{"id":3224,"date":"2010-05-06T07:48:05","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T11:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=3224"},"modified":"2010-05-06T07:49:32","modified_gmt":"2010-05-06T11:49:32","slug":"making-perfume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=3224","title":{"rendered":"Making Perfume"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/mina.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/mina-120x150.jpg\" alt=\"Mina Perfume\" title=\"Mina Perfume\" width=\"120\" height=\"150\" border=\"0\" class=\"contentimg\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;ve had this cartoon from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paraabnormalthecomic.com\/\">Para Abnormal<\/a> kicking around in my Drafts folder for ages now, mainly because I like the idea of a &#8220;Mina&#8221; perfume by Van Helsing (click the image to enlarge).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never been sure what to do with it, so I guess I&#8217;ll use it as a hook for talking about making your own perfume.  Which I suppose you could make garlic-scented if you really wanted to.<\/p>\n<p><b>You will need:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>About 2 cups of fresh or 1 cup of dried flower petals.  Choose flowers that are pesticide-free and nontoxic, and if you&#8217;re using fresh flowers try to collect them as close to the time they first open as possible.  It&#8217;s easiest if you select flowers that have a strong scent, but you can capture a lighter fragrance by running multiple batches of petals through the same water.<\/li>\n<li>Four cups of spring or distilled water.<\/li>\n<li>5 Tbsp of high-proof alcohol: Vodka, Everclear, or perfumer&#8217;s alcohol (available from hobby suppliers).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Instructions:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>If using fresh petals, chop them up a bit (don&#8217;t puree them).  Put the fresh or dried petals in a nonreactive bowl and cover with the water.  (If the water doesn&#8217;t completely cover the petals, add more until it does.)  Cover and let sit overnight.<\/li>\n<li>Strain through cheesecloth, removing all solid material.<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re using a delicately-scented flower, repeat steps 1 and 2 with a fresh batch of petals and the same water.<\/li>\n<li>Place the water in a nonreactive saucepan and simmer <em>gently<\/em> for a couple of hours, until reduced to about 2 Tbsp of liquid.  Be careful not to boil, as it will drive off the fragrance.<\/li>\n<li>Cool and place in a small glass bottle (dark glass is best).  Add the alcohol, cap, and shake.<\/li>\n<li>Let sit for 3-4 days before testing.<\/li>\n<li>If the fragrance is too strong, you can dilute it with a little more distilled water: Add 1 Tbsp at a time, letting it rest for 24 hours before testing again and adding more water if necessary.<\/li>\n<li>Store in a cool, dark place, since light and heat will both damage the scent.  The perfume will last for 1-2 months.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\nIf you don&#8217;t feel like messing with flowers, there are lots of recipes for using essential oils instead.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.snowdriftfarm.com\/form_perfumes.html\">Snowdrift Farm<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fromnaturewithlove.com\/recipe\/recipes.asp?category=13\">From Nature with Love<\/a> both have recipes and advice for making fragrances, and you can also purchase the oils and perfumer&#8217;s alcohol from them.<\/p>\n<p>Put the results in a pretty bottle, add a label, and you&#8217;ve got your own signature scent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had this cartoon from Para Abnormal kicking around in my Drafts folder for ages now, mainly because I like the idea of a &#8220;Mina&#8221; perfume by Van Helsing (click the image to enlarge). I&#8217;ve never been sure what to do with it, so I guess I&#8217;ll use it as a hook for talking about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doom-it-yourself"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6762,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions\/6762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}