How to Have a DIY Essential Oil Perfume Class | All the Details Here!

DIY essential oil perfume classes (or parties, whatever you want to call them) are all the rage in the Young Living community right now! Royal Crown Diamond Melissa Poepping wrote a DIY perfume book (and recently wrote a DIY cologne book too!) that has everyone super excited about making their own perfumes using their beloved essential oils. (buh-bye nasty, toxic perfume full of fragrances that cause all sort of health issues!)

I have been doing these events with my team over the past few months and they are LOVING them!

It takes a bit of prep work up front and you may need to collect some oils you don’t already have, but once you have it all done it’s easy to keep all your supplies together so you can grab and go do a perfume class anywhere (I call it my “perfume class in a bag” and I’ll share what I keep in there later in the post).

---

This post contains affiliate links.  I am a Young Living independent distributor so if you purchase a product through my link I make a commission at no cost to you.  You become part of my Oily Moments community and we will be here to help you with your new oils.  Thanks for joining with me!

First up, make sure you get the books – The One and Only Essential Parfumerie for the perfume recipes and The Pure Male Cologne Book for the cologne recipes. I highly recommend buying extra copies and having them available at your event because people will want to purchase books to take home with them!

Next, decide how many perfumes/colognes you want to make. Various people have done it various ways – some people give two choices for their guests to pick from, others do three (one from each of the “categories” in the book), others let their guests pick from all 21 recipes.

Personally, for my first round of classes I went with six – two from each category in the book. I picked mainly based on which oils I already had on hand and also which perfumes were popular among other people who had made them before. The six I went with were Rendezvous, Hint, Escape, Stolen, M, and Vengeance.

Testers

Before the class I made testers of the six perfumes. I’ve heard of some people who make all 21 perfumes ahead of time so that people can smell them all; others don’t have any testers and people just have to pick from the book without smelling them first. It’s totally up to you but I’d definitely recommend having testers of the perfumes you are going to offer so that people can smell them and decide.

I used my Silhouette and gold vinyl to make labels to show which tester was which. Melissa also sells labels you can purchase if you want to label them that way.

I have now gotten more of the oils to make other scents and have made more testers. I hope to eventually have all 21 for people to smell!

Favorite recipes

There are so many recipes that it can be hard to choose which ones to make!  Of the ones I’ve made (I haven’t done all of them yet), my favorite hands-down is Rendezvous.  It has been incredibly popular during my classes too!  Others that have been very popular: Skyfall, City Lights, C’est La Vie, M, Escape, Stolen, and Conviction.

I haven’t made as many of the colognes or offered them at as many classes but so far most people have liked Pursuit and Agenda.

Supplies needed

For the class you’re going to need

• Bottles or rollers of some sort (see below for suggestions)
• Oils (see below for a list of oils needed)
• Vodka (needs to be 80 proof or higher)
• Clear vanilla (I used this one)

You may also want

• A small measuring cup (thandy for helping to measure and pour the vodka)
• A funnel (also helpful for adding the vodka and water)
• Labels for the bottles (Melissa sells these premade ones on her website, you can also make your own on clear printer sticker paper or cut them out of vinyl like I did if you have a Silhouette or similar cutting machine)
• A dropper bottle for your vanilla (I used this one and cut a label out of the same gold vinyl that I used for the testers)
• The recipes typed up in individual picture frames to make it easier for multiple people to read (I got my frames from Dollar Tree)

Perfume bottles

These recipes can be made as 10ml, 1oz, or 2oz. The amount of oils you use is the same for each one but the amount of vodka and water you use differs and it obviously makes a different concentration (that’s all explained in the book). You can decide if you want to offer rollers or spray bottles that are 10ml, 1oz, 2oz, or a variety of all sizes for your classes.

I made my testers in 10ml spray bottles because that small size is easy to take to classes for people to smell without taking up a lot of space in my bag and are concentrated so people could easily smell the perfumes. This is also the perfect size for traveling or to keep in your purse to apply on the go!

For the actual perfumes everyone makes at my classes we’ve used 2oz spray bottles.

If you are planning for classes and think you’ll need quite a few bottles I highly recommend ordering from this website – they’re by far the cheapest per bottle I’ve found and the quality is good, but you have to order in bulk and the shipping takes a bit longer than something like Amazon so plan ahead. They have a ton of sizes and shapes of unique rollers as well as spray bottles.

I went with the 2oz diamond shaped spray bottles and they’re beautiful! There are a lot of other gorgeous options on their site though depending on what you like.

For my first class I didn’t get those bulk perfume bottles ordered in time so instead I got some from Hobby Lobby. Those were pretty too but much more expensive per bottle.

I’ve also ordered these from Amazon and they’re a good option if you only need a couple. I got Michael some of these for Christmas so we can make him a couple of the recipes from the cologne book; they look a little more manly if you’re making cologne.

Etsy has some gorgeous and unique ones as well, especially if you’re just wanting to make one for yourself or a gift for someone else.

There are lots of shapes and sizes and places to purchase from but if you want a quick cheat sheet of what I used myself or would recommend:

• These for testers to make up and take to all your classes
• These for perfume spray bottles for people to make and take with them at your classes
• These for cologne bottles
• These or these if you’d rather do rollers

Oils needed for the perfume recipes

You do not need all of these oils for each recipe, but if you were to make every recipe in the book, this is a list of all the oils you’d need.

• Angelica
• Balsam Fir
• Basil
• Bergamot
• Black Pepper
• Cardamom
• Cedarwood
• Cinnamon Bark
• Clove
• Copaiba
• Elemi
• Frankincense
• Geranium
• Grapefruit
• Jasmine
• Laurus Nobilus
• Lavender
• Lemon
• Lemongrass
• Lemon Myrtle
• Lime
• Neroli
• Orange
• Palmarosa
• Palo Santo
• Patchouli
• Rose
• Sandalwood
• Spearmint
• Spruce
• Tangerine
• Ylang Ylang
• Vetiver

Oils needed for the cologne recipes

• Angelica
• Balsam Fir
• Basil
• Bergamot
• Black Pepper
• Cardamom
• Cedarwood
• Celery Seed
• Cistus
• Clove
• Copaiba
• Cypress
• Elemi
• Frankincense
• Geranium
• Ginger
• Grapefruit
• Jasmine
• Laurus Nobilus
• Lavender
• Lemon
• Lemongrass
• Lemon Myrtle
• Lime
• Myrrh
• Neroli
• Nutmeg
• Orange
• Palmarosa
• Palo Santo
• Patchouli
• Pine
• Rose
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Sandalwood
• Spearmint
• Spruce
• Tangerine
• Ylang Ylang
• Vetiver

To make the colognes you need everything from the perfume list (except cinnamon bark) plus celery seed, cistus, cypress, ginger, myrrh, nutmeg, pine, rosemary, and sage

Amount of oils needed for the perfume recipes

To respect Melissa’s hard work in creating these recipes I’m not going to post how much of each oil you need or which oils you need for each recipe (that’s all in the book!) but I will tell you how many drops of each oil you’d need if you made one of every perfume or cologne in the book. That’ll give you an idea of which oils you need a lot of (definitely make sure to have extra bottles of those on hand) and which oils you only need a little bit of.

If you made one of each of the perfumes in the book you’d need this many drops of each oil:

• Angelica – 20
• Balsam Fir – 2
• Basil – 3
• Bergamot – 111
• Black Pepper – 18
• Cardamom – 9
• Cedarwood – 22
• Cinnamon Bark – 1
• Clove – 1
• Copaiba – 6
• Elemi – 34
• Frankincense – 21
• Geranium – 21
• Grapefruit – 36
• Jasmine – 63
• Laurus Nobilus – 12
• Lavender – 12
• Lemon – 17
• Lemongrass – 8
• Lemon Myrtle – 3
• Lime – 4
• Neroli – 43
• Orange – 76
• Palmarosa – 37
• Palo Santo – 41
• Patchouli – 8
• Rose – 39
• Sandalwood – 30
• Spearmint – 13
• Spruce – 3
• Tangerine – 19
• Vetiver – 27
• Ylang Ylang – 6

Amount of oil needed for the cologne recipes

If you made one of each of the colognes in the book you’d need this many drops of each oil:

• Angelica – 3
• Balsam Fir – 10
• Basil – 4
• Bergamot – 111
• Black Pepper – 37
• Cardamom – 22
• Cedarwood – 24
• Celery Seed – 2
• Cistus – 9
• Clove – 11
• Copaiba – 41
• Cypress – 2
• Elemi – 9
• Frankincense – 31
• Geranium 20
• Ginger – 2
• Grapefruit – 23
• Jasmine – 7
• Laurus Nobilus 7
• Lavender – 21
• Lemon – 30
• Lemongrass – 2
• Lemon Myrtle – 2
• Lime – 8
• Myrrh – 6
• Neroli – 4
• Nutmeg – 16
• Orange – 51
• Palmarosa – 4
• Palo Santo – 52
• Patchouli – 26
• Pine – 3
• Rose – 3
• Rosemary – 1
• Sage – 20
• Sandalwood – 34
• Spearmint – 4
• Spruce – 2
• Tangerine – 30
• Vetiver – 91
• Ylang Ylang – 4

Cost of each perfume from the perfume book

Here’s how much the oils (JUST the oils) for each perfume cost. This is based on wholesale prices of the oils and does NOT include tax since every state has a different tax rate, vodka, vanilla, or bottles. For the full price you’ll want to add those in too.

These prices were calculated using the Price By the Drop App (which I just discovered while writing this post and it’s amazing!). I used sacred sandalwood when it called for sandalwood and Northern Lights Black Spruce when it called for spruce. Prices would vary slightly you used Royal Hawaiian Sandalwood and/or blue spruce but this will still give you ballpark numbers.

• Solace $12.29
• Innuendo $18.17
• Rendezvous $16.18
• C’est La Vie $23.65
• City Lights $5.27
• Novel $24.15
• Hint $7.10
• Perception $19.53
• Escape $11.56
• Nexus $16.65
• Skyfall $18.27
• M $17.62
• Vanquish $11.56
• Redemption $16.70
• Stolen $6.93
• Conviction $16.38
• Vengeance $11.61
• Solo $24.03
• Elusive $12.50
• Allude $20.87
• Invested $16.14

Cost of each cologne from the cologne book

Here’s how much the oils (JUST the oils) for each cologne cost. Same as above with the perfumes, these numbers are based on wholesale prices of the oils and do NOT include tax since every state has a different tax rate, vodka, vanilla, or bottles. For the full price you’ll want to add those in too.

• Truth $14.05
• Pursuit $2.12
• Captivate $4.16
• On The Rocks $9.20
• Defiant $9.73
• Unstoppable $5.05
• MI6 $5.98
• Secret Agent $12.93
• Confidential $17.16
• Treasury $5.88
• Liaison $7.09
• Phantom $10.79
• Element $10.91
• 9mm $9.28
• Trigger $4.28
• Shadows $19.54
• Agenda $7.18
• Synchronicity $14.82
• Abyss $6.93
• GT350 $7.16
• Sterling $5.81

Charging for the class

This is definitely one of the most expensive make & takes I’ve ever done because of the expensive oils and all the other supplies. Because of that I charge $25 to help cover the cost.

I have seen a variety of things people have done in regards to charging for the events.

• Most people seem to charge a flat fee between $15 and $30
• Some people calculate the exact cost of a perfume and price each DIY perfume separately based on that
• Some don’t charge anything at all and let that be a gift to their teams
• Some provide the bottles, vanilla, and vodka but require the attendees to bring their own oils
• Some people provide the oils but have each attendee bring their own bottle

At the class

The first thing we did was pass the testers around and everyone smelled them. I also encouraged them to spray them on their skin because our body chemistry makes a big difference in how the perfumes smell. Some people just sprayed on a couple of their favorites, others put all 6 on various parts of their body so they could smell each one.

After we applied the testers we ate and chatted. I wanted to give people time for the perfume to interact with their body chemistry. It was very fascinating to smell how the same perfume on different people smelled very different!

Once they picked the perfume they wanted to make then they got their supplies and made their perfumes. It was very easy and laid back and a fun gathering!

Other ideas for your classes:

• If you want more of a class experience use this time to teach on the dangers of synthetic fragrances and share some tips on how to ditch & switch
• Have a paper with all the options listed and as you pass them around people can make notes of what they thought, write down where on their body they sprayed their sample, rate them, etc.
• After you pass them around ask people to guess what oils are in the perfumes then share what’s actually in it

Perfume class in a bag

I started doing these perfume events right before I was due with my most recent baby. They were very popular and a lot of my team members wanted me to do more but I knew I would be taking a break from doing in person events for a couple of months and I hated to make them wait.

What I did was I created a “perfume class in a bag” that contained the majority of the supplies needed for a perfume event. I lent that out to several of the leaders on my team so that they could do events for their members without having to go out and buy all the supplies themselves.

Everything fit nicely into a Thirty-One tote bag I had and I just left it all packed up with everything except for my oils. When someone was ready for the the bag I’d grab the oils that they needed, toss them in the bag with the rest of the supplies, and then off it went!

What I put in my bag:

• The perfume book
• Picture frames with the recipes printed in them
• My testers
• Empty perfume bottles
• A bottle of vodka
• A dropper bottle of vanilla
• A small container to measure and pour the vodka
• The oils needed for the perfumes

It was incredibly handy while I was on “maternity leave” and even now that I’m back to doing classes myself I still keep my bag all packed up with everything (minus the oils).

And there you have it! All the details of my perfume events in one (super long) post. I hope that was helpful as you prepare for your own events and that you and your team enjoy them as much as we have!

---

Not a Young Living member yet but want to become one so you can make some of these amazing perfumes for yourself? Let me help you out! CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED