Welcome to the blog of èrlithe perfumes. I am Kerry Che, perfumer and founder. èrlithe began in Tasmania in 2012 and relocated to the beautiful beachside of Newcastle, NSW in 2015, where the mission to create glorious perfumes from the finest ingredients and love continues!
èrlithe means ‘shine’ in the Jersey Norman language Jèrriais, the native language of Jersey where I was born and grew up.
This blog is where I share my scented journey to create scented memories, I hope you enjoy and will stick around for a bit of a read xx
èrlithe 
Hi
i am use Dipropylene glycol as carrier oil to dissolve fragrance, can you suggest any natural carrier oil for the same
it should be natural, good shelf life, should not turn rancid
chandru
Hi Chandru,
I have not personally used DPG, but by all accounts it is great as a carrier and solvent for perfumery. My suggestion for a natural oil alternative as a carrier is either jojoba or fractionated coconut oil (FCO), both have excellent shelf life. However, my personal preference is the FCO as it can mix with 190 proof alcohol if required, where as the jojoba will go cloudy and not mix with alcohol. Some natural material will have a bit of difficulty mixing with natural oils, for example cocoa absolute. Overall though, I have had pretty good success with the FCO, with some botanicals just requiring gentle heating in a water bath whilst patiently mixing in the FCO. I filter the perfume (takes a little while due to the oil) which removes naturals that haven’t fully dissolved in the FCO. Despite filtering, there may still be a little bit of sediment settling to the bottom of the perfume bottle overtime, but a simple shake helps to re-disperse. Hope this helps and have fun experimenting.
Hello,
I was wondering whether your products could be used for in soy candles.
Many thanks
Stella
Hi Stella,
no my perfumes can not be added to candles.
Some of the perfumes contain alcohol which is highly flammable. Also, each essential oil has a different flashpoint with some being quite flammable. You are best to purchase fragrance material for your candles from a candle making supplier.
Regards,
Kerry
Hi,
I look forward to your wonderful-beautiful perfumes becoming available again.
Yrs in anticipation,
Elizabeth
Thanks Elizabeth – hopefully won’t be too far off!
Hi Kerry,
I discovered Boronia Megastigma (both the brown and green bell shaped flower plants) where I live in Santa Barbara California and fell in love. I have my own brown Boronia growing that is about four feet tall now. Sadly it took me about 3 plants and their deaths to learn how to keep them alive and well and what NOT to do. This plant and I will celebrate our one year anniversary this spring, but I still worry daily as it is a very particular plant and will die quickly if anything upsets it.
The flowers are so unbelievable amazing smelling that I have wanted to buy an oil and try to make my own perfume for some time know. I would like to take it on as a small fun project. I am hoping you can share some insight to the best company to purchase some oil from, do I buy an absolute or oil/what kind? And then any other tips on mixing it with whatever else needed in keeping the brown Bornia’s most pure scent. I have googled and done some research but I am very hesitant on what to purchase and from who…. I found Ahimasaoil from a friend who did some research for me when he visited Australia. Please, if you could point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you,
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
congratulations on managing to grow boronia – I did not succeed! Boronia is indeed an absolutely amazing aroma. It is available as an absolute and yes I would recommend Ahimsaoils. You can not order directly from the website – you have to order via email. I have found the owner to be very helpful.
In terms of blending – the boronia absolute is rich and floral with an opening of the green freshness of cassis, ripening hay, followed by fruity undertones and a woody dry out. The chemical beta-ionone is a significant contributor to its aroma. Depending on the ingredient it can sometimes be tricky to stay true to an ingredients aroma once blending especially with other considerations such as designing for longevity, it can be done, but it often takes time and patience to get the balance right. Boronia is also terribly expensive and so it is not something that you want to experiment with with wild abandon. My advice would be to dilute it and all your materials you may like to try and blend with down to 10% (even 5%). Also, before you mix ingredients together, dip scent strips into the oils you are considering and waft the scent strips together under your nose. This will give you an idea as to whether you like the combination you are thinking of using.
Get to know your Boronia absolute on its own first – via a scent strip and in dilution on your skin. That way you can pick out the nuances you love and attempt to amp up that aspect of the boronia by picking ingredients that may complement or enhance that aspect. For instance if you love the fruity aspect you might choose other ingredients that are fruit like. Or if you like the sharp aspect, you could choose another sharp floral such as neroli.
As a simple blend you could try citrus notes for the top, boronia and perhaps a dash of rose in the heart, sandalwood and a dash of oud for a woody base. This is only a “theoretical” scent sketch, I have not tried this myself and so don’t know how it would smell in reality. Also, always consider safety, particularly around citrus oils that are photo-toxic and make sure you keep them within certain limits for your blend. You can find this information for each ingredient you want to use on The Good Scents Company. As it is for personal use, it is up to you though whether you want to consider the safety aspects for each oil that you use.
As for my own boronia perfume I make: 030, it had started out as an orange blossom fragrance. I decided to add boronia to see what would happen and I liked the result, hence Orange Blossom and Boronia was born! The Boronia has turned out to be quite prominent in the scent. It’s quite a unique and quirky scent – with it being either loved or hated, no in betweens! When it is loved I’ve had customers become so addicted they’ve bought many bottles for fear of running out. My blend includes: botanical musk accord, vanilla, vetiver, patchouli, coffee, boronia, neroli, orange blossom, Bergamot, Clementine, Coriander and Basil.
Wishing you a lot of fun with your boronia perfume project.
Kind regards,
Kerry