I Made My Own Custom Perfume

Over the weekend, I crossed one more thing off the bucket list and made my own custom perfume at KleanSpa in Burbank on Magnolia Blvd. The whole experience exceeded my expectations! At the end of the day, I went home with a perfume I not only loved, but was proud of for creating myself (with the help of the lovely Dallas, of course – more on that later).

Of course, creating custom scents for customers isn’t all that Kleanspa does. They’re also a store! They sell shea butters, soap, perfume, jewelry, and more trinkets in the similar vein. The vibe in the store was really relaxing, and I’ve got to say, they had an awesome playlist. I was feeling it for sure! Dallas, the woman who was helping me, is very knowledgeable about scents. She told me what to expect before getting started. First, she wanted me to think about what scents make me happy. I told her that I loved floral scents, citrus scents, and scents that may remind me of the ocean. I also told her I LOVE lighting my pine tree candles around Christmas and how that smell makes me happy, but it’s not something I want to wear on my skin! She laughed and said she totally understood. We started with a peony scent since I told her those were my favorite flowers. I liked the scent, but I noted how it didn’t smell exactly like my fresh peonies in my apartment. She mentioned that was because the smell was concentrated.

Dallas kept handing me new scents to smell, withholding the name of the scent until after I smelled it, so as to not affect my decision on whether or not I liked it. If I started to go nose blind, there was a jar of coffee beans for me to sniff and “cleanse my palette”. I was surprised how well that worked! Dallas told me we wanted to shoot for roughly 7-10 scents to mix together, but no more than that. She mentioned that any more than that, you’d start to lose other scents in the perfume completely, as if you had never put them in at all in the first place. She started me off with some base smells. It was between “Sandalwood” and “Masculine Musk”. I was surprised my nose picked the musk! I was also skeptical to hear that we were using a very masculine smell for the base, but Dallas mentioned that most perfumes are made that way and I trusted her (spoiler: I was right to do so!)

We sniffed for quite a while until we came to my final picks. I surprised myself by not liking any of the ocean scents she handed me. She opted for a “Rain” scent instead, and that one I liked – into the perfume it went! I had also mentioned earlier that I loved the smell of vanilla extract in baking, but I hated it in candles. She had me smell a few vanilla scents and we landed on “Vanilla Mandarin Bourbon”. I liked it, because it didn’t smell too much like candy and had a hint of that orange kind of smell. I knew this would work well since I had already picked “Orange Blossom”. Once I had all of my choices, Dallas started mixing. She started with my base scents, and slowly started adding. She picked the order of what scents went in first, which I was totally okay with – she is the expert! Some scents were stronger than others, so those typically went in first. “One drop changes everything,” Dallas said as she counted drops of “Peony”. To my surprise, we only put in maybe 3 drops of that scent.

Every time Dallas added a new scent, she passed it to me to smell so I could tell her to add more of the scent she had just added or if I felt okay with it as is. We would then move onto the next scent. Once all the scents were in, I smelled it again, and we went back and added a few more drops here and there. I had her go back and add more “Orange Blossom” and just a smidge more “Bergamot”. Below you can see all the scents I put into my final perfume. The order we put them in was from screen right to screen left.

Once we were happy with how it smelled indoors, Dallas put a bit of the perfume on a paper strip and a bit on my arm. She said that it would smell different on my skin than it would on paper or just right out of the bottle, so she wanted me to compare and make sure I was happy. She also had Shelby and I step outside to smell it in the fresh air where we wouldn’t possibly be tricked by other surrounding perfumes. I smelled the paper and my wrist and saw that she was right – there is a subtle difference. I was very happy with the smell though, so I came back in and proclaimed we were done! Dallas started mixing enough perfume to fit in the bottle while Shelby and I explored the store. Dallas allowed us to come behind the counter and look at all their perfumes. Shelby wouldn’t stop smelling the fig scents, haha! It’s her favorite smell, apparently.

Once Dallas was done counting drops, we had to come up with a name! The three of us brainstormed for a while. Dallas told us about clients from earlier in the day and what they called their scents. One girl named hers “Beautiful Mistake” and someone else named theirs “Dirty Hoe”. I joked that we knew she’d be going to the clubs that night and Dallas said that actually, a guy named his cologne that, not a girl! I then said, “Oh, then we know who he’s trying to attract,” and Dallas burst out laughing. We thought long and hard about my name, but my main takeaway was that the final scent was a soft fruity scent. I thought of vineyards, but then switched to orchards, and Dallas mentioned “Spring”. We named the scent “Spring Orchard” and I think it really captures the smell! Dallas said she liked the name, because you could visualize the smell.

The green pouch above was the one I went home with, but Dallas knows the importance of a good Instagram photo, so she offered up the purple pouch too in case the green was too dark. She is a SWEETHEART! I loved working with her. Dallas was such a sweetheart, in fact, that when she realized she accidentally made a bit too much of my perfume, she offered to mix it into a plain shea butter and give it to me for free!! She then packaged everything up beautifully in a little white bag. Wait, though… she gets even better! She told Shelby that for being such a good friend to me and helping me with my perfume, she’d give her a little something. She gave Shelby a peacock feather to hang in her car and she sprayed it with Shelby’s favorite fig scent. How sweet is that???

So for those of you who live in the LA area and are considering making your own perfume (even if you don’t live in the LA area!), here are a few of my takeaways from the whole experience:

1. Definitely check out Kleanspa and ask for Dallas! She is AMAZING! So sweet, professional, and knowledgeable.
2. Trust the process. Sometimes you’ll smell some things that you don’t think they will go together, but the associates know what they’re doing! It all blends so well in the end.
3. If you’re looking to have a unique party, have a perfume-making party! Dallas mentioned that earlier in the day they had a big party in there making perfume. How fun is that?
4. If you’re looking for a unique gift, this could be perfect! The fact that you make it yourself also makes it so personal between the two of you.
5. They don’t just make perfume, they make cologne too! So don’t be afraid to bring your boyfriend in to make something while you make your perfume. Shelby is already planning on taking her boyfriend, Grant, there to make his own.

Have you ever made your own perfume before? Or do you want to try it? Let me know in the comments below!