Effleurage is a method of making perfume by extracting notes from your selected material (such as fresh orange blossoms, lilacs, rose petals from highly scented roses) and placing them in an odorless fat or oil solution which will “pick up” the scents from your blossoms or materials.  Some people recommend animal lard which I find offensive and is prone to rapid rancidity issues.  I far prefer fractionated coconut oil because it has an indefinite shelf life and is the closest oil “solvent” to extracting not only oil properties from your materials-but is also capable of picking up some water based materials.

This method of “Effleurage” was developed in Grasse, France when perfumers were trying to capture the scent of roses.  Back then. They did use whatever fats were readily available.  Also, I do not recommend a coffee filter as a filter-because it will capture about 1/3 of your scent efforts in the filter.  Try to use a stainless fine mesh filter such as a chinois which is a fine mesh strainer that has a conical shape.

You can make perfume oil with a cup of odorless oil, such as fractionated coconut or Safflower oil.  Safflower is not as versatile as fractionated coconut, but it is readily available on the grocery store shelf and high in vitamin e.  You would soak fresh petals in the oil, in warm place for a few days.  You would then strain and repeat the process a few times with the same oil-but fresh materials such as petals.  The more times you repeat it, the better your scent will pick up.      Some people like to consider this a way to make essential oil.  Really, I call it just “infused oil” as that is what it is. 

You can infuse just about anything, including saw dust from wonderful smelling woods.  So, making a perfume in a fatty Effleurage method is not limited to just petals.  Always keep careful notes because often your biggest mistakes are your best formulas.

For longevity I would add a teaspoon of tocopherol, (vitamin e oil) to the final mixture and store in a cool dark place.  I store mine in a wine cooler that keeps temperatures under 60 degrees.  I do not worry so much about a dark colored bottle.  Beyond a chinois and some fresh material to play with-you may want to invest in some mason jars.  They work extremely well.  Plastics do not work out because they will just end up absorbing your scent. 

If you end up with a collection of scented oils through the Effleurage method, you can then use them in over all perfume making – adding other essential oils, creating solid perfumes or blooming your whole masterpiece in a high proof alcohal.

Become a “librarian” of sorts and take careful notes and make categories of your work.

Reproduction of my work. Please do not copy my work.  It is OK to use it as long as you give credit and a live link to this page.

If you are just getting started at making perfume, I created a chart, below, as a "basis."  I took a list I created a few years ago, of the Top 300 Designer Perfume Blends and created the chart based on that data.  Perfume Crafting by Deborah Dolen is a great article to begin with.   Fragrance Wheel.  Basically if you are going to start a perfume making kit as a hobby - you would want the notes below, in maybe sizes to the most predominate.  How to Make Perfume by Deborah Dolen.