Friday 7 September 2012

Making Sense of Scents

Need a boost of dazzling fragrances to pick you up and turn your frown upside down? How about trying to make your own perfume? The process of creating perfume at home is fun and simple and the results are simply fantastic. Our olfactory sense has the power to influence our moods and our general well being. This is the principle behind aromatherapy.

When you make your own perfume you get to work with different wonderful fragrances and the result can be very therapeutic. What's more is at the end of your project, you have a product that you can use anytime to enhance your mood and add that special oomph to your everyday life plus a new skill and craft to enhance your creativity.

Sure you can just go to the nearest department store and purchase commercially available perfume but I guarantee that it won't be as much as fun as making your own wonderful perfume at home. So check out the various perfume recipes below gathered from different sources online. Remember that you can and should adjust the recipes according to your own preferences.

Eventually, you can become quite the savvy perfume maker and you can create your own recipes as well. You can then use this for personal consumption or as gifts to friends and loved ones.

Light Romance

With this perfume recipe you get to combine the romantic and sexy scent of vanilla with the fresh and tangy fragrance of lemon to create the perfect balance of a light romantic jaunt. For this you will need six drops of vanilla extract and a fourth of a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Mix these two together and boil with one cup of water, which you will need to keep covered for two minutes after it has reached a boil.

After this, put it in the fridge for five minutes and take it out again and redo the boiling process. Right after the second boiling, immediately transfer it into a glass container and put it in the refrigerator for an hour. After that, just transfer into a bottle and you're set to enjoy this fresh and seductive fragrance.

Vanilla on my Mind

This time, let's get serious about vanilla. Vanilla has a clean seductive scent that permeates the subconscious and touches the sublime. Take this scent for you own without having to buy those expensive commercial vanilla perfumes. All you will need is a vanilla bean you should cut into several pieces.

Once cut, put into a glass jar and add a third of a teaspoon of sugar along with three ounces of any kind of vodka. You have to them tightly seal your jar and allow it to seep. You need to shake the jar everyday for a month after which, it will be ready to use.

Fit for Fairytales

Want to be enchanted and enchanting at the same time? Try this perfume recipe that conjures up the spirits and fancy of an enchanted forest. You will need two cups of distilled water together with three tablespoons of vodka.

Measure out five drops of everlasting perfume oil and ten drops each of peony and sandalwood perfume oil. Simply mix and shake the ingredients together. Then transfer it into a dark colored bottle and allow the mixture to settle for at least twelve hours before using.

Thursday 6 September 2012

How to Make Perfume

One of the things teens and adults need to feel and smell good when going out is perfume. There are various brands in the market bought local and foreign that are worth buying but those who don’t have enough dough can try experimenting and making up a concoction at home.

The first thing the individual should do is get the important ingredients to make this work. This is normally made up water, essential oils and pure grain alcohol better known as vodka.

There are various types of perfumes in the market. There is the perfume or body splash, cologne, the Eau De Cologne and the Eau de Toilette that are made from plant and animal oils.

Homemade perfumes essentially come from plant oils. These are not that expensive and can be purchased from various stores. When all the materials are ready, it is time to go to work.

An important thing that the person has to know that there are 3 types of notes when it comes to making perfumes. There are the base, middle and top notes. These vary depending on how long the scent will last on the skin.

Base notes could last up to 8 hours or more on the body. Perfume companies normally use cedar wood, cinnamon patchouli, sandalwood and vanilla in making a product. Some examples of middle notes are bottle nut meg, geranium, neroli and ylang-ylang. The essential oils to create top notes are bergamot and lavender.

The different notes will never work without another type of note known as the bridge note. This will help blend the various scents together making the whole thing work. Some examples of bridge notes are litsea cubeba, lavender and lemongrass. 

Is it possible to use all the three notes to make a perfume? The answer is yes. The individual can drop a few amounts of each into the test tube so these will mix together. The person should smell it to check on it and if everything is going well, this is the time that two ounces of vodka are also placed inside.

Smelling the product is not the best way to check if it is working. A small amount must be applied to the skin to make sure it does not have any adverse reaction.

The drops placed from the essential oils and the vodka won't even reach halfway point of the test tube. If the smell is still good, this should be stored in a cool place for 48 hours before this is mixed with water and then letting it come out through a coffee filter.

The finished perfume is then placed in a small plastic bottle with a sprayer on top. Some prefer to use a dark colored container so that the contents will last longer before it is time once again to produce a new batch. 

The rule of thumb for perfumes is that the longer it is stored, the stronger is the smell. So, it is the choice of the individual whether to make the concoction last for an hour or longer.

The process of producing the right scent takes a lot of patience. Sometimes, putting more one type of note can change everything and the individual will have to start over. The same thing also happen with companies trying to produce new products for the consumer so the person shouldn’t worry since everyone is in the same boat.

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Essential Lacoste Perfume



Essential Lacoste

From the office to the gym, this scent stays fresh throughout your busiest day. As a great innovator, Lacoste was keen to explore a new expression of a citrus ‘Eau’ fragrance: In a traditional fragrance, the top-note oils – responsible for the fresh citrus scent – quickly evaporate after spraying on skin. Most users don’t like losing this first impression so quickly. Fortunately, our patented Time Release Technology traps the top-note oils in the perfume, steadily releasing them over time. This allows the fragrance to smell fresher for longer, as if it had been freshly applied. Naturally, the length of time depends on the individual’s skin chemistry, but it can last from the morning until evening. Key Ingredients: Citrus notes, Tomato Leaves, Black Pepper, Woody notes

kredit  fragrances.lacoste.com

Tuesday 4 September 2012

A pursuit for the nose

Take note, when you buy a perfume bottle most of the cost goes to the packaging, advertising, sales profit and tax. Only a small percentage, actually around ten percent, is dedicated to the costs of the scents. So why buy when you can make your own perfume. Not only will you be able to save some money but you'll get a blast from the pursuit of the perfect perfume.

One of the greatest advantages of making your own perfume is that you don't have to worry about having chemicals and preservatives going onto your skin. Since you're more likely going to work with natural, you don't have to worry about the possible effects of synthetic materials on your body.

However, care should still be taken when using various essential oils. Some people might still have particular allergenic reactions to specific types of oils. It is therefore important to know or be familiar with your own body chemistry first before trying experimenting with blending perfumes.

First, let's differentiate between the various types of perfumes. Basically, a perfume is a mixture of aromatic compounds and diluted in alcohol and water. The amounts of aromatic oils dissolve in a blend determine if it can be called a perfume or a cologne. Arranged from highest concentration of oils to lowest the sequence would be: perfume, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, eau de cologne and body splash.

When we say perfume, the blend of aromatic oils is from 25 to 40%. Eau du parfum, meanwhile, are 15-30% aromatics. Eau du Cologne has even lighter aromatic oil contents. This type of scent usually has around 5-15% aromatic compounds. Toilet water or sometimes referred to as body splash has only 3-5% aromatics. Body splash are ideally used after you take a bath or shower.

When you make your own perfume, you get to choose which solvent you would use to dilute the blend. Available at your disposal are either jojoba or alcohol. Both have distinct differences and benefits. Jojoba is great for perfume blends because it never turns rancid.

When you have created your own perfume blend, it is best that you use the perfume only on your pulse points. Anywhere more and you might overdo the scent. For diluting the blend the traditional way, you use grain alcohol or a high grade proof of vodka. Alcohol makes the blend more volatile. The problem with alcohol is that you have to let the perfume blend evolve. If you don't the scent will smell more like an alcohol rather than a perfume. Usual proportions of alcohol and perfume blend is about three or four ml of the blend combined with five or 10 drops of alcohol.

Making your own perfume should be fun. Don't delve too much on the technicality of blending perfumes. Explore and try to make combinations that are unheard off. You never know, the resulting blend might be perfect to your body chemistry.

Scents and fragrances react differently when applied to your body. Choosing one that fits you is like choosing the right color of dress or the right pair of shoes to wear. Perfumes cannot just be worn arbitrarily. The resulting scent might be catastrophic. That's why you need to experiment more when making your own perfume. Try various combinations of scents until you find the perfect one for you.