Creating your own perfume from dropper bottles:
Methods, mechanics, and mathematics
If you are an independent creator of perfumes, chances are you work with dropper bottles. But you know better than anyone that extreme care must be taken when dispensing your materials. You know that the hand is not always steady, the drops are not always the same size, and the drops from a dropper with a new rubber bulb might not match drops from the bulb you just replaced. The more drops your formula requires, the more counting errors you are likely to make, introducing small variations into each new batch although this may be noticed only by someone with a very discriminating nose. But there is another problem. When you need to produce as little as a teacup of your fragrance, drop by drop, you quickly grasp that by your second or third teacup, this will be getting old! And are you really going to count out drops to fill a dozen teacups? There must be a better way. This just doesn't feel right!
One obstacle blocks creators from fully
profiting from a fragrance they have made
You become a professional when you start to use a scale to weigh your drops and translate your formula into grams. Now your formula can be replicated, over and over, with perfect accuracy. Now you can pour your materials from their cans or jars rather than count – drop, drop, drop – until you fall asleep from the tedium. Now if someone wants ten teacups of your fragrance – or ten gallons – you can prepare it quickly and accurately. (Count money, not drops!)
Creating your own perfume from dropper bottles: Methods, mechanics, and mathematics is a guide to making your formula repeatable, accurate, flexible, and ready for any production opportunity. At the heart of this "production power" are two essential tools – your precision scale (called an electronic balance) and the formulas for the various conversions your formula may need to undergo. From your "drops" formula you create a "grams" formula. Now your formula is standardized, grams being a universal measurement. But then, to make production of any weight of your formula simple, the "grams" formula is converted to a "percents" formula which you can then use to produce your formula in pounds or kilograms. Now you've nailed it for weight!
So now you can produce your fragrance in any weight requested. But suppose someone wants ten gallons? Now we're talking volume. No problem. Out comes the electronic balance and the conversion formula and, bingo, you can now produce your fragrance in any volume – liters, gallons, drums – required.
Perhaps you want to finish off your fragrance with alcohol and water. Typically finished, commercial perfume is a mixture of fragrance oil with alcohol and water. Creating your own perfume from dropper bottles: Methods, mechanics, and mathematics gives you guidance on what strength (proof) alcohol you might use with a particular fragrance and the percentage of alcohol that is recommended for that fragrance product.
Finally, Creating your own perfume from dropper bottles: Methods, mechanics, and mathematics follows the actual development of a new fragrance by the author with weights and formulas shown, as examples, as each conversion is made. The appendix includes a complete list of the suppliers of all equipment and material. These are illustrated on the front cover of the book and a description of this illustration can be found here. All sources of materials and equipment are listed for your benefit. All have websites. While some vendors are "not forever," updated vendor listings can be found here.
Available in soft cover from Amazon.
For article updates, etc., add your name to Phil's mailing list.
Philip Goutell
Lightyears, Inc.
