Well, I was in the aftershave forum and thought about the home made bay rums and saw some online recipes for homemade cologne. I was bored last night and decided to make some of my own. I primarily use four colognes at the moment: Pinaud Lime Sec, British Sterling, TOBS No. 74 Victorian Lime, and Royall Lyme. I desired something a bit more...orangey and spicy as an experiment and so I created this:
I've called it 'IMPERIVM' and even made a label for my glass bottle which will house my finished product (with a little picture of the Prima Porta Augustus).
My recipe as follows:
1 cup Broker's gin (my preferred drinking gin) and I thought the scent and their 10 botanicals would mellow with my other ingredients.
3 teaspoons of Earl Grey tea (just Twinings, looseleaf) for the earthiness of the tea and the bitter bergamot oils in the tea leaves
4 teaspoons of water
1 teaspoon of thyme leaves (dried)
5 clementines worth of peel (shredded into smaller pieces)
10 whole peppercorns and 5 cracked peppercorns
2 teaspoons of olive oil (I saw some recipes used olive oil or glycerin and I had no glycerin on hand)
It has been stewing for a day and I've actually noticed the sharp gin smell is mostly faded and I get a rich and sweet clementine scent. Then a hint, as it dries down, of the thyme. Not sure if the peppercorn or tea leaves have added enough yet but I've a few weeks to go.
The scent faded quickly (part of my Latin pun off 'Imperium' as either 'power' or 'Empire': Strong start, assertive, powerful, and then it fades and proves transitory and, sometimes, illusory.) I got about an hour and 10 minutes or so out of the scent but it was pretty faint after the first 20 minutes. You'd have needed to be really close to smell it and there was no real gin smell so I won't risk smelling like a rummy (or, perhaps, 'ginny').
I'm hoping the scent will last longer as it continues to steep and stew.
I'm not going to stop buying my favourites but I wanted something I could wear for day to day things (I reserve my TOBS for special occasions/ladies) and wanted another citrus option that was not Lime Sec or Royall Lyme. I know, I probably need a more normal way to kill time.
I've called it 'IMPERIVM' and even made a label for my glass bottle which will house my finished product (with a little picture of the Prima Porta Augustus).
My recipe as follows:
1 cup Broker's gin (my preferred drinking gin) and I thought the scent and their 10 botanicals would mellow with my other ingredients.
3 teaspoons of Earl Grey tea (just Twinings, looseleaf) for the earthiness of the tea and the bitter bergamot oils in the tea leaves
4 teaspoons of water
1 teaspoon of thyme leaves (dried)
5 clementines worth of peel (shredded into smaller pieces)
10 whole peppercorns and 5 cracked peppercorns
2 teaspoons of olive oil (I saw some recipes used olive oil or glycerin and I had no glycerin on hand)
It has been stewing for a day and I've actually noticed the sharp gin smell is mostly faded and I get a rich and sweet clementine scent. Then a hint, as it dries down, of the thyme. Not sure if the peppercorn or tea leaves have added enough yet but I've a few weeks to go.
The scent faded quickly (part of my Latin pun off 'Imperium' as either 'power' or 'Empire': Strong start, assertive, powerful, and then it fades and proves transitory and, sometimes, illusory.) I got about an hour and 10 minutes or so out of the scent but it was pretty faint after the first 20 minutes. You'd have needed to be really close to smell it and there was no real gin smell so I won't risk smelling like a rummy (or, perhaps, 'ginny').
I'm hoping the scent will last longer as it continues to steep and stew.I'm not going to stop buying my favourites but I wanted something I could wear for day to day things (I reserve my TOBS for special occasions/ladies) and wanted another citrus option that was not Lime Sec or Royall Lyme. I know, I probably need a more normal way to kill time.
