Sun, Sea, Sand.... and.......Scent

With a bit of time on my hands after finishing my exams and back at home I thought I would try my hand at making some Perfume. I'm not sure how common it is for a student to be making perfume in their summer holidays but it's something I'm prepared to try and not the cheats way this time.Yes I have tried making perfume before but I was nine and it involved me crushing flower petals to a pulp followed by adding a dash of water and a couple of squirts of my mother's favourite perfume "to make it smell nice" I would say . My mother wasn't impressed. 

 

I will have to admit my knowledge of perfumery is very basic , I know that there has to be a base , a core(heart) and a top note , also a little bit about making tinctures to extract scents from flowers , herbs etc that's pretty much it really. I have attempted so far to make a tincture using lavender that was growing in my parent's front garden  and some almond oil I found lurking in a cupboard. Sweet smelling flowers can be scarce with the ever changing weather conditions. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day , I even managed a stroll on the beach and time to enjoy a lemon top ice cream under the glistening blue sky, but today the weather is far from glorious.

Anyway, enough about the crazy  weather .... back to the perfume! My lavender tincture wasn't very successful I'm afraid , the scent produced from it is very mellow so I'm trying it again , yep I'm not giving up on this one ! I have also made a Rose tincture , using Rose petals (nothing wrong with stating the obvious...) but I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I have done it using vinegar , I couldn't find a drop of Vodka (apparently you can use Vodka for tinctures because of high alcohol content) to use in the whole house and vinegar was the next best available thing . So I'm not sure how that's going to turn out . But it's all part of the perfume making fun I guess; experimentation........experimentation .... experimentation...!  


By the way if anyone can give me some of their valuable perfume making knowledge or really any advice on perfume making it would be much appreciated.Thanks.