Modern techniques for making perfume
Modern techniques for making perfume
Perfumers need to be savvy about how to provide a safe product to their customers. Perfume bottles and lab equipment can arrive from the factory with contaminants such as dust, bits of odds and ends (like paper), pesticides (from warehouse spraying), and other assorted things that need to be removed before filling or shipping. If you’re into making perfume or perfume products, you should read this.
Isn’t the New Year all about making good choices, and upping your game? Making sure you offer a sanitized (or more) product should be a goal for every perfumer.
I’m a bit of an OCD germaphobe to begin with, so making my product containers either sanitary, disinfected, or sterile (depending on the end use) is very important. I explain in detail how to achieve these three goals in my upcoming book Homemade Perfume due out in August 2018 from Page Street Publishing.
Sanitary is a given, and easy: wash your equipment with hot soapy water, and air dry. That is necessary for everything. Disinfection can be achieved in a heat cycle in a dishwasher, or by using a bleach or alcohol rinse. Sterilization is most important for any container that will hold a product that contains water, like a lotion or hydrosol. For this purpose, I prefer a UV light unit. I rarely have a container so big I need to bleach the solution. Pictured you’ll find my unit, loaded with bottles on the top, and accessory tools on the bottom. I recommend buying a unit for cosmetology or tattooing purposes, they’re inexpensive and easily portable around your studio – plus, no bleach smell!
Caution: see the blue light? It can damage your eyes, so when the unit is on, I usually drape a cloth over it. This photo took about 3 seconds, and that’s all the exposure I allowed myself.
Homemade Perfume will be a gateway book for those who wish to learn basic techniques for making perfume. It is specially written for those who grow a number of fragrant plants, or who have access to them, so they can be perfume gardeners. The basics of tincturing and infusing for perfume, enfleurage, and distillation.
You will learn how to make the body-, room-, and linen sprays; face-, body-, and hair vinegars; body butters; solid perfumes; alcohol- and oil-based perfumes; and more with your fragrant extractions.
If you wish to study how to make perfume professionally, consider taking my course through the Natural Perfumery Institute. The textbook is a compilation of four decades of perfume research, experimentation, and production. This is a distance learning course and can be successfully completed from any place in the world. Click here to learn more.
I was wondering what stage your book was at. Can’t wait til it’s out!
I’d love to have this book! Please let me know when they’re ready for sale!