Perfumes are made up of a blend of different aromas that usually come from essential oils. Perfume formulations can be expressed in volumetric or weight proportions of each of its components. Perfumes today are being made and used in different ways than in previous centuries. Perfumes are being manufactured more and more frequently with synthetic chemicals rather than natural oils. Many natural and man-made materials have been used to make perfume to apply to the skin and clothing, to put in cleaners and cosmetics, or to scent the air. For people who want to make perfumes at home, weight measures present a problem since the average kitchen balance does not have the required precision. Using them will lead to unpredictable and non-reproducible results. Buying a more precise balance represents an added cost which is hard to justify for the present purpose.There are major fragrance categories - Floral, Oriental, Floriental, Chypre, Green Marine and Fruit.

Perfume is made from about 78% to 95% of specially denatured ethyl alcohol and a remainder of essential oils. Perfume is the costliest form of fragrance with 22% of essential oils. Perfume then came into widespread use among the monarchy. France's King Louis XIV used it so much that he was called the perfume king. Some plants, such as lily of the valley, do not produce oils naturally. In fact, only about 2,000 of the 250,000 known flowering plant species contain these essential oils. Therefore, synthetic chemicals must be used to re-create the smells of non-oily substances. Some perfume ingredients are animal products. Typical plant products include anise, bay leaf, bergamot, cardamom, cedar wood, eucalyptus, frankincense, gardenia, geranium, iris, jasmine, lavender, lemon, lilac, lily, lily of the valley, magnolia, moss, neroli, orange, orris, patchouli, pine, raspberry, rose, sage, sandalwood, tuberose, vanilla, violet and ylang-ylang.

Perfume is often sold in the run up to Christmas as a coffret set at a good price. Aromatherapy—smelling oils and fragrances to cure physical and emotional problems—is being revived to help balance hormonal and body energy. Animal substances are often used as fixatives that enable perfume to evaporate slowly and emit odors longer. Other fixatives include coal tar, mosses, resins, or synthetic chemicals. Alcohol and sometimes water are used to dilute ingredients in perfumes. The theory behind aromatherapy states that using essential oils helps bolster the immune system when inhaled or applied topically. Smelling sweet smells also affects one's mood and can be used as a form of psychotherapy. Humans, like other mammals, release pheromones to attract the opposite sex. New perfumes are being created to duplicate the effect of pheromones and stimulate sexual arousal receptors in the brain.

Whether it’s for personal or family purposes, marketing purposes or intended as a gift for some friends or family, perfume making is in fact an easy task that you can do by yourself or with others. Creating something personal, of good taste and really useful such as perfume is a truly great thing, not only because it teaches you a couple of new things, but also because it’s bound to boost your confidence, not to mention maybe the most important aspect… having fun.

If you try to google your way to some perfume making knowledge, you’ll notice you have a lot to choose from, just because there are plenty of ways and different recipes to try. The most important thing is for you to know what you’d like to obtain:

1. What type of perfume would you like to make? (eau de cologne, perfume concentrates, maybe even after-shaves or whatever crosses your mind)

2. What would you like the perfume to smell like? (soft / strong smell, sweet / manly odor / unisex, long lasting or not, and so on and so forth)

Depending on your answers to the previous questions, you should make out a list of ingredients. When compiling this list, you should have in mind the characteristics of the ingredients you’d like to add to your recipe. If you’ve already got a recipe to follow, that means you won’t bother experimenting and giving much thought to the ingredients you should add, maybe slightly adjust the quantities to obtain a more personalized perfume, but if you haven’t got your ingredients list yet, here are a couple of things you should know.

The first rule of perfume making is that you should experiment as much as you can. It’s a fact that some of the greatest perfumes were created because somebody said something like… “and what if I put these two together?”. Perfume making an art and that’s why imagination and a great sense of smell can overcome a lack of experience or knowledge.

The second most important thing is that there are 3 key ingredients to a perfume recipe: essential oils (extracts from various plants, organic or non-organic, that combined, give you the smell of your perfume), pure grain alcohol and water.

Another thing you should know about oils, plant extracts is that there are 3 different types of oils which will ultimately influence the smell of your perfume in time. The base notes will be the scent that will stay the longest on your skin and that is why it is usually added first in the mixture. The middle notes will also influence the smell of the perfume for a pretty long time, although not as long as the base notes, while the top notes will give the perfume its specific scent when just applied. The top notes will be added to the mixture after the middle notes and may be followed by some other substance to bridge the scents.
It is very important that you mix the extracts in the given order and that you use a sufficient quantity of each type, usually the same for all three.

Last, but not least, here’s a list of the most easily found oils that may lead you to your dream perfume:

1. Base notes – sandal wood, vanilla, cinnamon, mosses, lichens, ferns;

2. Middle notes – lemongrass, geranium, neroli, ylang-ylang;

3. Top notes – orchid, rose, bergamot, lavender, lemon, lime.

One more thought to take into consideration above all… have fun!