Making Solid Perfume

I love the idea of hand-making gifts for people. Since I have been making soap the past few years as Christmas gifts, I thought I might expand my product line to include solid perfumes; I already have a mess of essential oils!

My sister gifted me with a solid Amber perfume a couple of years ago, which I still have and love, so I thought I would make Amber perfume.  However, I wanted to put my own twist on it since I still have the all-Amber scent.

I got my initial recipe from Crunchy Betty (love that name!!) and found it wasn't quite working for me since I was incorporating other oils which her recipe did not (mainly Shea nut, Mango and Cocobutters). Crunchy Betty suggests 1:1 ratio, oil to beeswax but because Shea nut, Mango and Cocobutters are solid at room temperature (and higher) I expected to have to experiment a bit to get the right blend. Solid perfume needs to remain solid into warm days and yet melt quickly enough when smoothed against the skin.

I already new I had four 1oz push tubes which meant 4 ounces of final product. Hmmm I knew my 2nd grade math would come in handy one day. four ounces divided in half is two, hence I'll need roughly two ounces of oils and two ounces of beeswax - plus tweaking for the butters. Additionally, Crunchy Betty suggests 45 drops of essential oils per ounce, about 1/2 teaspoon. Math again? 2 teaspoons of essential oils. To further complicate Crunchy Betty's lovely simple recipe, I added some Carrot Seed and Grapefruit seed oils for preservative, some Benzoin and Orris root powder to assist with the essential oils "staying" power (so they don't age and lose scent quickly), and Myrrh because it smells so nicely and I thought "this is where I'll put my signature".

This is what I started with:

1 oz Olive oil
1 oz Avocado oil

.5 oz Shea nut/Mango/Cocobutter

2 oz grated beeswax

1.5 t Amber for 3 tubes

3 toothpicks of gooey Myrrh essential oil

.5 t Macho mix for a manly scent
1/4 t Benzoin gum
1/4 t Orris root
1/4 t grapefruit seed oil
1/4 t carrot seed oil

I melted everything up but did not add the essential oils. First, I needed to know how this mixture would hold up at room temperature (70 degrees) and feel it's melting ability when applied. I placed it on my porch for quick cooling. It became solid however, with a swipe of my finger it was evident that it would not melt enough to be applied to the skin; it required more liquid oil.

I returned the mixture to the stove and added one ounce of Jojoba oil. (I took an experienced experimenter's guess at the amount.) Again, melting it and thoroughly blending it, returning to the porch for another quick solidify. Ten minutes later, happiness; the one ounce guess was spot on. I poured off 1 ounce in another small pan for the manly scent, and added my Amber-Myrrh mix, and poured right into my tubes. I did the same for the manly scent, allowed them to set. They looked lovely!!

Excitedly, I tried my on myself. :/ Not enough essential oils in my blend. Ok, backwards I went. I plucked each perfume stick from the tube and warmed them again to melting, I again added the same essential oils, making my recipe now 3t of essential oils, and entire teaspoon per ounce - double or more what Crunchy Betty suggests. Then I poured them into the tubes again. Once cooled, they smelled better but still don't seem to have the staying power of my Amber stick from my sister. I can only surmise that the quality of essential oil that I have is less of that the other person used. Like just about anything, essential oils have grades of quality. Advice: Know your supplier!

Of course, now I had an extra ounce of product so I poured it into a tiny jam jar I had kicking around - remember, I am a pack rat!