How to Make a Floral Infusion

Invent a personalized scent by soaking your favorite flowers in fresh water or soothing oil. Using a few household items, you can create scented body oil or a fragrance so glorious it will make you wonder why you ever bought commercially manufactured perfume. Follow these steps to find out how.

Things You'll Need

• Flowers with a strong fragrance that you like
• Quart-sized jar with a lid
• Glass container with a lid, slightly larger than a quart
• 2 cups cold-pressed light oil, such as sunflower oil, for scented body oil
• 1 cup vodka, for spray and water-based perfumes
• 1/2 cup distilled water, for spray perfume
• Handheld sieve
• Perfume atomizer
• Essential oils
• 1 coffee filter
• Decorative container

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Instructions

Make a Scented Body Oil

• 1

  Make sure that the flowers are completely dry and that no water clings to their petals.

• 2

  Remove the petals from the flowers and drop them in to the jar.

• 3

  Pour the oil over the petals. Put the lid on the jar.

• 4

  Allow the petals to infuse in the oil for a maximum of ten hours. Longer infusion times will cause the petals to sour and will ruin the perfume.

• 5

  Strain the petals from the oil using the sieve.

• 6

  Be sure to press the petals gently to remove any oil still clinging to them.

• 7

  Repeat as many times as you like, using the same oil, so that the scent is as concentrated as you want it.

• 8

  Use the resulting concoction as a scented body oil.

Turn the Scented Body Oil Into a Spray Perfume

• 9

  Prepare the scented body oil as described in Section 1.

• 10

  Pour the scented oil into the larger glass container.

• 11

  Add the vodka to the oil in the glass container.

• 12

  Cover the container.

• 13

  Shake the mixture every day for a week.

• 14

  Pour off the alcohol, which should have taken on the scent of the oil and separated from the oil layer.

• 15

  Add distilled water to the alcohol, and pour the mixture into a perfume atomizer.

Make a Water-Based Perfume

• 16

  Collect your flowers. Do not worry if their petals are slightly damp. You will be pouring water over them anyway.

• 17

  Pick the petals from the flowers, and drop them into the jar.

• 18

  Pour enough water over the petals to cover them. Note the amount of water you use, because it will determine how much vodka you use in Step 4.

• 19

  Add vodka to the jar. The amount of vodka you use should be about 1/8 of the amount of water you used in Step 3.

• 20

  Cover the jar and shake the mixture.

• 21

  Leave the mixture in the sun for about two weeks, shaking it every day.

• 22

  Strain the petals from the liquid using a coffee filter.

• 23

  Pour the resulting floral water into a pretty container.