Short answer
To work out how much of each raw material a production run needs, start from what you will fill — bottles × fill weight, plus an allowance for losses — then split that into concentrate and alcohol, multiply the concentrate by each formula row's percentage, and break every premix and dilution down into the materials it is made from. Add up each material across all its routes, compare the totals with your stock, and round shortfalls up to the quantities you can actually buy. For 200 bottles of 50 ml at 18%, the example below needs 1,538.82 g of concentrate, made from ten raw materials.
Step 1: what you will fill
Bottles are sold by volume, so start from the fill weight: volume × the finished perfume's density. The example uses an illustrative density of 0.83 g/ml — measure your own (how to measure density).
- Fill per bottle: 50 ml × 0.83 g/ml = 41.5 g.
- 200 bottles: 200 × 41.5 = 8,300 g.
- Allowance for losses — liquid left in the vessel, filter and lines, test samples, retained samples. The size is your judgement and depends on equipment; the example uses 3%: 8,300 × 1.03 = 8,549 g to make.
Step 2: concentrate and alcohol
At 18% concentrate by weight:
- Concentrate: 8,549 × 0.18 = 1,538.82 g.
- Alcohol: 8,549 − 1,538.82 = 7,010.18 g.
If you add water, split it out here as its own ingredient (adding water to perfume). Scaling a formula to a production target in general is covered in how to scale a perfume formula; the rest of this article is about what comes after: the shopping list.
Step 3: the formula rows
| Row | Formula % | Grams needed |
|---|---|---|
| Bergamot oil | 15% | 230.82 |
| Hedione | 20% | 307.76 |
| Iso E Super | 25% | 384.71 |
| Ambroxide 10% in DPG | 5% | 76.94 |
| Rose accord premix | 10% | 153.88 |
| Musk | 10% | 153.88 |
| DPG | 15% | 230.82 |
| Total | 100% | 1,538.81 |
Rounding each row to 0.01 g leaves the total 0.01 g short of 1,538.82 g. That is expected; round at the end of the calculation, never in the middle.
Step 4: break down dilutions and premixes
Two rows are not raw materials you buy. The ambroxide solution is 10% material and 90% DPG. The rose accord is a premix — in this example 45% phenylethyl alcohol, 30% citronellol, 15% geraniol and 10% beta-damascone at 1% in DPG.
- Ambroxide solution 76.94 g → ambroxide 7.69 g, DPG 69.25 g.
- Rose accord 153.88 g → phenylethyl alcohol 69.25 g, citronellol 46.16 g, geraniol 23.08 g, beta-damascone solution 15.39 g.
- Beta-damascone solution 15.39 g → beta-damascone 0.154 g, DPG 15.23 g.
The arithmetic of formulas inside formulas is explained in how to calculate a premix inside a formula. In practice you may already hold made-up stocks of the solution and the premix; if so, check those stocks first and only explode the part you need to make.
Step 5: total each material and compare with stock
| Material | Routes | Total needed (g) |
|---|---|---|
| Perfumer's alcohol | Dilution of the concentrate | 7,010.18 |
| Iso E Super | Formula row | 384.71 |
| DPG | Formula row + ambroxide solution + damascone solution | 315.30 |
| Hedione | Formula row | 307.76 |
| Bergamot oil | Formula row | 230.82 |
| Musk | Formula row | 153.88 |
| Phenylethyl alcohol | Rose accord | 69.25 |
| Citronellol | Rose accord | 46.16 |
| Geraniol | Rose accord | 23.08 |
| Ambroxide | Ambroxide solution | 7.69 |
| Beta-damascone | Damascone solution inside the accord | 0.154 |
DPG is the material most often under-ordered, because it hides inside solutions. Then set each total against stock on hand, minus anything already reserved for other work, and list the shortfalls.
Step 6: round up to what you can buy
- Pack sizes. A shortfall of 120 g of a material sold in 250 g bottles means buying 250 g.
- Minimum weighable amount. 0.154 g of beta-damascone is unweighable for most labs; you will make a fresh 1% solution of, say, 10 g, which consumes 0.10 g of the material — and then a second one. Plan the solution, not the theoretical figure.
- One lot per run. Where possible, buy enough of each material from a single lot for the whole run, so batches are consistent; see raw material supplier and lot changes.
- Shelf life. Do not over-buy materials that age quickly; see fragrance raw material shelf life.
Stock levels and reorder points are covered in fragrance raw material inventory; the full set of formula calculations is in the perfume dilution and calculations guide.
In RUŌOD Lab, a production target (amount × concentration) gives the concentrate and alcohol weights and the scale factor, and the scaled formula gives the grams for each row. Each material record also holds a quantity in stock and a cost. Breaking premixes down into their own ingredients and setting the totals against stock is done by hand, as above.
Frequently asked questions
How big should the loss allowance be?
Measure it. Record what you made and what you filled on the first few runs; the difference, as a percentage, is your allowance. Small runs lose proportionally more.
Should I make the whole concentrate at once?
For consistency, yes, if you can store it. One concentrate batch diluted into several alcohol batches keeps every bottle the same.
Written and reviewed by the RUŌOD Lab team. This article is general education about perfume formulation and record-keeping; it is not legal, regulatory or safety advice, and the examples are illustrations, not validated commercial formulas. How we write and check these guides.