Urban Botanic: Scent Blending 101

Create your own signature fragrances at home! It's easy and requires only a few simple steps.

You can create unique and personalized gifts for friends and family, or get the girlfriends together for a night of creativity! There are thousands upon thousands of combination possibilities with our Urban Botanic single oils and blends, so make as many different scents as you like!

Read through these instructions entirely before creating your first fragrance. Then carefully follow each step during your creation progress.

Step 1: Order your supplies

For each person creating a fragrance, you will need:

1 mixing glass, 1 stirring stick, and 2-3 disposable droppers.
UB Unscented Bath and Body products of your choice.
UB Fragrance Oils of your choice (oils come with an oil dropper lid); we suggest selecting 3 to 6 oils to begin with. Recommended fragrances and recipes can be found elsewhere on this blog.
FineTip Sharpie®
Clear packing tape
Arabica coffee beans (whole beans, not ground)
My Scent in Progress Sheet (see bottom of this post)

Step 2: Gather your supplies

After you gather your supplies:

Replace the flat lids on the perfume oil bottles with the perfume oil dropper lids provided.
Make copies of the "My Scent In Progress" sheet. (See bottom of this post.)
Cover your table with a cloth or paper towels.
Put the coffee beans in small containers.

Step 3: Create Your Fragrance

Now it's time to start creating your fragrance. Follow these steps carefully:

Smell all of the fragrances available and list the ones you like most. Be careful not to touch your nose to the oil on the bottle or that's all you'll smell for the rest of the day!
Think about your fragrance for a minute. Think of a mood, a characteristic you want to portray, or an occasion or outfit you want to create your fragrance for.
Start by selecting just two scents that you want to blend. You can introduce more scents later, but for now, narrow it down to two.
Write your two chosen scents as Ingredients 1 and 2 on the "My Scent In Progress" sheet.
Add one drop of each scent to your Mixing Glass.
Write one hash-mark next to each scent in the "Drops" column. These two hash-marks represent the two drops of perfume oil currently in your Mixing Glass.
Now smell your mixing glass and analyze your fragrance. Refer to Scent Blending Tips to determine how to alter your scent.
Repeat the following steps until your fragrance is just the way you like it:
—Add only one drop at a time to alter your fragrance.
—Add a hash-mark to your "My Scent in Progress" sheet to represent the drop you just added.
—Smell your Mixing Glass and decide whether to repeat the steps once more.
Once you are satisfied with your fragrance, move on to Step 4.

Important Tips

NEVER add more than one drop at a time to your mixing glass. UB perfume oils are not diluted so your scent can change quickly.
Write down every single drop you add to your mixing glass. This is the only way you'll be able to add your fragrance to the product.
Don't mix UB perfume oils with any unscented product not made by Urban Botanic. The perfume oils and unscented products were made to blend exclusively with each other. We cannot guarantee a positive outcome if other brands of oils or unscented products are mixed with UB products.
When your nose seems filled with fragrance and you need to clear it, take a whiff of the coffee beans. They will clear your "scent palette."

Step 4: Duplicate Your Fragrance

Now that you're satisfied with your fragrance, it's time to duplicate your fragrance before adding it to the unscented Urban Botanic product.

Determine which product you'd like to make first (perfume, lotion, shower gel, etc.) You'll repeat this process later for each product.
Follow the steps in sections 2 and 3 of the "My Scent in Progress" worksheet.
Add to your Mixing Glass the number of drops necessary to produce your full fragrance for the one product you're making at this time.
Note: Parfum Spray takes a total of 150 drops; Body Lotion, Shower Gel and Bubble Bath take a total of 50 drops each. (Give or take a few drops.)

Step 5: Add Fragrance to Product

Now that you have duplicated your recipe in your Mixing Glass, it's time to add your fragrance to the unscented UB product. Follow these steps:

Using your Disposable Dropper, "suck up" and "squirt out" the oils in your Mixing Glass several times to thoroughly blend your fragrance. Give it one last sniff to make sure it's just right. If it's not, it means you miscounted when adding your drops. Adjust your fragrance, if needed, before continuing.
Draw all of your perfume oil from the Mixing Glass into the Disposable Dropper.
When making a Parfum Spray, simply empty the contents of the Disposable Dropper into the bottle, re-apply the lid, and shake. If there are drops of perfume oil left in your Mixing Glass, tap them into the parfum spray bottle.
When making any of the other products, without squeezing the bulb, insert your perfume oil filled Disposable Dropper as far down into the product bottle as you can.
Inject a small amount of perfume oil into the product. Do not release your squeeze, as this will suck the perfume oil back up into your dropper.
Pull the dropper up about an inch and inject another small amount of perfume oil into the product. Repeat this until you have injected all of your perfume oil into varying depths of the unscented product.
Use your fingers to wipe excess product off the dropper and back into the bottle. If there are drops of perfume oil left in your Mixing Glass, tap them into the top of your product bottle.
Insert your Stirring Stick into the product and stir for about one minute. It is not necessary to blend the oils perfectly. The oils will self-diffuse throughout the entire bottle within a few hours.
Use a FineTip Sharpie® (black or blue work best) to write the name of your fragrance and your recipe on the back of the bottle.
Cover your writing with a strip of clear packing tape. This ensures your writing won't rub off. You can't see or feel the tape once it's applied.