SHOWER IDEA // BUILD YOUR OWN FRAGRANCE BAR

Perhaps the only positive from my blog hiatus was that I have a backlog of some really good stuff to share with you - one of which is the build your own fragrance bar I pulled together for my sister in law's bridal shower. Tasked with styling up the party and incorporating an activity of the non-game variety, I created a fragrance bar that would address both. This decorative assembly of oils, pipettes and pretty packaging allowed guests to mingle and create something useful and personal to take home from the shower. In today's post, I'm showing you how you too can create a similar build-your-own fragrance oil bar set up for your shower guests. I did all the legwork for you and am sharing my well researched resources and experience to make your set up easy and more affordable.

In approaching set up, you'll want to focus on both the aesthetics and self-serve quality, lest you'll need to station an attendant at the table to direct guests on how to assemble for the duration of the party. Know up front that it will be helpful to have someone who knows what they are doing on hand to get guests going. But I found that a quick guide to assembly, framed and placed front and center on the bar went a long way to encourage guests to create and experiment on their own. Also helpful- create and publish 3-5 pre-tested scent recipes for guests who want to participate, but are not feeling particularly experimental.

Creating your fragrance oil blends

Your fragrance oils will need to be made ahead of the party. These are the pretty bottles from which guests will layer together in a roller bottle to create their own personal scent. To create these, I added therapeutic / cosmetic grade essential oils to each bottle filled with a carrier oil - in this case sweet almond oil. Be cautious - you do not want oils that are solely used in candle making. These may contain other ingredients that you don't want to put on your body. There is a bit of science involved in this step and I am not an expert. However, I will refer you to a couple of expert resources here and here that will guide you through the steps. Safety first - I would always err on the side of caution for a skin safe ratio (in this case, essential oil to carrier oil) and keep your pre-blended solution at the lowest recommended percentage. Remember, guests will be layering multiple scents anyway so a blend that seems very light at first will build in intensity within the roller.

You'll note the bottles are relatively full above. Unless you plan to use these again at another party or have more than 50 guests, I would suggest you only fill these to half to save yourself the extra cost. We had 50 guests and bottles were hardly depleted. I recommend you use a 4oz bottle filled 3/4 full or an 8 oz bottle (like we did) filled to half with your carrier oil. It will still present nicely but you won't have as much waste.

Selecting your oils

I am sharing the list of oil blends I created and featured at our fragrance bar and some notes on how to blend. These are presented in order - so the base note would go into the roller bottle first, then the heart and finally the top note. You don't have to use the scents I used - there are many others to select from. Essential oils have become increasingly popular for use in home diffusers so you may even already have some of these in your oil collection. Brand selection is somewhat controversial depending upon who you talk to and cost can really add up.

That said, I thought this collection was reasonably priced and offered a nice array of different scents to build on. 

Table Essentials

Blending oils can get messy so consider that as you plan your set up. You will want to be sure you your fragrance bar is not in a carpeted area so that any spills might be easily cleaned up. Linens will be soiled (as I learned) so hard surfaces like the tile samples I put to use above went a long way in both presentation and maintenance. Open the bottles up and present them with ready to use pipettes. These pipettes should remain in each bottle - guests should not use them in different bottles as scents will cross pollinate. Keep in mind that guests will also want to sample the scent before they commit to it, so sample cards available on the table (and a receptacle for used cards) will be helpful. 

Label your bottles using tags you create or those generated by a label maker as I did. Coffee beans are also useful to guests who want to clear their olfactory palette before inhaling another scent.

(Complete list of sources below!)

Packaging for Take Home

We actually hosted this shower close to Christmas time and I found many guests were creating a personalized scent for gift giving. Regardless, its a nice touch to send guests home with some swag in a pretty package.  Clear plastic cylinders (see below!) often used for candy packaging were a perfect solution. Pre-stuffed with a little wood excelsior, the rollers slid easily into the cylinder before being capped and sealed with some decorative washi tape.

The DIY fragrance bar was a hit at the shower. Just ahead of the upcoming wedding, there were so many guests meeting each other for the first time and this non-game activity encouraged mingling and interaction. It was fun, made a decorative statement and guests got something useful to take home.

Source List

Bottles - these are the ones used above, but these would also be extra pretty!

Carrier Oil

Pipettes

Label Maker

Essential Oil Kit

Roller Bottles

Clear Cylinders

Wood Excelsior

Washi Tape