Where can I buy perfume materials, and how do I choose a supplier?
By Omer Siton, founder of PerfuMate · Updated
Perfume materials come from three kinds of seller: perfumery resellers who repack materials into small bottles, producers and importers of essential oils, and the manufacturers and distributors who sell by the kilogram to businesses. This page names no shops and ranks none. It explains what each kind of seller offers, the names to search for, the documents to ask for, and how to tell a seller you can build a product on from one you cannot.
Where do perfumers buy their materials?
From perfumery resellers in small sizes, from essential-oil producers and importers, and, once volumes justify it, from manufacturers and their distributors, who sell with minimum orders. Resellers suit a first palette, which needs a few grams each of many materials rather than a kilogram of one.
| Seller | What it sells | Check before you buy |
|---|---|---|
| Perfumery reseller (repacker) | Aroma chemicals, naturals and bases from many makers, repacked into small bottles, often also as ready-made dilutions | The original maker and trade name, the strength and solvent of any dilution, a lot number, the documents |
| Essential-oil producer, distiller or importer | Essential oils, absolutes, resinoids and CO2 extracts | The botanical name, the origin and lot, and an analysis and allergen declaration for that lot |
| Manufacturer or distributor | Aroma chemicals and specialties by the kilogram, usually to business accounts | The minimum order, the lead time, the specification and the full set of documents |
| Fragrance-oil maker | Finished fragrance blends, for perfume or for other products | Which product the oil is made for, and an IFRA certificate that covers fine fragrance |
Whoever sells it, you can only be sure a bottle holds the material you think when its names and numbers say so. The rest of this page is about reading them.
Where can I buy individual perfume notes?
From the same sellers, as materials: a note is a smell impression, not a product, so you buy the materials that give it. A pear note is mostly esters: of the 43 materials with a pear facet in PerfuMate's catalog, 42 are synthetic and at least 30 are esters, among them Hexyl Acetate and Amyl Acetate. A sandalwood note comes from naturals and molecules alike, sandalwood oils beside Javanol and Ebanol. Search the catalog for the note you want, read what each material smells like and how long it lasts on a strip, then ask a supplier for that material by name. The olfactive pyramid explains how notes are grouped into top, heart and base.
Where can I buy aroma chemicals like Iso E Super, Ambroxan and Hedione, and what do they cost?
From perfumery resellers in small sizes and from distributors by the kilogram. Most names on the bottles are trade names, so search for the molecule and its CAS number as well: the same molecule is often sold by several makers, under different names and in grades that smell slightly different.
| You want | Molecule and CAS number | Other grades in the catalog | How it is used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iso E Super | OTNE, 54464-57-2; on EU labels, Tetramethyl Acetyloctahydronaphthalenes | Orbitone T Neo, Amber Gamma, Timbersilk, Anthamber, Sylvamber | From a trace to 5 to 15 percent of the concentrate, and 20 percent or more as an overdose |
| Ambroxan | Ambroxide, 6790-58-5 | Ambrofix, Ambrox Super, Orcanox, Ambermor | Crystals, usually weighed from a 10 percent dilution |
| Hedione | Methyl dihydrojasmonate (MDJ), 24851-98-7 | Hedione HC and Kharismal, both high-cis grades | Neat, often at high levels |
The catalog keeps each grade as its own row because they do not smell the same: on its 10-point strength scale Iso E Super rates 2, Timbersilk 4 and Amber Gamma 6, and the two high-cis grades rate 3 against standard Hedione's 2. Smell a new grade against the one your formula was built on before you swap it. Of the three molecules, only Iso E Super has an IFRA limit, 20 percent of the finished perfume, and an EU allergen entry; see Iso E Super, Ambroxan and Hedione on the IFRA pages.
Prices change with the seller, the size, the country and the date, so this page quotes none. Compare the price per gram with shipping included, and count how far a strong material goes. A 30 ml bottle holds about 24 g of perfume, because alcohol weighs about 0.8 g per ml, so an eau de parfum at 18 percent carries about 4.3 g of concentrate. If Ambroxan makes up 0.5 percent of that concentrate, each bottle uses about 0.02 g, so 5 g of crystals is enough for about 230 bottles. Hedione at 20 percent of the same concentrate uses about 0.86 g a bottle, so 100 g fills about 115. Buy the strong material small and the generous one large.
Where can I buy Ambroxan powder?
From the same sellers as Ambroxan, because the neat material is the powder: ambroxide is a crystalline solid, and the catalog lists it under names such as Ambroxan Crystals and Ambroxide Cryst. Weigh it into a 10 percent dilution in perfumer's alcohol or DPG, let it dissolve completely (gentle warmth helps), and weigh the dilution into your formulas. There is no Ambroxan essential oil: it is an aroma chemical. If a seller offers a liquid "Ambroxan oil", ask what it is diluted in and at what strength, then work out its price per gram of Ambroxan.
Where can I buy fragrance oils for perfume making?
From fragrance-oil makers and the resellers who carry them, but buy one for perfume only if its IFRA certificate covers Category 4, fine fragrance, and states the most of it a finished perfume may contain. Many fragrance oils are made for candles, soap or lotions, which sit in other IFRA categories with other limits (IFRA categories explained).
That maximum is the figure to read, and it varies enormously. PerfuMate's data holds the supplier IFRA certificates of 41 trade blends and named grades, all issued under the 51st Amendment; the share of the finished perfume they allow in Category 4 runs from 0.0428 percent to no limit at all. A certificate belongs to one product, so check that the name and code on it match the bottle you bought, and ask for the safety data sheet and the allergen declaration at the same time. Fragrance oils for perfume covers how to use one.
Where can I buy perfumer's alcohol?
From suppliers of denatured alcohol for cosmetics, and what you may buy depends on your country. In the US, anyone who buys specially denatured alcohol itself, such as SDA 40-B (one of the formulas TTB authorises for perfumes), to make products needs an industrial alcohol user permit from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) under 27 CFR 20.41; TTB's guide for applicants (dated November 2004) treats people who buy products already containing it differently from users of the alcohol itself, so ask your supplier which one you are buying, and ask TTB if you are unsure. In the UK, the trade specific denatured alcohol (TSDA) formulations HMRC approves for perfumes need its authorisation, and you give your supplier a copy of it before delivery. Elsewhere, the customs or excise authority sets the rules.
Whatever the route, ask four things: the formula or denaturant, which should not smell; the strength, about 95 to 96 percent; whether anything else is in it, since some formulations carry another ingredient, such as the 5 percent benzyl benzoate of HMRC's TSDA formulation 5; and the safety data sheet. Vodka, rubbing alcohol and surgical spirit are not substitutes, and what alcohol to use for perfume explains why.
Where can I buy DPG and other solvents?
From perfumery resellers and chemical distributors. Ask for fragrance-grade, low-odour dipropylene glycol, CAS 25265-71-8, with its safety data sheet; the catalog's note on DPG calls the fragrance grade essential, because the solvent should add no smell. The same sellers carry the other carriers: triethyl citrate as an alternative diluent, and isopropyl myristate or jojoba oil for perfume oils. DPG in perfume covers how much to use.
Where can I buy ready-made accords and bases?
From fragrance houses and specialist makers that sell bases under their own trade names, usually through the same resellers and distributors as single materials. PerfuMate's catalog describes 553 compounded materials, bases, accords and specialties, each under its maker's name, and gives 317 of them a table of constituents. A base is a mixture, so for IFRA and for allergens it counts through what is inside it: ask for its IFRA certificate and allergen declaration, or you cannot check the formula it goes into.
The alternative is to build the accord yourself. The accord library gives 50 vetted accord formulas free, in grams, how to build an accord explains the method, and what is a perfume base covers the bought kind.
Where do perfume businesses buy wholesale?
From the manufacturers' distributors and from importers, by the kilogram, once a formula is settled. Before the first order, ask for the minimum order quantity, the lead time, the price breaks and the documents for each material. At this scale the documents become part of the product: in the EU, the safety report for a perfume must give the name and code number of each fragrance composition and identify its supplier. Keep one lot for a production run where you can, and smell every new lot against a reference strip of the last before it goes into a batch (how to evaluate materials on blotters).
What documents should a supplier give you?
A safety data sheet for anything hazardous, an IFRA certificate of conformity for every fragrance mixture, an allergen declaration for naturals and mixtures, and a certificate of analysis for the lot you bought.
- Safety data sheet (SDS). In the EU, REACH requires the supplier of a hazardous substance or mixture to provide one; in the US, OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard requires manufacturers, importers and distributors to provide one for each hazardous chemical to the users downstream. It has 16 sections: section 2 gives the hazards, section 9 the properties including the flash point, section 14 the transport classification.
- IFRA certificate of conformity. Written by the company that makes a fragrance mixture, for that mixture and an intended use; IFRA itself issues none, and a raw material typically has none. Check that it names the amendment, the category and the maximum share of the finished product (the IFRA certificate, explained).
- Allergen declaration. The share of each listed fragrance allergen in the material as supplied, the figures an EU label is calculated from (how to make an EU allergen declaration).
- Certificate of analysis (CoA). The results of the tests the seller ran on your lot against its specification. For a natural, a GC-MS analysis of the lot shows what is really in it, and PerfuMate lets you paste one in to replace the catalog's typical composition.
How do I judge a supplier?
By how much it tells you about the bottle: who made the material, under which trade name and CAS number, at what strength, from which lot, with which documents, and what it really costs per gram once shipping is added.
- Names and numbers. A trade name with its maker, or a molecule with its CAS number. A fantasy name alone gives you nothing to check.
- Strength. A ready-made dilution says so on the label, with its solvent. A 10 percent dilution sold at the neat price costs ten times what it seems to.
- Lots and documents. A lot number on the label, and documents available before you buy, not after a complaint.
- Shipping. Alcohol and many materials are flammable liquids; a seller that ships them under the carriers' rules is a seller that reads rules.
- Your nose. Smell each new bottle against your reference before it goes into a formula you already know.
PerfuMate matches the names on your supplier's labels to its catalog through 5,563 trade names and supplier synonyms, so a pasted shelf list lands on the right rows, and it prices every line of a formula from the bottle it was weighed from, dilutions included. How to price a handmade perfume takes the cost further. Start a formula, free.
Which sources is this page based on?
The official texts and the PerfuMate data below, each with the date it was read.
- REACH, Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, Article 31, on EUR-Lex (read in the Official Journal text). Read 6 October 2026.
- OSHA, Hazard Communication Standard: Safety Data Sheets (OSHA 3514). Read 6 October 2026.
- IFRA, Certification of IFRA Standards. Read 6 October 2026.
- Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, Annex I, Part A, point 1, on EUR-Lex. Read 6 October 2026.
- TTB, 27 CFR 20.41 in the 2025 edition and Information for Specially Denatured Spirits Applicants (TTB P 5150.3). Read 6 October 2026.
- HMRC, Excise Notice 473, updated 18 November 2025. Read 6 October 2026.
- PerfuMate materials catalog (2,137 materials, 5,563 synonyms, 553 compounded materials, 41 supplier IFRA certificates), as of 6 October 2026.