Some Creeds

[churchilllafemme]

Ask and ye shall receive. Today I got some Creed fragrances from another kind forum member. I'm going to try - carefully, so as not to waste - to convert small amounts of a couple of them to aftershaves. If that doesn't work well, I'll end up using the fragrances sprayed on my shirt collars, because my skin doesn't tolerate the high concentration of essential oils (12-25% in all their millesime fragrances, according to Creed).


And from eBay I also got this bottle of glycerine, which is used in the Creed conversion recipe, along with witch hazel and unscented balm.

[Squire]

That's ambitious John, I applaud your level of commitment.

[Craig_From_Cincy]

great haul John! Would you care to share the conversion recipe with us?

[bernards66]

John, Well, have fun with the home chemistry experiment ( chuckle ). It's probably just as well that almost none of the currently available Creed fragrances appeal to me, given their prices today. For me they were always really beyond the pale price-wise but I did ante up for their Bois du Portugal and managed to weasal some Cuir de Russie from some member here, but on the whole they have never been my thing. I would love to smell some of the scents that they offered say 50-100 years ago though.
Regards,
Gordon

[Squire]

John doesn't mess around with cheap ingredients does he?

[churchilllafemme]

This is the recipe I'm going to try. It was adapted from one for cologne to take into account the higher EO concentration of the eau de parfum. Wish me luck.

10% eau de parfum (12-15% EO) 1 part
54% glycerine 5 parts
18% unscented aftershave balm/milk 2 parts
9% pure aloe vera gel 1 part
9% witch hazel 1 part

[churchilllafemme]

I would love to smell some of the scents that they offered say 50-100 years ago though.

I would, too. With those I probably wouldn't experiment. I'd just spray the air and walk through it.

[Craig_From_Cincy]

John, that recipe looks interesting. For its base it uses pure eau de parfum, which contains a higher percentage of pure fragrance oils than either cologne or EdT. Just curious how you might proceed with those Creed scents? I'd like to do this myself hence my questions.

[churchilllafemme]

John, that recipe looks interesting. For its base it uses pure eau de parfum, which contains a higher percentage of pure fragrance oils than either cologne or EdT. Just curious how you might proceed with those Creed scents? I'd like to do this myself hence my questions.

Initially I'm going to try this recipe the way it is. "Eau de parfum" is said to be 8-15% EO typically, while "perfume" is 15-30%. According to a Creed representative, all of their millesime fragrances for men have a concentration of 12-25%. The original recipe, before I adapted it, called for 50% cologne, which has an EO concentration of 2-5%.

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Thanks John, that sounds like more than enough strength to work. What do you think about using something like Lily of the Desert 99% Aloe Vera Gelly for this recipe? Drug store witch hazel or Thayer's unscented?? and lastly, which AS Milk/balm? I would guess that you would want to use products that are as unscented and as pure as possible.

[churchilllafemme]

Thanks John, that sounds like more than enough strength to work. What do you think about using something like Lily of the Desert 99% Aloe Vera Gelly for this recipe? Drug store witch hazel or Thayer's unscented?? and lastly, which AS Milk/balm? I would guess that you would want to use products that are as unscented and as pure as possible.

My plan is to use Enchanted Waters "100% pure" aloe vera gel, unscented Thayer's witch hazel, and Taconic unscented aftershave balm. After getting the Millesime information from Creed, it occurred to me that it may not actually apply to the "non-Millesime" men's fragrances (such as my GIT, Himalaya, Original Santal, and Silver Mountain Water), so I have written to them again to clarify what the EO concentration is. I've also realized that measuring the volume of fragrance from a spray bottle is going to be somewhat difficult. Ah, these chemistry experiments....

[Squire]

You forgot the whisky John, a vital part of hobbyist experimentation.

[Craig_From_Cincy]

John, I just checked out Taconic After Shave and it looks fantastic:

http://www.amazon.com/Taconic-Shave-Uns ... 842&sr=1-6

it looks like the type of quality that Art Of Shaving makes with their excellent after shave gels and balms, but at half the price. I just ordered it. Thanks for the heads up!

[churchilllafemme]

A Creed representative told me on the telephone this morning that all of their men's fragrances have aromatic compound concentrations that put them into the eau de parfum range (10-20%, typically around 15%). My aloe vera gel (actually a thick liquid) has arrived, so today I'll try mixing up an aftershave, using the basic formula C1V1 = C2V2. I'll start with 10ml (V1) of the 15% stock (C1) and mix it with 45ml of the diluent concoction to give a final volume (V2) of 55ml with a concentration (C2) of about 2.7%, pretty typical for aftershaves. The diluent will be made up of 25ml glycerine, 10ml balm or distilled water, 5ml aloe, and 5ml witch hazel (those proportions based on a recipe I found somewhere here on one of the forums). Since I'm not adding more alcohol, I won't have to age the final product before using it.
Stay tuned.

[churchilllafemme]

Well, I mixed up some Himalaya and some Original Santal, about 55ml of each. They smell great in the bottles. I'll try them as splash aftershaves in the next few days.

[churchilllafemme]

I tried the homemade Himalaya aftershave lotion for the first time this morning. It was actually pretty soothing and smells excellent. Now we'll just have to see how long the scent lasts and whether or not it causes itching or rash.
Science is fun, Mr. Wizard.

[churchilllafemme]

The Himalaya had a great scent that lasted 2-3 hours, and it caused no skin irritation at all. It is quite liquid and light, partially because I used distilled water instead of unscented balm this time. Tomorrow I'll try the Original Santal, which I made the same way. For future batches I may try using the balm to thicken them up, although I generally prefer splashes to balms or milks.

[churchilllafemme]

The Original Santal aftershave yesterday had a wonderful scent that lasted a couple hours, it was soothing, and it caused no rash. Overall I'd call these a success; I really like them, anyway. My gratitude to whoever first posted the recipe for conversion. I'll continue to try this with the Green Irish Tweed and Silver Mountain Water.

[Squire]

John is a favorite emerging from this group?

[churchilllafemme]

John is a favorite emerging from this group?

Well, I've only converted two of the Creeds so far, and both were quite nice. Both were soothing, but I think I favor the scent of the Original Santal a little bit over the Himalaya, even though it probably did not last quite as long. I'm looking forward to trying the GIT, because at one time I had a tube of their commercial GIT balm, so I can try to compare my concoction to the commercial one.