Thread: Home made aftershave splash - howto and ideas

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I thought I'd post how I go about making my home made after shave splashes. I follow the same principles for them all, especially the solution strength and the amount made, as well as the practical blending procedure.

We'll use Bay Rum in this example. The same trail of thought works fine if you want to make your own vetiver / sandalwood / florida water splash, or any other concoction you feel like mixing up.

For a classic Bay Rum, the only thing that absolutely needs to be in there, basically, is bay rum oil. A splash of bay rum oil in some alcohol is, per definition, a bay rum fragrance. Any oils you add will broaden it's spectre and increase it's appeal, so feel free to play along the lines of the suggested oils.

A word on oils and their properties:
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Fragrant oils have different volatilities. Some oils have a fragrance that will linger for a very long time (sandalwood for a year!) and others will only last for a very short time (bergamot for 15 minutes only!)
Top oils usually will last for 15 minutes to 1 hour, heart oils will last up to 4-6 hours, and base oils will last for 8-12 hours (some much longer). A well blended fragrance will therefore have all 3 classes of oils in them, and the amount of each class pretty much determines how long it will last. It is not ok to double the amount of an oil to increase it's staying power. In stead, select a longer lasting oil. Example; If your Bay Rum does not last well, add more wood or the longer lasting spices. Adding more lime will not improve its staying power.

Bay rum is renown to have short life. It is my recommendation to incorporate a significant amount of the base oils in the mix to remedy this problem.

I'd recommend using the following approximate blend:
Base oils: 45-55%, heart oils: 30-40% and top notes: 15-20%.

The strength and amount of splash you want to make:
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Now, consider the strength of the finished blend. If you are making an aftershave splash, a strength of around 2-4% is usually good. Now consider the amount of splash you are making. Usually, I will make around 5 fl oz/1.5 dl of splash per batch, at a strength of 3%. This means I need to mix around 90 drops of essential oils.

So, laying out the mix for a 3% splash in the amount of 1,5 dl / 5 fl oz:

Base oils: 45 drops, heart notes: 30 drops, and top notes: 15 drops

Now the hard work essentially is done. All you now need to do is select some base oils, and measure out 45 drops of these in a small vial. Then add heart oils 30 drops, and finally 15 drops of top notes.

Try different mixes. Have fun. It is common to start with the base, and from a serious perfumer's point of view that would probably be appropriate - but we are just in it for the laughs anyways so do feel free to do exactly as you please.

These guidelines could serve as starting points:

Bay rum, version 1 - classic no frills:
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Basenotes 45 drops:
bay rum 42 drops
cinnamon 3 drops

Heartnotes 30 drops:
clove 15 drops
nutmeg 10 drops
Allspice 5 drops

Top notes 15 drops:
lime 15 drops



Bay rum, version 2 - sweet orange and vanilla:
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Basenotes 45 drops:
bay rum 20 drops
vanilla 15 drops
cedarwood 10 drops

Heartnotes 30 drops:
clove 12 drops
nutmeg 6 drops
Allspice 4 drops
Black pepper 8 drops

Top notes 15 drops:
orange sweet 11 drops
neroli 4 drops


Bay rum, version 3 - woodsy manly pirate version
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Basenotes 45 drops:
Bay rum 25 drops
Cinnamon 3 drops
sandalwood 8 drops
vetiver 9 drops

Heartnotes 30 drops:
clove 8 drops
nutmeg 6 drops
Allspice 8 drops
Black pepper 8 drops

Top notes 15 drops:
lime 9 drops
sweet Orange 6 drops



Howto:
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Mix your oils in a small vial, screw the lid on tightly and shake vigorously for a while (in between 30 seconds and total cramp is a good time to settle for) Store in a cool dark place. Revisit and reshake 1-2 times per day for the first week, then a little now and then as you remember. Let stand for a total of 4 weeks.
After 4 weeks: Measure up 1.5dl / 5 fl oz alcohol, or witch hazel if that's your fancy and you don't feel like a pirate, har har. I really do recommend alcohol tho. Anyhow, add your oils to your vehicle be it alcohol or witch hazel, shake vigorously till just before total cramp again. Now is also a good time to add any specials. I add 1 small teaspoon of glycerine and 20 drops of green tea oil. Glycerine is a humectant and the green tea oil is great for your skin, high in antioxidants, a natural antisceptic and used for soothing irritated skin. All good stuff that your face will love.
The rest you already figured out: go have a comfortable shave and apply liberal amounts of your own home made splash afterwards.



Simple Bay Rum analysis chart:
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Knowing which oils will fit into your Bay Rum fragrance is of the essence. All the following oils can blend just fine in a Bay Rum concoction. Feel free to mix and match, as long as they are from the same class (base, heart, top) you can alter the amounts or swap them out with another. Beware that not all the oils do mix very well with each other, some oils would clash with some of the others. Use your nose as your guideline All these oils would work in a Bay Rum family setting tho.

Warning:
Cinnamon oil is not good for you. It is not to be overused. No more than 10 drops per 100ml of finished product. (IFRA limits of cinnamaldehyde are 0.05% in the final mix.) Stay within the limits of these recipes and you'll be perfectly fine.
Bergamot is phototoxic, which basically means that it could promote skin cancer if used in the sun. Use bergamot sparingly, and don't wear a bergamot fragrance to the beach/in the sun. For nighttime it is fine.

Ideas: Create a light bay rum for summer, a heavy woodsy bay rum for winter, a sweet bay rum for those special moments, and and.. - how many different bay rums do YOU need?

Lastly, on alcohol: You do NOT need any dark rum in the mix. It has absolutely no function fragrance-wise. I use a 75% / 150 proof alcohol, just because it is the cheapest strong and un-perfumed alcohol I can find locally.


Base oils suited for use in Bay Rum:
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Bay rum
Cinnamon
vanilla
benzoin
cedar
sandalwood
vetiver
amyris


Heart oils suited for use in Bay Rum:
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clove
nutmeg
Allspice
Black pepper
lavender
juniper


Topnote oils suited for use in Bay Rum:
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lime
bergamot
sweet Orange
rosemary


The observant student may recognize amyris, benzoin, juniper, lavender and rosemary as less commonly used oils in bay rum mixes. Just because someone did not use them before does not mean they do not belong in YOUR mix. There are many other oils that would work well in a bay rum blend. Feel free to add your own oils, or scratch some of mine if you are absolutely certain they do not belong in your list.

Finally; a word of advice: Do keep notes of your mixes. Blending splashes take a while, and they do develop. Take notes as you mix them so you can redo them later, or alter them the next time you make some. It would be quite annoying to stumble upon your favuurite mix, and later discover you can't recreate it because you forgot which oils you used, or which amounts.

thanks for the how-to! i'm definitely going to make my own aftershave with witch hazel as i can't stand most fragrances. just need to find some fragrance oils. any tips for coming up with other scents or figuring out your own?

Definitely keep it simple, and stick with the oils classification. (Base oils: 45-55%, heart oils: 30-40% and top notes: 15-20%.) Those are the most important things. Bay rum is a pretty forward and simple blend, so it's not a bad starting point.

If you want to go even simpler than that, you could build a fragrance around a major scent, for instance vetiver, cedar, sandalwood or rosewood. It is a great idea to build your fragrance around a basenote, that way it will last for a long time. Woods are basenotes basically, and go well in men's fragrances. For example's sake, say you want to create a sandalwood splash. Make sure your sandalwood is your dominant scent in your final mix, so you want to keep a high percentage of that oil. Let's allocate 40 drops to that alone. Then it's time for your second note. Find one that goes well with sandalwood, and make sure it's either a basenote or a heartnote. This is where it gets interesting. The choices are wide.

Some oils that blend well with sandalwood:
Allspice, Almond, Amber, Ambrette, Angelica, Bay, Benzoin, Black Pepper, Canadian Balsam, Carrot, Cedarwood, Clary Sage, Frankincense, Jasmine, Lavender, Myrrh, Neroli, Oakmoss, Patchouli, Peru Balsam, Pine, Rose, Rosewood, Tuberose, Vanilla, Vetiver, Violet Leaf, Ylang. (I left out top notes, they are better added later in the process).

So, we have sandalwood 40 drops. We need to find something that goes well with it, that will leave enough interest for it. We are going to pass on adding another basenote, and in stead select 2 heartnotes. We will make surethey will go well with the sandalwood to support it but not overpower it. For this example, we will settle on clary sage and black pepper. Let's add 20 drops of clary sage and 15 drops of black pepper. We now have 40 sandalwood, 20 clary sage and 15 black pepper. That leaves 15 drops for top notes. Citrus is much used for tops in men's fragrances. Rosemary works as well. For this example, let's decide on lemongrass and lime. Decide how much goes in of each, total 15 drops. For instance 10 lime and 5 lemongrass.

So, we just made a new sandalwood blend:
40 sandalwood
20 clary sage
15 black pepper
10 lime
5 lemongrass.

(even simpler would be just one base note, one heartnote and one top note, say 40 sandalwood, 35 pepper, 15 lime. It would still work fine.) As you keep trying, you will progress, and your blends will increase in variety and complexity.

One important aspect:
How do you know which oils go with each other? There is a lot of online info on this, I use this one a lot for inspiration: Rainbow Meadows Blend Recipe Search
You can use this site to build your recipes from scratch. Select only one oil and click on search, it will give you oils that goes well with it. (try sandalwood, you will see the oils I selected in the list. Next try clary sage, you will see pepper in there. Try lemongrass, you will see sandalwood, pepper, clary sage and lime in there)
I use this feature a lot. Make sure you search as you go along, to make sure your 3rd oil go well with both your first and your second. The fourth must go well with all 3 before, and so forth. Sounds like a lot of work, but really it isn't. You could also select say sandalwood and clary sage and look at other people's fragrance ideas.

When trying different ideas out, use small portions. You can get an idea of the above fragrance by mixing 4 drops of sandalwood, 2 drops of clary sage, 1.5 drops of pepper, 1 drop of lime and .5 drop of lemongrass. If you really want to be that accurate you could make some 10% solutions (1 drop oil to 9 drops of alcohol, that way 5 drops would equal .5 drop of oil) - or you could just go for an approximation and use whole drops.

Another idea could be to make a blend based on a 2-note accord. For instance sandalwood and black pepper, adjusting the measures so the sandalwood is less dominant. Or vetiver/rose. Or cedar/lavender. Or vanilla/geranium. Or whatever you can conjure up. The sky is the limit, and the only limitation is your imagination

awesome! that's a ton of great information. thanks for the link. i have a feeling that i'll be spending a lot of time there. i've been a nerd all of my life, so researching and perfecting is right up my alley.

it'll probably take me a while to get started, but i'll let you know how it goes and post up any recipes that i really like.

Very nice post Sten. Thank you.
Quite inspirational.
I hope I can pick your brain on this subject on the next Oslo mini-meet, whenever that may be

A couple if recipes, with ideas:

I really enjoy digging out old recipes for my after shave experience, so I can have something that matches the age of my razors There are lots of really old recipes out there on the internet that shows what they used to do in days of old. They are impractical in that they usually are large quantity - but they can be adapted to create an approximation.


King's Cologne
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The following formula is an adaptation of a recipe been published by one of the Messrs. Farina, the originators of cologne. Very old school, in other words. I have not tried this, but I did alter it somewhat to make it practical for small quanta use.

15 drops Rosemary Essential Oil
30 drops Lemon Essential Oil
30 drops Lavender Essential Oil
5 drops Bergamot Essential Oil
5 drops Sweet Orange Oil
5 drops Lime Oil
(Note that, like all the very old and close to original colognes, there are no base oils. This one also has little heartnotes. Expect this one to be light and refreshing, with very little staying power. Feel free to address this matter by adding one or more base oils and heart oils into the mix. How about a wood base with some spices?)


Lavender toilet water
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This is the oldest lavender mix I have come across. Again, adapted and slightly altered to provide 1.5 dl/5 fl oz of product with a 3% strength, suitable for a splash.

18 drops Oil of Lavender
8 drops Oil of Bergamot
32 drops Vanilla
32 drops Angelica
1 dl alcohol / Witch hazel
.5 dl Rosewater

This recipe actually do have a base oil, namely vanilla. It will last much better than the King's Cologne. Vanilla is a lovely albeit sweet fragrance. Perhaps you want to modify this recipe by adding some woods or perhaps spices, to make it more of a traditional manly fragrance?

Just remember, if you add other oils, you will increase the quantity, so adjust accordingly.
Anyways, here's a couple ideas, feel free to run with them.

This is great! you should get this into the wiki!

I am new to making my own aftershaves, so please bear with me.
First, thanks for posting this thread. It is very helpful to me as I try to figure this out.
Second, how do the scents in the oil bottles compare with the final potion? Do I open the bottle, smell it and decide if I like it or not? I ask this because the clary sage I smelled at the store yesterday did not smell good to me. I was expecting it to smell like the sage one uses to cook with or the sage brush in our mountains. I smelled something very different. I am thinking of making an AS that smells like pine and sage with sandalwood as the base note.
Third, do you have any experience using garden herbs/ leaves to make an AS? Is it a bad idea to just go to my back yard and grab some pine needles and sage leaves for this?
Fourth, can you make some comments/ give guidelines regarding the use of ingredients such as glycerin or lanolin?

Thanks for your help and patience.

Originally Posted by milehiscott

First, thanks for posting this thread. It is very helpful to me as I try to figure this out.

Thank you for reading it

Originally Posted by milehiscott

Second, how do the scents in the oil bottles compare with the final potion? Do I open the bottle, smell it and decide if I like it or not? I ask this because the clary sage I smelled at the store yesterday did not smell good to me. I was expecting it to smell like the sage one uses to cook with or the sage brush in our mountains. I smelled something very different.

It is hard to answer this question, and the question is not totally clear to me.
My recommendation would be to purchase quality oils, and remember there is a difference between fragrance oils (artificial) and essential oils (natural extractions). I suppose there can be great fragrance oils, but I tend to stick to essential oils myself. Also, there is a difference from production method, and also of course from the raw materials. In my opinion thou, nice oils should smell like the raw material.
Remember that the fragrances will alter in combination with other oils as your blend matures. For instance, one of the great classics in mens perfume is a fougere. Fougere, in it's basic form, is just an accord between lavender and tonka bean, nothing more. The fun starts when mixing them together - after a while the fragrance between those two oils will change character into something totally new - it no longer smells like tonka bean and lavender together, but in stead takes on a unique signature by itself. Likewise, one of the classic women's fragrances is a chypre, which is a blend between oakmoss and bergamot. Like in a fougere, these two oils also forms a new fragrance, no longer a component of just the two starting fragrances together.
One thing I found is that my nose needed training. I now have a small stack of different oils (several dozen), and just getting to know them takes a bit of training. Being able to pick them apart from each other just by smelling them is a skill that needs developing. I have many times been surprised at the factual fragrance from something I thought I knew.
I do think it is a good idea to start with the oils you like. First, make sure it is a quality oil. Second, remember that in this state it is very potent, and that you will be using it in a much diluted form, which might change it's appearance quite a bit. This is the way to learn thou, following some idea and seeing where it leads you.

Originally Posted by milehiscott

I am thinking of making an AS that smells like pine and sage with sandalwood as the base note.

Interesting and unusual idea! Pine and sandalwood is not often used together, as they are not recommended to blend well together. (see for instance the essential oils (list) on skin essentuals.net) (It is the second link under essential oils - sorry, could not link directly) I'll add that I use that very combination myself in one of my own blends, and I'm happy with it as well, so do not listen too carefully to recommendations

Originally Posted by milehiscott

Third, do you have any experience using garden herbs/ leaves to make an AS? Is it a bad idea to just go to my back yard and grab some pine needles and sage leaves for this?

I guess this depends on how you want to go about this thing, and what you want to achieve. I know you can use herbs and such for making your own fragrances. The drawback to this approach is that in doing so, you loose the ability to accurately recreate your fragrances. Knowing exactly how much is used of what oil is invaluable, especially when fine tweaking a fragrance. I have developed all my fragrances over a period of time, tweaking and adjusting when making new batches. This would not be possible if I used the raw material approach.

Originally Posted by milehiscott

Fourth, can you make some comments/ give guidelines regarding the use of ingredients such as glycerin or lanolin?

I am no expert on these, but I can tell you what I do. I do not use lanolin, so I can't comment on that. I do use tea tree oil, which is almost scentless and adds an antibacterial and antisceptic quality to the finished product. (Coincidentally, tea tree oils is also known as camellia oil, a product that many of us may already have in our arsenal as it is also used for protecting razors against rust). I use 10-15 drops of this oil in a 90 drop recipe. I add this when blending with the alcohol, and in addition to the perfume oils. I also use glycerin, I use 10-15 drops of this as well, also added when blending with the alcohol.
I use these two ingredients as I see fit - in winter chances are pretty high that I'll add glycerin, in summer I'll more than likely add tea tree oil. Sometimes I might mix that up Sometimes I may use both.

Best of luck.

I bought some Lucky Tiger Bay Rum solely because of the name and the promise from their website that "We got your grandfather lucky, we got your father lucky..." (check it out - pretty good marketing). Anyway, the stuff was lousy. Not really bad, but no scent whatsoever. As an experiment I poured it into an empty glass bottle, threw in a cinnomon stick, about a tablespoon of cloves, about a teaspoon of allspice berries, and west indies bay essential oil. I kept adding about 10 drops of oil a day until I could smell it - it took around 60 drops with the quantity of alcohol from the original. Stuck it under the sink for about three weeks, swirling it around every couple days. Strained through a coffee filter and put it into a Red Stripe beer bottle with a booze pourer stuck in (wanted to continue the "Island" feel of the Bay Rum!) The results were good enough to actually use the stuff.