water-alcohol blend advice needed

[Guest guest]

Hi, I'm new in the group, Mari from Finland. I'm a visual artist- freelance

journalist and

now crazy for natural scents. My aim is to create a signature eau de toilette

but I haven't

found a perfect formula yet, and spoiling the natural essencial oils in vain is

not smart. I'm

hoping that you could give me a piece of advice how to improve my rookie

perfumery

skills.

Here's an example of a blend I've done:

80 ml Spiritus Fortis (96% alcohol)

Rosemary 25

Bergamot 25

Lemon 20

Orange 30 drops

I added the ingredients drop by drop starting from lemon and orange. I shook the

dark

glass bottle after every 3-4 drops. That went fine.

Then I wanted to add some distilled water to make the blend less strong in

alcohol. I knew

already that adding too much at a time turns the whole thing " white " . I went

slow, just

adding a few drops water at a time and shook the bottle. That took ages. And

still the

bled changed its color. It wasn't clear and beautiful anymore.

How should I add water to my eau de toilette? Should I do it after letting the

alcohol-

essencial oil blend stand for 2 weeks or at the same time when I'm blending the

scents. Is

there a trick how to add water without ruining the color of the fragrance? What

alcohol/water proportion would be ideal?