What is perfume and how to make perfume at home?
What is perf
ume? It is generally described as a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give somebody or something a pleasant smell. What are the components of perfume? The precise formulae of commercial perfumes are unknown and kept in secret for clear reasons. Even if they were widely published, it wouldn’t be possible to reproduce them as usually they are dominated by complex ingredients and odorants. However, experts of perfume are now rather skillful at identifying components and origins of scents.
Making perfume is viewed as a whole workmanship with its special techniques and secrets. Nevertheless, you can have fun of making your own perfume at home. Of course, it can’t be compared with commercial brands of well-known perfumes, but it should be at least tried for the sake knowing how to do it. If you have a desire to learn how to make perfume at home, you should understand that the basic procedure for making perfume is the same whatever the blend.
Most simple perfumes are a mixture of alcohol, essential of fragrance oils and distilled water. While you can choose between essential oil and fragrance oil (the first one is a natural product derived from flowers or plants, and the second one is a blend, often synthetic, of a number of ingredients usually diluted with an oil carrier), do not try to substitute distilled water by water from your kitchen faucet. Otherwise, everything will be spoiled.
The technology is simple but it requires patience and carefulness. The trick is to put the essential oils together creating a smell you like. Perfume is made up of base notes (the smell stays the longest on your skin), middle notes (smell stays second longest), and top notes (smell of oil evaporates first). Because the oils all evaporate at different rates the perfume may smell different as time goes on. To make your perfume, mix at least 25 drops total of essential oils divided evenly between base, middle and top notes. You should start with the base notes, then middle, then top. The oils are stirred slowly into the alcohol, one drop at a time. Stir slowly but long enough for the oils to be completely dispersed. The blend of oil and alcohol should stand undisturbed for 48 hours. And then you can add the distilled water, again stirring slowly until completely dispersed. Then you should leave your perfume to stand and mature for at least three weeks in a cool dark place. After the perfume has matured, you are to filter it through a coffee filter to remove any sediment and bottle it into a colored glass bottle with a stopper.