If you’ve been wanting to start a duplication project with us, here’s what you need to know. AFI is proud to be home to GC Mass Spectrometry equipment that can reverse engineer fragrance oils to be duplicated. We need at least half an ounce of fragrance to perform this duplication, but the more you have of it, the better. If the fragrance you want duplicated has already been used in a final product like a candle or soap, our R&D department is able to extract it. Unfortunately, some fragrance is lost in the extraction process, so we’ll need enough of what you’re wanting duplicated to have enough fragrance for the GC Mass Spec to analyze. 

Candles are one of the most frequent duplication requests we get. Depending on how strongly scented the wax is, we’ll need anywhere from ten to twenty ounces of it in order to successfully extract the fragrance for duplication. This is a pretty big range, so we always recommend sending in more than you think we might need just in case, especially if the fragrance is particularly light or has prevalent top notes like citrus. Similarly, we’ve been sent a lot of plug-in diffusers, like Bath and Body Works^® Wallflowers. We’ll need two full bottles of the diffusing liquid for an extraction, which typically amounts to 3.2 ounces, but as always, the more you have, the better. 

We can also extract fragrance from soap, of which we’d need three to four whole bars weighing at least 4.5 ounces per bar. If the soap is liquid, you should send in at least 20 ounces. Bath bombs can also have fragrance extracted for duplication. Just like with bar soaps, we’ll need three to four whole bath bombs, each weighing at least 4.5 ounces. Additionally, we offer duplication services for fine fragrances. If you’d like a fine fragrance or body oil extraction, send in one to two ounces of either. How much we need largely depends on the concentration of the fine fragrance you’d like to be duplicated. Perfume has the highest concentration of fragrance, followed by eau de parfum, eau de toilette, cologne, and finally, eau fraîche, which has the smallest amount of fragrance. The less concentrated the fine fragrance you send in is, the more of it we’ll need for a successful extraction. 

Finally, household products like laundry detergent typically don’t contain very much fragrance, so we’ll need a good bit of it to extract enough fragrance to duplicate: 40 ounces or more! And if you’re fond of incense, we’d need at least 3.5 ounces of incense sticks or cones. That’s about 90 standard-sized sticks and 30 cones. These are just some of the most common end products we’ve been sent for extraction and duplication projects, but there’s lots of other things with fragrance in them. Here’s a small list of things we can extract for duplications…

• Candles
• Soap
• Bath Bombs
• Wall Flowers
• Diffusers
• Lotions
• Hair Care
• Air Fresheners
• Laundry Detergents/Treatments
• Dish Detergent
• Perfume
• Body Oil
• Body/Hair Mists
• Incense Sticks/Cones