Blending essential oils to make new and interesting scents to wear is one of my favorite things. As soon as I formulate an amazing blend or come across one that’s already made by my favorite brands, I often find myself making roll-ons, room sprays, body oils, and lotions infused with those finds so that I can slather myself with their intoxicating scent.

Sometimes, I want something a bit more potent and long-lasting, and that’s where solid perfumes come into play.

How to make Solid Perfume with Essential Oils

I love using essential oils to make solid perfume because they smell natural and leave a pleasing scent to the skin that sticks around a bit longer than oil-based perfumes.

Using essential oils also means that your perfume is going to be made with all-natural ingredients without the usage of synthetic fragrances which are known to disrupt hormone balance, aggravate thyroid conditions, stimulate allergies, and cause headaches.

You know the headache you get when walking into those body spray and candle shops at the mall? Yeaahhh, those products aren’t made using natural plant fragrances which is why they give you a pounding headache 5 seconds after walking in. There was even a study that proved how much brain damage is caused by repeated exposure to synthetic fragrances.

That’s why making your own solid perfume with essential oils is a great way to create your own signature scent without the negative side effects.

On top of that, making your own scents means that no one else has your fragrance, which is pretty neat if you ask me! I love it when someone exclaims how good my perfume smells and I can tell them that they can make it themselves using just a few natural ingredients.

How to Make Solid Perfume with Essential Oils

The trick to making a good solid perfume is the proportions of the oil and wax as well as using enough essential oils without them causing irritation to the skin.

Obviously, certain essential oils are more potent than others like hot essential oils like cinnamon, clove, thyme, oregano, basil, and so on. So, for those types of oils, erring on the side of very light use is recommended.

I should also mention that you need to be cautious when using phototoxic essential oils which you can read more about here.

Phototoxic or photosensitive essential oils most often include citrus essential oils (especially bergamot and lime!) and a few others that can cause your skin to burn when in direct sunlight.

As for the dilution for solid perfume, I shoot for around 2-3% dilution and find that it has good staying power without the irritation. This equates to about 12-18 drops of essential oil per ounce of solid perfume base.

How to Formulate Your Signature Scent

Now, what about blending the essential oils to create a unique scent? Well, what I CAN tell you is you should experiment BEFORE adding the essential oils to your solid perfume base. If you try creating a scent on the spot, you can accidentally ruin your perfume base, so I highly recommend figuring out your blend beforehand and having it ready. That means you need to start mixing oils and taking notes!

I like to start my formulations by dripping oils into tiny port glasses and smelling the blend after each drop I add. You can also use strips of paper to drip the oils onto so that you can waft the scent as you mix your blend.

Take careful notes by writing down each essential oil you use and tallying the exact drops you use.

I encourage you to read my in-depth guide on how to blend perfume using essential oils HERE. It will explain all the ins and outs of top notes, middle notes, and base notes and how to blend them together to create a balanced synergistic blend.

How to Make a Solid Perfume Using All-Natural Ingredients

Now that you have the essential oil blend you want to use, it’s time to make solid perfume!

Here’s what you’re going to need:

• An accurate kitchen scale
• A small beaker or heat-proof glass dish for melting the base ingredients
• Solid perfume containers (these can be vintage lockets, slide top containers, lip balm tubes, tins, etc.) Be sure to determine their fill capacity. This can be done by filling them with water and using an accurate kitchen scale to see how many ml/grams they hold. This gives you a good estimation for measuring how much oil and wax you need to make the perfume base.
• Equal parts jojoba oil and beeswax based on the fill capacity of your solid perfume container
• A 2-3% dilution of your essential oil blend (read more about calculating dilutions HERE)

I made a single .5oz (15ml/15g) slide top container of solid perfume, so my recipe looked like this:

• .25 oz/7.5g jojoba oil
• .25 oz/7.5g beeswax pastilles
• 18 drops of essential oil (I used Cascade Forest by Juniper Ridge which is why my perfume is green – it smells HEAVENLY)

Loving Preparation – Solid Perfume Recipe

1. Determine how many total ounces/grams of solid perfume base you need

2. Divide that number by half. Use the kitchen scale to measure out that number for both the jojoba oil and beeswax into a heat-safe dish

3. In a saucepan, bring one inch of water to a simmer and place the heat safe dish in the center of the pan

4. Allow the oil and wax to melt together completely

5. Once melted, carefully place the dish on a kitchen towel on the counter. This will keep it from cooling too quickly and solidifying before you can pour it

6. Let the base cool slightly and add in the essential oils

7. Stir the perfume base with a flexible spatula or a toothpick and pour it into your solid perfume container of choice

8. Allow it to cool completely before use

To Use

To use your new solid perfume simply warm the surface with your finger and dab it on the pulse points of each wrist, throat, and chest as desired.

Have you ever made solid perfume with essential oils? How did it turn out? Please share in the comments below!