It is such fun to make the most basic perfume.  It is blending oils and/or extracts to make a nice smell. I have read many online articles about how to make really complicated perfume – but at the end of the day the expense (in money and time) doesn’t seem to increase the benefit much. Once I have those two things (oils and extracts), I use them to scent all my homemade cosmetics and cleaning products. (Yeah, I make my own cleaning products too.)

 

All the ingredients you really need to make a whole lot of perfumes (or scent cleaning products and cosmetics) are:

• Vodka, the cheapest bottle of actual vodka you can get – you are not drinking it.  As a funny aside the fellas who staff the corner store must find it amusing that once or twice a year I turn up and buy a large bottle of cheap vodka!  
• Cleaned out glass or plastic bottles and jars with lids.
• Food grade carrier oils.  I use different oils for different concoctions/scents.  The most all purpose oil is sweet almond oil.  If you have a health food store in town, they would carry it.  Around here the Dominicks even has some in stock (although it is less expensive at the food co-op).  Olive oil, coconut oil (solid at room temp), and grapeseed oil work well too.  They each have a slightly different scent with coconut being the strongest smelling.  
• Lovely smelling plants/parts of plants: We grow lavender, bergamot, thyme, mint, and rosemary (among others and generally for cooking).  There is a wild rose bush on the parkway (abandoned “landscaping” from a previous tenant) to get rose petals from.  Clover (adds a sweet smell like honey) grows like, well, wildflowers in the summer here on the parkways and in the public parks.  When I pick clover with my daughter it is just the very definition of pleasant.  <smile>  My Mother has an elderberry bush in her yard.  I save and dry orange, grapefruit, and lemon peels (for a “fresh” citrus smell).  When ginger root is on sale I buy some (for baking and scent).  Cinnamon also.  I don’t use plants that can’t be eaten/are poisonous because I will be rubbing this on my skin or using it around the house.  Some people point out that the small amount is not harmful and that traditional perfumes are full of scary industrial chemicals but I prefer err on the side of caution.  I participate in a bulk order of vanilla beans with others at our food co-op annually.  It is the least expensive way for me to buy vanilla beans.  I use them to make perfume and vanilla extract for baking.  Mountain Rose Herbs is an online supplier for many of these herbs and essential oils, just be prepared for a little sticker shock!  I grow or source most of the plants I use.   

You can distill your own essential oils from the plants (a process that requires a still) or buy them from a place like Mountain Rose Herbs (expensive!) but I have found that the “folk” method of making oils is inexpensive and easy while not strictly “essential oils”.  The “folk” method is to take dried* herbs (or citrus rinds or vanilla beans) and put them in a jar, then pour your oil of choice over the top.  Set the jars in a warm windowsill and shake them once a week for a few weeks.  The longer you let them sit in the warm sun, the more fragrant the oil becomes.  I make a separate jar (use jelly jars or babyfood jars) for each scent then blend individual custom scents from the single oils.  After two months or so (this process is very forgiving as far as schedules are concerned) strain out the plant matter from the oil with cheesecloth or an old strainer type coffee filter (I suppose a paper filter would work too) and add fresh plant matter to the existing oil.  Let it sit for a few more months.  Repeat as many times as you want, until the oil is as strongly scented as you want.  (I make mine really strong.)  Almond oil lasts the longest before going rancid (way over a year), then grapeseed oil.  Olive oil spoils the fastest (a few months).  The bottles look like a catalog layout all jumbled together and I write what type of scent I am making, type of oil, and date I started it in cursive with a lot of flourishes on a pretty scrap of paper then glue it (with good ‘ol elmers type glue) on the jar.  Instant kitchen decor!

 

Herbs should be hung and dried or dried in a dehydrator because water in the herbs will speed the process where the carrier oil becomes rancid.  It doesn’t matter if they are dried or fresh when making an extract.

 

To really get going, now you make a few extracts.   Take a fresh vanilla bean (or rosemary or plant of your choice), mash it up a bit just to bruise it to release the fragrence, put it in a bottle or jar.  Pour in vodka – as much as two cups if you want that much (for vanilla extract I do).  Extracts should be kept away from light so I wrap my bottles in scrap fabric (secure around the neck with a rubber band and let the edges kind of shoot up) or pretty paper.  Let it sit in the pantry for a few months before you use it in baking or perfume.  You will never spend money on vanilla extract in a grocery store again!  

 

I make several extracts to use as marinades for meat. Blend away!  Or make a blend of citrus extracts for lemon/lime chicken.  Again, I make each one separately and then blend.  If there is a terrible taste bud result at least I didn’t use all of my “stock.”

 

Okay – now the fun part!  Some of my “recipes”!  (Remember I make my oils and extract very strong adjust according to your sense of smell with more if it doesn’t smell strong enough). 

• My everyday perfume my husband really loves is about 10 drops of vanilla in almond oil, with 5 drops of bergamot in almond oil in a small spritzer of one part water and one part vodka.  I regularly get compliments on my “perfume”.   
• We love our home to smell like delicious old fashioned lavender.  I use a “glug” (my official measurement when the bottle I am pouring out of makes one “glug” sound) of lavender extract in my mopping water with vinegar to clean.  The vinegar smell dissipates and lavender remains.  One single drop of lavender oil on a fresh light bulb will dissipate into a room for months very lightly.  I put a drop on the bulbs when the light burns out and I change the bulb.  Don’t waste your money and more electricity on those glade plug in things.  If you are already going to spend the money to light a room, may as well scent it too!  <smile>  Use any scent you want to create a signature scent for your home.
• Mint in olive oil and Rosemary in olive oil make a great “toothpaste” flavor/scent. 
• In the summer we dry laundry outside.  In the winter I hang our clothes inside but dry our towels, sheets, and blankets in our dryer (Our set of “apartment” washer/dryer was purchased used off craigslist.)  As you can see we have come a long way from those few months when I first came home!  We are still extremely frugal as we are saving for a home (no mortgage, we will pay cash for something modest.)  My “homemade” detergent is scented with clover in grapeseed oil combined with lemon rind in grapeseed oil.  Very “fresh” smelling. 
• To freshen an item of clothing (such as a coat or suit jacket) that isn’t dirty and ready for a wash, use the extract scent of your choice to wet a washcloth, then tumble in the dryer with a damp/wet towel and item until the item of clothing is fresh.  Lemon extract with ginger extract works well and doesn’t leave a strong “scent” – just smells clean.  We save literally hundreds a year on dry-cleaning costs for my husbands professional clothing.  For suits and other items of clothing that are usually worn multiple times, but have to go to a cleaners, I freshen and then repress until they are dirty.  That way they always look like they came from the cleaners!  We avoid dry cleaning his suits very often.  
• A very close copy of a bath and body works “warm vanilla sugar” scent is a few ounces of cinnamon extract, approx 10 drops of clover in grapeseed oil, approx 6 drops of vanilla in almond oil blended into coconut oil with olive oil.  Much less expensive than a $10 bottle of lotion.  Sweet pumpkin smells like a scent I could also recreate.  That is on my “to do” list after Christmas.
• The 2011 winter perfume I made is 8 drops of thyme oil, in one part elderberry extract and one part water.  I made the perfume as gifts for the women in my family.  It works out well since we do not buy Christmas presents in the “normal” way but we still like to give gifts.   
• I use a lot of the oils and extracts to make our family lip balms and lotions.  Another easy set of items to make for less money than they can be purchased for and with better quality ingredients.  

I built up my “stock” a little at a time.  It looks like a lot of work but it really isn’t and is certainly easier that dealing with going to the nearest “big box” store every time I need to replenish my toiletries and cleaning supplies. 

 

 

Vodka can be used as a deodorant and a bottle can last a long time.