I made my own perfume using this 750-peso DIY kit from Lazada
I think it’s safe to say that a lot of us have picked up new hobbies in the last two years. Some have even started small businesses out of these freshly acquired skills. Luckily, accessibility to these activities are at an all time high, thanks to the internet.
One thing that I found on Lazada randomly is this DIY kit for those looking to start their own fragrance hobby or business. The Chemworld Fragrance Factory’s Fragrance Play DIY Perfume Blending Starter Kit (P750) has two types of starter kits. The Fragrance Play is the more basic one, while Starter Kit A (P3,865) is the pro-level version that’s meant for those planning to start their own fragrance mixing business. The difference is that the latter includes laboratory glassware, a manual, and more fragrance sets.
For a complete beginner, Fragrance Play (which is what I bought) is a fairly straightforward kit. It includes the following materials:
2 perfume oil bottles, 1 each for him and for her
1 bottle of fixative
1 bottle of dipropylene glycol
1 bottle perfumer’s grade alcohol
2 mixing bottles, 1 each for him and for her
2 glass spray bottles
The box has a sticker inside that has the basic “recipe” for mixing the perfumes. Basically, you pour the entire contents of the perfume oil bottle into the mixing bottle. Then you measure out the rest of the ingredients and pour them into the mixing bottle as well. But this is where it gets tricky.
Nowhere on the listing does it say that you will need additional items to be able to get going. The unit of measurement for the other ingredients is in milliliters and in small increments at that, so I’d recommend that you get yourself a small graduated cylinder. Using measuring cups and spoons from your kitchen isn’t a great idea as you’ll be getting chemical residue on them. You’ll also need a little bit of distilled water to dilute the mixture without contaminating it.
So once you’ve gotten everything together, it’s time to get going. I like that all the ingredients, save for the alcohol, have dripulators (that stopper thing that you’ll typically find in an essential oil bottle) to make the process relatively mess-free. My tip is to pour in the ingredients in the order listed on the instructions, swirling the mixing bottle between each step to incorporate the contents together. Once you add the alcohol, cap the bottle and swirl thoroughly to dissolve everything. Repeat the process with the addition of the distilled water and close the cap.
The final step is the ageing of the perfume to get all the contents to settle before you can begin to use it. It takes one week, according to the instructions, if you refrigerate the bottle. But if you go that route, make sure that you seal the mixing bottle in an airtight container like a ziploc bag. Any leaking might cause your fridge to smell like perfume. Now if you don’t mind waiting a bit longer, you can age the perfume at room temperature for about 15 days.
So after the wait time and transferring the perfume to the spray bottle, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was even some left over that I can pour into a travel spray bottle for on-the-go use!
While you don’t get to choose the perfume oils that come with the kit, I found the included ones to be likeable. I’m not sure if it’s always going to be the same set of starter scents for each Fragrance Play kit or if they supply the scents based on availability, but I received Dream (feminine) and Be Cold (masculine). The former is a fruity floral and inspired by Gap Dream, while the latter is an aquatic fresh scent inspired by Benetton’s Cold.
Overall, I found the project enjoyable and extremely easy to do once you have the proper measuring tools on-hand. This kit also makes for an interesting gift idea for the coming holidays. Though if you just wanted a ready-to-use perfume you can directly move to a spray bottle, Chemworld also offers pre-mixed scents on their LazMall store.
