DIY Natural Perfume - The Alcohol Based Method
This article contains affiliate links from my favorite brand Mountain Rose Herbs. I love their high quality organic/fair trade products, and I’m blown away by their commitment to zero waste.
One of the best reasons to create your own perfume is to have a custom blended fragrance that you adore that is also a toxic free perfume. I was disappointed to find out that a few of my fragrance oils may likely have a mix of natural and synthetic ingredients. The best natural fragrance ingredients are essential oils and resins.
The Cosmetic Database rates fragrance as an 8 on a scale of 0-10 for toxicity. It’s been scientifically documented that synthetic fragrance create allergies, immunotoxicity, and neurotoxicity. Fragrance is a major chemical I avoid and also in almost every cosmetic product sold in stores. Synthetic fragrance is used to cover the odor of other toxic ingredients not only in cosmetics but also cleaning products and deodorizers.
My absolute favorite natural perfume is Sensuous Beauty Sweet Woods Botanical Body Mist. I discovered this brand at Whole Foods, and this fragrance is the perfect combination of woodsy oriental with sweet notes. I was surprised to see that brandy was one of the ingredients. I recently found a recipe to create your own fragrance which may be a similar.
What you will need…
Essential oils/resins of your choice
100% proof vodka or brandy
Distilled Water
Dark glass bottle
You will use 30% essential oils to 70% alcohol and stir slowly. Allow it to sit for 48 hours in a dark glass bottle. Next you will add about 5% distilled water and again stir slowly allowing to sit for another 48 hours. Now strain your fragrance through a coffee filter and into a clean dark glass bottle. Once this process is complete your perfume is ready to go.
To Learn more about which essential oils to blend check out AromaWeb. They have detailed instructions on which essential oils blend well together and the best top notes to use.
My favorite essential oil blend is vanilla absolute, ginger, and patchouli. You can find everything that you need, except the alcohol, to create your own fragrance at Mountain Rose Herbs. Mountain Rose Herbs also offers their own pure aroma oils and resin blends.
See more DIY fragrance recipes including a solid perfume here!
Image by Mountain Rose Herbs