Image: Design Soda

In the summertime I really love to light plain white candles in the daytime, there’s something so fresh and happy about them, but fragranced candles on the other hand tend to go back into cupboards as I find the aroma too overbearing at this time of year. Sometimes I switch up with diffuser reeds, I like the gentle steady aroma they give, but they are pretty expensive. So this year I thought I’d have a go at creating my own, it was so easy and really nice to think about the elements I wanted in my scent. So today I thought I’d share some tips with you on how to make your own bespoke summer fragrance which will flood your house with joy and evoke the smells of Mediterranean summers.

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Image: Design Soda

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Scent is so, so personal, married to our memory, evoking things that have a connection or meaning for us. For me my mental happy place is the Island of Capri in Italy just off the Naples coast. We got married here (inexpensively, I always feel I have to add!) and I’ve been four times, it was love at first sight for me (the island, not my husband!). The  incredible light almost impossible to describe with an otherworldly glow, the winding paths, ancient sites and grottos, the cliff tops and butterflies. The sea, of course. And the smell. Capri is verdant with flora and fauna and in a small monastery there, a very exclusive perfumery exists – Carthusia (stocked at Liberty & Roulier White in London) who produce two of my all time favourite perfumes (Via Camerelle & Mediteraneo) from the scents readily available on the island. I wanted to recreate some of the scent elements of these in the home to welcome in the balmier summer months and remind me of summers past in my happy place. I am pretty decent at identifying scent, my husband used to call me The Nose after Frederick Malle, but luckily for me, there are pyramid diagrams which break down the ingredients in the fragrances I love so I had a bit of guidance alongside my research on some of the essential oils to choose. 

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Image: Design Soda

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What you will need:

A glass bottle, I used one of these amber bottles from T&Shop

Reed diffusers, I bought mine on Amazon 

250ml Sweet Almond Oil (as a carrier)

100 drops of Essential oil, my ratio was:

65 drops citrus (I used Orange and Lemon)

10 drops herbs (I used Marjoram, Red Thyme and Eucalyptus in place of mint)

25 drops base note (I used Vetiver)

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Image: Design Soda

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The recipe of a room scent is usually stated to be around 250ml of carrier oil (sweet almond) and just over a hundred drops of essential oil comprised of both top and bottom notes. The ratio I used was 70 drops of top notes to 30 of my bottom note (Vetiver). Choosing the top notes for my scent were all pretty easy, the obvious Mediterranean citrus smells of orange and lemon blended with lemongrass and herbs like red thyme and marjoram gave me pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I knew I didn’t want anything floral per se but something which had the lilt of walks on hot days in the mediteranean. I have experimented quite a bit and feel the scent needs something menthol. So I tried a few mints before settling on eucalyptus to  provide the cool and zesty backdrop to my other top notes of the herbs and citrus. I’m naturally quite drawn to the top notes of scent (call me superficial) but you do need base notes to act as a background and add depth. I chose Vetiver as it’s always one of my favourites in aftershave (have you smelt Vetiver by Creed, it’s out of this world on a man) and it works quite well with all my Mediterranean notes. 

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Image: Design Soda

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Once you are happy with the composition of your scent, leave the reed diffusers for a few hours in the bottle to absorb the scent and then turn them over to start scenting the room. I really enjoyed playing around with these scents and, although I haven’t recreated my favourite perfume, I have created something that provides an evocative hit of the smell of holidays. In the end I spent more than I intended buying up extra oils I didn’t already own but there’s still loads left in them and I think they should last me right the way through the summer. Let me know any winning recipes you come up with in the comments below.

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