This year, why not treat yourself and your significant other to the very special gift of a personalized fragrance? You can never have too many. Who wouldn’t want the extravagance of a new and different perfume, cologne or beard oil choice every morning? Gifts from the heart are a joy to make, beautifully affordable, and wonderful to gift on Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion. Best of all, most of the ingredients can be found in your medicine cabinet.
What you’ll need:
- One or more 10 mL glass rollette bottles (available in a variety of colours, but the cobalt blue bottles have a particularly special mystique to them). Try and get the ones with the stainless steel or glass roller balls as they won’t break down over time as plastic ones do.
- One or more 50 mL glass mixing beaker
- Organic base oil such as jojoba, apricot kernel, sweet almond or avocado. Avoid a nut derivative if you’re allergic to nuts.
- Essential oils such as black spruce, oakmoss, cedarwood and rose varieties, which include rose Bulgaria and amulya attar, patchouli, bergamot, orange, vanilla, etc.
Recipe for ‘Nighttime in an English Garden Perfume’:
Step 1: Add six drops of mukhallat attar, 12 drops of rosewood, three drops of patchouli, six drops of rose Bulgaria to a glass mixing beaker. Swirl gently a few times. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Step 2: Carefully pour essential oil cocktail into glass rollette bottle.
Step 3: Fill the remaining space in the perfume bottle with oil. Jojoba is our favourite.
Step 4: Click stainless steel roller onto perfume bottle.
Step 5: Shake gently. Apply to wrist. Enjoy!
Pro Tip #1: The WOW factor of small batch homemade perfumes only becomes evident after 48 hours. So give the perfume a couple days to age. In the meantime, you can design a bespoke customized label and make up your own delightful perfume name.
Pro Tip #2: The more rare essential oils like mukhallat attar and rosewood are costly. Consider hosting a perfume or beard oil making party to split the cost of the materials. Buying glass bottles, beakers, organic jojoba oil and essential oils in bulk will save you a lot of money.
Photo by Bru-nO
