The natural soaps and detergents industry has gotten quite creative in recent years when concocting their fragrances. Grapefruits and sandalwood lend their scents to laundry powders and eucalyptus and tea tree castile soaps have found their way into my shower. I recently came across a new favorite dish soap — lavender bergamot — that, with its decidedly woodsy aroma, turned my mind to men’s cologne. (Find out how to make floral-based perfumes, if that sounds more like you.)
Do men’s fragrances need to be the ultra-bold, musky, often toxic chemical soups found at the department store? With my smell-palette tuned to natural aromas, I was inspired to try concocting my own natural colognes for friends and family using essential oils. (Of course you can make your own laundry soap or dishwashing detergent, but that’s for another day.)
Understand Fragrance Families
Fragrances can be divided into a number of categories or “families.” In order to have success in cologne alchemy, you need to determine which fragrance families are your favorites. Here are the four main families:
Animal musks are often overpoweringly strong and can smell rancid if sniffed on their own. For this reason, they are used in minute amounts in store-bought colognes to impart a “dark note of primitive, exotic mystery,” as M.T. McLeod writes in her article on home perfume making.
Spicy or woodsy smells come from bitter tree and spice sources, such as clove and cinnamon. Oak, cedar, myrrh, and roots and barks lend their aromas to this group. Just a touch of cinnamon packs a big punch to muffins or cereals and it will do the same for colognes.
Herbaceous fragrances smell fresh, green and “foody.” Citrus, lavender, camphor, and eucalyptus are just a few of the herbal scents in this family group and they can add a briskness to your colognes. Many commercial colognes are based on the herb family of scents.
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