mix the extracts in the given order and that you use a sufficient quantity of each type, usually the same for all three.

Last, but not least, here's a list of the most easily found oils that 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!