• Making your own perfume is easy, requiring just a few key ingredients.Essential oils image by MAXFX from Fotolia.com
  
  Whether you're looking to save money or you want to smell good without subjecting yourself to the alcohol and chemicals found in many commercial scents on the market, making your own perfume is an option to consider. The perfume-making process is surprisingly simple and it doesn't require a lot of expensive ingredients to create a one-of-a-kind signature scent.
  
  

Choosing a Scent

• Think about things that smell good to you, like flowers, fruits, herbs and spices. You'll use some scents directly from the source, such as orange, lemon or grapefruit peels, flower petals and herb leaves. You can also use essential oils, which are volatile plant oil extracts, to create a signature perfume scent. Essential oils are very concentrated, so you only need to use a few drops at a time.
  
  

Oil-Based

• Create an oil-based perfume. Oil-based perfume scents last longer than alcohol-based scents. Your natural body temperature keeps the oil heated, which allows the smell to linger.
  
  Grape seed oil and high-quality olive oil make the best bases for oil perfume scents. The ration of oil to flowers should be 2:1 oil. You can choose scented flowers like rose petals, jasmine, lavender, Southern Spring Paw and other appealing scents to create your own special smell.
  
  

Blending the Ingredients

• Bruise the flowers in a glass container. Bruise them by crushing them slightly with a spoon or pinching them. Pour the oil over the flowers until it just covers them and allow the mixture to sit with a cheesecloth covering the top of the jar for 24 hours. After 24 hours has ended, strain the mixture through the cheesecloth and let it sit for 24 hours again.
  
  

Add Alcohol

• Add vodka sparingly to the mix to thin the solution so that it can be used as a spray-on perfume scent. Aim for a 3:1 oil to vodka ratio when doing this. When adding vodka to your perfume oil scent, add one drop at a time, taking time to mix the contents thoroughly as you go.
  
  

Storing Perfume

• Store your perfume in dark, amber-colored glass containers to keep light from affecting the quality of your newly created scent. Store your bottles in a dark, cool place to ensure longevity.