DIY Perfume recipe

Hey Beautiful

Before I begin this post today, let me give you a warning: you may sense some anger in this post... you'd be right

I came across an article recently shared in the Guild of Craft Soap and Toiletry Makers, of which I'm a member.

The article was entitled: "Organic, Vegan, and Cruelty-free perfume recipe to try this Valentine's Day"

Now before I get into this article, I have shared my thoughts on DIY recipes with the wonderful ladies in my free Spa Club... if you're not already a member, you really ought to join because you'll get my honest and expert opinion on a plethora of beauty issues, claims etc. You can join here.

I have seen only a select number of recipes floating around the internet that I would personally try. The rest could irritate your skin or cause it damage. And many come with a load of false claims.

Basically unless the person is trained to make skincare, don't follow the recipe.

And that's exactly what I experienced in the article I'm referring to today: "Organic, Vegan, and Cruelty-free perfume recipe to try this Valentine's Day"

The author of the article started to raise my blood pressure to close to boiling point when they claimed "This perfume recipe uses essential oils to get the lovely smell without the toxic chemicals in traditional perfume."

I'm not going to go into details here but:
1. When I read the word 'toxic' I want to scream - it's purely someone playing on your insecurities (or they really have no clue what they're talking about) and it's simply not acceptable.
2. Essential Oils contain the very same allergens that synthetic perfumes contain. If you have a reaction to allergens (one or many) you'll react to Essential Oils in exactly the same way as you'll react to synthetic perfumes.

That part made me angry. But it's the next part that terrified me and I couldn't stop myself from yelling "NO!!!!"

In this recipe, the recommended percentage of Essential Oil was... wait for it... 20%.

Essential Oils are concentrated and very powerful. There are very strict EU regulations regarding the use of Essential Oils in skincare and perfumes to ensure those products are safe to use.

For leave-on products (such as perfume) some Essential Oils cannot exceed (on their own or in combination) 1% of the total product.

So the recipe in the article I was reading was suggesting a shocking 20 times the recommended safe amount!!

That's dangerous and irresponsible.

Essential Oils are not something to be played with, they're to be treated with respect. But I'm seeing and hearing, more and more, people abusing (knowingly or otherwise) them.. and that's like a ticking timebomb.

And I'm not alone in thinking this. Here's what some of my peers in the Guild had to say:
"20ml of EO"s in 80ml of alcohol/water is outrageous!"
"EO if used ignorantly in high levels is irresponsible in the very least"
"Omg !!"

So I ask you. When you read an article, any article, about a DIY recipe, before you give it a go, check out the author's credentials.

Viv xx