How to Make a 10% Oil Dilution

One might think this is a trivial question…

But weekend perfumers are so addicted to measuring everything in drops that very often simple dilutions are also done by counting drops. And this is a rather serious mistake, because size of a drop depends on the surface tension of the ingredient (especially great the difference between the drops of alcohol and essential oils) and as the result we can get a dilution which is substantially different from what we intended to achieve.

And since most of weekend perfumers work with very small amounts of materials the best metrics would be volume.

So, here is what we will need to dilute French Lavender to 10% using Perfume Alcohol:

1. Vial & Cap
2. Perfume Alcohol
3. Scotch Tape (to protect the label)
4. Pipette
5. Self-Adhesive Labels (1/2” x 3/4”)
6. Ruler
7. Fine Permanent Marker
8. Essential/Fragrance Oil (not shown)

Step 1: Mark the vial and protect the label with a piece of tape

Step 2: Using ruler and a permanent marker place marks at 45mm and 50mm on the vial

Step 3: Fill up the vial with alcohol up to 45mm mark

Step 4: Use disposable pipette to add essential or fragrance oil up to 50mm mark

Step 5: Seal the vial and flip it dozen times (trapped bubble will help to mix the oil and alcohol)

Step 6: Now you can use marked toothpicks to compare the strength of the diluted oil with Vetiver Etalon (see Weekend Perfumer’s Sniffing Technique).

Good luck with your creations!