Where to start to create your own perfume in 2026 | EP 034
The 'All paths lead to aroma' podcast is sponsored by Jarilo. In this podcast, Mariana, Jarilo's founder, explores the world of perfumery and tries to discover how perfume is made.
This article is a transcript of EP 034. Where you should start to create your own perfume in 2026
[Beginning of transcript]
↳ Welcome to 2026 and the second season of this podcast.
↳ In this episode, I'm going to give you a step-by-step guide (quick and easy enough) so that each of you can create your own personalised perfume in 2026.
↳ In the previous season, we covered the basic fundamentals of Perfumery. We learned to smell, talked about aromas and their respective olfactory families, discussed volatilities, talked about laboratory safety, and I always shared my projects with you, so that you could follow and understand the perfume creation processes from a distance.
↳ But (as I shared in the previous episode) it is by practicing, by getting your hands dirty, that you truly learn. And you have to start getting your hands dirty.
↳ We always have to risk putting our toe outside the circle of theory, to test the solidity of the ground in the real world around us, that is: you have to risk going out and starting your journey even if you don't feel fully prepared yet: you have to start playing with the materials, thus creating your own perfumes, born from your imagination.
↳ After listening to this episode, each of you will be able to make your first perfume.
↳ But don't be fooled: Most likely, your first perfume won't smell anything like what each of you had envisioned in your head, that is: it won't be on the first try that you'll get a perfume minimally similar to the perfumes sold in perfumery stores.
↳ In the worst case, it might even smell bad. If so, all you have to do is wrinkle your nose, find the situation amusing, and embark on a new adventure to formulate a different perfume, gradually improving it until, finally, the result pleasantly surprises you.
↳ Never giving up is the rule. This perfumery is an art, and all art consists of a progressive self-improvement, trying and failing and learning from mistakes.
↳ This first perfume does not aim to be a source of pride, but rather serves as a starting point. Embrace your worst, and from there you can only get better, and better.
↳ And why is 2026 an excellent year to create perfumes? Because artisanal perfumery is growing and developing remarkably. Ingredients are more accessible, in price and in quantity and variety of offerings. The Portuguese olfactory community is more active than ever.
↳ Creating a perfume represents a gesture of introspection and profoundly personal expression.
↳ The necessary materials are:
↳ 3 essential oils
↳ 1 scale with 0.01 gr precision
↳ 3 pipettes
↳ 1 150ml bottle
↳ Perfumer's alcohol or grain alcohol
↳ Paper and pen
↳ Paper strips
↳ I simplified as much as possible. And no, you can't measure in drops: we can simplify many things but not this part. I want it to be possible to reproduce (as many times as necessary) the perfume that each of you has created — and with the inadequate drop method, that doesn't happen (let's say there are no two drops alike, and this divergence would cause errors in your perfume's formula).
↳ Pure or concentrated essential oils can be somewhat dangerous. So be very careful: pure or concentrated essential oils should never come into contact with skin or eyes, much less be ingested. And your clothes and work surfaces will also need to be isolated and protected.
↳ The first step is to think of 3 essential oils (let's start with essential oils, as they are the easiest to find among all types of materials).
↳ Choose one essential oil for the top notes, another for the heart notes, and another for the base notes. For example:
A citrus essential oil, like sweet orange, for the top notes.
A floral essential oil, like geranium, for the heart notes.
And a woody essential oil, like sandalwood, for the base notes.
↳ And to recap (what was studied during the first season of the podcast):
Top notes are the first to be smelled, and the ones that disappear the fastest.
Heart notes are smelled right after, and can be considered the stars of the show, the protagonists of the perfume.
And base notes are the last to be smelled but also the last to disappear, that is: they are the most prevalent in terms of performance.
↳ Now that you have chosen your 3 materials, we move on to the phase of working on the formula's structure. Think of a base of 10, that is: imagine you have 10 slots and you have to fill each slot with a material. To start, try filling 3 slots with the top material, 4 slots with the heart material, and 3 slots with the base material.
↳ If we go back to the example of three materials I gave you (sweet orange, geranium, and sandalwood), this will correspond to the following proportions:
3 gr of sweet orange EO.
4 gr of geranium EO.
3 gr of sandalwood EO.
All together in the same 150ml bottle.
↳ Now add 90gr of alcohol to the bottle.
And there you have it, your first perfume.
That is: here is your worst perfume, the before and after, your starting point from which, change after change, things can only improve.
↳ This prototype of your perfume should then wait 72 hours protected from direct light.
↳ After these 72 hours, the time has finally come to open your bottles and evaluate your perfume. The materials have had time to blend and mix with each other.
↳ You should evaluate your perfume at 3 moments. And in two different ways, that is: on paper strips and, then, directly on the skin.
↳ So, let's go: Take a paper strip and smell the perfume. You will smell the top notes.
↳ Wait between 15 and 30 minutes and smell the paper strip again. What your noses find are the heart notes.
↳ Wait another 2 hours and smell again. What you capture are the base notes.
↳ During all these evaluations, at each moment, you should note down the traits you liked most in the perfume and, at the same time, the traits you liked least, to understand if you wish to increase or decrease the intensity of these moments of the perfume, that is: to decide what future changes you will make to your formula.
↳ Now, before evaluating the aromatic performance of the perfume on the skin, you must first test if your skin reacts negatively to the perfume.
↳ As you may have an unknown allergy, the best way to test this is to put a little perfume on the skin of the hand you don't use most often. Then apply a tiny amount of perfume to the skin and wait 24 hours to see if a reaction occurs or if everything is OK.
↳ If everything is OK, finally apply the perfume to yourself, just as you would with any perfume bought in a boutique, and thus follow the same three-step evaluation process you previously used with the paper strips.
↳ So, let's go: Apply the perfume to yourself and smell your skin. You will smell the top notes.
↳ Wait between 15 and 30 minutes and smell your skin again. What your noses find are the heart notes.
↳ Wait another 2 hours and smell your skin again. What you capture are the base notes.
↳ During all these evaluations, at each moment, you should note down the traits you liked most in the perfume and, at the same time, the traits you liked least, to understand if you wish to increase or decrease the intensity of these moments of the perfume on your skin, that is: to decide what future changes you will make to your formula.
↳ This is where the perfumer's thought ceases to be a seed and becomes a small sprout slowly breaking through the earth: this is where perfumery is inaugurated in all of us.
↳ And that's why I wanted you to idealise and create this perfume prototype, even if it turns out to be somewhat simplistic and divergent from what seemed ideally perfect in your heads.
↳ To get it right, we first need to try, try, try. This initial perfume is necessary for us to learn, to evaluate it and exercise critical thinking, and to decide what we need to do next.
↳ Evaluate the three notes of this perfume and understand what bothered you most about them, and to which of its ingredients that discomfort is directly related.
↳ Thus, you already know which ingredient needs to be changed. There are only three possibilities: increase its quantity, decrease its quantity, or remove it completely from the formula.
↳ Of course, if you choose to remove it completely from the formula, you will have to replace it with another.
↳ For example: If the ingredient you are replacing is the TOP NOTE (3 gr of sweet orange EO) you remake the formula by adding 3 gr of the new substitute material.
If the ingredient you are replacing is the HEART NOTE (4 gr of geranium EO) you remake the formula by adding 4 gr of the new substitute material.
If the ingredient you are replacing is the BASE NOTE ( gr of sandalwood EO) you remake the formula by adding 3 gr of the new substitute material.
↳ Make your decision and remake the perfume according to these new parameters, following the whole process again. So, this will no longer be your worst perfume, it will already be a little better than its previous version.
↳ Make only one change at a time, to keep it simple. Evaluate whether it was a change that brought the perfume closer to the desired effect, or not. If so, move forward. If not, go back and reformulate again.
↳ The objective of this episode is to make you lose your block, to make you ignore anxiety, leading you to understand that only by using materials and combining them to exhaustion (experimenting without fear and without stopping) can a good result be achieved. I also had that block and I've seen many people suffer from the same.
↳ It's normal to be a bit afraid of using up materials, as they are indeed expensive, difficult to obtain in large quantities. But in Perfumery, sacrifices are necessary: it's a bit like in Cooking: without breaking eggs, we can't make omelettes. Without using up the materials, the perfume is just an idea.
↳ But, in the end, the opportunity to wear a perfume created by ourselves, even if it's not as balanced and harmonious as one conceived by an experienced perfumer, is a very impressive and rewarding feat.
↳ Thank you for listening to this episode of the 'All paths lead to aroma' podcast. If you enjoyed it, don't forget to subscribe — share with friends — leave a comment — or send an email to todososcaminhosvaodaraoaroma@gmail.com.
↳ I remind you that at Jarilo we launched a new collection — the Four Elements Collection. I will leave the respective link in the episode notes. I will also leave the link to our WhatsApp community. Here you can access exclusive offers and news.
↳ I look forward to receiving an email telling me how your perfume smells, and what materials you chose to use. I want to know everything.
↳ Until next time. Happy olfactory experiences!
[End of transcript]
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