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Make your own Cool Water using essential oils

post #1 of 14
2/17/10 at 4:13pm
Thread Starter 
Does anyone know how to make a home made cologne that smells like Davidoff's "Cool Water" for men, using only essential oils and alcohol? (I want to avoid fragrance oils and synthetic components due to allergies).

I found a Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Water_(perfume)

It lists the ingredients as lavender, jasmine, oakmoss, musk, sandalwood.

These ingredients are easy to source, including a plant musk essential oil.

The entry on Basenotes contains a much longer list of ingredients: http://www.basenotes.net/ID26120398.html

Top Notes
Lavender, Coriander, Peppermint, Rosemary, Orange Blossom..

Middle Notes
Jasmine, Oakmoss, Geranium, Sandalwood..

Base Notes
Amber, Musk, Sandalwood, Cedar.

Furthermore, I found a page here: http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache...essential+oils

that lists Galbanum (or a synthetic galbanum substitute) as an ingredient of Cool Water. Galbanum is available as an essential oil. But galbanum is not mentioned in either of the previous two ingredient lists.

Does anyone know which list is correct?

Does anyone know what proportions or percentages of the different oils should be used? (E.g. 1 part lavender, 5 parts jasmine, 2 parts oakmoss, 3 parts musk and 2 parts sandalwood)

Thanks in advance, Fred.
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post #2 of 14
2/17/10 at 7:49pm
Hi Fred, welcome to BN! This is probably not the answer you want to hear, but it can't be done. The reason Cool Water smells the way it does is because it contains synthetics. I think I can pick out Galaxolide, Calone and ISO E Super. There is no way to duplicate the effects those synthetics create by using natural ingredients. Something you need to keep in mind is that the notes listed for a fragrance are just that: notes. It doesn't mean that the fragrance actually contains those ingredients. More often than not a listing of notes is just a marketing device used by the fragrance companies, or as is the case here at Basenotes, a guide to help the reader get an idea of what a fragrance smells like. Do you have confirmed allergies to certain synthetics? If not, then don't be afraid to use them. The odds of having an allergic reaction are actually higher if using naturals because each natural ingredient consists of many different molecules, sometimes even hundreds. This means you are exposed to many more possible allergens at once.
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post #3 of 14
2/17/10 at 8:11pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks joxer96. Your reply makes sense.

However, I don't mind if my essential oil version doesn't smell EXACTLY like Cool Water. I guess I will just plough ahead with the Wikipedia recipe and see what happens.

I know from experience that I react badly to synthetic fragrances.
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post #4 of 14
2/17/10 at 8:17pm
Thread Starter 
By the way I thought I would find out about what sort of aroma Galaxolide has, so I googled it. The second item in the list of search results was a health warning. Next I went to Wikipedia, where it mentions the carcinogenic properties of synthetic musks.
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post #5 of 14
2/17/10 at 9:05pm
Definitely give it a shot, you can create some very beautiful fragrances with naturals. As a matter of fact, at the moment I am working exclusively with naturals. This isn't because I'm against synthetics, but mainly to limit my palette of materials in order to learn them better.

A word of warning just in case you didn't know already, when working with naturals be sure to always dilute them before applying on your skin. Like I was saying, there is always the chance of having an allergic reaction to them. I had a really bad (and painful!) reaction to tea tree oil, and it was diluted at 10%.

As far as synthetics, there's a lot of misinformation out there, so take everything with a grain of salt. Galaxolide is in thousands of fragranced products, and has a safe track record. Having said that, if you're not comfortable with synthetics, then avoid them. The important thing is to have fun creating your own perfumes!

Oh, one more thing. There's a very good natural perfumemaking group at yahoo. Lots and lots of great information to be had there, plus some very friendly people.
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post #6 of 14
2/17/10 at 9:09pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, I have read that it is risky to use essential oils directly on the skin. And I've burnt myself with tea tree oil too!
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post #7 of 14
2/19/10 at 8:33am
Cool water is a typical example of a fragrance that in its main notes is not natural at all. You need an aquatic, amber and a musk part as main components. For these components only a few naturals available that still will not come near the fragrance of cool water.

The notes you find at sites like basenotes are based on marketing information from the supplier. Because the real notes of cool water are hard to relate on well known fragrances you find only some secundary notes. I agree with Joxer96 that calone is an important material used in cool water, but only a few people know what calone is and even less people know the smell of it, that is why the marketing department does not mention it. It certainly is not a kind of formula, it is simply a marketing tool to tell something about the perfume.

The reason you don't want to use synthetics is allergies. I assume that you have a specific allergy, most essential oils are filled with allergens. Can you be more specific: which allergens do you want to avoid?
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post #8 of 14
2/19/10 at 3:31pm
To make anything remotely like Cool Water (or Green Irish Tweed for that matter), you're going to have to use dihydromyrcenol.

You will find that you can't duplicate a fragrance by just looking at its pyramid and using oils. There are many synthetic aromachemicals which go unmentioned in pyramids, but which are as essential to the composition as flour is to baking a cake. You're going to have to do a LOT of sniffing, reading, experimentation and trial and error to find out what magic certain materials can make.

That being said, the pyramids are very helpful in giving you almost "half of the story". You can plug in the notes they give you, but you're going to have to know your synthetics to get the effects you want. This isn't to say that perfumers can't create anything nice using all "natural" materials, but if you want to create something similar to 99% of fragrances on the market, synthetic aromachemicals will be involved.
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post #9 of 14
2/22/10 at 3:18pm
Thread Starter 
janmeut, I know only that I react badly to synthetic fragrances - my brain goes completely foggy and I can't think straight. As far as calone is concerned, perhaps I could substitute sea salt - I have read that it can be used to create an ocean scent, which is what calone is supposed to do too. http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemis...akeperfume.htm

Indie_Guy, what you say makes sense. I was hoping that I could use a recipe, because I can't really hold a bottle of Cool Water in one hand for sniff comparisons with the essential oil copy in the other hand, since I would be progressively frying my brain by sniffing the synthetic fragrance.
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post #10 of 14
2/22/10 at 10:51pm
Well fredtheguy, in that case I recommend you to use and smell only natural perfumes and certainly never to use (or smell) cool water or anything alike it. Common perfumes always contain mainly synthetics because the quality is easier to control and some popular notes like musk or aquatics need synthetics because there is not enough natural material to replace it.

Unrefined sea salt may have some odour (mainly due to residues of organic material that degrades), but it is not anything compered to calone or the alikes. A natural perfumer would use seeweed absolute for a marine fragrance I think, that would be a better choise.
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post #11 of 14
2/22/10 at 11:22pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for that, janmeut - I didn't know about seaweed absolute. I will try it out.
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post #12 of 14
9/16/10 at 4:24am
I am way late to the game on this one, but here goes anyway. In my opinion, trying to duplicate a synthetic frag like CW or GIT will be extremely difficult or impossible, and even if you can get the smell close, your perfume will probably get much lower longevity. There would be precious few long-lasting, affordable fragrances on the market without synthetics
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post #13 of 14
9/16/10 at 4:32am
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post #14 of 14
9/16/10 at 4:34am
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Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Fragrance DIY › Make your own Cool Water using essential oils