How to make solid perfume

A solid perfume is a perfume concentrate stirred into a melted base of wax and carrier oil, poured into a tin and left to set. It is a perfume oil made firm: it wears close to the skin, opens slowly and travels without leaking. Making one is weighing, gentle melting and resting. The one real trap is heat, which drives off the top notes.

What goes into a solid perfume base?

A wax that sets it and an oil that keeps it soft enough to pick up with a finger.

• The wax, usually beeswax or a plant wax. The catalog does not list waxes as bases, because they are not aromatic materials; weigh yours as part of the base. Do not confuse it with Beeswax Absolute, a honeyed, waxy aromatic extract that belongs in the concentrate and carries declared allergens of its own. The catalog does carry Cetyl Alcohol, a waxy, nearly odorless fatty alcohol it describes as a solidifying agent in solid perfumes.
• The oil, odorless and slow to go rancid: Jojoba oil, a liquid wax that keeps for a very long time; Fractionated coconut oil (MCT), thin and stable; Isopropyl palmitate, an ester the catalog lists as a carrier for solid perfumes with good solvency; or Squalane, which does not oxidize.
• An antioxidant, if the base contains a plant oil: Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) at a low level protects carrier oils.

Kitchen oils such as olive or sunflower oxidize, and the rancid smell arrives before the tin is finished.

How strong should a solid perfume be?

About as strong as a perfume oil. A wax and oil base holds the smell close to the skin, so it needs more concentrate than a spray to be noticed. PerfuMate's preset for an oil is 20 percent, and that is a good first tin. Make a second small tin at another strength and wear both; that teaches more than any rule.

How do I calculate a small tin?

By weight, like every other perfume. For a 10 g batch at 20 percent:

1. Concentrate: 10 g multiplied by 0.2 is 2 g.
2. Base: 10 minus 2 is 8 g.
3. Split the base between wax and oil. As a first trial, take equal weights: 4 g of wax and 4 g of oil.

More wax sets harder, more oil softer. Fix the texture by changing the split, not the concentrate, so the strength stays what you meant. Weigh the finished pour once and you know what your tin holds next time. The batch calculator does the scaling.

How do I melt it without losing the top notes?

Melt the wax and oil together gently, over a water bath rather than direct heat, then take it off the heat and let it cool until it is just about to set before you stir in the concentrate. Gentle warmth helps materials dissolve; real heat drives off the most volatile ones first, which are the ones that make the opening. Stir, pour and leave the tin undisturbed until it sets.

Use a concentrate with no alcohol in it. Materials you normally keep as 10 percent dilutions in alcohol should be kept in Dipropylene glycol or Triethyl citrate for this use instead, because ethanol is flammable and has no place near a hot pot. And keep the top modest: without alcohol to lift them, citrus notes arrive slowly and briefly, so a formula for a tin works better with a smaller top and a larger heart.

What does not dissolve well in a wax base?

The same materials that dissolve badly in oil. Crystals such as Vanillin or Coumarin, and solids such as Ambroxan, can stay as specks. Dissolve them first in a little Dipropylene glycol or Triethyl citrate and add them to the concentrate before it meets the base. Some carriers dissolve less than others: the catalog notes that White Mineral Oil dissolves powders, crystals, resins and terpenes poorly.

How long should a solid perfume rest?

Let it set, cap it, and give it the week or two a perfume oil gets before you judge it, kept cool and dark. The materials settle into one smell over that time. If specks or a grain appear, that material needed a solvent, not more time.

Do IFRA limits apply to a solid perfume?

Yes. The limit is a share of the finished product, wax and oil included, so check a solid the way PerfuMate checks a perfume oil: Category 4, at the concentrate's share of the whole tin. A 20 percent tin is checked at 20. That matters, because a concentrate that passes as a 10 percent eau de toilette can fail at 20 percent in a tin without a single line changing. How to check a perfume meets IFRA.

In PerfuMate you compose the concentrate as a formula in grams, set its strength to the share it will have in the tin, and the percentages, dilutions and IFRA check follow at that strength; the carriers are catalog materials marked as solvents. How to make perfume oil covers the liquid version. Start a formula, free.