How to make your own perfume

There are many different ways to make your perfume. This how-to guide provides you with easy, step by step directions for making your own perfume by tincturing herbs. Hope you enjoy! 😄

A cute perfume bottle can help add character to your unique fragrance.

Quick tip: you can use any kind of drinking alcohol, HOWEVER, you need it to be as close to 100% alcohol as possible and, unless you want to experiment with different scents, preferably clear.

You can use any herb or resin you like to smell. A few popular fragrances are: lavender, patchouli, jasmine, rose, sandalwood. You can order them online or buy them from your local health food store.

Sterilize all your glass containers using a dishwasher or in boiling water. After they are COMPLETELY dry, gather all materials on a counter where you have plenty of room.

Label all of your glass bottles according to which herb will be tincturing in it. (Please excuse the already full bottles, I forgot to take a picture of all the empty, labeled, glass bottles).

Get a labeled glass bottle and the herb. Use funnel to put herb in bottle (amount is up to you, I start around 1/4 of oz). Then pour enough everclear (my preference) in to completely cover the herb.

Seal your bottle with an airtight lid and go look for a nice dark cabinet to store it in.

Store your tinctures inside a dark cabinet for 2 weeks, shaking once a day. Some herbs react differently during this process; some tinctures will foam, some herbs dissolve completely, some fizz.

Get your tincture out after two weeks and take it back to your work space. *two weeks is just the average time frame, some herbs take closer to 4 weeks (sandalwood or other woods, for example).

Once you get your tinctures out, get out the measuring cup with the spout, coffee filters, dropper, glass cup and bowl, perfume bottles, smaller glass bottles, and also get out the herbs you used.

I chose to do my sandalwood first because I know it will need to tincture for another couple of weeks. Dump the contents into the measuring cup.

Red Sandalwood is such a pretty color! Red sandalwood is widely used as a natural dye. And for those of you who don't know, it is a very sweet, woodsy, earthy scent that blends well with anything.

Put the coffee filter securely over the cup and start to slowly pour the mixture from the measuring cup into the glass cup.

This is where patience is needed; it may take up to 30 minutes for all of the liquid to get through the filter because it drips so slowly, and you can't do it all at once. Just let it do it's thing.

........still going.......this is a good time for you to do something else, like wash dishes, clean up around your work station, do a puzzle, read a book.....😗❄️☔️☀️🍁

Once it's finally all strained, take your left over herb and squeeze out the rest of the juice, then rinse your measuring cup out, and pour the remaining liquid back into the measuring cup.

If you are satisfied with the potency of the scent and do not wish for it to be stronger, then skip to step 22. If you think the fragrance needs to be more powerful, continue to the next step.

Put more of the same herb into a clean, dry glass bottle (sandalwood in this case). Then, pour all of the remaining liquid from the tincture into the bottle to cover the herbs.

Store the tincture back in the cabinet for another two weeks, shaking it each day.

After two weeks, check your tincture. And then, if the desired fragrance and potency has been achieved, continue on to next step. If a stronger scent of the perfume is wanted, then repeat steps 19-21

Dump all contents of the bottle into the measuring cup

Find a glass bottle to store the tincture long term, preferably green or brown to keep light out, but it can be any color if you store the tincture in a dark cabinet. Secure a coffee filter to the top

Slowly pour the tincture from the measuring cup into the bottle, careful not to knock the filter off. Squeeze out the rest of the liquid from the coffee filter.

Put a lid on the bottle and label which tincture it is.

Choose a smaller perfume bottle for your mixture and, using the eyedropper, combine different tinctures to create your own unique scent!

Put a lid on it and shake it to blend the different tinctures together. Test it out by dabbing a small amount to your wrists. Let soak into your skin and if you like it, keep it in your purse! 😃

Buy fancy bottles for a more classy appearance and give them as gifts!

Look at my other guides for more herbal how-tos. Keep an eye out for more on herbs. Coming soon: how to blend herbs for fragrances.