Summer Kid Crafts: Making Perfume

This was a craft (though I use the word "craft" very loosely) that I used to do when I was small. My best buddy and I would "make perfume" and I remembered the thrill it gave me in time for my own little eight year-old to make some. Time goes so quickly and if I wait too long she'll get too smart and grown-up and know that it's not real perfume.

We used to take old pop bottles, wash them out, fill them with water, then add our favorite wild flowers to steep into a lovely "perfume" that I'm pretty sure I gave to my mother.

Well what we did this week isn't quite so rustic but it's just as fun. I dug out some pretty glass bottles I'd saved, we filled them with water then we added tiny, individual lilac flowers. You're right, it's not real perfume, but it smells pretty for a while and for little girls it's fun to come up with different mixes.

If you'd like something a little more advanced/expensive/authentic here's the just-as-easy but slightly more detailed instructions:

Purchase a bottle of jojoba oil (I got mine at a health food store) and add fragrant blossoms such as jasmine, rose petals, lilacs, freesias, etc. The oils in the flowers will gently scent the oil and once it's steeped for a few days take out the flowers. Or, just as easy and a bit more expensive you can add drops of different essential oils in your own unique combinations to make gorgeous aromas for your toilette (and I mean that word in the French way, of course).

I had most of the ingredients on hand leftover from past projects (you wouldn't believe the things I've got hiding in my craft closet) and we produced a lovely vial of parfum with ten drops each of plumeria, mango, and omar plus 3 drops of rose and honeysuckle and 2 more of almond. Lovely.

And that actually is real perfume. Not strong, mind you, but still perfume and one that will moisturize your skin.

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If you haven't entered yet be sure to get in on the chance to go to one of the Viking Cooking School classes with me next week. We'll be throwing all sorts of Italian things on the barbey--you won't be able to miss me, I'll be the one snarfing down the pizza. Click here to see the post.

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