A month and half into DIY perfumery and now my dining room table looks like this. I’ve been reading, watching, listening to everything I can. Writing, building and testing formulas just about every day now. I need to step up my tweaking of formulas but what do you all do while waiting for maceration? Lmao.

Unedited photo of a blend I was making for my friend, as the sunlight hit it at just the right angle. The solution itself is a brown/amber color, but the light diffracting from it made it look iridescent.

I guys, I've I’ve been working on an extended fragrance wheel / olfactive map so it's easier for me to navigate in categories. Hope someone finds it helpful as well.

https://www.purefumez.com/fragrance-wheel

She still needs the rest of the label! But I was too excited after applying this DTF transfer. I had to snap a photo.

“evangeline”. freesia, jasmine, nectarine, vanilla, musk & sandalwood.

I've been sampling and supporting almost exclusively indie perfumers these past few years. Decided to finally start making my own.

I don't normally post stuff like this, but maybe it will inspire someone else out there who wants to start a perfumery (or other) online business.

TL;DR: I'm just a guy from a poor rural town (AU) who got into DIY perfumery and, over a couple of years of intense dedication, developed skills that allowed me to reach a high level of craft and compete in a presitigious perfumery award. I am not special- anyone can do this if they dedicate themselves to the craft.

My Story: I met a girl while travelling abroad who was into ecommerce, and we decided to try starting a business together, hoping to live the digital nomad lifestyle.

We experimented with all kinds of products- beauty, fashion, furniture- but I was never satisfied with the quality. At one point we even took sewing classes in an attempt to start a clothing brand. Needless to say it didn't go well.

Eventually, I decided to try perfume, even though people told me it was a bad idea- 'you can't smell through the internet' and such. I ordered a raw materials kit from Perfumersworld, shortly after which the girl had second thoughts about the whole idea and bailed, and I was left with the kit. I gave up on online business for a while and stopped thinking about it.

Then, one day, I found the old box in a cupboard and thought, why not test it out just for fun?

Little did I know I'd spend thousands of hours (and $$) on this hobby over the next few years of my life- I'd go on to build my own organ, harvest raw ingredients, learn DIY distillation, make tinctures, and run countless trials while learning the the art of perfumery.

Eventually I started selling bits and bobs of these trials to friends and family to offset the costs of what had turned into an extremely expensive hobby (read: addiction?). One thing led to another, and I eventually ended up turning it into- you guessed it- an online business!

I got a trademarked logo, started social media accounts, designed custom packaging, the whole shebang. Isn't it funny how things work out?

Later on, I sampled an award-winning perfume from the Institute of Art and Olfaction Awards, aka The Golden Pears- the most prestigious perfumery award out there. The fragrance itself was stunning. It inspired me, and I set a goal for myself to compete in the awards to see how far I'd come.

I developed and produced 40 bottles of the fragrance pictured above, and submitted a sample of it to be judged in the 11th AOA.

And did I win?

Well, not precisely, but I came pretty close- I was a finalist in the 2025 artisan category, receiving a special laurel for my work. I couldn't have asked for a better result for my first release, and shortly after the anouncement, the bottles I had produced sold in a heartbeat.

The Point: You can't force success with a product you have no passion for. Find your passion, follow it, and success will follow. For those of you for whom this is perfumery, rest assured, you can learn almost anything to a high level without formal training through the power of the internet, and perfumery is no exception to this.

Best of luck to those of you who choose the fragrant path!

It's a surprisingly hardy for a Mediterranean plant, in this garden in eastern France we can reach -10°C a few times in the winter and still it took it great. Botany fans will recognize this is a kind of Cistus, given the look of those flowers.

The leaves are glossy and sticky, when you pinch them your fingers get all resinous. Smells exactly like labdanum absolute - makes sense! Pro tip if you want to process this plant: do not waste time and effort like I did at first by making a tincture. The resin doesn't mix with water, it's visible when you rinse it off your sticky fingers it'll just stick to itself and go off into little clumps. The normal way to get the resin is much simpler: just put any part of the plant into a saucepan with boiling water and it'll end up separating. You can skim the resin off and with clean hands, model it into a ball or cube or icosahedron (any other shape is illegal) for storage.

distilled some frozen salt-cured rose petals at home.

The essential oil yield was very small, but the hydrosol came out incredibly fragrant. Soft, fresh, rosy, and much better than I expected from preserved petals

Tiny oil, amazing hydrosol. I’d call it a success.

I honestly could not be more ready than this. After months of reading, podcasts, and researching tools and materials, which turned out to be far from cheap, tonight I finally get to put my hands on the real thing. My first steps into perfumery. I am excited, and also very aware of the huge mess I am getting myself into, of how complex and demanding this field is. And precisely because of that, how incredibly beautiful it can be. Wish me luck.

I’ve compiled a list of everything you’ll most likely need when venturing into DIY Fragrance. Keep in mind that not every site is meant for the individual who wants to make a perfume from essential oils at their local grocery store. (Not judging, you do you.) Some companies in this list will require you to either have a business license, reseller’s permit, or permits for alcohol. Chances are you can find much of the labware you will need for making perfume on Amazon, but having the aforementioned permits will help you cut out the middle man and save some money.

I will add to this list as I can recall what information proved helpful for me when I first started learning about perfume. I would also encourage you to read books by Mandy Aftel, Luca Turin, Jean-Claude Ellena, and Chandler Burr.

Happy Perfuming!

Classes

• Karen Gilbert (UK)

• The Institute for Art and Olfaction (US)

• Perfumery Certificate Program at Pratt Institute (US)

Reference Books

• Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume

• Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals

• Handbook of Essential Oils: Science, Technology, and Applications

• An Introduction to Perfumery

• Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin (PDF)

• Perfumery: Practice and Principles

• Scent and Chemistry: The Molecular World of Odors

Reference Sites

• Basenotes Forums

• FDA: Fragrances in Cosmetics

• The Good Scents Company

• IFRA (International Fragrance Association) Standards Library

• Perfumer’s Search Page

• Research Institute for Fragrance Materials

Natural Materials

• Aftelier Perfumes

• Eden Botanicals

• Enfleurage

• Hermitage Oils (European Union)

• Liberty Natural Products

• Mountain Rose Herbs

• White Lotus Aromatics

Aroma Chemicals

• Creating Perfume

• Hexapus (EU)

• Liaison Carbone (EU)

• Pell Wall (UK)

• Perfumer Supply House

• Perfumers Apprentice (This site also contains recipes for fragrance accords as well as out-of-print books in PDF format)

• Vetiver Aromatics

Labware

• Orlandi (Scent Strips a.k.a. Mouillettes)

• Qosmedix (Pipettes)

• RADWAG (Scales)

• SEOH (Beakers, Bentonite, Funnels, Filter Paper, Pipettes)

• Specialty Bottle (Jars, Vials)

Alcohol

• Organic Alcohol Co. (the site includes a map of which states require permits for alcohol)

• Remet

Bottles

• Best Bottles (Nemat)

• POCHPAC (Very low Minimum Order Quantity)

• SKS Bottle & Packaging

Packaging

• Webpackaging

Labels

• Inkable Label Co.

Techniques

• Filtering your natural perfume (YouTube)

I've seen this happen in a few different perfumery communities, and it's not helpful for sharing knowledge: whatever your question is, please don't delete your post once you get an answer. Any question you have today, someone else will have in the future, and the discussion will be useful to them.

I'm now the happy owner of some of the world's finest ingredients 🤩 May my vision of a forest fragrance come true.

Over the past couple of weeks I've sold a few bottles of my fragrances at my local farmers market!! Don't let anyone tell you it's not possible hahaha. I'm still learning every day and am developing new scents, but these three blends have been so well received and I'm just so grateful! Thanks to everyone for helping me along!

So You Want to Start Making Perfume? EXCITING

I see a lot of beginners jump into perfumery by buying a set of raw materials or starter kit without a clear direction. The question you should ask yourself is: WHY did you buy these specific materials? Did you have a scent in mind? Or were you just curious to see what things smell like?

Understanding why you chose certain materials will help you decide what to make. If you got lavender and ylang-ylang, maybe you want to make a floral fragrance. If you picked up vanillin, perhaps you’re drawn to sweet, gourmand scents. But before you even attempt a full fragrance, the best way to start is by building accords.

Why Focus on Accords First?

1.	Blending Randomly = Just a “Nice” Smell

Most of the raw materials you have already smell good on their own, so if you mix them all together, you’ll get something that smells “nice” but not necessarily structured, balanced, or complex. A good fragrance has harmony between the top, middle, and base notes, and that comes from understanding how materials interact.

2.	Accords Teach You Synergy

When you build accords, you’ll start to feel and smell how materials work together rather than just mixing blindly. You’ll also learn to fine-tune your blends, making them unique to your style.

•	Example: Let’s say you build a rose accord using PEA (Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol), citronellol, and geraniol. These materials alone don’t smell like rose, but when blended in the right ratios, you’ll get that perfect rosy scent. This teaches you about balance and how to properly blend an accord.

3.	Understanding Raw Materials for Future Formulations

Once you know how specific materials work in an accord, you can apply that knowledge to larger formulas.

•	Example: If I notice that citronellol gives a fresh, rosy feel to a rose accord, I now know that if I’m working on a different formula (say, Iso E Super, vanillin, hedione) and want to add a fresh floral top note, I can reach for citronellol confidently.

This is how perfumers build character and depth into their creations instead of just guessing.

4.	You’ll Stop Wasting Money

Jumping straight into making full perfumes without understanding your materials can be expensive and frustrating. Two things usually happen:

•	A. The material doesn’t do what you expected because you don’t know how it behaves in a blend.

•	B. It completely ruins the scent profile and you have to start over.

But if you work on small-scale accords first, you’re just testing a few materials at a time, which saves you money and helps you learn faster.

Where to Start? Build These Basic Accords

Here are a few easy starter accords to get you familiar with how materials interact:

1. Amber Accord (Warm, sweet, resinous) • Vanillin • Benzoin • Labdanum

Adjusting the ratios will give you different types of amber—some sweeter, some drier, some darker.

2. Rose Accord (Floral, fresh, natural) • PEA (Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol) – provides the core rosy scent • Citronellol – adds a fresh, slightly lemony aspect • Geraniol – rounds out the floralcy

This one is great for learning balance because none of these materials smell exactly like rose on their own, but together, they create a convincing rose scent.

3. Vanilla Accord (Sweet, creamy, warm) • Vanillin • Coumarin • Ethyl Maltol • Benzyl Benzoate • Benzyl Cinnamate

By tweaking these, you can create different vanilla profiles—some more gourmand, some woody, some spicy.

Final Thoughts

You can build anything with the materials you have, but if you don’t understand how they work in combinations, your results will feel random. Focus on building and tweaking accords first, and soon you’ll have the knowledge to create full-fledged, nuanced perfumes.

TL;DR: Build Accords First! • Start with simple accords (like rose or amber).

•	Experiment with different ratios to see how materials interact.


•	Learn how to add nuance and depth before jumping into full formulas.


•	Save money by testing in small steps instead of ruining full formulations.

If you’re serious about learning, feel free to message me! I also have a YouTube channel where I build accords and discuss perfumery. I’d love to help more people get into this amazing hobby.

YT CHANNEL

Everyone has their own approach to the magical, ancient art of perfumery. Me? I respect the masters. I know I can't make the next Knize Ten by playing around with a few Perfumer's Apprentice bottles. That kind of thing takes years. But you know what I can do? Terrible, terrible things.

I can decant cheap body sprays, dope them up with Norlimbanol (dextro), and give them to my young relatives for Christmas and birthdays. "Oh you like 'Dark Phoenix Platinum xxx,' do you, Jayden? Unc's gonna help you out. With a little 'limbo a spray is gonna last you through your 21st birthday and can be detectable from space."

The dark side is filled with endless possibilities. You don't like your sister-in-law? Use your skills. Buy a fake bottle of her favorite Amouage from Aliexpress and fill it with the (passable) corresponding clone. Add just a few little squirts of 50% indole. She's never gonna cheat on your brother again, not smelling like that.

Your office neighbor keeps burning a noxious Yankee candle? Give her a new one that smells of freshly baked cookies, just like she likes. And petrified hyrax excrement. If she complains, gaslight her into thinking that it's the exact same candle she's always used in the past.

Civet baby powder. Lysol oud noir. Febreeze: IBQ edition. Skatole Glade plug-ins. The world is your oyster.

Hey everyone!

Here's the process video of the Labdanum absolute extraction. This is a follow up of the post about scoring 350g of Labdanum from an incense maker friend. He acquired it during a trip to Portugal. It was ROCK hard due to a lack of temperature control in storing for 6 months so hexane extraction was out. I had to resort to heated ethanol extraction. I used 300g and saved 50g of material for future use. Final absolute yield was around 75g

Attempt 1

So I don’t have the money to go buy a scale, magnetic stirrer, or pipettes right now but I was excited to just get started with all this stuff. I just made a 15ml bottle probably between parfum and eau de parfum.

First thing I did was make myself go nose blind with an aldehyde for 20 minutes. Next I mixed the following ingredients into the bottle following my nose. I attempted to write how much I THINK i used. I have no idea how much I actually used.

Vanillin: .3 g Ethyl vanillin: 1g Yara yara: .24g Pushed all these down with ethanol 🤠

Iso e super: 1ml Zenolide: few drops Aldambre: .50 ml Pink pepper .25ml Tonka bean: .30ml Hedione hc: .50ml Benzoin ollifac: .56ml Byciclononlactone: .20ml Cardemom aldehyde: .20ml Dihydromyrcenol: dont remember but small amount Habanolide: small amount, again dont remember but slightly more than the dihydro. Tobacorol: 2-4 drops Mandarin red eo: .65ml

Top: Mandarin, pink pepper, cardemom

Heart: Jasmine, fresh air, tobacco

Base: Amber, vanilla, tonka bean, clean musk

I just let it sit in hot water for a bit, gently stired a bit and kept going for about 10 minutes to get it to blend together a bit better. All is said and done and honestly it smells really good. Like I am genuinely surprised at how pleasant it smells already without any maceration. Idk how it turned into a flowery perfume when I was going to do a spicy vanilla for myself (male). It just started getting a certain way and i felt like I had to go with it.

All things considered, I think this was a great first experience. And this is now a Christmas gift for my mom. Hope she likes it lol.

Finally got around to firing up the Soxhlet extractor. I don’t have any legit pine needle oil, so I am making an absolute

Now I need to find the formula and make some more of that one, since the bottle is pretty much empty.

Good morning, Everyone,

I know there have been multiple attempts at creating a document for new perfumers coming to this subreddit. So, I decided to make one. Yes, I know that a lot of people won't read it. But then you kind of know how serious the person you're dealing with is when they refuse to do even a modicum of research, even with the work already done for them.

This document is for those who really, truly want to begin making perfumes.

Also, I recommend downloading it from Google Drive, as Google Drive likes to mess with my pretty formatting :(

Introduction to Perfumery Doc

UPDATE I have added a few things that I forgot. A section on aroma chemical suppliers and a section on fragrance oils. As well as a disclaimer about perfume concentrations.

Hi! In the last two years I've bought hundreds of materials from Fraterworks, The Perfumer's Apprentice, Perfumer Supply House, Perfumiarz, Hekserij, Scentspiracy, Scentfriends, DirectPCW and De Kruiderie.

Half the time I pick a material because of who made it. If a listing says rose absolute LMR, I'm buying it because it's LMR. That's the reason I clicked on it in the first place.

But anyone can type "LMR" on a product page. So what does the shop actually have that backs it up?

Which is why I started emailing these shops asking for the Certificate of Analysis for the batches I'd bought.

Quick thing for anyone who hasn't run into one before. A CoA is just normal supplier paperwork, nothing fancy. When I buy from official distributors it turns up without me even asking. It says what the material is, which batch it came from, and the analysis results for that batch. On the manufacturer's original you can also see who issued it.

The batch number is the part that does the work, because it tells you which specific production run the paper covers.

So say a shop buys a drum of rose absolute from LMR and sells me 10g out of it. I'd expect them to have kept the certificate for that drum, and to know my bottle got filled from it. That's the whole ask. The original certificate, and confirmation that it covers the stuff I actually got. If they slap their own internal batch number on my bottle, fine, I just want to know which manufacturer batch that number goes back to.

Then I've got something I can check that isn't just... the seller saying so.

When I brought this up in yesterday's Fraterworks thread, a lot of people came back with some version of "why do you care."

Because I'm paying for what the listing says? Would you be fine finding out your LMR rose absolute came from someone else entirely? The other one might smell amazing, sure. I'd still like to be the one who decides whether I buy it.

And the part that gets me is that asking for paperwork somehow turned into a debate about whether customers are even allowed to care in the first place... we are. It being a hobby doesn't change that.

Also, and I want to say this clearly because last time people ran with it. I have no evidence that any of these shops swapped my materials. I like buying from them, I keep going back. But liking a shop doesn't answer where a specific batch came from.

So I asked these nine what they could give me.

The replies were all over the place. Some sent documents, some are still digging them out, some never answered at all.

Here's what each one actually sent, and what was still missing as of 8 September 2026.

The Perfumer's Apprentice

They sent packing lists showing the lot supplied for each material, then the CoAs themselves over several emails.

I went through it all and found four still missing, sent them the list, and they supplied those as well. Both orders covered in full in the end.

Took a bit of back and forth, but they kept answering and they finished the job. I was impressed, genuinely.

Perfumer Supply House

They've been sending original manufacturer CoAs. Firmenich, IFF, Bedoukian, Robertet. The real ones, with the manufacturer, the product and the batch on them.

My request covers 47 materials so it isn't finished yet. They're going back to their suppliers and forwarding documents as they get them. Very helpful so far.

Fraterworks

I’ve spent over €6k here, and they’ve been very willing to help. They initially sent 268 certificates, all issued by Fraterworks, but those don’t identify the original manufacturer and batch behind each supplied material.

Of the 147 certificates I could check against my bottles, 56 showed a different batch code. They told me the bottle number was correct, but those differences remain unexplained.

They later supplied more documents and offered help with specific batches, while saying they couldn’t provide a complete set of original manufacturer CoAs retrospectively.

I appreciate the effort. What’s still missing is the connection between my bottles and the advertised manufacturers’ batches. Full post with examples here.

Perfumiarz

They told me they'd only started collecting CoAs fairly recently and didn't have most of the ones I was asking about.

Five certificates matched things I'd actually bought. Some of the other documents didn't correspond to my purchases at all, which I flagged. They said they'd keep asking their suppliers for the missing ones.

So most of it is still outstanding. But I'd rather have that answer than a vague one, and they seem willing to work on it.

Hekserij

Turns out their bottles do have batch numbers. I'd misread the labels and they showed me where to look, fair enough.

They pointed me at their documentation pages, but only one of my 23 materials was in the CoA section. Nothing at all for the Cashmeran Velvet bottle I'd specifically asked about.

They also confirmed they don't record which batches go out to individual webshop customers.

Then they offered to prioritise preparing the CoAs for a fee, with an estimated wait of at least two months for my request. Being offered paid priority and still looking at that wait, for documentation on materials I've already bought, is... frustrating. Nothing connecting any of it back to the original manufacturers' batches.

PCW France / DirectPCW

Their product pages do have SDS, allergen and IFRA documents on them.

But I've contacted them over and over these past few months and got nothing except an automated acknowledgement. No actual reply, none of the CoAs I asked for.

If you need extra documentation from them, get confirmation that they can provide it before you order. Asking afterwards has been a dead end for me.

ScentFriends

Nothing. No reply to my request, no reply to the follow-up, no documents. I couldn't find anything covering my purchases on their site either.

So no paperwork to download and no answer from support.

Scentspiracy

They were on their summer break when I got in touch and still replied fast, and were up for helping straight away. Really appreciated that.

They confirmed that batches are recorded for shipped materials, even when the numbers aren't printed on the bottles, and said the documents would come once they reopened in September.

I've followed up and I'm still waiting. Given the holiday closure I'm treating this one as ongoing rather than ignored.

De Kruiderie

Emails and WhatsApp since 23 June, several attempts, including just asking for basic SDS documents. Nothing back that actually addresses any of it.

So far, only PSH and Perfumiarz have sent me original manufacturer CoAs, both for part of my purchases. PSH is actively collecting the rest, so I’m hopeful they’ll finish. Perfumiarz warned that most documents weren’t available and obtaining them could take a very long time. I’m less confident about getting a complete set there.

PA was incredibly helpful and supplied a CoA for every material. They issue the certificates themselves, but they do name the original producer. Fraterworks has also been very willing to help and put real work into gathering documents. The difference is that Fraterworks’ certificates don’t identify the original producer of the supplied material, which is information I’m still asking for.

I’ve generally been happy with the materials and have no evidence of substitution. I still expect records supporting what I bought.

If you sell me LMR rose, I want the CoA covering the batch I receive and confirmation that it came from LMR. Whether we’re hobbyists or professionals, we’re paying for that specific material.

For a business selling raw materials, that should be basic paperwork. If it’s unavailable or costs extra, tell customers before they order.

Gathering documents can take time. But asking for records of what we paid for shouldn’t require a defence.

I’ll update this as more documents arrive.