Learn how to make perfume from flowers, herbs, and other plants from your garden. This tutorial focuses on how to make oil based perfume.
You’ll learn how to combine natural materials like herbs and blossoms into balanced scent profiles using carrier oils and basic equipment, creating a truly personalized and natural perfume.
My friend Mary has a green thumb and gets a bumper crop of clary sage every year. We are always trying to preserve the unusual, heady scent. Last year she put some in a glass canning jar with vodka in the hope that the scent would transfer to the vodka. It did not work. I did some research about homemade essential oil stills, thinking maybe we should try that route.
These run the gamut from store-bought copper stills that will extract the pure scent from your flowers and herbs to homemade stills employing modified kettles, bags of ice and hoses. Either way, we are a little intimidated by the distiller idea and decided against it.
What are the Pros and Cons?
Pros:
- Natural Ingredients: Free from synthetic chemicals. Ideal for those who prefer natural perfume made from real plants and flowers.
- Custom Scents: Tailored to your personal preferences. You can recreate your favorite fragrances or develop something new.
- Eco-Friendly: Less packaging waste and more sustainable. Using reusable containers like a glass perfume bottle makes this method even more environmentally friendly.
- Therapeutic Process: Relaxing and creatively satisfying. Blending middle notes and base notes into your perfume can be a mindful, artistic process.
Cons:
- Time-Intensive: Scent extraction takes days or weeks. Even fast methods like alcohol infusions require patience for the fragrance oils to fully develop.
- Short Shelf Life: No preservatives mean quicker spoilage. This is especially true if not stored with a carrier oil that helps extend longevity.
- Weaker Scent: Doesn’t last as long as commercial perfumes. This is due to the absence of artificial scents or chemical fixatives.
- Learning Curve: Requires experimentation and patience. Understanding how to layer base notes and middle notes can take time to master.
How to Make Oil Based Perfume
This year I invited Mary to bring her giant bag of dried clary sage over to my kitchen and attempt to extract the scent into a vegetable oil and learning how to make perfume from flowers and herbs. We hoped to create perfume oils that would offer a more beautiful scent experience.
She also brought some lavender to add to our mix. I would have liked to add rose petals from my garden but this summer we are experiencing a drought in Chicago and my roses are ailing. It is a good year to be growing native plants like herbs that don’t need lot of water.
Using herbs from your garden allows for perfume making with natural materials, which can be better for health reasons compared to artificial scents or synthetic fragrances.
I am hoping that if you are also suffering from the drought where you are, you may still have some lavender, chamomile, clary sage or other good-smelling herbs to pick and extract. We decided to use a crockpot to keep the kitchen cooler and not have to hover over a hot stove. You can use a crockpot or a regular saucepan. The saucepan requires more continual stirring and surveillance.
Tip: What are top, middle, and base notes in perfume making?
- Top notes are the first scents you smell after applying perfume. They’re light, quick to evaporate, and often citrusy or herbal.
- Middle notes, also called heart notes, emerge once the top notes fade. They form the core of the scent and often include floral or spicy aromas.
- Base notes are the foundation of the perfume, lingering the longest with deeper, richer scents like woods or resins.
Materials:
- We used 2 cups of vegetable oil. (Do not use olive oil as it has an odor.) You can use more oil if you want to produce a larger batch of scented oil.
- 1 to 3 cups of dried herbs and flowers, stems removed. You need enough plant material so that it sits in the pot and is covered by your oil. The more you break and cut up the plants the more you can cram into the oil.
- Grated beeswax. In the process of infusing the oil you will wind up with less than 2 cups when you are ready to add the wax. The exact amount will vary depending on how well you get the oil out of the plant material. When it is completely strained at the end you will measure it and then determine how much wax you will use. You will need to use 4 parts oil to 1 part beeswax.
- Crockpot or saucepan
- Strainer or clean coffee press
- Assorted wooden spoons, ladles, pot holders, etc.
Procedure:
- Put the oil in the crock pot (or saucepan) and add as much plant material as will fit. Heat it up to a simmer. Let it simmer until the flowers seem to be dry and crunchy. They are ready to be removed.
- Strain out the plant material using a coffee press or a wire strainer. The press is really effective as it squeezes every last drop of oil out of them. With a strainer you would employ a spoon to press into the flowers and herbs to get the oil out.
At this stage, you are creating perfume oils, which are more concentrated than spray perfumes and offer a longer-lasting, balanced scent. -
If you want to intensify the oil you can opt for repeat infusions. Add another batch of dried plant material to the scented oil and repeat the process.
- When the oil is ready, strain out the plant material for the last time and return the oil to the pan.
- Add the grated beeswax to the oil and stir it in. Most of it will melt on its own in the hot oil or you may have to heat it up again on low to get all the wax melted.
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Once the beeswax is melted, transfer your perfume into containers. We used mini mint tins, baby food jars and other small lidded containers. We employed a ladle to get the oil into the small vessels.
You could probably come up with all sorts of clever solid perfume holders. If you want something more elegant, consider using a traditional perfume bottle to store your blend.
- Because I am impatient, we put the tins in the freezer so they would harden quickly, and then opened them up to reveal the perfect solid perfume, all from Mary’s garden!
Ideally, this perfume should be stable at room temperature and you won’t need to worry about mold. This summer I have witnessed unusual phenomenon like my sunblock and makeup separating due to the heat so I am opting to keep my perfume in the refrigerator.
You also could simply fill a glass jar with oil and herbs and put it in the sun to extract the scent. This can take a few weeks. Then heat it up and add beeswax and you will have made a solar solid perfume.
This technique works especially well for those who want to avoid artificial scents and focus on plant-based perfume creation. It’s a gentle method that retains much of the plant’s integrity and therapeutic value.
Common Questions About Making Perfume from Flowers
What flowers are best for homemade perfume?
Rose, jasmine, lavender, honeysuckle, and gardenia are top choices. Avoid low-yield flowers like violets or lilies. These flowers offer strong top or middle notes depending on the blend.
How long does scent extraction take?
Enfleurage takes 1-2 weeks, alcohol extraction 1-3 days, and steam distillation a few hours. Creating fragrance oils can take time, but produces a richer, more enduring aroma.
How can I make the fragrance last longer?
Use high-proof alcohol and fixatives like orris root or glycerin; store in dark glass. Blending complementary base notes like sandalwood or patchouli can also stabilize the overall scent.
What’s the easiest method for beginners?
Alcohol infusion–soak petals in vodka, strain, and let rest. This is a common ingredient method for entry-level perfumers who want fast results without using heat.
Can I mix different flower scents together?
Yes. Combine base, middle, and top notes in small test batches. This ensures a more balanced scent and lets you discover new favorite fragrances while experimenting with your own signature blend.
