Madame Alchemille asked in another thread about how I created my scent tinctures, and made the comparison to medicinal ones - and she's quite right, the process is the same.
If you're interested in trying your hand at making them, you'll need:
* a sterilized jar large with a wide mouth. It doesn't have to be big, but the bigger it is, the more tincture you'll have!
* enough herbs/resins/spices to fill the jar to the proper place. Keep in mind that spices and resins are more concentrated than dry herbs, so for an herbal tincture you'll want to fill the jar to the top; for a resin/ ground spice tincture, fill the jar about halfway.
* vodka or brandy, at least 80 proof. Some people prefer 100 proof. I use 80 for herbs and 100 for resins.
* a cheesecloth or muslin bag for straining
OR
* a pipette for siphoning off your tincture
*bottles for storage
Take your sterilized bottle and fill it to the proper place with your dried herbs, powdered resin, or ground spices. [again, to the top for dried herbs, halfway for powders.]
Pour your alcohol slowly over the ingredients - this is a good time to start charging with intention if you like - and fill the jar up, but leave a small amount of space between the fill line and the lid, so that you can shake the jar back and forth to mix. Put your lid on tightly and SHAKE that jar up, so that everything is well saturated.
Make sure to label your jar well with date, ingredients, and any other pertinent info like phase of moon, etc.
Place the jar in a dark, cool location and leave it there for at least two weeks, shaking the jar up every day. You can leave it for longer if you like, as the alcohol will keep the ingredients well, as long as they're covered by the alcohol.
When it comes time to decant, you can either pour off your ingredients through a strainer like cheesecloth or my favourite, a large muslin teabag... or you can decant by carefully siphoning off the tincture with a pipette. I often siphon resinous tinctures, as the alcohol/resin residue is gross and sometimes sticky.
You'll get some particulates in your tincture, but that's okay. I shake mine up before applying to skin, candles, incense charcoal, etc.
This is one easy way to make your own perfumes!
Some suggestions for you:
Frankincense makes an amazing tincture, but it is STICKY. it smells fantastic, though! Dragon's Blood is another sticky resinous tincture. Making these is much more cost effective than seeking out a real, non-synthetic oil, though.
Patchouly makes a surprisingly mellow and non-hippyish smell. People who insist that they hate patchouly are often won over by this tincture.
A tincture of tonka beans can be used to fix the scent in potpourri and other blends!
Vanilla tincture? Same as vanilla extract, actually - and you can control how strong it is, and the purity of your tincture.
You can blend types ingredients in the jar together to make scent blends - like to like, so herbs + herbs, resins + resins, etc. If you'd like to make a blend with herbs + spices, for example, blend the completed tinctures together after the fact, like blending oils.
Questions? I'm happy to babble on about tincture making. And yes, some of these *are* edible, but they are incredibly concentrated, so BE CAREFUL!
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