What you need to consider when combining essential oils for your individual scent?

Creating your customized scent with essential oils is a simple thing. We’ll show you how it’s done.

One thing first: everyone smells differently and everyone smells something different. What you find pleasant, someone else may find unpleasant. This is not just a feeling, but has been proven in scientific studies. Where one person smells cat pee, another has chocolate cake in his nose. Sounds strange, but that’s how it is.

combining essential oils for individual scent

Everyone has his own preferences when it comes to fragrance. And that’s a good thing. Imagine if we all had the same perfume. Everyone can, should and may look around or rather “smell around” according to his or her preferences. 

But it doesn’t necessarily have to be what the big companies and expensive designers have to offer to us. You can also create your very own fragrance. Set your own accents and do not just buy the next best thing from commercials.

What fragrances are there and how can you classify them?

But where and how do you start? A first step is to get a better overview of how to classify the infinite variety of fragrances. 

Usually, fragrances are divided into top, heart and base notes. And that’s exactly how we do it in our Beard Oil Lab.

Top notes are fresh fragrances that dissipate quickly. These scents are the first to be recognized in a mixture, but they also evaporate relatively quickly. These include above all citrus oils, eucalyptus oils and pine oils. These are often used generously in blends, because the scent dissipates relatively quickly.

Heart notes are mostly floral, soft notes. These fragrance notes stick and linger longer. They include lavender, and palmarosa.

Base notes are heavy fragrance notes and stick or linger the longest. These include mainly essential oils derived from woods, resins and roots, such as sandalwood and cedar – but also patchouli and vanilla belong to the base notes. Base note fragrances tend to be used sparingly in blends, because they usually have a rather intense scent.

In what ratio do you mix fragrance notes together?

A classic way is 3:5:2 for head:heart:base – but this is only a rough rule of thumb. This is because essential scents vary greatly in intensity: 10 drops of sandalwood is not comparable to 10 drops of tea tree, just as an example. Also, the rule does not necessarily correspond to the liking of your nose.

What fits together properly?

There are countless guides (also here) that tell you which fragrances classically harmonize with each other. As with the food like spaghetti with tomato sauce, there are compositions in the fragrances that you encounter again and again. For example, our classic Citrus & Cedar. Works just as well with bergamot and sandalwood.

Some scents harmonize with just about everything – Lavender is the thing that actually always fits. Just like the beer that actually goes with every meal.

Each fragrance composition is unique. Nevertheless, four fragrance families can be identified, which contribute significantly to the success of a perfume:

• Aromatic fragrances
  This group is dominated by intense plants such as lavender, rosemary or sage. Especially popular here is a combination with citrus nuances or spices. This creates a fruity-aromatic fragrance mixture.
• Woody fragrances
  Characteristic of this family are the warm, elegant notes that it exudes. Decisively responsible for this are ingredients such as cedar or sandalwood, but also resins and balsams bring a woody touch to any perfume.
• Oriental fragrances
  The category is reminiscent of the Arab world with its sensual, spicy nuances. Components of these fragrances are exotic spices such as cinnamon, paired with tobacco or leather.
• Citrus fragrance nuances
  fruits such as bergamot, lime or grapefruit characterize the citrus fragrances. In the popular men’s perfumes, aromatic or spicy components are added, giving the freshness of the perfumes a special boost.

In what ratio do you mix essential and natural oils?

One thing is very important. Always, always mix essential oils with a base oil – meaning natural oil, like jojoba. Otherwise, this is much too aggressive to your skin. Exceptions confirm, as always the rule (like tea tree).

For every 30 ml of natural oils, there is usually 1 ml of essential oils. 20 drops make 1 ml. Less is always possible, of course. If you want more, you should approach carefully. If you overdo it or you have sensitive skin, it can come to ugly reactions. 

Much does not necessarily help. I remember reactions in my social circle to my fragrance creations. There it was said: Cool fragrance but unfortunately too quickly evaporated… Unfortunately, it does not help then simply to double the dose. Because firstly, this changes the scent, secondly, it can be aggressive to the skin and thirdly: From this, the scent does not stick longer. That’s the way it is. The scent of essential oils simply fades away.

creating your customized scent with essential oils

If you want something to make your beard smell pleasant longer: Reach for perfume oil. Perfume oils are much more intense and last longer. But then you lose the bonus of the essential oils:

Essential oils have some beneficial effects on skin and hair. Citrus is antiseptic. Tea tree is a classic against pimples etc. pp. There are tons of good effects besides the pleasant scent. You don’t get that with perfume unfortunately.

Now you should have a good insight into what is important when creating your customized scent with essential oils. Of course, we also have a recipe for you to follow…

Here’s one of our absolute favorites:

Paul’s Fragrance Recipe:

• Bergamot – 2 drops
• Citrus – 2 drops
• Black Pepper – 1 drop
• Clove – 1 drop
• Cedar Wood – 10 Drops