What is cologne?
It depends on who you ask:
The name comes from "Eau de Cologne," a citrus-based perfume made in Cologne, Germany. Made famous by Napoleon Bonaparte, this perfume is still in production.
For perfume makers, it can either be a citrus perfume, or a perfume which contains about 5% essential oils. Most perfume marketed toward women is Eau de Toilette, which contains about 10% essential oils.
The definition by the public at large is a perfume used by men. There is no difference in how colognes and perfumes are made, only the people they are marketed to.
What is cologne made out of?
Cologne is a mixture of water, ethanol (alcohol,) and essential oils. Glycerin and other chemicals sometimes added as a stabilizer.
Depending on the recipe, essential oils may be added directly, extracted from whole plant matter, or added indirectly by flavored water or alcohol.
What ingredients do I need for cologne?
Water
Water used in cologne should be as odorless as possible. For this reason, distilled water is preferred. Regular bottled water will still have some impurities that may come out in the final scent, particularly if it was bottled from a spring.
Alcohol
There are three kinds of alcohol that can be used:
Denatured alcohol: This is rubbing alcohol. It has had methanol added to it to make it poisonous. It is not considered a beverage, so it doesn't have the associated taxes on it, lowering the price. This will always contain some water, which makes mixing tricky. Isopropyl alcohol is sometimes used, which dries too quickly to adequately disperse the scent of the cologne.
Edible alcohol: This includes vodka, Everclear, and other spirits. Some cologne recipes use brandy or rum for added scent, while some perfume makers prefer Everclear because it's near 100% concentration of alcohol makes it easy to measure, and is good for extracting oils from whole plant matter. Vodka is pure alcohol mixed with water, so with a little calculation it can be substituted for the alcohol and water used in some recipes.
If you want to sell your mixture, use denatured alcohol. A regular distilled alcohol is considered an alcoholic beverage. This may sound silly, but by combining orange peel, juniper berries, and other common perfume ingredients with alcohol and water makes gin.
Perfumer's alcohol: A recent product, this is pure denatured alcohol designed specifically at perfume making. Some manufacturers add scent fixatives and scents to serve as a base perfume. These generally don't contain isopropyl alcohol.
Glycerin
Glycerin slows down the evaporation of the cologne, making it last longer. This is a common ingredient in skin creams, and should be available in its pure form in this section of your local drug store. It should be unscented: many brands add rose water, but this may not be clearly marked on the packaging.
Scents and Essential Oils
There are stores on the Internet that specialize in essential oils used in perfume, although some may be available locally at health food stores, particularly if they are used in food or herbal medicine. In some cases, whole spices can be used in place of essential oils, but they require soaked in pure alcohol for the best extraction. Rose water can be bought at shops specializing in Indian groceries, as it is a common ingredient in deserts.
Equipment
Measuring ingredients requires a liquid measuring cup and a dropper. Some essential oil bottles come with their own dropper to keep them from being mixed with other oils.
Colognes should be kept in a clean dark glass jar with a tight seal to prevent it from evaporating or from light from damaging the contents.
Which essential oils should I use?
While there are a wide range of oils that can be used, bergamot oil is part of nearly every recipe. This orangy oil carries over from the original Eau de Cologne, and is paired with other citrus oils, making up the bulk of oil in a cologne.
Some scents fade faster than others, changing the smell of the cologne will change as you wear it. The first to fade are citrus and mint scents, followed by spices, and finally wood smells.
How do I make cologne?
Once you have the ingredients, making a cologne is a matter of mixing and steeping ingredients. Most colognes will need to be stored at least a month to come to full strength.
Most recipes measure ingredients in cups, ounces, and drops. One drop is one milliliter, one cup is approximately 240ml, and one ounce is 30ml or 1/8 cup.
Different types of alcohol can be used as long as the strength used in the recipe is the same. Proof is twice the percentage of alcohol, so an 80 proof vodka will contain 40% alcohol. 80 proof vodka can be substituted with a mixture of two parts Everclear or Perfumer's alcohol and three parts water. Other spirits used in colognes, such as rum, are used in very small amounts, adding a negligible amount of alcohol to the mix.
Alcohol is the "carrier" in the cologne. When it evaporates, it takes the essential oil with it, giving the cologne its scent. It also acts as a solvent, dispersing the oil into the solution. Typically, the essential oils should be added to the alcohol alone and allowed to sit for a week, turning the bottle once or twice a day to evenly mix the oils. Essential oil can be extracted from whole spices using pure alcohol; this will take one to two weeks depending on the ingredients.
After this period, any whole spices should be removed. Water is added to slow down this process, and the fragrance will stabilize after about three weeks. Glycerin should not be added until this point as it slows down the absorption of the oil.
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