Make Your Own Cologne
By Shelley Stonebrook
The natural soaps and detergents industry has gotten quite creative in recent years when concocting their fragrances. Grapefruits and sandalwood lend their scents to laundry powders and eucalyptus and tea tree castile soaps have found their way into my shower. I recently came across a new favorite dish soap — lavender bergamot — that, with its decidedly woodsy aroma, turned my mind to men’s cologne. (Find out how to make floral-based perfumes, if that sounds more like you.)
Do men’s fragrances need to be the ultra-bold, musky, often toxic chemical soups found at the department store? With my smell-palette tuned to natural aromas, I was inspired to try concocting my own natural colognes for friends and family using essential oils. (Of course you can make your own laundry soap or dishwashing detergent, but that’s for another day.)