Are you crafty? Me, neither. But I love talking to people who make things. Once I happily spent half an hour listening to a stranger explain how to transform a thrift store needlepoint canvas into a tote bag, and now I have an adorable vintage needlepoint of a cat and a bird, half a yard of upholstery velvet, and pagoda-printed fabric waiting to be made into that perfect bag. Will it happen? I doubt it.
Similarly, as much as I love perfume, I’ve never had the yen to make my own fragrances. It’s fun to learn about, though, and exploring the fine points of techniques such as enfleurage and distillation gives me a keener appreciation for the perfume I wear. If I ever were to tackle a tincture, Homemade Perfume by pioneering natural perfumer Anya McCoy of Anya's Garden is where I’d start.
In a nutshell, Homemade Perfume is a primer on how to extract scent from botanicals and turn it into personal and home fragrance, including perfume, linen spray, body butter, vinegars and more. The first part of the book gives an overview of making perfume at home. Then the book dives into techniques for basic tinctures, infusions, distillation and enfleurage, including the intriguing idea of enfleurage with powder.
McCoy describes the basics of composing a fragrance — for liquid perfume she recommends that a composition be about 20 percent top notes, 50 percent middle notes, and 30 percent base notes, for instance — but also provides her own straightforward, tried-and-true recipes. For instance, her Morning Sun perfume blends grapefruit, jasmine and vanilla. The Sweet Meadow Tincture linen spray is lemongrass, bay laurel and vanilla.
The last part of the book gives an alphabetical description of dozens of fragrant garden plants you might consider growing, depending on your region. (I only wish I could grow frangipani where I live!) Each entry describes the plant and some of its needs, as well as where it thrives in a fragrance (tuberose for middle notes, for example) and how its fragrance is best extracted. I was especially fascinated with McCoy’s description of growing vetiver. Did you know its roots can stretch 20 feet down?
The book’s tone is friendly, straightforward, and encouraging. Each technique is carefully laid out with “materials and equipment” in the margin and a numbered, step-by-step guide for “process.” The book is a large-format paperback that would comfortably slide into a cookbook holder for easy reference.
The book’s interior layout is lovely, with lots of photographs with white backgrounds, bottles full of intriguing potions, and flowers. My only quibble with the photographs is how many of the flowers come off as dead of scent. The roses on the book’s cover look like straight-jacketed South American roses that probably smell like bug spray and nothing else.
Homemade Perfume didn’t prompt me to order beakers and eye droppers. I love my Miss Dior et al too much for that. But for someone wanting to explore making botanical fragrances from scratch, this is the book to have.
Homemade Perfume is by Anya McCoy. It retails for $21.99 and is published by Page Street Publishing Co. (Current prices on Amazon: $18.91 for the Paperback or $9.99 for the Kindle version.)
I’ve met a few people recently whose primary interest is making perfume, so will pass along this book title next time I see them.
That said, I too prefer to pay for my perfume. This reminds me of the time I wheeled my ailing bike to a feminist repair shop, where they wanted to teach me how to fix my own bike – but MY view of independence was to earn enough to be able to hire trained, bike-fixing professionals. An ideological clash…
I know what you mean! I love the idea of kitting out my garage as a bike repair spot and taking care of my bike on my own, but I’d rather take a nap and let Cory down at Seven Corners Cycle do the dirty work.
I am so with you.
I second all of the above! My poor mechanic always tries to tell me exactly how he fixes my often dodgy car and I’m sure he must notice my eyes glaze over within seconds…
I applaud your mechanic for trying, though! At least she or he doesn’t give you the “little lady” treatment.
Very true!
We can’t do everything! And I’d so much rather cook, read, write, or nap.
Same for me about the pleasure being in the sniffing, not the creating… but I do very much love to cook and eat, but that is another matter. I’ll admit that my explanation that I enjoy smelling perfume, not so much making it (as in response to, “Perfume’s a hobby? Are you wearing something you’ve made?”) frequently gets responses that range from incredulous to disdain.
But more power to those who enjoy making their own perfume!
I love cooking (and eating), and I get where you’re coming from. I stand a much better chance of making a delicious gratin than I do a passable oriental, though.
I’ve avoided the tendency to view DIY things as virtuous. It either interests you as a way to spend your time or it doesn’t. I’d rather provide employment to someone who does enjoy it and does it well.
I think some people are gifted at making things, too, and love it. I have a friend who’s amazing with paper, for instance, and she’s always making beautiful little books and surprise dolls and wreaths. I think someone curious about making scent could make amazing things by starting with this book, too–but probably not me.
I recently bought two magazines that have DIY recipes for body products, etc. I am getting craftier, which is fairly amusing since I never have been interested in those things. But I do have this desire to make my own body products…
Have fun with it!
I have to admit I am the sort of person who purchases fancy cookbooks (the sort with tiered cakes using ingredients well outside of my budget!) and such just to look at the pictures.. and never even attempt the recipes!
I think I would probably really enjoy this book and get little to no use out of it 😉
Really enjoy = real use!! ????
Good point!
Ahh I like this philosophy, and am promptly adopting it 🙂
Witness my copy of The French Laundry cookbook!
I love cookbook porn! No intention of making any of the dishes as I dislike cooking but it’s fun relaxing reading.
I agree! Isn’t it funny? I keep a paperback in my glovebox of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Well I for one tried her enfleurage with powder,once.It was on her blog,and I just “happened” to have some flowers to use.It came out pretty nice,and the scent lasted a good while!It will be a nice read just for getting to know more about the aspects of making perfumes,from a perfumers’ side.
I was really curious about the powder enfleurage, and I’m glad to hear how it turned out! There’s something so 19th century and romantic about it. I imagine kitchen witches making violet powder and sprinkling it on their sheets.
I went digging for that blog post…really interesting.
This sounds lovely! I have all sorts of aromatic flowers and herbs and leaves in my little balcony garden. I’ve looked up a bunch of extraction “recipes” online and used the resulting oils or and alcohol infusions to make body products. Like you, I like my perfumes purchased from people who know what they’re doing better than I do, but it’s great fun to make scented body products on my own. This book sounds like it could be a more reliable guide to making my own smelly things!
I think you’ll love this book, then! It’s very practical and looks like a terrific 101 on making scents from your own botanicals. Keep me informed of the things you make!
That’s what I’m thinking. I do have an interest in body products and candles. But not in personal fragrances.
I didn’t see any recipes for candles, but that’s a great idea for a follow-up to the book.