At the centre of everything you do for your perfume business will be the product itself. Perfumes consist of a blend of essential oils in base oil that have been blended with water and alcohol. The ingredients you use will depend on the character you want to assign to your fragrance. This means you have to decide whether it will be elegant, sporty, woody, sensual etc, which is entirely down to you and your creativity. When it comes to choosing ingredients, remember that base notes are the deepest and last longer on skin, whilst middle notes help to balance out the top notes, which will evaporate quickly. A fair amount of experimentation is required at this stage, as creating a perfume from scratch is a delicate process. Keep track of the ingredients and measurements you are using, as these will be needed later for safety checks and packaging details.