Making Perfumes with Essential Oils:
A Blend Using Rose, Frankincense, & Black Pepper Notes (Part
3 of 3)
Some Ideas for Personalizing Your Essential Oil Perfume Blend
~ Try different types of Rose oils. My personal version of the recipe uses Rosa gallica, though it is really hard to find. Others such as Rosa demine, Rosa centifolia, or Gulab attar from India would be intriguing (remembering that the latter already contains Sandalwood oil). The demine otto and centifolia absolute (a.k.a. Rose de Mai) are less expensive than damascena and have greener rather than “heady” floral notes, especially suited to the less-incensey recipe.
~ Try a drop of Jasmine sambac absolute in substitution or in addition to the grandiflorum, especially in the incensey version.
~ Try a drop of Neroli absolute (a.k.a. Orange Flower) in substitution or in addition to the Jasmine for the less-incensey version. I often add a bit of Petitgrain EO to any blend with Neroli, which you may like here.
~ Try a spice in addition to the Black Pepper EO – but use caution as many people are skin-sensitive to certain spices and it is easy to overwhelm a blend. For instance, I recommend pre-diluting cinnamon to 10% in perfume base and then adding one drop of 10% diluted cinnamon to your Blend. Spices take a while to marry with other components in my experience, so you need to be patient. Saffron, ginger, clove or even cumin could give an interesting twist to either recipe (though I haven’t tried them, so use with your discretion).
~ Want to get really fancy? Try Tuberose or Black Current Bud absolutes. These are thick, almost resin-like if you get the real thing, so pre-dilute them and add sparingly.
~ Try a few drops of one or two of these exotic woods, resins and the like: Ambrette Seed, Cedar Moss, Copal, Tonka Bean (great vanilla-like scent but considered hazardous, use with caution), Benzoin resin, Gum Arabic, Copaiba Balsam, Massoia Bark (possible dermal irritant), Guaiacwood, Gurjum, or Jamarosa Root. These will generally act as fixatives and base notes: some of them will add more “incensey” notes, some will give smooth-spicy notes that are barely detectable in the Blend but still act as fixatives, some are woody, and some… are just unique.
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~ Try a drop or two of the versatile Lavender essential oil to either version.
Add a Frankincense tear to your blend. It will aid in mixing when you shake the container and gradually impart its scent, deepening the blend.
Do not forget to write down everything you do when personalizing your blend! Put a pretty label on your container and enjoy.
Guest Author, Risha, is an experienced chemist, and she has a passionate interest in perfumes and aromatherapy.
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