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Making Cologne/Perfume

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Well I received my essential oils today.

Elemi oil smells absolutely amazing (can't get enough of it) - reminds me of a fruit candy type smell, but none in particular.

Frankincense (bit musky) and Rosewood both are growing on me, they're a bit woody smelling (rosewood is a bit lemony, very fresh smell).

Cinnamon bark oil smells quite different to cinnamon bark at once (almost a bit like a scotch, but not), but becomes the familiar scent quickly as the strong notes fade.

Ylang ylang is absolutely foul - it's not going into the cologne - smells a bit like blue cheese.

Honeysuckle fragrance oil is sickly smelling - I think it smells like a cheap Glade toilet freshener - it's not going in. About the same for the Neroli fragrance oil.

I have some mild eucalyptus/mint oil that I will put into the mix, as I just love the smell of mint.

(bold = going to the next stage almost certainly)

The next stage is to get the cologne spray bottles ready, as I want to make a first batch, and test it out. Hopefully before Saturday whence I can test it out on a certain lady. ;)

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Not sure how much you've played around with scents before, but I wouldn't write off the "sickly-smelling" ones immediately. Essential oils often smell quite different when they're concentrated in a bottle, especially the strong floral ones. Try putting a drop on your skin or a hanky or something and carry it around... then see how it smells after a couple of hours. It's worth seeing how they blend with the lighter/fresher scents as well, as these tend to be shorter-lasting - good to have other smells underlying or the perfume just disappears after an hour or so.

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I've not played around with scents at all before really. I accidentally dabbed some honeysuckle on my nose (touched the rim of the bottle) and smelled and tasted it for 20 minutes or so. I'll try do it more methodically next time.
I decided I'm also going to incorporate some vanilla into the scent as well. Finding the correct bottles and a high purity ethanol is proving more difficult than I thought (I'd prefer not to use vodka, as I'm sure the fusel alcohols are not good for longevity).
I was also a bit disheartened when I read the shelf life of the essential oils isn't as long as I thought (it's about 2 years before they begin to noticeably change apparently, for the lighter ones). I guess I'll have to wear cologne every day then, haha.

Onwards. :)

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Try putting a small dab of oil onto a hanky, then flick/shake the hanky a few times in the air before giving it a few seconds and then either smell the waft of fragrance in the air where you shook the hanky or use your cupped hand to waft it over to your nose.

Strong scents will change a lot depending on how they are handled, how much they are diluted and what carrier is used.
They are stronger when sprayed directly onto one spot and can also be bruised by rubbing them into the skin too hard, alternatively they become more subtle when sprayed into the air and then let settle on the skin/clothes.

They age and change while worn and diluted etc, some a lot faster than others and some maturing into a much nicer more subtle scent than when first sprayed. so the hanky thing helps to mimic this.

Edited by AndyAmine.
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When your making your perfume have a glass of coffee beans on hand to sniff between testing smells. It helps stop you becoming desensitized to all the smells. Im sure there's other things apart from coffee beans you could try too.

Looking forward to smelling some of this "Eau de bluntmuffin" :P

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Bahaha! Thanks for the coffee beans tip. I did notice my nose did become desensitized very quickly.

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My only advice is that a lil scent goes a long way.. Especially if your meeting up with a lady.

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I know some expensive perfumes use datura flowers. Maybe a bit dicey experimenting with to extract the oils but if you managed to get it right you'd smell fucking divine ( albeit very feminine )

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Well I managed to make the first batch. I did a final re-plan, and guesstimated some ratios, and changed a few on the fly as I was doing it. Here's what I ended up using:

Frankincense 3 drops
Cinnamon 3 drops
Vanilla 3 drops
Ylang-ylang 2 drops

Elemi 6 drops
Tea-tree 2 drops

Rosewood 5 drops

Grapefruit 3 drops

Lime 3 drops

Mixed this with a small amount of ethanol (ended up finding a perfumer's alcohol (almost all ethanol, with a token amount of methanol to denature) for a cheap price). It smells amazing in my opinion. However it's a bit too heavy on the cinnamon (it's a really strong scent, had no idea it was this strong though). The vanilla and frankincense are also noticeable sometimes (the vanilla seems to blend in perfectly with the cinnamon). Sometimes I think I can get a sense of the elemi, but not it's direct smell. Otherwise that's about all I can smell. So next time I will increase the top notes by 2 drops each, the middle notes by 2 drops each, and the frankincense and ylang-ylang by one drop each. I realized that as much as I hated ylang-ylang, I kept wanting to smell it - so for this effect alone I put it in. Hahaha.
I'd like to have a more cedary/minty/eucalyptusy scent for work, that smells very fresh. Believe it or not this first scent was for work, but it smells like a perfect going-out scent.



The method:
1) Have two containers of ethanol as wash vessels (ideally three if you're anal)
2) Get a dripper (squeezy bulb)
3) Open your bottle you will put the cologne into
4) Get the first base note bottle open, and collect a few drips via the dripper (don't suck quick or rashly, or you'll get oil in the bulb, and it will dissolve the rubber and ruin everything by putting rubber in your perfume)
5) Drop the correct amounts of drops into the bottle
6) Close essential oil container
7) Suck up wash alcohol repeatedly from wash vessel #1 until sufficiently clearn, then get as much out as possible.
8) Suck up wash alcohol repeatedly from wash vessel #2 (always use the same order), then get as much out as possible, and dry on tissue. The reason for two vessels is that you get much higher dilution (=removing way more of the last-used essential oil from the dripper) than a single vessel with double the volume.
9) Repeat steps 4-9 for all essential oils necessary
10) Top up the bottle with ethanol - using thrice the volume of essential oil you get perfume grade, and the strength weakens as the dilution increases (obviously).
11) Resist the urge to test the cologne/perfume immediately (I couldn't :P ) - store the bottle in a dark place. It will age over the next few weeks as the essential oils react and settle down.

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It sounds really nice CBL. (well, smells dont 'sound' ,not in a sober state anyway,lol, but like the power of suggestion, for a brief second there, i could almost smell it)

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Oils aint oils too, so only buy the best quality. I did some work on sandalwood oils years ago and have not found any sandalwood oils that are high quality since. I smell them in every shop I go into and they are all crap.

So you need quality which you will pay for. There is no way quality ylang ylang will smell like blue cheese, also depends where in the distillation process the oil was collected. I distilled ylang ylang flowers once and separated top and bottom notes, the top ones were floral but the lower ones were much nicer and more mellow.

In solution the oils will be more prone to oxidation and photodegredation so maybe add an antioxidant and store in a opaque/brown container and or keep in fridge.

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I have smelled a nice saffron based scent on a customer lately, it's a male scent, smells like full on saffron wwhen he's in the shop. So I rekon a safron based calogne would be nice. I notice that the older style purfumes are alot of the time are aldehyde based, but I am not too sure if they are all too keen on the import of aldehydes these days.

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