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如何自制身体喷雾？

作者：Omer Siton，PerfuMate 创始人 · 更新于

A body spray is a light perfume made to be sprayed over the body: a small share of concentrate in perfumer's alcohol, sometimes with a little water. Make it like any perfume, only weaker, and know one rule before you choose the formula: IFRA places body sprays and body mists with deodorants, in Category 2, not with perfume; only a spray clearly labelled not for use under the arms can be considered under Category 4, fine fragrance.

How do you make a body spray at home?

Weigh a light concentrate into perfumer's alcohol at a low strength, rest it, then filter it into a spray bottle; for 100 ml at 3 percent, that is 2.4 g of concentrate and 77.6 g of alcohol.

  1. Decide the category first. A spray you will use anywhere on the body, underarms included, is Category 2, with lower limits than perfume. One clearly labelled not to be applied to the underarms can be considered under Category 4, IFRA's fine-fragrance category and the one PerfuMate's IFRA calculator checks; IFRA recommends that the fragrance supplier and the brand consult on the category for each product.
  2. Choose a strength. No official strength defines a body mist, any more than an eau de toilette. PerfuMate's lightest preset, a cologne, is 5 percent, and a body spray sits below it: make two test vials, at 2 and 4 percent, and wear both.
  3. Do the arithmetic by weight. Perfumer's alcohol weighs about 0.8 g per ml, so a 100 ml bottle holds about 80 g. At 3 percent, 80 g times 0.03 is 2.4 g of concentrate, and the rest is 77.6 g of Perfumer's ethanol.
  4. Choose a concentrate that passes. The essential-oil cologne on how to make an eau de cologne, an untested starting point, passes every Category 4 limit up to 13.33 percent, so at 3 percent, labelled not for underarms, it is well inside. For a Category 2 spray it needs Category 2 figures (below).
  5. Add water only by test. For a softer spray, replace a little of the alcohol with Water (Distilled) in a small vial first, and stop at the first haze: water is what makes perfume materials fall out of solution. The catalog lists Glycerin as the humectant used in body splashes and hair mists for skin feel; on its own it dissolves most aromatics poorly.
  6. Rest, chill and filter. PerfuMate's maceration journal gives anything up to 15 percent a 60 day rest; at the end, chill it for a day and filter out any haze before bottling. How to filter a perfume.

Variations follow the same rules. With essential oils, use FCF or distilled citrus and check the blend. With a fragrance oil, the supplier's IFRA certificate gives a separate maximum for each category, one for a body spray (Category 2) and one for a perfume (Category 4). A hair mist sold for the hair only is IFRA Category 7B; if it can be sprayed on the skin as well, or the label does not say, IFRA treats it as a fine fragrance, and a product sold for both uses takes the stricter limit of the two.

Body mist vs perfume: what is the difference?

A body mist is a perfume made weaker, sprayed more widely and placed in a different IFRA category: the differences are strength, use and the limits that follow, not the kind of materials inside.

Can I make a spray with essential oils and water?

Not with those two alone: essential oils do not dissolve in water, so they sit apart from it, most of them floating on top, and each spray puts out uneven drops of undiluted oil; water on its own can also grow microbes. Make it with perfumer's alcohol, or add a solubiliser and a preservative.

Can I make a body spray without alcohol?

Only with a solubiliser and a preservative, or by giving up the spray for another format: witch hazel is no shortcut, since a common pharmacy witch hazel is labelled as witch hazel containing 14 percent alcohol, far too little alcohol to dissolve perfume oils.

Alcohol-free formats that work: a roll-on perfume oil or a solid perfume, both Category 4, or a body oil, which IFRA places with body lotions in Category 5A and which PerfuMate's check does not cover. What alcohol-free perfume is.

How strong should a body spray be?

Weaker than any perfume you would bottle, and never above the limits of its IFRA category: no standard figure exists, so start low and let your nose and the limits decide.

A practical start is two vials at 2 and 4 percent, worn on different days. Two things set the ceiling: the IFRA category, since Category 2 limits are lower, and the materials, since a citrus formula does not get louder past a point (PerfuMate's wear model puts a citrus composition's loudest point at about 6 to 9 percent). If you want a spray that lasts all day, make an eau de toilette instead.

Which IFRA category applies, and what does PerfuMate's check cover?

Category 2 by default, Category 4 only if the label clearly says not to apply it under the arms; PerfuMate's check covers Category 4 alone.

IFRA's guidance for the 51st Amendment explains why: although Category 2 targets products applied to the underarms, body sprays and body mists are placed there because in many regions their intended or foreseeable use goes beyond the body alone. A body spray clearly labelled not to be applied to the underarms, that is, not to be used as a deodorant, can be considered under Category 4, and IFRA recommends that the fragrance supplier and the brand consult on the category for each product. A product sold for several uses takes the strictest limit.

So for a mist labelled not for underarms, run the concentrate through the IFRA calculator at the strength you will bottle it. For a Category 2 spray, use the Category 2 figures of the IFRA Standards, or a fragrance supplier's certificate, which gives a maximum per category. IFRA categories explained covers the rest.

In PerfuMate a body spray is a formula like any other: the concentrate in grams, the alcohol and any water as solvent lines, and the maceration journal dating its rest; the IFRA check reads it as fine fragrance, so it is the right check for a spray labelled not for underarms. Start a formula, free.

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