This is the most common mishap and, unfortunately, there is not much you can do to salvage the current mix without complicated chemicals. You can however prevent it in the future. The main culprit for a cloudy mix is water. As everyone knows, oil and water do not mix together and any ingredient you use that contains water will ruin the consistency of your fragrance.

If your perfume turned cloudy from the moment you poured in the carrier, that’s the culprit. Using anything other than Perfumer’s Alcohol, Everclear, Grain Alcohol (Club 190), or 200 Proof Vodka (high-proof ethanol) will turn your mix cloudy due to water excess.

On the other hand, if you noticed the separation before adding a carrier, it likely happened because one of the essential/fragrance oils you used is a diluted off-brand oil that did not mix well with the rest of your pure oils. When you buy supplies from non-brands, while it’s more affordable, you do run the risk of getting water diluted products. Before making any large purchases from an unfamiliar vendor, make sure to test out one of their oils first. You can do so by adding three drops of a fragrance oil you already own that you know for sure is high quality to a container, then adding one drop of the new oil over it. If you can see that the drop kind of floats on top without immediately “dissolving”, it is diluted and will ruin your future mixes.

For those who fell in love with a fragrance oil in spite of its cloudy flaws, you could, technically, still use it and get away with it by pouring the final mix into an opaque perfume bottle so the separation is not visible. Just remember to shake well before you spray!

Keep in mind that our app comes equipped with links to pre-tested vendors selling affordable yet quality supplies. You can find them in the “Boutiques” section.

There are many internet suggested options for alcohol-based carriers to use in DIY perfume, but most of those don’t work. Using Witch Hazel or Vodka (not 200 proof) as a carrier will turn your perfume cloudy immediately. Isopropyl Alcohol is another known option and while it technically does work, its alcohol smell is so strong that it ruins any fragrance you mix it with, making it useless. Moreover, it is toxic for the skin. We recommend that you always stick to the options from the drop-down menu, and we strongly encourage you to invest in Perfumer’s Alcohol. It is the top choice for making quality perfume and a perfumer’s most important supply.

It is not the mere presence of water that clouds the mix. Rather, your oil begins to separate once there is too much water. Considering that an alcohol-based carrier already contains a very small amount, any additional water will throw off the balance and cloud the mix.

Make sure you use 200-Proof Vodka only, not just any store-bought one. Any other type of vodka will ruin the mix.

Essential and fragrance oils are highly concentrated substances, and their direct application to the skin is strongly discouraged. Doing so may result in rashes, eye and nasal irritation, and potential allergic reactions. Diluting them with a carrier allows these oils to be used safely.

When you first spray a perfume, the first scent you notice is the top notes. After about 15 minutes, the top notes fade, and the middle notes become more prominent and easier to detect. After 1 to 4 hours, the middle notes fade as well and the base notes take over. These are the scents that linger on your skin and clothes for hours – sometimes even days – after applying the perfume.

In conclusion, the main difference between these “classes” is their evaporation rate. Top notes evaporate quickly, serving as the first impression of a perfume. Citruses are generally known to be top notes, along with a few fruits, light florals, and aromatic herbs. Basically, a top note is what smells fresh.

Base notes evaporate very slowly, which is why you can still detect them many hours later. Balsams, resins, gourmands (vanilla, caramel, etc.), musks and other animalic secretions are generally seen as base notes. While some woody notes can smell somehow fresh, they are still categorized as base notes because of their intensity and low volatility. Base notes are the scents that smell deep.

Middle notes fall somewhere in between. They evaporate at a moderate pace and are considered the heart of the fragrance. The top and base notes support the middle notes and amplify them in different ways. Spices, most florals, and some fruits and herbs are generally considered middle notes. In other words, middle notes are everything else left that is neither fresh nor deep.

What should be noted (pun intended) is that these classifications are not always set in stone. Some notes can vary between “classes”. Lavender, for example, can act as both a top and a middle note. Sometimes this depends on the species of the plant, while other times it depends on the perfumer’s practices and preferences.

While mixing a lower concentration of your perfume’s formula might help, you should never mix water with perfume. Perfume is made of fragrant oils and we all know that oil does not mix with water. Adding water will turn your mix cloudy and will not make the liquid any less harsh since that water will literally just not mix in. (see question about cloudy mixes above)

We recommend you either try out a lower concentration, or spray your perfume onto your clothes instead to avoid direct contact with the skin. You can also try out an oil-based version of your current formula. Oil is far more hydrating and gentle on the skin.

Even better, for maximum projection, you can use the oil-based perfume for your skin while using the alcohol-based one for your clothes before wearing them.

The fragrance oils/carrier ratio (concentration) is one of two things that makes a fragrance last longer. The main thing that contributes to a perfume’s longevity is its ingredients. If your perfume is composed of mostly top notes (see top/middle/base notes question), then no matter how much you increase the concentration, your fragrance will evaporate quickly. Most of the time, when you want to create the Eau de Parfum version of an Eau de Toilette, you must reinvent the original formula by adding more base notes to it to make it last longer.

This is why you often see brand perfumes where the EDT and EDP of the same perfume name have a very different list of notes in their description. This is where the term of “DNA” in perfumery comes in play. One perfume’s EDT might smell different than its EDP, but if the perfumer does their job right, you will notice their so called “DNA” in both of them. Ergo the complexity of perfume creation [sparkles].

So think about the base notes you want to use to amplify your fragrance, increase their dose, then readjust your other notes accordingly so the two scents are still somewhat similar. Sometimes, you might need to introduce new notes that weren’t in the original. Just remember to focus on the base note’s ratio!

Another aspect worth noting is temperature. People with warmer body temperatures tend to experience shorter longevity, while those with cooler body temperatures enjoy longer-lasting scents. Similarly, oilier skin helps retain fragrance, whereas drier skin absorbs it more quickly. As a result, depending on your skin type, certain fragrances may last longer or fade faster. To maximize longevity, we encourage applying your perfume to your clothes instead. It lasts longer and keeps the scent closer to how it smells from the bottle.

Fragrances are stronger in heat because heat accelerates scent particles. If particles are more energized, they also evaporate faster. Therefore, while scents do intensify in hot climate, that also means they burn out quicker.

This is precisely what the maturation process is all about. When you last added new drops, they were likely a light and fresh scent, so they were the most prominent when you smelled the mix. As the days pass and those drops sit with the rest of the blend, the scent gradually evolves and changes. On day 1, the mix might smell fresh; on day 2, it might smell fresh and slightly sweet; and by day 3, it could lean more toward a sweet profile.

This is why it is very important that, while working on a mix, the moment you smell it and are fully satisfied with the result, you do not let it sit any longer and proceed with adding the carrier. Adding the carrier slows the maturation process and transitions the mixture into maceration.

Remember that top notes are lighter and therefore evolve faster than middle and base notes. For this reason, we recommend adding top notes toward the end of the formula (just before adding the carrier), so the fresh elements do not fade too much during maturation. And keep this in mind: the more time a perfume takes to make, the more refined the final scent can become.

There are two ways to recover from a forgotten password. The option that best preserves your progress is to reset the password entirely by paying a fee. You can do this by going to the “Paid Options” section and selecting “Reset Password”.

Alternatively, you can reinstall the app and import your most recent backup to recover as much of your progress as possible. We strongly recommend keeping a secure note of your password going forward, as there is always a risk of losing some progress, even with regular backups. Even a single drop can make all the difference in a formulation.

The app has no password retrieval mechanism because it is designed to be as private as possible. You are the only one with access to your formulas, passwords, and any other data you upload to the app. We do not store your passwords or any personal information, so we are unable to retrieve them on your behalf. For this reason, we strongly advise writing down your passwords and keeping them in a safe place, as they cannot be recovered if lost or forgotten.

Go to “Settings” by tapping the three dots in the top-right corner and make sure the “Allow Alarms” option is enabled. This setting requires you to allow both the “App notifications” and the “Alarms and reminders” permissions. Without these permissions, the timers will still function but you will not receive any reminders when they expire.

Yes, you can! With or without these permissions, the timers remain fully functional. The Home screen’s “Upcoming Alarms” section was specifically designed for people who can’t (or won’t) allow these permissions on their phone. Once a timer is set, its alarm appears under Upcoming Alarms, showing the formula name and the remaining time until the alarm expires. While you will not receive a notification when the timer ends, you can check the Home screen regularly to see how much time is left. After a timer expires, its Upcoming Alarm entry stays visible until the next time you visit the formula it belongs to.

“Get Transcript” is designed for when you want a clear, human-readable record of your work. It generates an orderly, printable document that summarizes your current progress, including formulas, brainstorms, and vendor information. This option is provided in case you ever wish to stop using the app and continue your work elsewhere without manually transcribing everything.

“Export”, on the other hand, is intended for app use only. Exported files are structured specifically for this app and are not meant to be read or reconstructed outside of it. They allow you to preserve and restore your data within the app, rather than serve as a readable document.

If the exported file was modified in any way, the importer may no longer recognize it. This can happen if the file was renamed, if its extension was changed (the file name must always end in “.txt”), or if the contents of the file were altered.

If the issue occurs when selecting the text file and the importer does not load it at all, try renaming the file using the following format: scentsagaXX-XX-XX.txt (where the “X”s are numbers).

If the importer loads the file but fails during the import process, the contents of the file were likely modified. Reverting those changes should resolve the issue.

Your notes did not disappear, they are simply reordered. When you first add a new note to the library, it appears at the top of the list. Once the list is reloaded, however, your note will be sorted alphabetically along with the rest. To view your custom notes only, tap the asterisk (*) button in the bottom-right corner.

Start by typing the note name into the empty field next to the “+” button. As you type, a list of available notes that match your text will appear above the field, so make sure the note name is spelled correctly. To add a note, you must select it from this list. If you dismiss the keyboard without selecting a note, the field will be cleared and no note will be added. If you add a note by mistake and want to remove it, simply tap the “-“ button to the left of it.

Start by writing the tag name in the empty field next to the “+” button. Then, either tap the “+” button or the “Done” key on your keyboard to add the tag to the list. If you dismiss the keyboard without tapping “+” or “Done”, the tag will be lost when you close the editing screen. To remove a tag you’ve already added, simply tap the “-“ button to its left.

These classifications represent the intensity of a tag. For example, if you perceive only a hint of freshness in a perfume, you can set the tag to “light”. Conversely, if the freshness feels rather strong and overwhelming, you can set it to “heavy” instead.

Tag intensities can also be useful in other ways. Each intensity level is color-coded and always displayed in order, from least intense to most intense.

Yes, you can! While in the Perfumes section, typing “EDT” will display all the Eau de Toilettes. Likewise, typing “PERFUMED OIL” will show only perfumed oils. Using all caps tells the perfume search bar to filter the list by type.

Each section’s search bar has its own filtering rules. Remember this trick: press and hold the magnifying glass icon to see a tooltip with instructions specific to that search bar.

Yes, you can! Simply type the notes you are looking for with a "~" in front of each. The Perfumes section search bar was designed to look for full-word matches when it comes to notes, so any word or group of words with a "~" in front is treated as a separate searching unit. That way, searching for perfumes containing "rose", for example, will not display perfumes containing "rosewood" as well. This is an example of a search query that works: "~vanilla ~white musk ~rose~lily ~ bergamot". This is an example of a search query that doesn't work: " ~vanilla; ~white musk; ~rose; ~lily; ~bergam ot

When using the Remix Lab, you can select a multiplier to recreate your perfume in a larger batch, but you can only multiply the original volume by a whole number (such as 2, 3, etc.). This helps ensure the final scent remains as close to the original as possible.

When following the mixing steps, focus only on the number shown inside the parentheses (), since you are creating one larger batch, not multiple smaller ones.

When using the Remix Lab, you can select a multiplier of up to 10, allowing you to create up to 10 perfumes at the same time. While following the mixing steps, focus on the first number shown in bold and ignore the one in parentheses (that one simply shows how many drops will be gone from your supplies). Always make sure you have enough materials available when remixing large quantities.

We offer a paid option that allows you to undo the most recent drop addition. To use it, go to “Paid Options”, select “Formula Drop Undo”, and then select the formula you wish to revert. You can use this option as many times as you need to step back through your progress until you reach the desired point.

It should be noted that focus is crucial when mixing formulas and using the app. The two must stay perfectly in sync, so try to avoid distractions while working. It is easy to forget what was added, where it was added, or in what quantity. We also recommend keeping your device away from curious hands while the app is open to prevent any accidental changes to its contents.

By making this a serverless app, we ensure that any external access to your private formulas is out of the question. Your data remains secure as long as your device itself is not compromised.

Additionally, the app offers a password feature that locks all recipes, lab access, and transcript exports. However, protecting the app’s contents from unauthorized access ultimately remains the user’s responsibility.

Exports are not encrypted; however, the exported files are intentionally designed to be readable only by this app. Anyone opening these files outside the app will not be able to understand or reconstruct their contents. Transcript exports, on the other hand, are fully readable by design. For this reason, we strongly recommend keeping any exported transcript files in a secure location.