Creating Your Signature Scent: Cologne Blending Guide

Creating your own cologne is a fun and rewarding process that allows you to express your creativity and develop a unique fragrance that suits your taste. By blending essential oils with alcohol and other ingredients, you can design a signature scent that sets you apart and conveys your aesthetic. Whether you prefer woodsy and herbal or floral and powdery notes, the process of making your own cologne gives you the freedom to experiment and customize your fragrance profile. In this guide, we will explore the steps involved in crafting your own cologne, from understanding fragrance scales to blending and aging your unique scent.

Understanding fragrance notes

Fragrance notes are the individual scent layers of ingredients that make up a fragrance. They are the building blocks of a fragrance and contribute to its overall scent profile. Fragrance notes are typically categorised into three main types: top notes, heart notes (also known as middle or mid notes), and base notes. Each note plays a specific role in the fragrance's development and longevity.

Top Notes

Top notes, sometimes referred to as head notes, form the top layer of a fragrance. They are the scents you detect first after spraying a perfume. These notes play a role in setting first impressions and shaping a fragrance's story. Top notes usually consist of lighter and smaller molecules and evaporate quickly, lingering for only the first five to fifteen minutes. Their main purpose is to give off an initial scent and then transition smoothly into the next part of the fragrance.

Common top notes include citrus scents such as lemon, orange, and bergamot, as well as light floral scents like lavender and rose. Basil, mint, and anise are also commonly used as top notes.

Heart/Middle Notes

As the name suggests, heart notes make up the "heart" of the fragrance. Their function is to retain some of the top notes' aroma while also introducing new scents to deepen the experience. Sometimes referred to as middle notes, the heart notes also serve as a buffer for the base notes, which may not smell as pleasant on their own.

Because they make up around 70% of the total scent, heart notes usually last longer than top notes. Heart notes include full-bodied, aromatic floral oils like jasmine, geranium, neroli, and ylang-ylang, as well as cinnamon, pepper, pine, lemongrass, black pepper, and cardamom.

Base Notes

Along with middle notes, base notes form the foundation of the fragrance. They help boost the lighter notes while adding more depth and resonance. Base notes are very rich, heavy, and long-lasting. They kick in about 30 minutes after application and work together with the middle notes to create the fragrance's scent. Since base notes sink into your skin, their scent lingers the longest and can last for six hours or more.

Popular base notes include vanilla, amber, musk, patchouli, moss, and woody notes like sandalwood and cedarwood.

Choosing essential oils

The essential oils you choose will depend on the type of scent you want to create. You can create any sort of blend you like, from woodsy and herbal to floral and powdery.

There are three classes of fragrance notes: top, middle, and base. Top notes are the scents that will be noticed first after application, but they will also be the quickest to fade. Middle notes blend the scents together and appear once the top notes dry down. Base notes are the scents that last the longest.

When blending your oils, it's important to follow the basic pyramid accord, which consists of 60% base notes, 30% middle notes, and 10% top notes. However, you can also experiment with different ratios to find the formula that works best for the type of profile you're trying to create.

Top Notes

• Basil
• Grapefruit
• Lavender
• Lemon
• Lime
• Rosemary
• Mint

Middle Notes

• Black pepper
• Fir needle
• Cinnamon
• Clove
• Juniper
• Lemongrass
• Rose
• Jasmine
• Chamomile

Base Notes

• Cedarwood
• Pine
• Sandalwood
• Ginger
• Vanilla
• Cypress
• Vetiver

Mixing essential oils

When mixing essential oils, it's important to understand the fragrance scale. Top notes are the first scents you'll smell, followed by middle notes, and finally, base notes, which are the longest-lasting. The ratio of these notes is important for achieving the desired fragrance. A good starting point for beginners is to use 60% base notes, 30% middle notes, and 10% top notes. However, you may need to experiment to find the right formula for your preferred scent profile.

When choosing essential oils, consider the type of scent you want to create. For a woody and slightly sweet fragrance, you can use cedarwood. If you prefer romantic florals, jasmine, rose, or ylang-ylang are good options. Keep in mind that the final fragrance will likely be more muted than the individual scents.

Once you've selected your essential oils, it's time to start blending. Remember that not all notes go well together, so you'll need to experiment to find the right combination. Start by adding a few drops of each oil one by one and mixing them together. It's recommended to use no more than 30 drops total, and if one scent is stronger than the others, use less of it.

After you've achieved your desired fragrance, add two ounces of alcohol to the mixture. For a well-rounded fragrance, you can combine base notes such as sandalwood, tonka bean, violet leaf, or vanilla with middle notes like geranium, ylang-ylang, rose, or lotus flower. Top notes of lavender, neroli, magnolia, or mandarin can add a refreshing touch.

Allow the fragrance to sit for 48 hours, and then refrigerate it for two weeks to let the molecules mix. Finally, dilute the fragrance by adding two tablespoons of distilled water and five drops of glycerin to a spray bottle and slowly swirling in your fragrance mixture.

Aging the cologne

When making your own cologne, ageing is an important step in the process. The cologne needs time to compose, and the longer you leave it, the more intense the fragrance will be.

Firstly, you should leave your cologne to brew and sit for 48 hours. Then, place it in the refrigerator for two weeks. After this, shake the bottle so that the molecules can mix.

The next step is dilution. You will need to add distilled water and glycerin to your cologne. Once this is done, your cologne is ready to use. However, it will continue to develop and intensify over time.

The ageing process doesn't stop once the cologne is made. Over time, all colognes will start to deteriorate, but this process can be slowed by proper storage. Keep your cologne in a cool, dark place, and it will last longer. Once opened, cologne will start to oxidise and go off, so it's best to store it in a spray bottle rather than a jar to limit its exposure to oxygen.

Even unopened fragrances will deteriorate over time, as the top notes are particularly volatile. Citrus notes are especially prone to spoiling, so if your cologne has a strong citrus scent, it may not keep as well as one with woodier or muskier notes.

The length of time that a cologne will last depends on its ingredients and how it is stored. Some colognes, like fine wine, improve with age before they reach their peak and begin to decline.

Diluting the cologne

Choosing the Right Diluent

The choice of diluent depends on the desired final product and the ease of working with the materials. Here are some common options:

• Perfumer's Alcohol: This is a good choice if you are making an alcohol-based perfume spray. It helps to dilute the essential oils and make them more suitable for skin application. Alcohol also helps the fragrance last longer and makes it more intense. However, if you use perfumer's alcohol, you won't be able to add these dilutions to other bases like candles, creams, detergents, or oils.
• Di Propylene Glycol (DPG): DPG is commonly used in the fragrance industry to dilute insoluble materials. It is more versatile than perfumer's alcohol as it can be used in bases other than alcoholic fragrances. However, DPG is derived from petrochemicals, so it may not be suitable for natural perfumery.
• Carrier Oils: Carrier oils are suitable for aromatherapy and massage blends but may not provide the full profile of the fragrance for evaluation purposes as they don't aid evaporation.
• Other Perfumery Materials: Benzyl benzoate and benzyl alcohol can aid the blending of challenging materials but are aromachemicals, limiting their use for natural perfumers.

Dilution Ratios and Techniques

When diluting perfume materials, it is generally recommended to stick to a 10% ratio for most materials. However, for strong materials like Ethyl Vanillin, Calone, and Violet Leaf, a 1% ratio is sufficient. Use a scale, not drops, to ensure accuracy and repeatability in your formula. Here are some additional tips:

• Heat Thick Materials Gently: Some materials may require gentle warming to mobilise and blend. Use a water bath or an electric leg wax melter to liquefy thick materials before blending.
• Don't Dilute All Your Materials: Keep some materials in their neat state if you need to use them without dilution in certain bases like creams, detergents, candles, or soaps.
• Experiment and Evaluate: Fragrance creation is a creative process that involves experimentation. Evaluate your materials in dilution to determine their odour profile and how they interact with each other.

Diluting a Finished Perfume

While the focus here is on creating a cologne from scratch, it's worth noting that diluting a finished perfume or cologne is generally not recommended. However, if you want to reduce the intensity of a fragrance, you can try mixing a small amount with unscented lotion or natural mineral water spray. Alternatively, you can spray the fragrance into the air and walk through the mist, or spray it onto a cotton pad and dab it onto the skin or clothing.

Frequently asked questions