A first perfume bench is small. You need a scale, glass containers, pipettes, scent strips, labels, a record of each trial, protective equipment, a carrier and a few materials. This page lists what each item is for and what to check before you buy it.
Documented materials matter more than a big box. If you know a bottle’s name, grade, strength and solvent, you can weigh it, record it and buy the same material again. If you do not, a good result cannot be repeated.
If you have not made a trial yet, read how to make perfume first. It walks through a first experiment using the supplies on this list.
Equipment checklist
Each item supports the same two jobs: weighing materials accurately and keeping a record you can follow later.
| Item | What it is for | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Digital scale | Weighing every material, stock and carrier in grams, so a formula can be repeated. | A reading to 0.01 g or finer, and a capacity that covers your heaviest container plus its contents. The Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO) primer describes a scale that reads to 0.001 g and holds up to 200 g, and calls 0.01 g acceptable. Match your batch size to what the scale can measure reliably. |
| Glass vials, bottles and a small beaker | Mixing trials, holding working dilutions and storing finished studies. | Glass containers with caps that close tightly, in sizes that suit your batches. Keep each one capped between transfers. The IAO primer warns against leaving a container of ethanol open for an extended time. |
| Disposable transfer pipettes | Moving small amounts of liquid into a container on the scale, more precisely than pouring. | Enough to use a fresh pipette for each material, so one bottle does not contaminate another. |
| Small spatula | Moving crystals such as vanillin and coumarin, which are hard to get into a pipette. | One you can clean and dry between materials. Some solids, such as vanillin, are also sold as labelled solutions. |
| Scent strips (blotters) | Smelling a material or trial without smelling it from the bottle. See how to evaluate perfume on a blotter. | Plain paper strips you can write on. Label the wide end, dip the narrow end, and keep the dipped end off the bench. |
| Labels and a pen | Naming every container and strip with material, strength, solvent, date and batch ID. | Labels that stay attached and writing that stays readable. Test one written label with a drop of your carrier before you rely on it. |
| Notebook or formula record | Recording planned and actual masses, stock strengths and observations. The formula builder saves formulas in your browser. | A layout with separate places for the planned mass and the mass you actually weighed. |
| Gloves and eye protection | Protecting your skin and eyes while you handle neat materials and make dilutions. | The type each supplier’s safety data sheet specifies. The IAO primer says to wear gloves whenever you work with materials directly, and notes that eye protection is often added against splashes. |
| A clean, level work surface | A stable place to weigh and pour. | Level, easy to clean and well ventilated, away from flames and other ignition sources. Keep food, children and pets away from it. |
| A waste container with a lid | Holding failed trials, used pipettes and strips until you dispose of them. | A labelled container that closes. The IAO primer advises against pouring mistakes down the drain. Follow the safety data sheet and your local waste rules. |
Before you handle any material, read its safety data sheet and follow its handling, ventilation, storage and protective-equipment instructions.
Carriers and solvents
A carrier is the medium your fragrance blend is diluted in for a finished trial. A solvent is what you use to make a working dilution of a single material. This section covers perfumer’s alcohol and dipropylene glycol (DPG).
“Perfumer’s alcohol” is a product name, not a single substance. The supplier base cited in our solvents lesson is specially denatured ethanol blended with other functional ingredients, so a gram of it is not a gram of pure ethanol. Read the product description and documents before you calculate with it.
Ethanol is highly flammable. Work with it in a ventilated space away from flames and electrical sources, close the bottle after each transfer, and do not heat an alcohol trial. Do not substitute a cleaning solvent, rubbing alcohol or a fuel product because its label says “alcohol”.
Dipropylene glycol is a solvent for working dilutions. The IAO primer lists it with ethanol, IPM, benzyl benzoate and some oils as solvents for diluting pure materials. If your stocks are made in DPG, that DPG goes into every trial that uses them, so count it in the formula.
Solvents are not interchangeable. Not every material dissolves in every carrier, or at every strength. Make a small documented compatibility trial before a larger batch, and write the solvent on every label.
Our tools calculate the share of concentrate in the carrier as a percentage by mass. The perfume concentration chart compares the published EDC, EDT, EDP and extrait ranges and shows how to calculate a trial in grams. For the full explanation of carriers, read perfumer’s alcohol and solvents.
A starter palette
Your first session needs only three or four materials. The twelve below cover citrus, floral, aromatic, green, woody, musk and sweet impressions, so you can choose a first study and add the rest when you need them. Each name links to its profile, which gives a supplier source and a suggested comparison.
Buy each one as a documented single material or as a labelled dilution. Suppliers usually sell materials undiluted, and you make working dilutions yourself. If you buy a dilution, record its strength and solvent on the label and in your formula: a gram of a 10% vanillin stock contains 0.1 g vanillin and 0.9 g solvent.
- Bergamot, bergapten-free: Citrus, top. Sweet citrus with a faint balsamic edge.
- Linalyl acetate: Citrus, top / heart. Fruity floral, suggesting bergamot and pear.
- Linalool: Floral, top / heart. Floral citrus with orange, rose and waxy facets.
- Benzyl acetate: Floral, top / heart. Bright jasmine-like floral with fruity sweetness.
- Methyl dihydrojasmonate: Floral, heart / base. Transparent jasmine-like floral with citrus facets.
- Lavender, Maillette: Aromatic, top / heart. Lavender with a notably sweet character.
- Linalool oxide: Green, top / heart. Fresh herbal-floral with pine and earthy facets.
- Iso E Super®: Woody, heart / base. Soft wood and amber with a smooth character.
- Patchouli, dark: Woody, base. Earthy wood with balsamic and spicy facets.
- Habanolide®: Musk, heart / base. Warm musk with powdery and lightly woody facets.
- Vanillin: Gourmand, base. Sweet, creamy vanilla.
- Coumarin: Gourmand, base. Warm, herbaceous sweetness with a hay-like aspect.
Several of these are meant to be smelled side by side. The profiles suggest comparing linalool, linalyl acetate and lavender; benzyl acetate and methyl dihydrojasmonate; and vanillin and coumarin.
When a study needs a new comparison, add one material at a time: ethyl linalool beside linalool, Cashmeran beside Iso E Super, ethyl maltol beside vanillin, Calone in a transparent floral study, or Cetalox beside Ambroxan.
The profiles describe odor and suggest comparisons. They do not give use levels. For a finished product, check the current IFRA Standards and the supplier documents for the exact material you buy. To prepare a working dilution, read how to dilute perfume materials by mass.
Kit or separate materials?
A boxed kit is a fixed selection chosen by its maker, and kits differ in what they hold. Makesy’s Perfume Starter Kit lists 18 named accords in 3.5 ml bottles, with perfumer’s alcohol, fractionated coconut oil, a beaker, pipettes, blotter strips, bottles, labels and recipe e-cards. The Fragrance Foundry’s Beginner essentials kit lists 22 single materials, which it says are sold pure apart from Galaxolide, supplied at 50% in IPM. These are examples of two listings, not recommendations.
An accord, also called a base, is a combination of materials that someone else has composed. The IAO primer advises noting its formula where you can, because a formula built on a bought accord can be repeated only while its maker keeps that accord available. You also cannot change one of its components. Single materials let you smell each one alone and change one balance at a time.
Before you buy any kit, check the listing for each bottle’s exact name, whether it is neat or diluted, the strength and solvent of any dilution, and whether a safety data sheet is available. If the listing does not say, ask the seller. Without those details you cannot write a formula you can repeat.
For a first study, a few documented single materials bought separately suit the exercises in our lessons. A kit of single materials with stated strengths serves the same purpose. A kit of accords suits a different exercise: blending accords that someone else has composed.
What you do not need yet
Some supplies are worth buying later, once you know what your trials need.
- A large material set. A few documented materials are enough for comparison exercises. Add the next one when you can say what it will help you learn.
- Recipes written in drops. Drop size changes with the liquid and the dispenser, so a drop count is a poor basis for repeating a formula. Weigh in grams instead.
- Expensive bottles and packaging. First trials are mixed in labelled vials and evaluated on scent strips. A finished product adds stability, packaging compatibility and a safety assessment, which come later.
- A still. Essential oils are produced by distillation or pressing before you buy them. Weighing and recording a formula needs none of that equipment.
- Essential-oil sets without documentation. A bottle labelled only with a plant name does not tell you its botanical name, grade, origin or lot, and you need those to repeat a result.
What it costs
Prices change with the supplier, grade, quantity and shipping, so this page does not list them. Small sizes often cost more per gram than bulk sizes, so compare materials on the same mass basis.
Cost a planned batch before you buy. Enter each material’s price per gram, the mass your formula uses and any packaging in the perfume cost calculator. A bottle sold by volume needs its actual mass or density before you can compare it per gram. The lesson on how to cost a perfume batch walks through the method.
Questions & answers
What do you need to make perfume at home?
A digital scale that reads to 0.01 g, glass vials or bottles, disposable pipettes, scent strips, labels, a notebook or formula record, and the gloves and eye protection your materials’ safety data sheets specify. Add a carrier such as perfumer’s alcohol and a few documented materials, and work on a clean, level, ventilated surface away from ignition sources.
Do I need a perfume making kit?
No. A kit is one way to buy a first selection, not a requirement. If you buy one, check that it names every material and says whether each bottle is neat or diluted, with the strength and solvent of any dilution. A few documented single materials bought separately serve the same first exercises.
What scale do I need for perfume making?
A digital scale that reads to 0.01 g or finer, with a capacity that covers your container plus the batch. The Institute for Art and Olfaction describes a scale that reads to 0.001 g and holds up to 200 g, and says a 0.01 g scale is acceptable. Choose a batch size your scale can measure reliably.
Can I make perfume with essential oils only?
You can study compositions made with essential oils, but they are complex mixtures with their own handling and use constraints. Their origin does not remove the need for documentation, accurate weighing or product assessment. IFRA also notes that natural wording does not automatically mean a fragrance is safer.
Where do perfumers buy materials?
From fragrance material suppliers that publish a safety data sheet and a specification for each product. These include specialist perfumery suppliers that sell single materials in small quantities, and the companies that manufacture aroma molecules, which publish records for their own materials. Each material page on this site links to the supplier or manufacturer record for the grade it describes. Those links are references, not endorsements.
Sources & further reading
Institute for Art and Olfaction: Perfumery Primer ↗Institute for Art and Olfaction: Working with Scent ↗Perfumer’s Apprentice: Base de Parfum composition ↗IFRA: Using the Standards ↗IFRA: Questions about fragrance ↗Makesy: Perfume Starter Kit contents ↗The Fragrance Foundry: Beginner essentials perfumery materials starter kit ↗Editorial buying guidance. Supplier and kit pages are cited as examples, not endorsements. No prices, use levels or safety limits are given. Kit listings checked October 21, 2026.