I am always writing posts for the Hippy chicks out there, but I know that you Hippy dudes are sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting for me to share manly scented items that you can DIY. Over the years, I have had to make all kinds of "Manly" versions of many of my different DIY beauty products, and I learned that you guys love to smell good, just as much as we ladies do!

What's in your fragrance?

That's the question of the century. Fragrances scare me because you really have no idea what you are getting when you see this listed on the label. A long time ago, this term was created so that companies could protect their secret formulas for their specific scent creations. The problem with this is that you never know what kind of chemical concoction they've come up with, to create this scent. The Environmental Working Group's 2004 analysis of potentially sensitizing ingredients in cosmetics shows that "Approximately half of all products examined, list the word "fragrance" on the label. Fragrances are considered to be among the top five known allergens." They also noted that certain types of asthma attacks are "specifically triggered by, and only by, cosmetic fragrances." I avoid using any products containing the mysterious ingredient "fragrance" and that includes in perfumes and cologne.

Masculine essential oils to create your own blends

Essential oils may seem like they could be a girly type thing, but really they don't discriminate on sex. If blended right, you can find a scent for anyone, men included! Though I am giving you ten masculine blends below, to use in your men's cologne, you can create your own blends for yourself. While any essential oil can be blended into any cologne or perfume, these are some essential oils that tend to be favored more often by men:

• Citrus - bergamot, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, petitgrain, sweet orange, tangerine
• Herbaceous - basil, bay (laurel, West Indies), cajeput, carrot seed, catnip, clary sage, coriander, eucalyptus (globulus, lemon, smithii), lavender, lemongrass, oregano, palmarosa, peppermint, rosemary, sage, tea tree, thyme
• Rich Base Notes - copaiba basalm, frankincense, myrrh, oakmoss, Oakwood, patchouli, Peru basalm, sandalwood, vanilla, vetiver
• Spice - allspice, anise, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon leaf (use leaf instead of bark for all topical applications, cinnamon bark is too irritating to put on the skin), clove bud, ginger, nutmeg
• Woods - black spruce, cedarwood (atlas, Virginian), cypress, fir needle, juniper berry, pine

DIY Natural Men's Cologne