Do you find that all the fragrances at the store just don’t smell right? They’re too sweet or too musty or just not right for you. Well, you don’t have to rely on the scents you find at the store. You can make it yourself!
With a few herbs, some oil and a little know-howyou can make your own fragrance that fits perfectly to your personal scent. Or you can experiment and create fragrances no one has ever smelled before.
Materials:
- Herbs- look in a grocery store with big herb or spice section. Try cloves, orange peel, vanilla bean or lavender.
- A Jojoba Oil- this is your carrier oil. Health food store or drugstore should have it.
- Glass jars- small 8 oz canning jars work best. Be careful of reusing old jars, your perfume may take on the old content’s properties. Please, no pickle perfume.
- Perfume Bottles- Small is good here too. Shop around in thrift stores or look at craft stores for small vial sized containers.
- Large pot
- Kitchen tongs
- Eyedroppers- as many as you have herbs
- Labels
- Cheesecloth (optional)
Instructions:
- Pick out the herbs you want to use. Try to imagine what your scent is going to smell like and break it out into each strain of scent.
- Fill the large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Submerge the glass jars and their lids in the boiling water for 5 minutes. This will sanitize them. You may want an adult hand to help with all this glass and boiling water.
- Using the tongs remove the jars and lids from the water and let them dry.
- Bring the water to a boil again.
- Wash your hands! Everyone says this all the time, but this time do it! You don’t want anything on your hands to contaminate your perfume!
- When the jars are cool enough to touch sprinkle each herb into its own jar. This way you have a pure distillation of each herb- later we can mix them. Just a layer of the dried herbs should be fine.
- Pour the Jojoba oil over the dried herbs and make sure to cover them completely.
- Screw the lids onto the jars and place them in the boiling water. Let them stand there for 10 minutes then turn your stove off.
- Once the water has cooled down remove the jars and put them in a sunny place for three days. The heat of the sun will continue to “cook” them.
- Now, store the jars in a cool dry place for 2-3 weeks. Patience will pay off here. The longer you leave them the more potent the oil will be.
- After your 2-3 week wait, open the jars and get your nose working. See which smells will work together and in what ratios. Experiment! Use the eyedroppers to extract the oils and combine them in your perfume bottle.
- If there are flakes of the herbs you can always strain the perfume through cheesecloth.
- Use the labels or stickers to name your new scents. Now you can go off and smell good!
You will most likely have some of the pure herb oil left. This you can store and save for another perfume making day. Just remember, a cool dry place works best.
Have Your Say!
Do you wear perfume? Would you wear it if you made it yourself? Or if you do wear perfume would you try making it yourself? Let us know in the comment’s section below.