Quick and Dirty Perfume Making!

Well maybe not so quick:). The idea though is that you can make perfume with pretty much what's sitting around in your kitchen, granted - assuming that you have vodka sitting around in your kitchen. Other than that though, everything else can be found in most people's cabinets.

What you'll need is:

• A clean, preferably sterilized glass jar
• some kitchen spices
• vodka
• water (distilled is best so you don't introduce any unwanted "bugs" or chemicals)

The clean jar can be anything ranging from a washed out jelly jar to a fancy "Container Store" specimen. I would suggest the jelly jar though for making perfume and the fancy jar for storing it. Here's why...You'll need to have the jelly jar capped very tightly and filled with all types of spices and you may want to be able to pick and choose how many of the pretty herbs actually go into your pretty jar.

Wondering about sterilizing the jelly jar? The easiest way I've found is to boil the jar in a large pot of water for at least 10 minutes. That will in most cases, take care of everything of issue.

My basic recipe for perfume making is 2 tablespoons of vodka to 2 tablespoons of water. That tends to give me a nice blend that holds the scent in the bottle and on my body as well - really important:)!

2 tablespoons is equivalent to about 1 ounce so you'll need to take this into consideration when thinking about the quantity of vodka and water to put in your jar. Remember, you want equal parts vodka and water. Your jar size will determine how much you actually put in.

So now for the spices. You may be wondering where they fit in here.

This is where you get to be creative and original!

Take your favorite kitchen spices, preferably the whole versions of them(i.e. whole coriander, whole cardamon, cinammon sticks, black peppercorns, whole bay leaves, whole dried orange peels, whole dried lemon rinds, etc.) and place them on a cutting board and commence to crushing them down. The most important thing here is that they are brusied sufficiently enough for them to start releasing their scent.

I would crush about 1 tablespoon of spices for each 2 tablespoons of vodka. After you've crushed your spices, place them in your jar and cap it very tightly.

Now this part is going to be hard, but you are going to want to let this sit for at least a week's time. Feel free to take a sniff every couple of days to note the change, however try to refrain from using it or opening it up too much. You really want to give the scent a chance to settle. A good idea is to shake your jar once a day to get the scents moving around and mixed into each other and locked into the mixture.

FYI, vodka is serving as your fixative here so it's really important to try to use the highest proof of the best quality you can find and afford. Don't stress yourself though! I've used 80 proof vodka from a plastic bottle before and made really wonderful, well appreciated perfume. I find that it's ultimately more about the love and care you put into your work than what you are working with.

So now to the finishing touches - after a weeks time, you're ready to open the cap and see how you like what you've created. If you aren't happy, you have the option of adding more spices and letting it steep a few more days or just letting it steep the extra time without the addition.

Once you're happy with the scent, now it's time for straining and making it pretty! This is where the pretty glass jar comes in. Depending on the spices you've used, I'd take a few of them whole and place these into the pretty jar. I'd then strain the perfume directly into the jar or into another more easily pourable jar.

Once you finish this, voila!, you've got your own au-naturale, unique perfume! If you weren't able to find a glass jar with a spray top, remember you can always apply this perfume as a splash:).

One thing I recommend a thousand times over is to make sure you write down your resume. Can you imagine making the most delectable perfume and then not being able to figure out how to make it again! This will help you not have to go through that - believe me it's no fun:)!

So do you have questions? Something not clear? Post in the comments and I'll clue you in.

Also if you have perfume recipes or home perfume making stories to tell, please do share these in the comments as well!