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Essential Oil Perfume Recipes: How to Make Natural Fragrances Using Essential Oils

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February 10, 2020 By Rebecca D. Dillon 8 Comments

Learn how to make natural essential oil perfume recipes for beginners. If you love fragrances, but want a non-toxic alternative to synthetic fragrances that can trigger allergies, headaches and skin irritation, then this post is for you! Discover how to make natural fragrances using essential oils with this collection of essential oil perfume recipes, natural essential oil blends for perfumes, and perfume making tips for beginners that will save you money.

I love fragrances. Unfortunately, not all fragrances love me. Synthetic fragrances, especially, have been known to give me a raging headache. Everything from fake vanilla to heavily scented floral scents can trigger trigger sinus problems, allergies and headaches that last for days. They can also cause unfortunate skin reactions. If you have sensitive skin, then you know just how troublesome skin reactions from artificial fragrances can be. Growing up, I definitely struggle with itchy skin from everything from laundry detergent to lotions. It was not fun.

So rather than risk a reaction from store bought perfumes, I prefer to make my own essential oil perfume recipes. By choosing certified organic essential oils, I know that I’m getting a safe product that I can trust when properly diluted. And, because I know exactly what essential oils I’m using to make my essential oil perfumes, I can avoid those that irritate my sinuses or cause allergic reactions. Store bought perfumes just don’t offer the same transparency. Because fragrances are considered proprietary, I have no way of knowing what chemicals or other ingredients are used to create that particular scent. Therefore, the best way to avoid this is to make my own.

How to Make Essential Oil Perfumes

I’ve made a number of perfume recipes over the years. Some of those perfume recipes contained fragrance oils I’d used during my soap making days. So I knew they didn’t trigger a reaction. Others, however, I created with only a blend of essential oils. There are a lot of essential perfume recipes online. You can basically use any essential oil blend recipe you like. Simply add it to perfumer’s alcohol, a pre-made fixative base or to a carrier oil such as fractionated coconut oil (also known as Isopropyl Myristate) or jojoba oil. (Learn more about how to use perfume fixatives for lasting scents.) You can also make a basic salve base, which is 3 parts carrier oil to 1 part beeswax, with the addition of your essential oil blend for a solid essential oil perfume.

Continue reading for my essential oil perfume making tips for getting the perfect scent, even if you’re terrible at blending essential oils. Plus discover my collection of natural essential oil perfume recipes and tutorials to help you create your favorite new, custom scent!

Perfume Making Tips (That Save You Money!)

I want to start by sharing some easy perfume making tips for your essential oil recipes. I’m sharing these tips first, because if you’re like me, by the time you read through the other stuff you may feel so overwhelmed you decide to give up before you get started. And that is the last thing I want you to do. Sometimes you just need some baby steps to get your feet wet before you’re comfortable going full force into a new art or hobby.

1. Use plant based, all natural fragrance oils for your essential oil perfume recipes.

I am not the best at figuring at top, middle and base notes for my own essential oil perfume recipes. To be honest, I find it all to be a huge challenge. Not to mention the investment of time I don’t have. Therefore, when I make my own essential oil perfume recipes, I’ll often use an essential oil blend recipe that I’ve found elsewhere.

Sometimes, however, I find that I want a more complex fragrance blend than what I can make myself. I mean, perfumery is seriously an art. It takes a lot of time, knowledge and money to perfect the perfect scent. Essential oils on their own are expensive. So messing up when crafting a custom essential perfume recipe can be devastating on several levels. No one wants to blow money on a perfume scent that has to be tossed. Therefore, when I want a more complex natural essential oil blend, I like to turn to plant-based, all natural fragrance oils.

There are a few soap making companies that now offer all natural fragrance oils. While they do cost more than their synthetic counterparts, they’re still definitely a lot cheaper than trying to formulate your own.

Right now, Wholesale Supplies Plus seems to offer the widest range of 100% natural fragrance oils. They were one of the first soap making companies to take notice of the need for all natural fragrances and started offering this line years ahead of much of the competition. While these fragrances start at around double the cost of synthetic essential oils, the quality more than makes up for the difference. There’s also the added bonus of not having to spend a LOT more money buying all the essential oils you’d need to create just a single essential oil blend for your perfumes.

Their natural fragrance oils are plant-based aromatics made using pure essential oils and aromatic isolates derived solely from natural, raw botanical sources. Plus, all of their natural fragrance oils are certified to be free of synthetic ingredients. Their current lineup of all natural fragrance oils includes scents like honey blueberry lavender, green tea & rose, gooseberry & birch water, coconut & white tea, lavender & coconut milk, jasmine vanilla and mango smoothie.

I love that the Wholesale Supplies Plus website is geared towards beginner to intermediate crafters with affordable pricing. So it’s easy to find the IFRA maximum skin exposure levels for each of their fragrances. This allows you to easily determine skin safe dilution for your essential oil perfume recipes. There’s even a fragrance and essential oil calculator located on the product page for each of their essential oil based fragrance oils so you can quickly pick the right ratio for your essential oil perfume formulations.

2. Use a fixative base with your essential oil perfume recipes so they last longer.

Essential oil perfume fixatives are a must for long lasting perfumes and fragrances. Fixatives work in your essential oil perfume recipes to slow down the degradation of more volatile oils used in your perfumes. Thus, they essentially slow down evaporation rates. This ensures that your scents last longer when applied to skin. Therefore saving you money as you won’t need to reapply your perfumes as often.

There are a number of essential oils that function as fixatives in your essential oil perfume recipes. You can find out what essential oils work as fixatives in perfumery outlined here. Each of these essential oils not only extends the life of your perfumes, they also add a distinct note to your fragrances. Therefore it is important to choose which essential oils to use as fixatives based on the notes in your essential oil blends. You’ll want all the fragrance notes, obviously, to work in harmony for the best scents.

If you aren’t a pro at blending essential oils and don’t have the time or money to further your knowledge and experiment, there is a simple alternative. An easy way to incorporate a fixative into ANY essential oil blend is to purchase a natural perfume fixative base. Essentially, these bases are like little solid perfumes. You simply pick a scent note that works with your essential oil perfume recipes. Then, apply the fixative base prior to application of your perfume. By doing this, you not only extend the life of your perfume, you can also use different bases with the same essential oil perfume blend to create different scents.

I’m fond of the fixative bases available from Wild Veil Perfume. This shop offers a wide selection of fixative bases to choose from in different scent notes. Some of these include botanical musk base notes, earthy base notes, conifer base notes, spicy base notes, tea base notes and more. In addition, you’ll also discover a nice collection of absolutes and resinoids you can use to formulate your own essential oil perfume recipes.

How to Formulate Custom Essential Oil Perfume Recipes

If you want to formulate your own custom, essential oil perfume recipes, then you first need to learn the art of blending essential oils. As with fragrance oils, you can’t just throw any scents together that you like. They need to work well with another so you get a pleasing aroma.

Essential oils come in a variety of scent notes straight from nature. They can be woodsy or herbal, citrus or grassy, floral or spicy. Learning which essential oils blend nicely together does take some research, however. There’s no magical way to know what essential oils blend well together without taking the time to learn. An easy way to discover which essential oils blend well is to conduct an internet search. You can also purchase books on essential oils that teach you the basics of essential oils and blending.

An easy way to get started is to pick an essential oil you are fond of to be the heart of your essential oil perfume recipe. A popular choice, for example, is lavender essential oil. Then look up what essential oils blend well with lavender. You’ll get a long list of all the essential oils that blend well with the one you’ve chosen when you search. This gives you a good idea of where to get started in choosing the essential oils to blend with the lavender to compliment the scent.

For example, Mountain Rose Herbs, a popular source for certified organic essential oils, tells me that lavender essential oil blends well with bergamot, black pepper, cedarwood, chamomile, clary sage, clove, cypress, eucalyptus, geranium, grapefruit, juniper, lemon, lemongrass, mandarin, marjoram, oakmoss, palmarosa, patchouli, peppermint, pine, rose, rosemary, tea tree, thyme and vetiver essential oils. It also tells me that it’s aroma is sweet, floral and herbaceous — information that can help me decide how to formulate the essential oil perfume blend.

Unfortunately, blending essential oils is a lot more complicated than that. (And one of the reasons why, as a beginner, you may want to start by using existing essential oil blends for your essential oil perfume recipes.) In short, you need to choose top and base note essential oils that are harmonious with lavender essential oil, which is your middle note.

But here’s more on that.

Understanding Essential Oil Notes for Basic Perfumery

When using essential oils for natural perfumery, you need to choose your essential oils based on their rate of evaporation, or what is called their volatility. The volatility of essential oils are separated out into three categories. These categories are known as top notes, middle notes and base notes.

Top note essential oils evaporate the fastest as they contain the smallest molecules. While, middle note essential oils typically last several hours. The base note essential oils, on the other hand, contain the largest molecules and therefore evaporate the slowest. The natural fragrance of base note essential oils can last a full day or more.

When formulating custom essential oil perfume recipes, you’ll want your recipes to consist of all three notes for the longest lasting scents and a complex aroma. This can vary depending on your formulation of essential oils used — some essential oils are much stronger than others — as well as personal preference. However, there is a loose guideline for blending top, middle and base note essential oils.

Your top notes in your essential oil perfume recipes should consist of 10%-30% of the essential blend. While the middle notes, which are the heart of your perfume, should make up anywhere from 30% to 50% of your perfume blend. Finally, the base notes should consist of 15%-30% of your perfume essential oils recipes. Many base notes are also fixatives, such as patchouli essential oil.

Top Notes:

Top note essential oils are typically more light and airy essential oils. They introduce you to the scent of your essential oil perfumes. Usually thin and mobile, top notes often display diffusive, sharp, penetrating, uplifting, refreshing or light properties.

Common examples of top note essential oils include the following:

Basil essential oil
Bergamot essential oil
Eucalyptus essential oil
Fir & Pine essential oils
Galbanum resin
Juniper essential oil
Laurel Leaf essential oil
Citrus essential oils such as Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Mandarin, Tangerine & Orange
Neroli essential oil
Palmarosa essential oil
Mint essential oils such as Peppermint & Spearmint
Petitgrain essential oil
Sage essential oil
Verbena essential oil
Yuzu essential oil

Middle Notes:

As previously stated, the middle notes are the heart — and most important part! — of your essential oil perfume recipes. These essential oils should be the focal of your essential oil perfume blend, with the other essential oils being chosen around these middle notes. As your middle notes are often full bodied and complex, you want your top and base notes to harmonize, balance and complement with the middle notes you choose.

Popular middle note essential oils used in essential oil perfume recipes include:

Black Pepper essential oil
Cardamom essential oil
Carnation essential oil
Cassie essential oil
Chamomile essential oil
Cinnamon essential oil
Clary Sage essential oil
Clove essential oil
Coffee essential oil
Cypress Leaf essential oil
Fir essential oil
Balsam essential oil
Geranium essential oil
Ginger essential oil
Helichrysum essential oil
Jasmine essential oil
Lavender essential oil
Lemongrass essential oil
Lotus essential oil
Melissa essential oil
Orange Blossom essential oil
Rose essential oil
Rosemary essential oil
Tuberose essential oil
Ylang Ylang essential oil

It’s important to keep in mind that black pepper, cinnamon and clove essential oils are skin irritants. Therefore, they should be used in very small amounts as part of your perfume formulations.

Base Notes:

The foundation of your essential oil perfume recipes are the base notes. These essential oils tend to have dense, heavy and strong aromas that support your overall perfume formulation. Deep and tenacious, these essential oils may also include your fixatives. (Learn which essential oils are fixatives here.)

The following essential oils, absolutes and other botanical aromas are popular base notes as part of formulations for essential oil perfume recipes:

Agarwood essential oil
Fossilized Amber Oil
Ambrette essential oil
Amyris essential oil
Angelica Root essential oil
Balsam of Peru essential oil
Cedarwood essential oil
Cistus essential oil
Cocoa absolute
Elemi essential oil
Fir essential oil
Balsam absolute
Frankincense essential oil
Labdanum resinoid
Liquidambar essential oil
Liquidambar Oleoresin
Myrrh essential oil
Oakmoss essential oil
Orris root extract
Patchouli essential oil
Sandalwood essential oil
Tobacco absolute
Tonka Bean absolute
Vanilla absolute
Vetiver essential oil
Violet Leaf absolute

If you’d like to learn more about creating custom essential oil perfume recipes, then check out this post on how to create custom essential oil blends from Mountain Rose Herbs, as well as this post from Hello Glow on how to blend essential oils. This article on essential oil blending factors from Restorative Aromatics is also incredibly helpful.

How to Make Essential Oil Perfume Recipes 3 Ways

Now that you understand the basics behind blending essential oils for custom essential oil perfume recipes, you’re probably wondering how to actually make perfume. Obviously you can’t use your essential oil blends neat (or undiluted) on skin. This can cause skin sensitivities and irritation and in general is just a terrible practice. Therefore, you’ll want to dilute your essential oil blends for your perfume recipes so they’re skin safe.

There are three basic ways to create the perfect essential oil perfume recipes. You can make essential oil perfumes using either oil, alcohol or a solid perfume base. Before blending your essential oil perfume blend you created with oil or alcohol, you should allow your perfume recipe to first age for two to three weeks in a dark or amber glass bottle.

Oil Based Roll On Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

To make an oil based perfume, you simply mix your perfume essential oil blend with a carrier oil of your choice. Jojoba oil, sweet almond oil and fractionated coconut oil are all popular bases for oil based essential oil perfumes. You will want to use a carrier oil with little to no fragrance in order to avoid having it come through with your chosen aroma. Alternately, you can also use 100% cyclomethicone or a blend of equal parts cyclomethicone to your carrier oil of choice. (Cyclomethicone is a synthetic silicone commonly used in cosmetic applications for skin and hair care as well as perfumery.)

Your essential oil blend for your oil based essential oil perfume recipes should comprise of between 15%-30% of your chosen carrier oil. (If you are using essential oils that are known skin irritants or have a lower maximum usage rate per IFRA guidelines, then stick to the lower end of that percentage.)

To make your oil based perfume, simply add the essential oil blend to a rollerball bottle. Then follow with your chosen carrier oil. Swirl to mix, then cap and label your rollerball bottle.

Alcohol Based Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

Creating perfume using an alcohol base is similar to creating a perfume oil. Simply combine and swirl the essential oil perfume blend at the decided ratio to perfumer’s alcohol in a glass beaker, once aged. Then store your finished essential oil perfume in a glass perfume bottle or spray perfume bottle. (These perfume atomizers are also super cute! As are these best selling quartz gemstone perfume bottles.)

Solid Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

A simple recipe for making a solid perfume base is to combine 3 parts beeswax to one part carrier oil. (You can use carnauba wax as a vegan alternative. However you should reduce the wax in this case by 25% as carnauba wax has a higher melting point.) Once you’ve determined the percentage of your aged essential oil blend you’d like to use, mix the carrier oil you’ve chosen with the essential oil blend in a glass beaker or container. Then set aside.

Now melt the beeswax in a double boiler over medium heat. Once the beeswax is completely melted, immediately stir in the combined essential oil blend and carrier oil mixture. Continue stirring until the beeswax remelts, then pour right away into small glass cosmetic jars.

Let your solid essential oil perfume sit until fully hardened, then screw on the lids.

Essential Oil Perfume Recipes for Natural Fragrances

Here are some easy and fun essential oil perfume recipes. These recipes are perfect for beginners. While some of these perfume recipes contain fragrance oils in lieu of essential oils, you can swap out the fragrance oils with any essential oil of your choice, using the above guidelines for making essential oil perfumes.

Or get started with a beginner’s natural perfume kit. This DIY essential oil perfume kit contains 36 essential oils that are commonly used to create custom, natural fragrances.

Essential Oil Blends for Perfumes

Alternately, try one of these essential oil blends for perfumes. These essential oil perfume recipes use essential oils that are easy to source and readily available. They are also great essential oil blends for beginner perfumers.

Totally Chill Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

18 drops Grapefruit essential oil
8 drops Lavender essential oil
8 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
4 drops Clary Sage essential oil
2 drops Roman Chamomile essential oil

Lemon Crush Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

15 drops Lemon essential oil
9 drops Rosemary essential oil
6 drops Neroli essential oil

Paradise Bliss Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

18 drops Grapefruit essential oil
8 drops Lavender essential oil
8 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
5 drops Clary Sage essential oil
2 drops Roman Chamomile essential oil

Unisex Woodland Spirit Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

20 drops Sweet Orange essential oil
10 drops Virginia Cedarwood essential oil
6 drops Peppermint essential oil
4 drops Rosemary essential oil

The Spice of Life Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

15 drops Bergamot essential oil
12 drops Sandalwood essential oil
6 drops Vanilla absolute
3 drops Clove essential oil

Men’s Essential Oil Cologne Recipe

12 drops Patchouli essential oil
12 drops Bergamot essential oil
6 drops Vetiver essential oil
6 drops Bay Laurel essential oil
2 drops Neroli essential oil
2 drops Ginger essential oil

Grounded Earth Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

12 drops Virginia Cedarwood essential oil
9 drop Palmarosa essential oil
9 drops Patchouli essential oil
3 drops Neroli essential oil
3 drops Vetiver essential oil

Love is in the Air Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

20 drops Rose essential oil
10 drops Vetiver essential oil
10 drops Lime essential oil

The Sensuous Woman Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

12 drops Bergamot essential oil
10 drops Coriander essential oil
8 drops Neroli essential oil
6 drops Rose essential oil
4 drops Jasmine absolute

Books on Making Essential Oil Perfume Recipes

Ready to learn even more about making essential oil perfume recipes? Try one of these books on making essential oil perfume recipes to take that knowledge even further.

Organic Perfume by Kaylee Evans
Perfumes, Splashes & Colognes by Nancy M. Booth
Homemade Perfume by Anya McCoy
Perfume: The Art and Craft of Fragrance by Karen Gilbert
Make Your Own Perfume by Sally Hornsey
Essential Oil Perfumes by Scott Jenkins
Mixing Essential Oils for Magic by Sandra Kynes

If you loved learning about how to make custom essential oil perfume recipes, then be sure to pin this tutorial to Pinterest for later reference. You can also discover more of my beauty and skin care projects and recipes by following me across all your favorite social media platforms. You can find Soap Deli News blog on Blog Lovin‘, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up to receive an email whenever I share a new post!

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, DIY Craft Project Tagged With: crafts, diy, essential oil, essential oil blend, essential oil recipes, essential oils, fixatives, perfume, perfume making, perfume oil, solid perfume

Pumpkin Spice DIY Body Spray Recipe with Essential Oils for Fall

October 3, 2019 By Rebecca D. Dillon 5 Comments

Enjoy the scent of fall whenever and wherever you like with this easy essential oil DIY body spray recipe that smells like seasonal pumpkin spice! It’s a simple way to create your own custom fall fragrances for yourself or to gift as easy DIY holiday gifts throughout the season.

Make Your Own DIY Body Spray for Fall

I love fragrances. Unfortunately, it’s rare that I can shell out $40+ for a designer fragrance. Body sprays, on the other hand, are a budget friendly splurge. Body sprays tend to cost less than designer perfumes. Therefore I’m comfortable with using them everyday. There’s no need to ration out my favorite scents so they last longer. However, as I often have an arsenal of essential oils stashed in a cabinet for my natural skin care recipes, I really enjoy making my own seasonal DIY body sprays.

Benefits of Making Essential Oil Body Sprays

There are a number of benefits to making my own custom scented DIY body sprays with essential oils. Obviously I don’t need to worry about the potentially toxic ingredients hidden in proprietary perfume formulations made with fragrance oils. Instead, I’m able to create unique scents using plant-based essential oils.

Custom DIY body sprays with essential oils are also incredibly easy to make. Plus, with the holidays quickly approaching, I’m able to make multiple body sprays at once. One for me, and then several more to gift to friends and family. All at the same time and all in under 15 minutes.

I also love that I can use my favorite essential oil diffuser blends and recipes in my body spray recipes. So rather than hunting for essential oil blend recipes all over the internet, I’m able to work with what I have on hand at home.

How to Make A Pumpkin Spice Body Spray

While this easy pumpkin spice DIY body spray is perfect for fall, it also make a great DIY gift idea throughout the entire holiday season. Once you’ve made my pumpkin spice scented body spray, be sure to try it with other essential oil blends as well. It also works great with your favorite knock off designer fragrance oils!

You can find more fragrance ideas and essential oil blend recipes for your custom DIY body sprays here. (I even give great tips on how to make your custom fragrance blends last longer!) Or try one of fourteen other amazing fall essential oil blend recipes that can be used not just for your DIY body spray, but for homemade soap recipes as well! See those custom blend recipes for your DIY body spray here.

Pumpkin Spice Body Spray Recipe

Ingredients:

4 oz. jojoba or fractionated coconut oil
12 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
12 drops ginger essential oil
12 drops nutmeg essential oil
9 drops clove bud essential oil
3 drops cardamom essential oil

Instructions:

Measure out your choice of carrier oil into a 2 oz. glass or aluminum container. Then add the essential oils. Shake to combine.

To use your pumpkin spice DIY body spray, simply mist onto your body as desired. Or lightly spritz onto hair to add both fragrance and shine.

More Ways to Make DIY Body Sprays

If you enjoyed my pumpkin spice DIY body spray recipe with essential oils, then be sure to try some of my other recipes for creating custom body sprays and perfumes.

Custom Dry Oil Body Spray Recipe for Soft Skin
Mermaid Shimmer Body Spray Recipe with Shimmering Mica
DIY Dry Oil Body Spray Recipe with Camellia Seed Oil
Shea Butter Body Spray Recipe with Shea Nut Oil
Aromatherapy Essential Oil Body Spray DIY for Sleep
Caramel Coffee Dry Oil Body Spray Recipe for Fall

Not quite ready to start making homemade body spray recipes? Need to save my pumpkin spice body spray recipe to craft DIY holiday gifts later on? Then be sure to pin my essential oil DIY body spray for later!

For more DIY ideas for fall fragrances and natural skin care recipes be sure to follow Soap Deli News across your favorite social media channels. You can find and follow me on Blog Lovin‘, pinterest, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up for my semi-weekly newsletter.

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Holiday DIY, Homemade Gift Ideas Tagged With: bath and beauty, bath and body, body spray, dry oil body spray recipe, essential oil blend, essential oil recipes, essential oils, fall, fragrance, gift idea, holiday gift, perfume, perfume oil, pumpkin spice

Essential Oil Roll On Perfume Recipes (Plus How to Make Your Favorite Scents Last Longer!)

March 23, 2019 By Rebecca D. Dillon

Making your own essential oil roll on perfume recipes is a fun way to explore new scents. And while making custom perfume blends can seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. Keep reading for some of my favorite perfume blends to use throughout the year. Plus learn how to use essential oil fixatives with your favorite fragrances to make your go to scents last even longer.

Natural Essential Oil Perfumes

To be honest, whenever I’ve tried to blend my own combinations of essential oils to create perfume it’s mostly failed. The whole base, middle, top note thing always throws me for a loop. So normally, I’ll buy natural fragrances online either through Etsy or a small artisan perfumery. I tend to fall for earthier fragrances when making a purchase, however I also love bright, fruity scents. The one scent blend I can’t tolerate, unfortunately, is anything with florals. So many florals give me a throbbing headache. (So I’m really not sorry that I never have to make tuberose scented soap again.) The same can be said for fake vanilla.

One of my favorite natural fragrances is Audition by Theater Potion. It contains a sensuous blend of chocolate and patchouli that I love. (And this from the girl who used to think patchouli smelled terrible.) It’s a wonderful mysterious scent with notes not just of chocolate and patchouli, but also coffee (another win!) tobacco, clary sage and cedar. Artfully crafted with a number of natural perfume fixatives (patchouli, cedar and clary sage) this natural fragrance lasts all day, much to my delight.

What are essential oil perfume fixatives?

While blending scents is not my strong suit, using a fixative in perfumery is much easier to understand. So what exactly is a perfume fixative?

Basically, perfume fixatives are materials incorporated into a perfume formulation to slow down the degradation of more volatile oils used in your perfumes. This results in fewer changes to the scent as you wear it. Used in trace amounts, natural essential oil fixatives not only help retain the scent of the perfume by slowing down evaporation rates, they also add their own unique scent note.

You’re likely familiar with perfumes that boast a strong scent straight out of the bottle. However, you’ve found that you’re soon disappointed when that scent fades away faster than expected. A natural perfume fixative can slow down the evaporation rate of more volatile essential oils and fragrances. So they linger longer for your enjoyment.

Which essential oils are fixatives?

If you’re wanting to avoid synthetic fragrances and perfumes, a fixative is essential in making your favorite scents last longer. But which essential oils are used as fixatives in natural perfumery? Following is a list of common plant extract and essential oil fixatives. (Don’t worry if it seems overwhelming! I actually have a simple trick for using a fixative with ANY essential oil roll on perfume – old or new!)

Ambrette Seed oil: Used for its lifting effect, this essential oil is best known for is sweet floral fragrance and musky wine like scent. Often used as a musk substitute, this natural essential oil fixative blends well with rose, neroli, sandalwood, clary sage, cypress, patchouli, oriental and other sophisticated scents. It is best used sparingly.

Amyris essential oil: A common fixative in perfumery, this essential oil is often used as an affordable alternative to sandalwood essential oil. It boasts a rich, warm woody aroma that blends well with a number of other essential oils. Amyris essential oil works best as a natural fixative in milder perfume formulations and blends well with cedarwood, citronella, conifer oils (like balsam fir or pine), cypress, frankincense, geranium, jasmine absolute, lavender, lemon, oakmoss, patchouli, sweet orange, tangerine, ho wood, rose absolute, vetiver, ylang ylang and sandalwood. (Learn more about amyris essential oil and discover recipes to try here.)

Angelica Root essential oil: Used sparingly, this essential oil is best used as a base note fixative. Its scent is sharp, green and herbaceous with peppery overtones and has robust staying power and diffusive qualities. You’ll find it blends well with patchouli, oakmoss, clary sage, vetiver and citrus blends.

Peru Balsam essential oil: A more commonly known essential oil, peru balsam is a wonderful fixative for floral essential oil based perfumes such as rose, heliotrope, magnolia, and lilac. It has a rich, balsamic, sweet vanilla-like undertone and adds a resinous note to a blend in perfumery. You’ll find that the soft aroma of peru balsam essential oil blends well with black pepper, ginger, jasmine, lavender, patchouli, petitgrain, rose, sandalwood and ylang ylang.

Atlas Cedarwood essential oil: Another common (and affordable!) essential oil, atlas cedarwood has a long history of use as incense and perfume. The wood was burned by the Greeks and Romans for its sweet tenacious, woody-balsamic scent with a warm camphor-like top note. This essential oil blends well with a number of essential oils bergamot, chamomile, clary sage, cypress, eucalyptus, jasmine, juniper, lavender, neroli, palmarosa, petitgrain, rosemary, sandalwood, vetiver, ylang ylang and other floral essential oils or bases.

Cistus essential oil: Also known as Labdanum, cistus essential oil is used in natural perfumery for its rich aroma. A naturally strong fixative, its warm, sweet, dry and rich herbaceous fragrance blends well with bergamot, chamomile, clary sage, cypress, frankincense, lavender, juniper, oakmoss, opopanax, patchouli, pine, sandalwood and vetiver.

Clary Sage essential oil: Clary sage has an extensive history in perfumery and works well as a fixative for perfumes of a more delicate bouquet. Its somewhat heavy scent is reminiscent of balsamic,tobacco, sweet hay and tea leaves. Used as a fixative for natural perfumes, clary sage adds a warm note to perfume oil blends. Additionally, you’ll find that clary sage blends well with bay, bergamot, black pepper, cardamom, cedarwood, chamomile, coriander, cypress, frankincense, geranium, grapefruit, jasmine, juniper, lavender, lemon balm, lime, mandarin, patchouli, petitgrain, pine, rose and sandalwood essential oils.

Green Cognac essential oil: A specialty oil for perfumers, cognac essential oil is produced from the wine precipitate known as ‘lees’ – the yeasty residue left at the bottom of oak barrels after the fermentation and aging of Cognac. It’s commonly used to add lift and fresh, fruity natural notes to men’s colognes and aftershave fragrances. However, it’s also a tenacious fixative. Used as a middle note in natural perfume formulations, cognac has a strong fruity yet green herbaceous odor and blends well with ambrette seed, bergamot, clary sage, coriander, neroli, galbanum, jasmine sambac, lavender, lotus pink absolute, rose maroc absolute, rose otto and ylang-ylang.

Frankincense essential oil: Frankincense, like cedarwood essential oil, has a long history of use in incense and other perfumery applications. This oil boasts a fresh, woody, spicy, balsamic fragrance with a citrus top note. When used with citrus blends, frankincense modifies the sweetness of the scent in a unique way. Commonly used in conjunction with heavier fragrances, this natural essential oil and fixative blends well with basil, black pepper, bergamot, galbanum, geranium, grapefruit, lavender, orange, melissa, neroli, patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood and other spice oils.

Galbanum essential oil: Galbanum essential oil also has a long history of use as incense. While the resin may be burned, the oil is often used as a natural essential oil fixative in perfumes. A wonderful modifier with a fresh, woody, spicy and balsamic damp woods scent, this essential oil blends beautifully with lavender, oakmoss, fir, elemi, jasmine, liquidambar, frankincense, palmarosa, geranium, ginger, rose, verbena and ylang-ylang.

Myrrh essential oil: A common fixative in the fragrance industry, myrrh essential oil has a dry, creamy and resinous aroma. Think smoky woody or warm sweet balsamic with a slightly spicy medicinal odor. You’ll find that myrrh is an excellent fixative for heavy floral essential oil perfume blends. It’s especially nice when blende with violet, white rose, and lavender. However this essential oil also works well with frankincense, sandalwood, oakmoss, cypress, juniper, mandarin, geranium, patchouli, thyme, mints and spice oils.

Oakmoss absolute: Extracted from the lichen that grows on oak trees, oak moss has a heavy earthy, bark like aroma. Its tenacious fragrance has a high fixative value and blends well with most other oils to add body and rich natural undertones. However, this oil is particularly nice when mixed with anise, bay, bergamot, clary sage, eucalyptus, ginger, lavender, lime, orange, palmarosa, tea tree, vetiver or ylang ylang.

Orris Root essential oil: Orris root essential oil has an extensive history of use in perfumery dating back to the 1700s. Prior to that, however, the root was used by ancient Egyptians as a body spice, incense and perfume. Its delicate aroma boasts a sweet floral woody scent that blends well with carnation, cassie, cedarwood, bergamot, vetiver, cypress, geranium, mimosa, labdanum, clary sage, rose, violet and other floral based oils.

Patchouli essential oil: Best known as an incense and base note in perfumery, patchouli essential oil possesses a strong, rich earthy odor that is considered to improve with age. It can be used in oriental bouquets as well as natural blends that contain bergamot, black pepper, cassie, cedarwood, cinnamon, clary sage, clove, elemi, frankincense, galbanum, geranium, ginger, jasmine, labdanum, lavender, lemongrass, myrrh, neroli, oakmoss, orris, rose, rosewood, sandalwood or vetiver.

Sandalwood essential oil: Sandalwood also has a long history of usage in natural perfumery. However, as traditional Indian Sandalwood has been considered a vulnerable species since 1998 due to disease, fire and exploitation through illegal activity. Australian Sandalwood represents an ecologically responsible alternative to traditional Indian Sandalwood. Sandalwood essential oil is a base note with a soft, woody balsamic and extremely tenacious aroma. It blends well with violet note perfumes in addition to bergamot, black pepper, cassie, clove, geranium, jasmine, labdanum, lavender, myrrh, oakmoss, patchouli, rose, rosewood, tuberose, and vetiver.

Vanilla absolute: A staple in natural essential oil perfumery, vanilla absolute, this base note boasts a rich, sweet, balsamic and vanilla-like aroma. A staple in the fragrance industry, this natural fixative lends an unrivaled richness and depth to a variety of sweet-floral or heavy amber bases. Additionally, this absolute blends beautifully with sandalwood, vetiver, balsams and spice oils as well as cassie, lavandin and lavender for a unique addition to your essential oil roll on perfume recipes. (Tip: Benzoin resin oil is a cost effective replacement for vanilla in essential oil roll on perfume recipes.)

Vetiver essential oil: Vetiver has had a multitude of uses over the years. In addition to natural perfumery, this essential oil has also been used to scent fabric. While vetiver root is often woven into baskets, mats and window coverings. Its scent is best described as woody, earthy and heavy with sweet undertones. You’ll find that vetiver blends well with frankincense, patchouli, oakmoss, sandalwood, violet, ylang-ylang, galbanum, geranium, jasmine, lavender, clary sage, cassie and rose.

Violet Leaf absolute: This pleasant green absolute is widely used in the perfumery industry for its grassy cucumber-like scent. Its dry, strong, fresh green leaf odor has a subtle floral undertone. Even in when used in low concentrations it offers tremendous diffusion and adds elegance to certain floral blends such as hyacinth, muguet and high-class chypres. This natural plant extract blends beautifully with sandalwood, frankincense, lavender, rose, jasmine, tuberose, clary sage, cumin, basil and most citrus oils.

An easy way to start using fixatives with your natural essential oil roll on perfumes.

If you’re still gun shy about incorporating fixatives into your natural essential oil roll on perfume blends, don’t worry. You don’t have to come with your own recipes. Nor do you need to invest in expensive essential oils you may use only once or twice. There’s actually an easier, more affordable way to add a fixative to your existing stash of fragrances! How? By purchasing a pre-made natural perfume fixative.

Wild Veil Perfume sells an entire line of ready made perfume fixatives. They come in little tins like lip balms or salves, with a similar consistency. Formulated ahead of time so there’s no guesswork, you simply apply a perfume fixative to pulse points before adding your favorite essential oil roll on perfume or fragrance.

What is basically a primer for natural essential oil based perfume and colognes, Wild Veil Perfume’s creamy fixative compounds contain their own fragrance composed exclusively of base notes, in an organic emulsion of raw beeswax, cold pressed natural oils, and unrefined, raw butters. Available in an extensive variety of base notes, these fixatives not only slow down the evaporation rate of your favorite perfumes, they double as a moisturizer. Simply apply and wear them alone or in layers with your favorite essential oil roll on perfumes.

Essential Oil Roll On Perfume Recipes

Now that you know the secret to making your natural fragrances last longer, why not try a few essential oil roll on perfume recipes? Following are a few of my favorite essential oil roll on perfume recipes. To make your custom fragrances, simply add the essential oils directly to a 10 mL roller ball bottle. Then fill the remainder of the bottle with fractionated coconut oil or jojoba oil. (Be sure to leave room at the top for the roller ball.) Shake and enjoy! (This essential oil mixing kit makes it easy to get started.)

Grapefruit Citrus Crush Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

Ingredients:

10 drops grapefruit essential oil
5 drops lemongrass essential oil
2 drops peppermint essential oil
1 drop frankincense essential oil

Pumpkin Spice Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

Ingredients:

4 drops cinnamon essential oil
4 drops fresh ginger essential oil
4 drops nutmeg essential oil
3 drops clove bud essential oil
1 drop cardamom essential oil

Rose Blossom Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

Ingredients:

6 drops rose absolute
4 drops Peru balsam essential oil
2 drop frankincense essential oil
2 drop sandalwood essential oil

Tropical Fruit Essential Oil Perfume Recipe

Ingredients:

4 drops mandarin essential oil
4 drops ylang ylang essential oil
2 drop fresh ginger essential oil
2 drop pink pepper essential oil

Lovely Lavender Essential Oil Roll on Perfume Recipe

Ingredients:

4 drops amyris essential oil
4 drops lavender essential oil
2 drop peppermint essential oil
2 drop juniper essential oil

Where to buy essential oil perfumes.

As with even commercial synthetic fragrance blends, perfumes comes with a cost. And investing in the essential oils to make your own can get expensive fast unless you’re slowing growing your collection over time. If you’re not ready to dive into a huge investment, you can buy a wide array of essential oil artisan perfumes to fit your unique tastes. Following are some of my favorite essential oil perfumes from artisan perfumers.

The collection of essential oil perfumes from Two Bird Perch are perfect for anyone moving toward living a natural green lifestyle. I’m currently crushing on their “Quirky” essential oil roll on perfume. A natural blend of patchouli, bergamot and sweet orange, this blend can enhance mood, alleviate stress and promote happiness. You can discover this light, uplifting and unique scent for yourself by visiting their Etsy shop here.

Or try one of fifteen unique, natural fragrance blends from LVNEA. Their best selling natural perfume sampler is an affordable way to explore a wide array of natural scents. You may also be interested in the perfume sampler set from Barefoot Apothecary. For even more essential oil perfume options, visit my collection of favorite, natural artisan perfumeries and fragrances here.

You can learn more about how to make your own custom, essential oil perfume recipes here. Or, for more natural bath and beauty recipes, follow Soap Deli News on Blog Lovin‘, facebook, twitter and instagram. Or sign up for my semi-weekly newsletter.

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Homemade Gift Ideas Tagged With: bath and beauty, bath and body, diy, essential oil blend, essential oil recipes, essential oils, fragrance, natural alternative, perfume, perfume fixatives, perfume making, perfume oil, perfume recipe, perfumery, scent

DIY Glitter Perfume for Your Inner Rockstar

September 25, 2017 By Rebecca D. Dillon

True glitter fans continue to discover glitter EVERYWHERE – even after an OCD house cleaning. If you’re a fan of glitter (and you totally know what I mean!) then you simply cannot pass up this tutorial for making your own awesome DIY glitter perfume!

My DIY glitter perfume is not only easy to make, but you can customize it with your favorite fragrance. Whether it’s a dupe of that to-die-for name brand perfume you can’t always afford or a seasonal blend of pumpkin spice, this project is for you. All you need is jojoba or fractionated coconut oil, eco-friendly biodegradable glitter and a fragrance oil of your choice.

Once you’ve made your first DIY glitter perfume I guarantee you won’t be able to stop there. Because you can craft these fun fragrances in under five minutes it’s a snap to whip up extras of these darling glittering perfumes for holiday gifts for friends, family and co-workers. There’s nothing quite like glitter to sprinkle on the fun!

Once you’ve made your own DIY glitter perfume, be sure to share a photo of your creation(s) using the hashtag #soapdelishowoff on instagram so I can see what you came up with! And don’t forget to leave a comment at the end of this post sharing your favorite glitter mishap!

DIY Glitter Perfume

Ingredients:

3-4 scoops bio glitter in color(s) of choice
6 grams clear jojoba oil (or fractionated coconut oil)
1 gram skin safe fragrance oil* of choice

Instructions:

It’s important to note that different fragrance oils have different usage guidelines based on maximum safe skin exposure. Some fragrances, such as pumpkin spice, are only safe for skin when used at 3.3% of the recipe for perfumes. Others, like jackfruit & kiwi, are safe up to 43.8% of your perfume recipe.

The amount called for in the perfume recipe above assumes that the fragrance oil you’ve chosen is safe at up to a 14.2% usage rate* for perfume. (I’ll give you some recipes for using other fragrance oils further down as well as tell you how to figure out how much fragrance you need for fragrances oils with a lower skin safe usage rate.)

For accuracy you will need a digital scale to weigh the jojoba oil and fragrance oil. You will also need a 10 mL glass roll on bottle for each DIY glitter perfume you plan to make. I obtained my bottles in bulk from SKS Bottle & Packaging.

Begin by adding three to four .15cc scoops of glitter to an empty 10 mL bottle.

Then place the bottle on the scale. Tare and set the unit to grams. Using a graduated plastic transfer pipette, add 6 grams of jojoba oil to the bottle. Then tare your scale again, and using a fresh pipette, add 1 gram of fragrance oil. This should fill up your bottle.

Now snap the housing and stainless steel roller ball onto the bottle and screw on the cap. Shake well to mix.

To use, simply roll onto wrists, behind ears and other pulse points as desired. And don’t forget to shake the bottle whenever you like for a fun snow globe effect!

If desired you can also decorate our perfume bottles with washi tape and stickers like I did.

Some of my favorite fragrance oils that can be used according to the recipe above are jackfruit & kiwi, citrus blossoms & heliotrope and cyclamen & citron.

Want to use a different fragrance oil in your DIY glitter perfumes?

You should be able to find out from your supplier what the recommended usage rate is for the fragrance oil you’ve chosen. Once you have that amount, multiply the amount of jojoba oil by that percentage to figure out how much fragrance to use. For example, if the maximum skin safe usage rate for perfume is 8.5% you would multiply 6 grams by .085. This gives you .51 grams. So you would adjust the fragrance oil in the recipe to .5 grams or less.

If your scale isn’t sensitive enough to weigh out a half of a gram, then you can make two perfumes at once. Simply fill each bottle with the desired amount of glitter, then mix double the amount of jojoba oil (6 grams) and double the amount of fragrance oil (1 gram) in a small beaker. Then carefully fill each bottle with equal parts of your perfume mixture using either the beaker spout (assuming your hand is steadier than mine!) or a pipette.

Want to make pumpkin spice perfume? Pumpkin spice fragrance oil has a much lower skin safe usage rate for perfume. It’s only 3.3%. So I recommend making six of these at once. You’ll need 36 grams of jojoba oil and 1 gram of pumpkin spice fragrance oil. (I used gold bio glitter for my pumpkin spice DIY glitter perfume.) Combine in a beaker, mix well, then evenly distribute between the six bottles. (Alternately you can also buy pre-made pumpkin spice perfume!)

To create a candy crush DIY glitter perfume, I used unicorn bio glitter, 18 grams of jojoba oil and 2 grams of candy crush fragrance oil to make three roll on perfume bottles. See how that works? Easy peasy! (You can also use a percentage calculator if you need more help.)

If you enjoyed my recipe for making DIY glitter perfume, then you may like my other glittertastic skin care recipes including this recipe for making glitter pumpkin spice body butter. A must have for seasonal holiday parties, my pumpkin spice body butter moisturizes, scents skin and adds a bit of glitter glitz to your look! You can find my glitter pumpkin body butter recipe here. Or check out my entire collection of homemade glitter skin care recipes on Soap Deli News here.

For more homemade skin care recipes, be sure to follow my DIY Bath and Body board on Pinterest. You can also find and follow me on all of your favorite social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Blog Lovin’, and Instagram. Alternately, you can also sign up to receive new posts from Soap Deli News blog to your email via FeedBurner so you never miss a post.

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Homemade Gift Ideas Tagged With: crafts, diy, easy, fragrance oils, gift idea, gifts for kids, gifts for teen girls, glitter, perfume, perfume oil, perfume recipe, pumpkin spice, stocking stuffer

Roll On Perfume Oil Recipe

February 9, 2016 By Rebecca D. Dillon

This roll on perfume oil recipe is incredibly easy to make. It only requires two simple ingredients, however you can dress up your roll on perfume oil by placing botanicals inside the container with the perfume oil – I used a Hibiscus flower for this one – and then decorating the lid with a strip of washi tape for a simple homemade gift idea.

Roll On Perfume Oil Recipe

Ingredients:

.25 oz. fractionated coconut oil (or jojoba oil)
.01 – .05 oz. skin safe fragrance oil of choice

Instructions:

This roll on perfume oil recipe makes one 7 – 10 mL roll on perfume. (Opt for the 10 mL bottle if you’re including botanical ingredients in your bottle.) The amount of fragrance oil used for this roll on perfume oil recipe is calculated as 5% (minimum) – 20% (max) of the amount of fractionated coconut oil used. Please note that this amount of fragrance oil may not be deemed skin safe for all fragrance oils so be sure to check with manufacturer guidelines for max percentage amounts for the fragrance oil you choose when used in perfumes. 5% is .01 oz. of fragrance oil. 10% is .02 oz., 15% is .03 oz. and 20% is .05 oz. (If you prefer to use essential oils, you’ll want to use the minimum amount of .01 oz. or less in your perfume oil. You may also want to opt for an amber or cobalt glass container to help preserve the integrity of the essential oils used.)

Fragrance oils I’m loving right now include Vanilla Verbena (use at 20% – this does contain vanilla and may darken the oil), Cayenne Caramel (use at 20% – also contains vanilla), Rose Cognac Sugar (use at 20% – very small amount of vanilla) and Cardamom True Sugar (use at 20% – very small amount of vanilla.)

You will need to weigh the ingredients. Weighing ingredients ensures more consistent batches and allows for ease of increasing the roll on perfume oil recipe. You can double this roll on perfume oil recipe as much as needed for the amount of roll on perfumes you’d like to make. These make lovely homemade gift ideas for Valentine’s Day or even DIY wedding favors.

If you are adding botanicals to your roll on perfume oil add them first. (Be aware that some botanicals may darken the oil like tea.)

Simply place your botanical(s) – up to and including a tiny whole rosebud or rose petals, a hibiscus flower or even lavender or calendula flowers – into a 10 mL glass bottle (with either a plastic or metal roller ball top.)

Using a digital scale, weigh out the fractionated coconut oil into a small glass Pyrex measuring cup or container.

Now weigh out the amount of fragrance oil needed and stir into the fractionated coconut oil.

Then, using a plastic transfer pipette, fill the bottle with the perfume you’ve just mixed.

Snap on the roller ball top and then screw on the lid.

Now simply decorate or label the lid and/or bottle as desired.

If you like this easy roll on perfume oil recipe, then you may also enjoy my other recent skin care recipes for making your own healing neem butter and burn relief spray. You can also follow my DIY Bath and Body board on Pinterest for more great skin care recipes and ideas. You can also find me on Blog Lovin’, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Instagram.

Also please consider helping my dear friend and fellow artisan and educator, Bambi Godkin, in her fight against breast cancer. Learn more here.

Filed Under: Bath & Beauty Recipes, Homemade Gift Ideas Tagged With: crafts, diy, easy, fragrance oils, gift idea, perfume, perfume making, perfume oil, perfume recipe, Valentine's Day gifts, wedding favor