New member/Advice?

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I like your group, full of very knowledgeable people and great

info! I've made three homemade batches of EDTs so far, which have

been really fun to make but haven't been as successful as I'd hoped,

and I want to make at least one more batch (of maybe seven blends

with different balances). I'm also pretty knowledgeable about many

commercial and niche fragrances for men, and about individual notes

etc.

My main points of contention about the blends I've made so far:

individual notes don't stand out very much; the overall blends smell

pretty vegetal (raw), especially for the first hour after spraying;

the " presence " of the blends seems or smells dull compared to many

commercial fragrances, which have much sharper clarity and

immediacy; and they stay pretty close to the skin.

I'm realizing that one main reason why my blends haven't been too

distinctive is that I've made them using pretty much the same amount

of drops for several oils. Here's one 1-oz blend:

Top: bergamot 25, lemon 25, petitgrain 5, anise 7, ginger 15,

juniper berry 15

Heart: rose 10, jasmine 8, pepper 12, clove 12, nutmeg 12, ylang

ylang 3, tuberose 5

Base: musk 5, tobacco 3, cedar Himalaya 10, sandalwood 20, vanilla

5, benzoin 5, balsam Peru 10

One reason why that didn't come off as well as I'd hoped may be

because the sandalwood and jasmine were about 10% solutions in

jojoba oil, and I read later that jojoba oil doesn't mix well with

alcohol, maybe even with the EOs. I like all the above notes, but

all I REALLY noticed was the woody-vanilla-incensey base, which was

smooth and very nice--even the citrus topnotes were hardly

perceptible! Maybe I should reduce the number of oils I mix, and

pump up, say, the number of drops for only one, two or three oils I

really want to accentuate. The way I've made mine is to first blend

the oils, let it sit for a month (gently swirling to mix every day

or two), then add perfumer's alcohol (about 70% alcohol to 30% EO),

and let that sit for another month. Right now, I think perfumer's

alcohol and grain alcohol are fairly equal in terms of being a good

carrier.

So, if anyone has any advice on anything I've mentioned, I'm eager

to hear it! Thanks! steevo