Lilac & Moss - Custom Perfume Experience

I always love being able to create a custom perfume because realistically as much as I’d like to make my own perfumes it is just too expensive for me to do it for fun or on a whim, so I turn to my favorite brands that often offer a custom as a service. Since discovering Lilac & Moss on Instagram last year their perfumes have been a staple in my fragrance rotation. Around October I was participating in Reddit /r/Indiemakeupandmore Halloween exchange and wanted to create a custom perfume for myself and for the girl I was sending presents to. Lilac & Moss offers two different types of customs, one in which you can just change something about an already existing perfume and a full custom from scratch. I chose to create two from scratch perfumes. Filling out the form you can find here, I heard back from Journey within 1-2 days via email.

My form;

Type of custom:

Brand-new custom product

What custom product are you interested in?

Perfume oil (essential oils & fragrance)

What scent families are you drawn to?

Sweet, gourmand

Are there any scents/notes that are deal-breakers?

lavender

Describe what you’re looking for.

apricot , cognac, honey, saffron, mahogany, vanilla, fresh baked bread something along these lines. All of this can obviously be worked with based on components you have available etc.

Will you want to start with a full-size or sample pack?

Full size product

The begin of my custom process started 10/6 when Journey I received this email from Journey;

“Hi! I’m excited to work on a custom with you!

Do you have a kind of image/vibe in your head for this perfume? This usually helps me get a better idea of what components should go in there.

From your description I’m picturing something like baking apricots simmered in honey and wine, with bread and woody notes in the background. So for example, I think a teensy bit of spice might go well, if that’s the vibe you’re going for. Breaking it down to specific notes: I do not have apricot or something like fresh bread. I have some alternatives, or I’m happy to purchase what I need for a really small additional cost (adds just $1 to the final price to cover what is actually being used by your perfume, since I’d definitely be able to use these ones again). Cognac, honey, and vanilla are ready to go! Mahogany I don’t have, but I do have agarwood (oudh), cedarwood, rosewood, sandalwood, or vetiver. Apricot: alternative could be peach. Bread: Probably the closest would be a combo of clove and white cake, OR perhaps fig. Or, of course, I could get something new 🙂

Let me know your thoughts on this!”

I responded 10/6 saying I didn’t mind the extra cost to acquire apricot since I had my heart set on that. I did agree that clove and white cake would work nicely instead of bread and that sandalwood sounded good instead of mahogany.

At the same as a my custom I told her I was also looking for a green fresh perfume which Journey is especially talented at.

The next day 10/7 I heard back from Journey with her asking what size I was thinking, a 5ml would be $12 (including the extra for Apricot) or $21 for a 10ml. A sample set with 3 variations is $10. She also discussed the custom perfume and we ended up working off of an existing scent Anthemusa. I decided to do go with 3 sample variations for me and for my IMAM exchange partner. I also asked if it was possible to get a gift certificate for my match for the value of a 5ml perfume so she could pick which of the variations she liked best or any perfume in the catalog if she didn’t happen to care for what we’d dreamed up for her. Journey was even amazing and used the IMAM exchange coupon that was good during the exchange.

My different variations are;

Variation #1: Apricot, cake, clove, labdanum, davana, vanilla, and sandalwood

Variation #2: Apricot, cake (slightly higher percentage), davana, vanilla, sandalwood, and fig

Variation #3: Apricot (slightly higher percentage), cake, honey (synthetic), vanilla, davana, and fig

By 10/25 my order was shipped and I got it shortly after that. Included were my 3 variations as well as a ton of extra samples!

I let my samples rest for a while and ended up picking sample #1 from my custom.

I emailed her Jan 22nd letting her know I was ready for a 5ml roller ball bottle of #1 and she got back to me the same day asking if I needed to do any tweaks and if I wanted to come up with a name for it. Despite my creative talents at photos I’m awful at naming things and Journey helped me come up with Vesta which is for the goddess of hearth/kitchen.

She generated my shipping label around the end of January but reached out Feb 2 that the orders from her sale were more than she expected and she ran out of pipettes to mix perfumes. So she asked if there was an extra sample I’d be wanting from her and I let her know I wanted to try Anaxerete.

I got my package shortly after and instead of a sample of Anaxerete there was a 5ml full-size!! As well as my 5ml full-size custom Vesta.

I am so happy with this entire experience. Journey is the easiest person to work with when it comes to customs. I appreciate the ability to get variations and even make tweaks after the fact. I am so happy with what she came up with for me. She totally nailed my vision. I highly recommend if you’re looking for a custom perfume to check out Lilac & Moss.