Catch up

I realized I hadn’t posted in quite some time, and stuff has happened I meant to write about! Christmas gift boxes went over splendidly, everyone who got one loved it. My mom complained because she didn’t get one (excuse me, I thought framed photos of her grandkids and one of my graduation was a great idea), my aunt asked for one and Vintage’s friends enjoyed theirs too. Vintage donated a box to a fundraiser at her church, and it helped raise the money to send fifteen teenagers to help repair homes in rural Pennsylvania.


Mostly I wanted to comment on the following. Vintage and I share a craft room at her grandmother’s house. In the craft room we have a card table covered in white butcher paper. The paper protects her grandmother’s table from damage and works as an ink tester, a stamp dabber, and many other things for us and only needs replaced about twice a year. Until we started making perfume. Vintage, who is generally the cleaner of the two of us, makes a mess out of perfume on a nearly weekly basis and that stuff is mostly oils. Meaning it doesn’t evaporate and go away. It lingers there making her grandmother’s house smell of whatever concoction Vintage is making. So, if you plan on making your own perfume, make sure you have a place somewhat removed from your everyday activities.

Christmas presents

Vintage and I continue our experiments in perfumery (is that a word?) now not just for us, but as gifts for others. My grandmother asked for lilac, but alas, there are no lilac essential oils. Instead I made her a nice citrus blend with woodsy notes. I am told she will love it, but I won’t let her have it until Christmas. Vintage made a floral blend for a few friends who like that sort of thing.


Before we began we compared notes on how our personal perfumes were working out. I, in my miserliness, used about forty drops of essential oils total since we had read that twenty-five would be enough. Vintage used nearly two hundred. Guess which one turned out great and which one turned out only okay. Needless to say, I had to begin again, but it was good to be sure before we began Christmas presents!

We decided that while a bottle of perfume is nice, a whole gift basket is nicer. So Vintage made massage oil (jojoba oil and one essential oil), I made lotion (12 oz baby lotion, 1 Tbls jojoba oil, and the essential oil blend I was using for perfume). We both made sugar scrub (see previous post) and perfume. Finally we rounded things out with a small container of lip balm (1 Tbls Vaseline, 3-4 drops food grade essential oil). They make for nice gift baskets, especially when placed in hand decorated craft boxes (I used white photo boxes which resemble shoe boxes) with pretty tissue paper and a card.

Our other big idea was to name each of our perfumes after a strong woman in history or literature. Vintage named the floral scent Cleopatra’s Secret because it features Egyptian Rose and Nubian Musk. I named my grandmother’s Persephone’s Grove (not really a strong woman, but the name that stuck in my head through two weeks of name hunting). I then included a little card with a synopsis of Persephone’s story (Greek myth about why we have winter) and what notes were in the perfume.

All in all, although Christmas has been even busier than ever (because making my cards isn’t’ enough I had to make perfume?) it’s been awesome! I plan on being very busy for the next few weeks, so I won’t be posting. Therefore, in case anyone reads, I shall wish you a happy Christmas and a delightful New year!!

Recipes

Today Vintage and I made sugar scrub. After it turned out quite splendidly, I decided to post the recipe we used, which made me realize I had meant to post our perfume recipe before this and hadn't. Anyway, for our favorite recipes, keep reading.


Perfume:
25+ drops of essential oil (do not use fragrance oil, stick with the good stuff)
2 oz alcohol (we use $6.00 vodka and it works great)
2 Tbls distilled water

Combine essential oils until it smells nice. Add alcohol. Let sit at least two days before adjusting. Add more essential oil as you see fit to make it smell yummy. Adjust as needed as much as you want. Never change it until it has sat at least two days, and it should sit for a maximum of six weeks. Filter through a coffee filter. Add water and let sit another two days to a week. Bottle.

Sugar scrub:
10+ drops of essential oil (omit if planning on using for the face, substitute extract which is less strong and won't irritate your skin if desired)
2 Tbls oil (any will do, but I use regular vegetable oil)
1/3 C sugar

Put oil and essential oil in a container and mix. Add sugar a little at a time until it is the right consistency (thick and grainy). Seal in water tight container. May be stored up to two months.

The big trick when making perfume is combing scents. You generally don't want to use just one essential oil. Some don't last very long and combining with longer lasting essential oils can help the scent last longer, and some are just overpowering when left alone. My grandmother very much wants perfume that will make her smell like her favorite flower (lilac) for Christmas, but when I started mixing, I knew better than to follow her direction to only use lilac. Instead I added white tea, lavender, and lemon. It isn't Christmas yet, but I wanted to make sure she liked it so I let her smell it. She loves it, and has no idea I ignored her directions. Umm, unless she reads this blog, in which case...Hi Gram!

Bergamont and Jasmine

Over the weekend I did some Christmas shopping.  While I shopped, I also sniffed some perfumes and read their list of "notes" so I could decide more what I like, and what I hate.  It turns out that almost every single perfume that I like contains bergamont, which is also what makes my favorite tea go from "black tea" to "Earl Grey".  Also, at least seventy percent of what I liked had jasmine.  Vintage orginally wanted to put some jasmine in her perfume, but didn't buy it because she didn't like the smell when she sniffed the essential oil.  I didn't buy essential oils, because I was Christmas shopping, but next weekend I think another trip to the aromatherapy store is in order.

Exploding Perfume!!

After Vintage's experience sniffing near pure vodka on the two day mark, I was more cautious.  I approached the craft room table carefully, only to find that my perfume, left unattended in an air tight container for two days, had burst the lid off the container.   As I cleaned up that little mess I decided that I liked the smell, in which I could detect only faint trace of the $6.00 vodka, but felt a few changes were in order.   I ignored the directions which told me to leave it alone, and added as I pleased. A week passed, and my perfume was done. And near perfect!

I've worn it a few times, and here's what I learned...
-if I want the citrus or vanilla to linger more than a second, we need to buy essential oils, not fragrence oils
-I want to add some pine and some clove next time
-NEVER let your mom store your perfume in a partially opened container (re: exploding perfume above) on top of the dryer. My whole basement, which contains my bedroom, smelled of perfume for 3.5 weeks!

First blends

After waiting the required two day minimum, Vintage opened the container in which she had stored her blend.  A few more quick runs to other stores meant this was a blend of

-rose essential oil

-sadlewood essential oil

-vanilla fragrence oil

-citrus fragrence oil

and of course 2 oz of the $6.00 vodka.

She was sorely disappointed that it smelled like...vodka.

She waited another few days only to find the wildflower perfume young girls seem fond of.  The scent of rose had overpowered everything, and been transformed into a bland mess of a perfume.

But, we learned an important lesson.  Rose is an attention whore.  It would be another week, and another paycheck, before we bought more essential oils, and started again.

Finally, I had been paid again.  Off we went, for a street fair in a nearby small town, complete with a large soap store selling essential oils.  A whiff of this, a sniff of that, and I decided on a few things of my own.  I wanted a complex, spicy scent.  I choose rose (in low dose this time), patchoulli, and cinnamon. 
I sat in our craft room and I mixed and I blended rather like a mad scientist.  Eventually I used every single oil we had, added the vodka and left for two days.

How It All Began

  I shall begin by introducing Scents and Sensibility.  With names changed to protect the guilty, I am Spicy (my preferred scent of course) and my dearest friend ever we shall refer to as Vintage, not her preferred scent, but how I think of her. 

  A few weeks ago Vintage and I were shopping.  A fairly typical Saturday afternoon activity for two twenty something women.  As the sun began setting on our fair, small town, the stores began to close and we hurried to make one more stop before returning to our car.  This was a stop I, the hippy gal of our duo, wanted to make.  We had parked in front of an aromatherapy store, and I wanted to go in before we left.  We walked into the store just about five pm and proceded to wander for a good half hour.  I could not find what I wanted (camomile and bergomont essential oils for some candles), but Vintage found something she wanted.  Fourteen dollars later Vintage had two bottles in hand, rose and sandlewood, and we discovered the store we were in had closed thirty minutes before.
  That night we sat in Vintage's room and looked up how to make perfume.  Vintage was more than a little disappointed to discover the two oils she had purchased were not enough, so we decided to head to the mall in hopes of finding what we needed to finish off her scent.  While we found exactly nothing, we did decide that this would be fun and we would spend our spare time becoming amateur perfumers.
  After buying a $6.00 bottle of vodka that smelled like a good whiff could give you a hang over, we decided to play despite not having enough essential oils.  Despite the fact that it turned out bland and uninspiring, we were having to much fun to turn back now.
P.S. The $6.00 vodka was purely for perfume.  Vintage doesn't like Vodka and I refuse to drink anything but the best!