Free Perfume Formula: Make Your First Perfume — A Complete Heliotrope Veil Guide

When the wish to make your own perfume first appears, most people type "free perfume formula" into a search bar to learn how to make perfume. What turns up is often a post telling you to mix a few materials by feel, or a list of numbers with no known author. Many people follow it, end up with something that smells nothing like they hoped, and give up on DIY perfume. The first wall is not the materials but the question "what do I mix, and how much?"

This article answers that question not with generalities but with one real formula. Taking Heliotrope Veil, a free perfume formula from the GrassAccord open library, we set out in order everything you do at the bench, from the moment you receive the formula to finishing your first bottle and moving on to the next one. Heliotrope Veil is the only one of our free formulas that anyone can download as a PDF without signing up — our public sample. Before reading on, download the PDF from the product page and keep it open beside you. We do not copy the formula's numbers into this article; we check them together in the PDF.

Before you begin, keep one thing in mind. It is normal for a first perfume to turn out differently from what you imagined. Most beginners put off starting because they are afraid of wasting materials or ruining the batch. But a first bottle is less a finished product than practice for your nose and hands. If it drifts a little but you have kept notes, that bottle is not a failure — it is the starting point of your next formula.

What Is a Perfume Formula?

A perfume formula (or fragrance formula) is the blueprint that lists the materials in a perfume and the amount of each. A perfumer builds it by weighing up each material's smell, how fast it evaporates and how it changes when it meets others. With the same materials, a slight change in quantity can produce an entirely different scent, which is why the formula is a perfume's core asset.

A good formula contains more than numbers. Alongside each material's name it should give the CAS number that identifies it, whether it is used neat or diluted, the order of addition, the ratio at which the finished concentrate is diluted, and which materials are subject to regional regulations — only then can a first-time maker come close to the same result. This is why formulas that are nothing but a list of numbers so often fail.

Beginners often confuse the "concentrate" with the "finished perfume". What a formula sheet usually describes is the perfume concentrate — the fragrance materials alone. The concentrate is not applied to skin as it is; it becomes a product only once mixed at a set ratio into a base such as perfumer's alcohol or shampoo. A good formula therefore tells you both how to make the concentrate and how much of it to put into what. Heliotrope Veil, too, lists the concentrate formula and the dosage for each use separately.

How to Choose a Free Perfume Formula

When looking for a free formula online, check these five things.

• Who made it, and was it actually tested: whether its source is clear and it has really been mixed.
• Can each material be precisely identified: whether it gives a CAS number or grade, not just a name.
• Are dilutions and order of addition given: how to handle materials used in tiny amounts and solid materials.
• Are dosage and regulatory notes included: how much to use in a fine fragrance versus a rinse-off product, and which materials require allergen labelling.
• Does it explain what the formula teaches: what you should be smelling for as you make it.

GrassAccord's free formula PDFs are built to cover all five. The Heliotrope Veil PDF runs in this order: perfumer's notes, evolution over time, recommended dosage, structure of the scent, formula sheet, scaling, method, material notes and allergen check.

Why Start with Heliotrope Veil?

As its subtitle, "powdery iris beneath a vanilla haze", suggests, Heliotrope Veil is a floral, powdery amber. We chose it as a first perfume for three reasons.

• It belongs to the easiest level (Foundation).
• It can be used straight away as an alcohol-based perfume, and dosages for shampoo, body wash and hand wash are given as well.
• What it teaches is clear. Within one formula you can see for yourself why the scent you smell first differs from the scent that lasts.

In brief, the perfumer's notes read like this. The first breath is lemon zest, the dry bitterness of white grapefruit and the tea-like brightness of bergamot. A few minutes later come iris like dried orris root, the almond sweetness of heliotrope and a single clear thread of jasmine. Then a veil of powder settles, and balsams such as coumarin and tonka, a vanilla haze, clean musk and dry amber hold the scent close to the skin.

How to Read a Perfume Formula by Material Role

At first sight a formula sheet is a long list of names, and that can feel daunting. Grouping the materials by role makes the structure clear at a glance. The 18 materials of Heliotrope Veil fall into five broad groups.

• First light, the citrus: bergamot, lemon, white grapefruit, citral. They open the first minutes brightly and are the first to fade.
• The bridge, soft florals: linalool, linalyl acetate, ethyl linalool. The link that carries the citrus towards the powder.
• The face, powdery iris: Iralia Total and heliotropin, with Hedione to open up space. This is the part that gives the scent its name.
• Warmth, balsams and vanilla: coumarin, Florex, ethyl vanillin, and gamma-undecalactone, which keeps the powder from turning dry.
• The floor, musks and woods: Habanolide, Galaxolide, Sandalwood Givco 203, Cetalox. They hold the scent close to the skin for hours.

Grouped this way, you can ask yourself while smelling, "which group is speaking now?" The same method works for any other formula. Even with one you have never seen, sorting the materials into about five groups by role shows what the formula was designed to make last.

How Long Does It Take to Make Perfume at Home?

What first-time makers most want to know is "how long does it take?" In beginner perfumery the answer is reassuring: Heliotrope Veil takes about two and a half weeks in all. Only three of those days involve handwork; the rest is waiting.

• Day one: read the formula sheet, prepare the materials, make the solutions of the solid materials (leave them 24 hours), smell each material.
• Day two: weigh and mix in order. Let the concentrate rest for 48 hours.
• Day four: dilute the concentrate in alcohol. The two-week maturation starts here.
• About two weeks later: smell and judge. If it is cloudy, chill it and filter.

Step 1: Read the formula sheet from start to finish

Before you start weighing, read the PDF once from beginning to end. Look in particular at four things.

The lesson. Here is what this formula teaches. More than a quarter of the formula is citrus — bergamot, lemon, grapefruit — yet this is not a citrus perfume. The citrus fades within an hour, and the methyl ionone that makes up nearly a fifth of the formula remains with heliotropin, coumarin and vanilla to become the powder. The scent you smell first and the scent you remember can be different — confirming this with your own nose is the aim of this exercise.

The basis of the formula. The formula is written as 1,000 parts by weight. You do not need to do any calculation. The "Scaling" section already gives the weights for 10 g, 50 g and 100 g; use the 50 g column the first time. There is a 10 g column too, but in a 10 g batch the materials used in tiny amounts fall below 0.1 g, and even on a 0.01 g scale the error can easily exceed 10%. Cutting the batch size to save materials actually produces a scent that differs from the formula. If you must go smaller, do not go below 20 g.

Dilution markings. The "Dilution" column shows three materials that are not used neat. Ethyl vanillin and Cetalox go in as 10% solutions in Hedione, and Galaxolide is used as sold, at 50% in IPM. Mixing up a diluted material with a neat one changes the scent completely, so mark these three lines in advance.

Material notes. For each of the 18 materials there is its character, its role in this formula and the address of its page in the ingredient dictionary. Look up any unfamiliar names in the GrassAccord ingredient dictionary beforehand, and nothing will catch you off guard while weighing.

Step 2: Preparing materials — the CAS number before the name

The same material is often sold under different names by different companies. When buying, get into the habit of matching the CAS number as well as the name. Several materials in this formula are a case in point.

• Iralia Total is also sold as methyl ionone.
• Hedione is methyl dihydrojasmonate.
• Cetalox is also called Ambroxide.
• Heliotropin is piperonal.
• Galaxolide is hexamethylindanopyran.

Some materials also require a specific grade. The PDF states that bergamot should be the furocoumarin-free FCF grade, and white grapefruit a grade with reduced furocoumarins — grades suited to products that touch the skin. Sandalwood Givco 203 is not a single material but a base that evokes sandalwood without sandalwood oil, so follow the supplier's data for its composition.

To be honest, assembling all 18 materials from the start costs money. Each material has a minimum sale quantity, so you end up buying far more than the formula needs. That is why we recommend buying small sizes of a few grams per material at first. For a 50 g concentrate, a few grams of most materials is plenty. And many of the materials here — linalool, Hedione, coumarin, the vanillins, the musks — are basic materials used in many other formulas, so the number of new materials you need drops quickly from the next formula on. Even so, we recommend making the first formula exactly as written, with nothing left out. A version missing one material cannot confirm the lesson.

Step 3: Gathering your perfume-making tools

You do not need expensive equipment. To begin with, this is enough.

• Digital scale: one that weighs to 0.01 g. Even in a 50 g batch the smallest material is 0.35 g, so a 0.1 g scale is far too imprecise.
• Small glass bottles and pipettes: use a separate pipette for each material. Moving several materials with one pipette mixes them. Some materials damage plastic or absorb odours, so glass is safer.
• Perfumer's ethanol and a bowl of warm water for warming (to dissolve the solid materials). Do not use household rubbing alcohol. The isopropyl alcohol commonly used for disinfection has a strong smell that buries the scent.
• Labels and a pen: mark every bottle with the material's name, concentration, solvent and date.
• Smelling strips, a pencil and a notebook.
• Gloves and a well-ventilated spot.

Think about safety in advance too. Keep materials away from skin and eyes, and read the safety data sheet that comes with each one. Do not put your nose to the bottle to smell a neat material; dip a smelling strip instead. Keep ethanol and materials away from flames, and store them out of reach of children and pets.

How you store the materials themselves also shapes the scent. Citrus oils in particular oxidise quickly on contact with air and light, and oxidised oil not only smells muddier but can be more irritating to the skin. Divide citrus oils into small bottles so little air remains, close them tightly and keep them somewhere cool and dark — in the refrigerator if possible. Open a bottle taken from the refrigerator only once it is back at room temperature; opening a cold bottle straight away lets moisture condense and water get into the material. With every material, it is important not to work with the cap left off.

Step 4: Dissolving the solids and making the dilutions

The first hurdle in this formula is the solid materials. Ethyl vanillin, Cetalox, coumarin and heliotropin come as powders or crystals.

Ethyl vanillin and Cetalox are made into 10% solutions in Hedione: 1 g of material to 9 g of Hedione, two bottles in all. Neither dissolves easily, so warm the bottles gently in warm water, wait until they are completely clear and leave them for 24 hours. If crystals remain at the bottom, they have not fully dissolved yet.

There is something to learn here. In this formula Hedione is both a material and a solvent. Add the Hedione in the two solutions and the total Hedione in the formula is higher than its own line shows; the calculation appears in the PDF's structure section. Hedione was chosen as the solvent — a scented material rather than an odourless solvent — because its thin, airy jasmine opens up space and keeps the powder from becoming heavy and dusty. The solvent used for dilution can be part of the scent: a perfumery detail that is hard to see from the formula sheet alone.

Step 5: Smell each material before you mix

Anyone who teaches perfumery has you do one thing before weighing: smell the materials one by one. Write the material names in pencil on 18 smelling strips, dip one strip per material, and as you smell, note the words that come to mind.

We recommend smelling a dilution of about 10% in alcohol rather than the neat material. Neat materials are so strong that the nose tires quickly and their true character is actually hidden. Not every material has to be at exactly 10%, though. A very strong material such as gamma-undecalactone needs to be thinner, around 1%, before its character shows, while weak materials such as the musks can be smelled neat or in a strong dilution. Powdered materials such as coumarin and heliotropin cannot be put on a strip, so dissolve a little in alcohol to smell them, and smell ethyl vanillin and Cetalox from the Hedione solutions you made in the previous step.

Skip this stage and you will not be able to tell what is what in the finished scent. Smell the materials first, however, and when you smell the blend you will be able to say, "this almond-like sweetness is heliotropin", "this dry glow is Cetalox". It is even better to smell them in the order of the five groups above. Do not throw the strips away; stand them to one side. Smell them again a few hours later and you will see at once how differently long each material lasts.

Step 6: Weigh by mass, not by drops

Measure by weight, not by number of drops. Drop size varies with a material's viscosity and with the pipette, so ten drops are a different amount for each material. Only weighing lets you make the same formula again.

Weigh in this order.

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4

If you go slightly over the target, do not take any out; write the number down as it is. Trying to remove some only makes the error larger, and later, when you are looking for why the scent changed, this record will be the answer. Add very strong materials such as gamma-undecalactone especially slowly. Even a slight excess of its peach-skin note tilts the whole powder towards fruit.

Step 7: Keep to the order of addition

Follow the "Method" in the PDF for the order of addition. The principle is to dissolve the solids that need dissolving first.

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5

The real reason for this order is to dissolve the solids fully first. Coumarin and heliotropin dissolve poorly once many other materials are in, and crystals tend to remain. If you have to warm the bottle or stir for a long time to dissolve them, the light citrus and floral materials suffer less for not yet being in. If you work with the cap on, the citrus will not evaporate much in a few dozen minutes, so there is no need to fear failure if the order slips a little. Just avoid adding a solid in powder form at the very end. The ethyl vanillin and Cetalox added last in step 5 are fine, because they are already fully dissolved in Hedione — which is exactly why these two are made into solutions in advance.

Step 8: How Long Does Homemade Perfume Need to Mature?

Maturation comes in two stages. The first is resting the concentrate. Once everything is in, stir gently, close the cap and leave it somewhere cool and dark for 48 hours. This is when the materials first begin to blend.

To make a perfume, mix 15 g of concentrate into 85 g of perfumer's alcohol. That is 15% concentrate, within the range commercial perfumes commonly call eau de parfum. Standards differ slightly by country and brand, so take this only as a rough guide. You do not need to turn the whole 50 g of concentrate into perfume. For example, 7.5 g of concentrate with 42.5 g of alcohol makes one 50 g bottle of perfume, and the remaining concentrate can be tightly closed and kept for later. For shampoo, body wash and hand wash, mix 1 g of concentrate into 99 g of unfragranced base. Notice how differently the same concentrate is diluted depending on its use.

The second stage is maturation after dilution. Judge a perfume after two weeks and a wash after one. The smell right after mixing is not the finished scent. It takes time for materials that sat apart to bind into one scent and for the sharp edges to round off. Opening the bottle often during maturation lets the light citrus escape, so open it only briefly to smell and close it straight away.

A matured perfume may look slightly cloudy. This happens because some components of natural materials such as citrus oils do not dissolve well in alcohol; it is not a failure. In this case many perfumers chill the perfume in the refrigerator for about a day and then filter it through laboratory filter paper to make it clear. A coffee filter can be used, but it may absorb a little of the scent, so filter paper is better. This is not a step in the Heliotrope Veil PDF but a commonly used method; try it only if clarity matters to you.

Step 9: Smell and take notes

The "Evolution over time" page of the PDF shows, on a smelling strip, the citrus light, the iris and heliotrope powder, the tonka and vanilla, and the musk, sandalwood and amber following one after another. It is not a measurement but the perfumer's notes drawn as a picture, so now it is your nose's turn to check.

After dipping a strip, jot down the smell immediately, after 10 minutes, after an hour, after four hours and the next day. Words that come to mind, such as "fresh, slightly bitter" or "almond-like powder", are enough. It is fine if your descriptions are clumsy at first. As notes accumulate, your nose develops its own language. Then answer the lesson's questions.

• In the first few minutes, how strong does the citrus feel?
• After an hour, is the citrus still there, or has the powder taken its place?
• What remains on the strip the next day?

Laying out your notebook on one page like this makes later comparison easy.

• At the top: formula name, date made, batch size, dilution ratio.
• Weighing record: the target weight and the weight actually added for each material.
• Smelling record: the words that came to mind by date and time, and your answers to the lesson's questions.
• At the bottom: one thing you would like to change next time.

There is also a small experiment that shows the lesson more clearly. Alongside the finished perfume, dip two more strips, one in bergamot oil and one in Iralia Total. Then smell the three side by side at the same intervals. As time passes you will see the bergamot strip weaken markedly while the Iralia Total strip holds on. What remains on the finished perfume's strip is explained between those two. It is a way to confirm the lesson without changing the formula.

If the citrus, the largest by quantity, disappears first and the smaller powder stays to the end, you have learned the lesson by hand.

A tired nose perceives smells poorly, so do not smell too many strips at once, and take breaks along the way. And once you have done the skin check (see "Before you use it" below), smell it on your skin as well. On skin, body heat makes the same scent bloom faster, and how long it lasts and how it comes across differ from the strip. It helps to write your skin notes next to your strip notes.

If there was something you did not like, make the same formula once more before changing it, to see whether you get the same result. You need to tell a weighing error from the character of the formula before you can find what to fix.

Moments that often throw first-time makers

There are scenes many beginners go through. Knowing them in advance keeps you calm, and fewer good bottles get thrown away on a wrong judgement.

"After mixing it into alcohol, all I smell is citrus." It often happens that the concentrate smelled balanced, but once diluted in alcohol only the lemon and bergamot leap out. With Heliotrope Veil this is especially so, because citrus is the largest group by quantity. It is not a failure but exactly the scene this formula means to show; after maturation and with time, the powder settles in. Judge again after the two weeks, and again on the strip a few hours later.

"The scent got weaker after a few days." Sometimes a scent that lasted well for the first few days suddenly seems to vanish quickly. Far more often than the scent spoiling, your nose has simply tired of smelling the same scent over and over. Before deciding it is ruined, take a day off from the scent and smell it again on clean skin and a fresh strip.

"It doesn't smell like the description." Phrases in the material notes such as "almond-like powder" or "dry amber" are smells put into words. They may come across differently to your nose, especially with materials you are smelling for the first time. Before concluding that the wrong material was sent, dilute it, smell it again over time and record it in your own words. Writing down that difference is how you train your nose.

"I can't smell the musk." It is not unusual for people to have trouble smelling certain musks. If you can barely detect Habanolide or Galaxolide, it may not be because the material is weak or the formula has a gap. Even if your nose does not catch it well, it is still doing its job of holding the scent close to the skin. Check what remains on the strip the next day.

"It came out well by chance, but I can't make it again." It is very common among beginners that a batch where they added a little extra of something without noting it turns out to be the best. That is why you keep a weighing record every time, tedious as it is. A happy accident can only be repeated if it was recorded.

How to Store Homemade Perfume

Store matured perfume away from light and heat. Avoid places where temperature and humidity change often, such as a sunny windowsill or the bathroom. Keep the bottle tightly closed, and prefer a small bottle that fits the quantity over a large one full of air. The more air in the bottle, the more easily the light materials escape and the scent changes.

The PDF's material notes say that a formula containing ethyl vanillin may darken slightly in colour over time. If the colour changes but the scent stays the same, it is a natural change. If you dip a strip of your stored perfume and take notes every few weeks or months, you can see how the same scent matures over time.

Before you use it: regulations and a skin check

There are regulations to know before you wear or give away a perfume you have made. The end of the Heliotrope Veil PDF lists the materials subject to EU allergen labelling and whether each must be labelled at 15% in a perfume and at 1% in a wash. It also states that materials with EU usage limits, such as citral, stay within those limits at these dosages. Standards vary by country, so check the standard for your country again in the ingredient dictionary and in official sources.

Selling is a different matter. To sell a perfume you have made, allergen labelling alone is not enough; in most countries there are separate rules a cosmetic product must meet (product safety assessment, registration of a responsible person or seller, labelling requirements and so on). If you are thinking of selling, check your country's cosmetic sales regulations first.

And before putting a perfume you have made on your skin for the first time, do a skin check: apply a little to the inside of your arm and watch it for about a day. If it turns red or itchy, do not use it. When giving it as a gift, it is good to recommend the same check to the recipient.

Common mistakes the first time

• Swapping a dilution for a neat material: in this formula, that means the ethyl vanillin and Cetalox solutions and the Galaxolide. Labels are the answer.
• Adding solids before they have fully dissolved: crystals that settle at the bottom are as good as not in the scent.
• Moving several materials with one pipette: even slight contamination stays in the scent.
• Measuring by drops: the same number of drops weighs differently for each material.
• Adding a powdered solid last: once many other materials are in, it dissolves poorly and crystals remain. Solutions prepared in advance are fine.
• Mixing straight away without smelling each material: you will not be able to tell what is what in the finished scent.
• Throwing it away because it is cloudy: this is common with natural oils. Chill it and try filtering.
• Judging right after mixing: please wait two weeks.
• Making it without notes: you will be unable to find why it worked or why it did not.

Free Perfume Formula: Frequently Asked Questions

Is the perfume formula really free?

The Heliotrope Veil public sample can be downloaded as a PDF by anyone, without signing up. The other Vetiver Membership formulas are given to members with coupons, and with a coupon they cost $0. Membership is free, and on your first day as a member you can receive up to 6 coupons ($210 worth).

Can a complete beginner make perfume at home?

Yes. Heliotrope Veil is a formula at the easiest level, and the PDF gives both the order of addition and the dosages. Follow the steps in this article and you can finish it even as a complete beginner.

Where can I buy perfume materials?

You can buy them from specialist suppliers of fragrance materials. When buying, match the CAS number and grade (bergamot FCF and so on) rather than the name. For every material you can check its character and regulations in advance on its ingredient dictionary page.

How much perfume concentrate should I make?

The first time, use the 50 g column in the PDF. At 10 g the error on materials used in tiny amounts becomes too large. A 50 g concentrate used at 15% in perfume makes several bottles, so you can dilute part of it and keep the rest.

Does homemade perfume need to mature?

Yes. Right after mixing, the materials have not yet blended. Wait two weeks for a perfume and one week for a wash before judging.

Can I use the fragrance in other products?

Besides an alcohol-based perfume, Heliotrope Veil can be used in rinse-off products such as shampoo, body wash and hand wash, with separate dosages given. When using it in another product, first check the dosage and regulations suited to that product.

What if the scent seems different from the PDF description?

First check whether you completed the maturation period, whether you swapped a dilution for a neat material, and whether your weighing record shows any material that went well over. A different supplier or grade can also change the scent. If you make the same formula again and get the same result, recording that difference is itself good study.

May I change the formula as I like?

Of course. But we recommend making it exactly as written the first time to set a reference, then changing one thing at a time from the second batch on. Only with a reference can you tell what each change actually changed.

May I share the public sample PDF with others?

The Heliotrope Veil public sample is a formula published so that anyone can download it. If you have a friend who would like to start perfumery with you, give them the address of the product page. They can always download the latest edition there.

On to the next formula

Once you have made Heliotrope Veil as written, the next step is to make another formula alongside it. Smelling two formulas together, you begin to see how the whole changes when a single material changes. Each material page in the ingredient dictionary lists the Vetiver Membership formulas in which that material is a key ingredient, so you can also choose your next formula starting from a material you liked this time.

After making a few formulas as written, you can try small changes based on your own notes. At that point, the notebook you kept this time becomes your reference. Only with the weighing and smelling records of your first batch can you compare whether a modified batch is really better.

Scent is a universal language. Whatever language you think in, with a nose, a scale, a notebook and one well-made formula sheet, you can make your own perfume at home starting today.

See also: Download the Heliotrope Veil free formula PDF · Guide to free perfume formulas · GrassAccord ingredient dictionary