How to make perfume – a beginners guide
By Emmanuelle Moeglin, Founder & Perfumer · Classically trained at ISIPCA, 20 years in fragrance
Want to make fragrances at home but aren't sure how? Follow our step-by-step beginner's guide to making perfume.
So you want to embark on the path of fragrance creation. That is wonderful. For some the task can seem a little daunting, but do not worry: this guide will get you started and help make your nose happy. Here we go.
Prefer to create without raw materials, scales or formulas? That is a different craft. Our guide to blending with finished Essentials shows the EPC way to compose a scent with no chemistry required. This guide is for making perfume from scratch.
Step 1: Get yourself a scale
Get your hands on a small scale, and never use drops. Measuring your ingredients in grams is far more accurate when you want to make and recreate a formula. Drops may seem easier, but it is very hard to get the same amount of ingredient in each one. Before you know it you can end up with a formula that is difficult to tweak and impossible to recreate.
You do not need an expensive lab scale to begin. A small 0.01g precision scale is enough to start, and you can upgrade to 0.001g later. You will find mini scales online from around £20 to £40, or a professional scale from roughly £400 to £500 if your budget allows.
Step 2: Source your ingredients from reliable companies
Get yourself some good ingredients. Industry-grade perfumery materials are hard to find in small quantities, so this step takes a little research, especially if you want the highest quality.
At EPC, our work as perfumers lets us source the best ingredients available, from reputable suppliers such as IFF-LMR, Symrise and Firmenich. We have put together a few ingredient box sets that let you build a collection of up to 60 of the most-used perfumery raw materials. They are specially selected to get you started and, importantly, already diluted in perfumer's alcohol, so you get a more satisfying result even at beginner's level. You can also explore our full perfumery material range.
If you are more advanced and want pure raw materials, your options narrow, since most suppliers above sell to companies only. One good source that sells to end consumers is Pellwall. A word of caution: if you are unsure where to start, avoid buying random ingredients, as you can spend a lot with little to show for it. There is a strong focus on naturals at the moment, but do not forget synthetic molecules too, they are essential to the perfumer's organ. Where you can, keep your ingredients chilled in a fridge to extend their life.
Join our free perfumery class
Get a taste of perfume creation through our three-part video miniclass. You will learn how to smell, describe and memorise an ingredient, how to begin creating and blending at home, and the most common questions in perfumery. Sign up free.
Step 3: How to formulate
Think about your brief first. Now comes the creative part. Really think about what you want to create: this is called a brief. What type of scent do you want, floral or woody, or a combination? Light and airy, or deep and sensual? Do you want one or two single notes to star, such as rose or cedarwood, or more? Think around all of this, or simply about a memory or story you would like to capture.
A fragrance can include dozens of ingredients, but we recommend training with just a few, ten or fewer. There is no single book of formulas: perfumery is knowledge passed from perfumer to perfumer, through a great deal of practice and dedication.
How to write a perfume formula. Spend time here so you stay focused on your goal. A formula is typically written out of 100% (or 1,000 or 10,000 once you are more advanced). Keeping a clear, consistent total lets you understand the impact of each ingredient and makes reworking far easier.
Top tip: always write your formula down. We would hate for you to lose the one that made you irresistible.
Step 4: Evaluate and rework your formula
Smell on scent strips, not from the bottle. Once you have weighed your first formula, give it a gentle shake and assess it on a scent strip, the paper type you find in fragrance shops. They come in different shapes: square ends are good for smelling ingredients, pointed ends for smelling finished perfumes. With a pointed strip, dip the tip and smell without touching it to your nose.
The rework stage. Once you have judged what works and what does not, tweak the formula and try again, and again, until you are happy. It can take hundreds of trials to get it right, so be patient.
Step 5: Dilute your ingredients or composition
You will also need perfumer's alcohol as your solvent. If you do not hold an alcohol licence, which is unlikely for a casual maker, we find Mistral's perfumer's alcohol reliable and high quality. For beginners, and to waste fewer ingredients, we recommend pre-diluting at 10%.
Dilution in alcohol is essential: it makes a fragrance far more approachable to smell, whereas a blend of pure ingredients feels overwhelming and compact.
How to dilute to 10%. This takes a little maths. A 10% dilution means 1g of your ingredient or composition topped up with 9g of alcohol, for a 10g total. If an ingredient is very powerful you might dilute it to 1%, so 0.1g of the ingredient completed with alcohol up to 10g.
Remember to have fun
- Do not be afraid to try, fail and try again. Perfumery is a long road of trial and error.
- These steps are only the start of a fascinating journey. Formulation books are rare, and most perfumers train for years in a school or within the industry.
- At EPC we believe an untrained nose should not stop you experimenting. Perfumery as a hobby is something we warmly welcome.
- Perfumery is where science meets art. Be logical, but be intuitive too: follow your nose, and if an ingredient smells extremely strong, use only a trace, or it will overpower your blend.
One last point: maceration matters. Leave your finished fragrance for a day or more to settle and mature. Some creations change colour over time, which is normal and rarely affects the scent. Happy experimenting.
Try blending at home with a Creation Set
If formulating from raw materials feels like a big leap, our Creation Sets are an easier way in: a trio of finished fragrances and an illustrated, step-by-step guide so you can experiment with blending at home, no scales or solvents needed.
Frequently asked questions about making perfume at home
▾ What do you need to start making perfume at home?
A small precision scale (0.01g), a set of perfumery ingredients, perfumer's alcohol to dilute, and scent strips to assess your trials. An ingredient box set is the simplest way to gather quality materials in one go.
▾ Is it hard to make your own perfume?
Not to begin. As a hobby it is very approachable, especially with pre-diluted ingredients and a clear method. Mastery takes years of practice, but a first pleasing blend is well within reach.
▾ What alcohol is used to make perfume?
Perfumer's alcohol, a specially denatured high-grade alcohol. If you do not hold an alcohol licence, suppliers such as Mistral sell reliable perfumer's alcohol to consumers.
▾ How do you dilute perfume ingredients?
Work in percentages. A 10% dilution is 1g of ingredient topped up with 9g of alcohol to make 10g. Very powerful materials can be taken down to 1%. Diluting makes everything easier to smell and judge.
▾ Do you need training to make perfume?
No, not to enjoy it as a hobby. Curiosity and patience take you a long way. If you want to go further, a structured course such as our Academy's Fundamentals of Perfume Creation teaches the craft properly.
▾ How long does a homemade perfume need to mature?
Leave it at least a day or two to macerate so the alcohol and materials settle and marry. Richer compositions keep improving over weeks, much like a fine spirit.
