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.