How To Create A Fragrance

This is the last of the five part series on perfume making. Please e-mail me if you have comments or questions. The address is at the end of this essay.

The following is a passage from my book, Love in a Small Town, which will be released this October, 2015 by Rogue Press. In this scene Lindsay, the proprietor of a small perfume shop, is making a new fragrance from perfume oils when she is interrupted by a local teenager, Sarah Graham, who is new in town and having trouble fitting in with the local high school crowd. She's taken to hanging out in Lynn's store. Neither one of them is aware that Lynn has met David, Sarah's stepdad, and is very attracted to him. 

       "She laid out a dozen narrow paper strips, about three inches long, on the counter in front of her. Both ends of each strip were bent so they stood straight up when the strip lay flat. Also on the counter were about a dozen small brown bottles, holding samples of fragrant oils.

“Hi, Lynn. What’s all that?”

Startled, she looked up to see Sarah coming into the shop. “Oh, hi. I’m working on a new fragrance. It needs something and I can’t quite figure out what.”

“You mean, like, you’re making a perfume?”

“Yeah, but this will be a cologne. Not too many people buy perfume these days. Too expensive.”

“You know how to do this? I mean, make cologne and perfume?”

“It’s a hobby of mine as well as a profession. If it turns out, I’ll bottle it and sell it in the store.”

“I didn’t know a person could, like, make their own perfume. I thought it happened in a factory somewhere.”

“There’s no mystery about it. It’s all made the same, if it’s Estee´ Lauder’s or mine. It’s like cooking. Instead of tastes, though, you think odor. You know, when you're cooking you taste and decide if it might be better with some nutmeg, or such.

"You decide on the basics first by putting it together in your head; like should it be floral or woody or citrus? When the idea is there, you begin with these scent strips.” She gestured at the narrow pieces of paper with the ends turned up.

“I moisten the end of a strip with one of the oils, and label it. That way I can smell several, in any combination, to get an idea of the finished product. When you have a possibility, you mix a small amount. If it still smells good, you add pure alcohol in a proportion of four to one part mix, if you want perfume. It’s about sixteen to one if you want cologne.”

“That’s it?”

She laughed. “I wish. You have to let the fragrance age in the alcohol, sort of like wine, to see what happens. These are mostly natural oils. When the molecules get together they interact and you might be surprised and end up with an odor like cabbage soup.”

The confusion on Sarah’s face made her decide to take it a little further, enjoying the pleasure of sharing something she loved.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

“Look at these scent strips. Each one has an oil sample I think I might use. See? I’ve marked them. We have rosemary, lemon, rose, cedar, jasmine, and cinnamon.

“Pick up two of them and hold them together, close to your nose. You can tell if it works without actually mixing it.”

Sarah carefully picked up a rose and a jasmine strip, and sniffed cautiously.

Lynn watched her, amused. Sarah was so intent. It would be fun to teach her about perfume. Having an interest might distract her from some of the unhappiness in her life.

“Yuck, that is really sweet.”

“The jasmine is probably a bit too much. Try the lemon with the rose.”

            “That’s better, but I still don’t like it.”

“Well, you get the general idea. In a couple of hours you might work your way through all the bottles I have here and find a combination.”

“It must take a long time to do this.”

“It helps if you’ve memorized a couple of hundred scents. It’s called, ‘having a nose.’ Professional ‘noses’ can identify about two thousand different odors.”

“Could I learn to do this?”

“Sure. Like any other creative art form, it takes practice, but I’d enjoy teaching you. Of course, if you wanted a career working for a lab somewhere, then you’d need a college degree and a lot of organic chemistry courses to get hired.”

That's how you begin, using oils from your collection. Be sure to label everything and take notes if you have a combination you like. I usually start on the back of one hand with the first oil, the major note. Start simple with three drops. Add two drops of the next oil and sniff. Okay but boring? Does it need to be lighter? Add a drop of citrus. Is it too floral? Add a bit of freesia. When you reach the point where you're adding an oil to fix a mistake, start over.

When you have something you like convert the drops to milliliters and mix in your flask add alcohol at the rate of sixteen milliliters alcohol to the total mils of oil in the flask. I'm going to recommend vetiver and/or patchouli as a fixative because you can get away with using a tiny amount that won't change the fragrance. Here is how you do this:

Mix two mil of vetiver or patchouli (or one of each) in 10 mil of alcohol. Mix well. Add two mil of this mix to your fragrance. Now comes the hard part. Let it sit a week before smelling it. It will change. If you detect the fixative, use a smaller amount proportionately in the finished fragrance. If the sample loses its scent in 30 minutes, add more fixative, cautiously and wait some more. You want a fragrance that will last for an hour at least. Can you use the oil without the alcohol? Sure, but add the fixative to fix it, maybe 1 mil to 10 mil of oil.

There is so much more to this, but if you get this far, you are ready to read some books with understanding and, of course, you can e-mail me at Author@joycezeller.com with questions, anytime. I love talking about fragrance. 

Here are two suggestions to start: For a masculine type: 4 mil amber, two mil frankincense, 1 mil sandalwood, 2 mil bayleaf, 2 drops cinnamon (start with strip samples, then go to drops before going to the milliliters, or you'll waste a lot of oil before getting it right.

For a feminine type: 4 mil mignonette, 1 mil freesia or Lily of the Valley, 1 mil rose, 3 drops clove. If it needs lightening, try 1 mil grapefruit or lemon.

Making Your Own Signature Fragrance

I'm writing this five-part series on perfume making because perfume making will be  part of the plot of my new novel, "Love In a Small Town," to be released by Rogue-Phoenix Press this October. In the book, my teenage protagonist, Sarah, is taught to make perfume by Lindsay, the love interest of Sarah's step-father. The fragrance is called "Shakespeare's Flowers," and I sold it in my store until I retired.

Think of perfume making as like cooking. First you have to have an idea of the finished product. Cooks have a whole mental library of tastes stored in their brain. When they’re seasoning something, they taste it, then decide if it needs to be saltier, sweeter, spicy, or perhaps tart. They search their memory, remembering the tartness of lemon, the bite of turmeric, and add accordingly.

 Fragrance compounding is the same, except that you’ve memorized the odors of scent ingredients. You still combine them mentally, then go on to compounding starting with one, and adding carefully, until it smells the way you want it. You start with the oils. When you're satisfied, add pure, 90 proof alcohol--the kind you buy at the liquor store. 16 parts alcohol to one part oil mix. Perfume is four to one.

Think about what you like. Don’t worry about the odor being masculine or feminine. Many women wear men’s fragrances because they are not so sweet, and men often like a little lilac or lavender added to what they wear. Amber is good on anyone. Add a little orange and maybe a snitch of cinnamon and it’s fabulous. Essential oil of Jamaican Bay Leaf is very hard to find, but it adds freshness to almost anything. I suggest you find stores that sell oils—probably a health food store, or Whole Foods Grocers, and start smelling to get familiar. The first thing you’ll notice is a difference in quality. Every brand has a few clunkers, especially the lavenders. This oil is in short supply. Lavender officianalis is the French one we all like, but Norfolk Lavender is good. You will probably have to buy most of your oils online, so start small, and look for quality. In my experience, I have always been satisfied with the quality and purity of Kiehls, and Eden, sold through Amazon.com, and Sunrose Oils. Buy the smallest possible amount to start. ¼ ounce, or 15 milliliters is plenty.

When I was compounding a fragrance in my store for a client, the formulas were very simple—at the most, five oils, because the olfactory nerve in the human nose gets tired quickly and loses its ability to smell. We call it ‘olfactory fatigue.’ This comes in handy if you are in a room with a noxious odor, like something dead, or fermented. In a few minutes you won’t smell it anymore. Inhaling camphor will speed things along. One perfume oil, violet, contains a chemical, ionone, which will kill your nose quickly. If you use it, be sure it is the last thing you add.

I mentioned before the difference between perfume oils, which are synthetic, and essential oils, which are distilled from living plant material. You will be using perfume oils. They are cheaper, and your body will not absorb them, sometimes with unexpected results. Leave them for the aromatherapists. There are only a few essential oils that you will have in your collection: sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, and possibly benzoin, because they are fixatives, which I will explain later, and the citrus oils.

Your first assignment is to go looking for odors. Shop for oils, but also smell what is around you. Notice the difference between grass, moss, dirt, the difference between the leaf of a flower and the petals. Leaf oils are called “petigrain.” What is orange oil? The odor of orange peels. What is Orange Petigrain? The leaf odor, which is green with a suggestion of orange. Cherry bark smells like almond. With practice you will be able to tell the difference between juniper, pine, and cedar blindfolded. Check out the Internet and make a list. The next paper will be on starting your collection and what supplies you need.

Why Do We Wear Fragrance?

Continuing our discussion on how to create a fragrance:

After 32 years retailing fragrance in my shop, I've concluded that there are three reasons most people wear fragrance:
1. To be accepted and win approval of others.
2. To attract the interest of the opposite sex.
3. To be identified as "one of the group."
    Consider reason #1.  There was a time when a strong, noxious odor was desirable, but you'd have to go way back to primitive man. If you were in danger of being eaten by another animal, it would be important to smell bad, therefore inedible.
     Today smelling good is desirable.  For instance, many of my customers wanted something to wear while doing business, what I called "Boardroom Fragrances." For men, I would suggest Caswell-Massey's Jockey Club--fresh, clean, not floral. Never anything sweet. Something with juniper, or sandalwood. Avoid Ralph Lauren's Polo--it has been taken over by college kids and you don't want to smell like a college dorm.
     For women, I told my clients that they didn't want to smell like somebody's wife. Boardrooms are, after all, very sexist. Sandalwood with a snitch of orange is good. Never wear a heavy floral. Stick to citrus. Good old Jean Nate`. My favorite for any business, including female candidates running for office, is Estee` Lauder's White Linen. It is clean, light, and finished with a touch of tangerine. It is good for close contact, like nursing. Sick people are very sensitive to odors.
       There are times when you simply want to wear what you like . . . be yourself. This is when you can wear Patchouli, among friends, but never in a crowd. It might smell yummy to you, but to a lot of people it smells like old varnish. To me it smells like the underside of moss, and I like it, but my favorite smell is an aroma chemical named hydratropic aldehyde dimethl acetal. It has a fungal odor, like mushrooms growing. Clearly I can't go around smelling like a raw mushroom, so I made a room spray of it for my bedroom.
      Reason #2. To attract the opposite sex. Haarmann and Reimer, a huge international fragrance house, did a study once to determine what personality types were attracted to what fragrances. They were thinking of selling, but the interesting part was what attracted men to women. Macho, athletic types liked musk, sandalwood, patchouli. Women were definitely attracted to musk, spice, and Bay Rum. Most men liked fruity odors  on women, like apple and strawberry, commonly shampoo scents, or very light, fresh scents. For late evening activity, there is an Australian oil called "Meditation," which has incense notes and frankincense. Very sexy.
   Most often mentioned by men in my store as disliked were Jungle Gardenia, or anything with orchid, rose or jasmine. Women liked their men to smell outdoorsy or woody, but surprisingly, Bay Rum was the most popular scent, especially if it was spicy. It can't be found anywhere, hardly.
       Reason # 3. The most primitive reason of them all. I had a client, a man, who was a union organizer. When he went into a factory, or any blue collar environment, he always wore Old Spice. The next choice was Aqua Velva. He wanted to smell "familiar." Believe it or not, those were the two best selling men's fragrances in 1995 and probably still are. Patchouli is a social statement going back to 1960, but women should not forget the single note fragrances, like Freesia or Hyacinth. You can always buy the oil to wear.