A recurring theme I see at the moment is people wanting to know how to create fragrances for room fragrances, whether that be candles, room sprays or reed diffusers. I’ve had a few emails this week asking if my classes will teach people how to do that so I wanted to spend some time on that in this week’s blog post.
However you do it (on a course, from a book, self study etc) learning perfumery is roughly split into 3 chunks:
- Theory of how perfume is made and the materials
- Practice smelling and blending materials
- Modifying fragrances you have created for different bases
If you are aiming to create a fragrance brand then there are other things you will need to learn but today I want to focus on these three.
Theory of how perfume is made and the materials
This is what I focus a lot of my course content on, especially in the Artisan Perfumery Mastermind. Once you know the secrets of how a perfume is made then this theory can be applied to any perfume you make. I teach a structure that can be applied to any fragrance creation exercise.
A perfume is a perfume regardless of what product it will end up in and the theory is pretty much the same whether you are creating an Eau de Parfum or a Reed Diffuser.
Learning how to smell and how to describe fragrance will help your creativity and assist you in deconstructing finished fragrances.
Learning how accords are created will help you to create your own for any perfume regardless of its end use. Learning about the materials used in perfumery – natural or synthetic – will make you more confident in creating your own perfumes.
Practice smelling and blending materials
We do this in all live classes and in the Artisan Perfumery Mastermind you will need to do this as self study exercise (the facebook group is there to ask any questions and get help).
This part of the learning process is the longest as there are so many materials and variations of materials that it really is a lifelong study.
The more time you spend smelling and blending the better you will get. You can learn all the theory there is but if you don’t roll up your sleeves and do some practical work you will not progress.
Modifying fragrances you have created for different bases
This is something we cover in the Mastermind and in my Creating Fragrances For Skincare class but it is more of a practical exercise that you will need to experiment with yourself.
Guidelines can be given but as bases, especially for candles, creams and lotions vary so much the only option is to experiment and test.
Room fragrance perfumes need to be a bit more immediate as they do not have skin to develop on.
Reed diffusers need a lot of fragrance to give the throw needed so using naturals only can be expensive.
Candles need to be tested for their burning quality and you never really get the power with naturals as you do when using synthetic materials.
Oil perfumes and solids will be much more subtle than an alcohol based spray due to the lack of a volatile solvent such as alcohol.
So to sum up it doesn’t really matter whether you want to create a perfume for use on skin or a home fragrance the courses I teach will give you the techniques to take away and practice yourself at home.
Want to learn more? Why not come to a live perfumery class or study at home with my online perfumery course
