Would you like to create your own signature cologne? How about starting your own cologne business? With these step by step instructions, I will show you how easy and relatively inexpensive it is to design colognes.
All you need is an essential oil, some water and alcohol – preferably vodka.
Let’s say you like the fragrance of rose, lavender and vanilla. Take 1 part from each essential oil, 1 part water and 4 parts alcohol.
You can typically find the ingredients you need at your local health food store, or online.
If you can’t find the exact scent you want in an essential oil, there are also fragrance oil blends that work nicely, and that are very fine quality. Just make sure the oils you purchase are intended for use on the skin. These will be labeled “body safe”. You may also want to dab a tiny bit of each oil on your skin, to make sure you do not experience an allergic reaction. It would be a shame to put time into creating the perfect scent, only to have one small ingredient cause irritation. Many essential oils will cause irritation when placed directly on the skin. To test an essential oil on your skin, mix with a little olive oil first.
Essential oils come packaged in all different size bottles from a dram up to a gallon at a time. The dram is like a sample size tube, like the perfume they used to give out in the department stores. These are perfect for testing the oils if you think you might be allergic. Once diluted, however, even the strongest essential oils are unlikely to cause much of a problem.
The most fun part of designing your own cologne is to find out what kind of effect some fragrances have upon each other. It’s amazing how one scent can change if you add other scents.
So collect as many scents as you can, and have fun designing your own colognes.Things you will need:
- Essential Oil
- Vodka
- Purified water
- Pretty bottle
- Cotton swabs
- Eye dropper
- Coffee filter
How to Design Colognes:
This is a formula suggestion, but not set in stone:
- Your Base notes should make up 50 to 55%
- Middle notes 20 to 25 %
- Top notes 20 to 25 %
- To equal 100%
This simple formula will help your cologne last longer on the skin.
What are top, middle, and base notes? They are the framework of any formula used to design colognes.
Top notes provide the first scent impression of a fragrance once it has been applied to the skin. These are usually light aromas that evaporate quickly. Their scent usually lingers between 5 and 30 minutes. Middle notes, sometimes referred to as “heart notes”, make up the body of the formula. These usually take 10-30 minutes to fully develop on the skin. They are the notes that classify the fragrance family (floral, oriental, fruity, spicy, etc. Base Notes are those with the greatest molecular weight. They last the longest. These help slow down the evaporation rates of the lighter notes, giving the fragrance staying power. Common base notes include patchouli, musk and vanilla.
Think about what sort of cologne you want to make, scents like citrus, floral, oriental, musk, woodsy, etc.
Use a cotton swab to collect a tiny amount of aroma to smell. Use several cotton swabs to test a variety of scents. Test different combinations of aroma samples together, by waving the swabs under your nose. Make notes of which combinations work best together. This will help you decide what aromas you want to use in your cologne.
Once you have found the aroma combinations you like, start adding them together
One Drop at a Time
Creating cologne can be a lot like cooking. Some scents are so strong only trace amounts are necessary. Others virtually have no scent at all until they are blended with other aromas. This is why you want to try the additives in small amounts.
Combining Your Scents To Create Your Signature Fragrance:
Step 1 – Choose a base scent, also called a base note in perfumery, for the cologne. This will be the dominant fragrance of the cologne that outlasts the others. A base scent should have somewhat of a deeper fragrance, such as patchouli or vanilla.
Step 2 – Choose a middle scent, or middle note, for your cologne. This scent should be fairly mild so that it doesn’t overpower the base scent but rather complements it.
Step 3 – Choose a top scent, or top note, to add to your cologne. This top note is also called a bridge scent, as it will bridge together the base scent and the middle scent. You may use more than one bridge scent.
Step 4 – Test the scent on your skin. Your own body chemistry affects how differerent notes react on your skin, so it will smell differently in the bottle than it does on your skin.
Step 5 – When you reach the aroma you want, add the oils to the alcohol, stir well, and allow to “steep” in a cool, dark place for 48 hours. This will activate and “set” your creation. Remember to write your recipe down. So you can make it again.
Step 6 – Combine your scent creation with the purified water. straining the oil and alcohol mixture through a coffee filter, stirring thouroughly, and pouring into your chosen cologne bottle. Allow to stand another 48 hours. Store it in a cool place, away from direct light.
Now you have a cologne designed especially for you. A unique scent all your own. Now that you know how fun and easy it is to design your own colognes, you are sure to make this a favorite pastime. With all the possible combinations of aromas, the possiblities are endless.
