While many women love perfume and may even have their own signature scent, the cost of purchasing a bottle can be prohibitively expensive. Why spend $50 or more on a tiny eau de toilette when you can make a completely unique scent of your own for a fraction of the cost? Save money and make a truly original creation with just a few simple steps.
The Basics
According to the Natural Holistic Health Blog, a basic perfume formula contains 15 to 30 percent essential oils, 70 to 80 percent pure grain alcohol (vodka being recommended, as it doesn't have any additional odors or colors), and 5 percent distilled water. Adding a bit of glycerine at the end of the process is also recommended, as it will help to "fix" your perfume and keep the scent from disappearing into the air or escaping the bottle. Both glycerine and essential oils are easy to find at health food stores or even craft supply shops. Pick the kind of scents you like, when choosing essential oils, and remember that you can choose to mix and match them in order to create the perfect scent.
Necessary Supplies
Along with your basic perfume ingredients, you will also want to gather together the following items before you get started: a glass mixing jar, dedicated measuring cups and spoons, an eyedropper, a funnel and aperfume bottles or other small containers in which you can store your final product.
Method
Instructables.com offers step-by-step instructions on how to make your perfume at home. The basic procedure is as follows:
1. Measure 1/4 cup of vodka into your mixing jar.
2. Add about 25 drops of your essential oils, making sure to keep track of how many drops you've added if you are mixing scents. It may help to keep a tally on a sheet of paper, as you should add drops, swirl the mixture, and then smell as you go to make sure you don't make an overpowering scent.
3. When you've got your desired scent, seal up the mixing jar and put it into a cool, dark spot to age for at least 48 hours. The longer you age the perfume, the stronger it will become, so feel free to sniff and add more oils after the first 48 hours has passed.
4. After you've aged the perfume, add 2 tablespoons of distilled water. For spray perfumes, add a bit more water. Now is also the time to add about 5 drops of glycerine to fix the fragrance.
5. Finally, use the funnel to pour your perfume into its bottle and apply a label with the name of your new creation. You may also want to add the date so you'll know how long your perfume lasts, and when it's time to make some more!
Additional Recipes
There are lots of basic recipes on-line for perfumes, if you're not interested in tinkering with smells at first and just want to get started. Check out PioneerThinking.com for recipes with exotic names like Orient Nights, Whispering Rain, Falling Stars, Enchanted, Amaze, and Misty Passions. They've also got recipes for cologne, for the men in your life, including something called the Homemade Love Tonic!
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is all about using scents to change your mood, so you might be interested in reading up on this topic before you begin. For a crash course in aromatherapy, check out Aromaweb.com, where you can read up on a variety of different kinds of essential oil profiles and find out how a particular scent can contribute to your overall well-being. An article from HowToDoThings.com on making perfume suggests a few quick fixes, including the following: "Jasmine and lavender can calm the anxious and aid in sleeping, orange and ylang ylang can ease anger, and sandalwood and grapefruit can fight fear. Need a boost of confidence? Try cypress or rosemary. Frankincense, rose, and bergamot can help relieve depression and grief. To increase memory powers, try black pepper and peppermint."
Notes
Finally, if you really want to get technical with your home perfume making, you should learn about notes. These are the order in which certain scents appear in a given fragrance, where the top note is the initial scent, the middle note is what you'll smell after the top note has dissolved into the air, and the base note is what lingers at the end. The Instructables directions on how to make perfume give a quick primer regarding what kinds of scents generally fall into each category, and suggest that when mixing your own perfume, you should built from the base notes up.
Typical base notes include heavy smells like patchouli, vetiver, frankincense, cedarwood and sandalwood. Middle notes are slightly less heavy, and include coriander, palmarosa, marjoram, basil, rosemary, rose geranium, pettitgrain and lavender. Top notes usually include lighter scents like lemon, orange, grapefruit, lime, bergamot, spearmint and peppermint.
Recreating Brand-Name Perfumes
Though brand-name perfumes are usually carefully guarded trade secrets, there is a website that can help you out if you're looking to re-create your favorite perfume at home. It's called the Basenotes Fragrance Directory, and although it only offers rough approximations, it can point you in the right direction by breaking down the list of scents that make up each of the notes found in your favorite department store perfumes. You may not be able to find all of the ingredients, however, as this is what you're spending the big bucks for! As one example: Calvin Klein's Obsession uses middle notes of tagete, which comes from marigold flowers, and armoise, which is actually an oral toxin and must be used very sparingly. Since these items are not likely to be readily available in your local health food store, you may want to weigh the pros and cons of creating your own fragrances versus shelling out the money for your favorite store-bought scents.
Sources
-ChrysN, "How to Make Perfume." Instructables.com.
-Melissa Trulock, "How to Make Perfume." HowToDoThings.com.
-"Perfume and Cologne Recipes - Women." PioneerThinking.com.
Here in the valley there are many choices on where to stop and eat at. There are tons of Mexican restaurants as well. There is everything from chains across the valley to little mom and pop restaurants. Some are expensive and some are very cheap. Here is what I have found and what is worth visiting for your next Mexican dining adventure!
Top shelf is located at 3301 W Greenway rd in Phoenix AZ. It is conveniently located right off the I-17 freeway. There are two other valley locations as well but I have found that this location is the best and has the best service! They have wonderful food at this restaurant and the service is always great! My favorites are their shredded beef burro and the Polo Fundido. They are both scrumptious! You always get chips and salsa when you dine in for free and their salsa is great. This is real Mexican food made to order! Sometimes during the weekend or busy nights you may have to wait for about 15 minutes or so but it is worth it! They have a bar that you can eat and drink at as well if you don't feel like waiting. They have TV's set up in parts of the restaurant if you are into sports and want to watch the game. The prices are fair, I wouldn’t' say they are cheap but they are definitely not expensive either. You can usually get coupons too in the local coupon magazines that come in the mail for buy one entree and get one free or $5 off your total bill. So keep an eye out for those in the mail because this restaurant is wonderful and is definitely my favorite Mexican food in the valley.
Valle Luna is another local Mexican restaurant in the valley. The address is 3344 W Bell rd. in Phoenix, AZ. Now this restaurant has good food as well. The restaurant itself is older and sometimes not so clean. Other than that though they are great. The food is great. Rarely do you have to wait to be seated and if you do then it is minimal. The prices are great at this restaurant. Very low and you get a fair portion. The service is pretty good too. They have a bar that is off to the side as well to eat and drink if you wanted that kind of atmosphere. My favorite at this restaurant is the tacos. They are really good and a great place to go on a budget for the whole family.
Olivas is another great Mexican restaurant in the valley. They are located at 12201 N 28th Dr, which is right off the I-17 and Cactus rd. They are locally owned and are a great kept secret in the valley. I have never had to wait at this restaurant and they are rarely busy. They have great service and great prices. The food is wonderful! My favorite is the shredded chicken tacos. They are amazing. I also love their cheese crisps. Everything is delicious at this restaurant. The salsa is great too! They are always welcoming and a wonderful dining experience.
Carambas is a great place in the valley to get Mexican food as well. They are located at 6661 W Bell rd in Glendale, AZ. This isn't the average sit down restaurant though. I would say it is more like fast food environment but with the fresh cooked great food of a restaurant. You order at the counter and wait for your food and then you sit down and eat. All the food is fresh and cooked there not microwaved or anything. It is wonderful! It is so delicious and fast so this is a great place when you are in a hurry. They have seating inside and outside. The prices are just as much as a sit down dining restaurant though or maybe even more for some items. The service is usually pretty good as well. The restaurant is kept clean and in good condition. They are often pretty busy and sometimes you have to wait in line for a good 5-10 minutes but again it is worth it!
These are my best choices for Mexican food in the valley. They are all great and I would recommend them all. I would have to say again though that Top Shelf is my absolute favorite so definitely check them out if you haven't already!
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