$$$ METH $$$

This will probably come in useful, thanks!

I'll try that, thanks for the recipe! (Thinking about trying pine tree oil, as I love that scent.)

Awesome idea, thanks for sharing!

I'd advise people to be careful with this one. Along with the notes you made about airbrushing, some essential oils (such as eucalyptus) are also natural solvents too.

Definitely test in an inconspicuous area and never spray too much. <3

Yeah you are correct: essential oils are much different from fragrance oils.
Safe to use fragrance oils can be found at places like http://www.brambleberry.com they have them in separate categories so be sure to select a "Fragrance Oil" when gathering supplies for those reasons.

Not all of brambleberry's fragrance oils are fur safe. I've found a few that have melted fur. all oils should be tested on scraps first before being used in a spray. that's why I recommend going to a dealer to buy suit scents. They've done all that work already. And user perfume grade alcohol instead of rubbing alcohol (scent does not fully evaporate).

Any tips on hand washing a suit? I disinfect mine after every use, but unfortunately mine absolutely isn't machine washable. It has certain materials that would fall apart in the wash, plus it is a single piece suit. =x

For things that cannot be washed, you can often use a foaming upholstery cleaner. The Woolite brand has worked well for me, and appears to be safe on all the fake furs I've tried it on. There are many brands, all with varying properties and scents, some pleasant and some nasty. So, definitely test on something that isn't important first. The great thing about foam cleaners is that they are usually a lot more gentle than normal washing.

You have a lot of really neat things that make you a really cool person. However one of the things I massively respect you for is the work you've done for the community with tips/tricks/patterns/tutorials/panels and all that jazz. I feel it really turns it from a fandom, to a community.

Isopropyl Alcohol will disinfect a fursuit, but it is not as effective above 85 percent nor below 50 percent. If you are using the common store-bought 70 percent variety, you cannot dilute it very much and still maintain its disinfectant qualities. If you buy the 90 percent variety, it will cost more, but you can dilute that a bit more. Keep in mind, the alcohol is already diluted to the percentage marked on the label, and you don't want the total dilution to drop below 50 percent. The great thing about alcohol is that it evaporates pretty fast, and does not leave a lingering odor of its own. I use it to disinfect my own fursuits, sometimes with a subtle bit of fragrance added.

Omg ive been lookong for this

Thank you for stating about the airbrushing as alcohol will break down paints and leave a runny mess..

I do about the same! I don't bother with the fragrance oil, though. My suit always smells like laundry detergent anyway so it seems unnecessary. I also have one of these which is AWESOME because your hand won't get tired! Comes in handy when you're taking care of your roommates' stuff.

Another protip: rubbing alcohol STINKS. If you're doing it in your hotel room, make sure that no one else is planning on using it for the next 30-60 minutes because they will hate you if you show up and make a stink when they're trying to have a nap or eat in their room >.>

You always post such helpful things! Thank you for sharing. your knowledge!

Amazing idea! As for the testing on fur comments, OF COURSE you should test something new on an inconspicuous area before just going at the entire thing! Sometimes things happen or something was different. Can't really blame the person trying to help there not be stinky, gros, sweaty, nasty, unwashed, icked out fursuits everywhere. :P

Thanks for the recipe! I think I am going to have to try some and give it to a friend who (though they do their best) smells a bit rank in suit. D:

This is a great recipe! Extra easy since neither of our suits have any painting/airbrushing on them. I made Mome Rath smell like a cupcake and Brighton smells like a blue raspberry. 91% alcohol dried without any of that rubbing alcohol smell. Thanks for sharing!

Do you have a recommendation for linitial strength of the isopropyl? 50%, 70%, 91%, and 99% are commonly available from most drug stores (especially 70% and 91%).

I've been using isopropyl for the entire life of both of my suits (the whole, er, year now, so take that with an appropriately sized grain of salt), and have discovered by experimentation that just spraying the 70% mix off the shelf straight seems to work the best for me. Initially, I applied math and diluted out to a 50% isopropyl mix, which worked alright, but took forever to dry back out; and I have it on reasaonably good authority that spraying 99% straight will actually evaporate back off too quickly to do anything more than simply dry out the odor-causing bacteria without actually killing them. 70% makes a good middle-of-the-road figure, and has performed admirably for me through a few cons and a bunch of public outings.

It may help that, to put it delicately, I lose a lot of water while suiting; my suits usuallly have some moisture already in them before I nuke them with isopropyl. Possibly people who have more apocrine than eccrine sweat, and maybe end up a little drier at the end of a stint but still tend to have problems in the usual areas, might need a bit more water in the mix to help the alcohol penetrate in? What's your experience been with this?

I tend to use the alcohol spray after I am done suiting and hang it inside out to dry overnight so it's ready for the next day. I like the 91% diluted a little (honestly to around 50 to 60 % strength) so I can get a good cover of alcohol so it kills the odiferous bacteria without evaporating into the air to soon. This tends to be a personal preference type of thing, since as you mentioned, the moisture level you experience after suiting is fairly individual. I'm not as most as some of my friends and so I have a "wetter" spray solution that's a little more diluted.
Hope this helps! :D

where did you get your fragrance oil? is it like the stuff you get in incense stores?

Very nice advice! After trying oxygen based liquids, to kill the foul smelling anaerobic bacteria with excess oxygen, and various treatments of febreeze, I found them both to be lacking and not strong enough to kill all of the bacteria, while making the suit extra wet.

I will give this a try on my next outing with 70%, and hopefully it works well! I may try fragrance oils once I find it working with just the alcohol.

Thank you for your assistance and consideration, I really appreciate your advice!

I heard the safest was with 30% alcohol and 70% water, is this correct? X3

what percentage of alcohol should we get? I now use 70% and just spray right on my suit.
Also adding scented oil.....isn't oil not good on fur fabrics?? *confused*

Soak everything in undiluted bleach, it's the only way to be really sure!

i hope nobody actually does this to a suit.

I have a question, If I made something similar to this with fragrance and all that. Would it be ok to sell small bottles at like a dealers table or something ? I wanted to ask first to make sure. This seems like it would help a ton of suiters !

I'm pretty sure there are already folks selling a similar thing already! I saw two tables at FC with similar sprays!
It's soooo easy to make at home you may not get a whole lot (money wise) for your efforts but I don't have a problem. I do not plan to sell it.

I didn't know others did. I don't expect to make a lot but I think it'd be a good idea to offer it. Thank you for letting me know !

Is the alcohol specially made for fabric stuff ? Trying to find somewhere they might sell in Norway, but always end up at car related sites : (

The alcohol is usually used for cleaning skin and ridding bacteria in a medical type of use, and can be found in a pharmacy or drugstore.

Ooooh!!! Thank you so so very much!!!

Is something ethanol based just as good or would that be bad to use ?

I can't say I've ever used actual ethanol before for this type of thing.

Like anything else, set up an experiment! test it on a scrap in various quantities/strengths compare it with isopropyl and see if it performs as you expect it to. Share with others if it works or doesn't work!

Don't have any test fabric around :S Not sure how to know if it works or not. Just wanna kill bacteria.

Ok so Antibac gel. WOuld that work ? Only thing I can buy atm :S

Gel is unsuitable to put on a costume for the purpose of fabric disinfecting/refreshing.

Its probably a good idea to simply wash your costume.
I have tips here: http://matrices.net/washing.asp

Can Gin be used as a fragrance oil? Awesome tutorial, thanks for sharing it!

Thanks for sharing this. My mate,  brejar recently pointed me to this.

Alcohol isopropyl doesn't kill mold, it only works on bacterias and viruses. So alcohol is not enough to disinfect.

The goal of using isopropyl alcohol IS to kill odor-causing bacteria though! I haven't made or implied mention of mold, sorry for the confusion. Alcohol mixed with water is a useful tool many fursuit makers and wearers use in-between wearings to reduce the "gym bag" smell that can happen if nothing is done after wearing the costume at an event. There are definitely other products and recipes out there that I want to encourage everyone to test if you decide this isn't right for you.

However, if we're even going by the definitions of the word "Disinfect" means to clean (something) with a disinfectant in order to destroy bacteria. If something is moldy, please wash it to try to rescue it!!

This isn't something everyone has to try or use, you can make your own decisions for your costume(s). This also does not replace regular washings!
Its just an option if someone wants to use alcohol to disinfect but also leave a light scent.

Do you spray it only outside or only inside the head? or both?

Primarily I use this on the body!

doh! I've a partial than I'm looking for the head :P

would orange and other citrus essential oils be ok to use with this if diluted?

Definitely test it. Set up some fur scraps (include white) and spray the potential mix on to see if the citrus oils leave a stain or residue. (that seems like it would be the primary concern). I must admit, I did not use essential oils in my tests. I only used fragrance oils, which are developed in lab, rather than distilled from the plants. So the potential is there that that it could be just fine, but without testing I can't say for sure!
Happy testing! :D

thank you!

will this harm drybrushing or airbrushing at all? ;o;

A light mist of scent? No. A thorough dousing so it is very wet to the touch or a spill? yes.

okay thanks. :3

How best shall I make a birthday cake, gingerbread cookie, or chocolate scent?

you can buy those as fragrance oils. try searching sites like brambleberry.com for something that matches what you imagine!

So sorry for asking this question on such an old post. Just found this recently and wanted to ask, however. I have a couple questions.

1) Is it fragrance oil or essential oil that I need for this? I've seen a couple pages online that say to use essential oils so I wasn't sure.

2) Say for example I buy the typical 70% Alcohol and do a 1:1 ratio to fill up a lil 2oz spray bottle. How many drops of oil should I add to the mixture?

Howdy. You absolutely want fragrance oil. Essential oil is very different and can have untested effects. To know the difference, fragrance oil is just the smell, the fragrance made to be scented like the thing. Essential Oil IS the oil of the plant distilled, so yeah, stick with fragrance, since we just want your suit to smell like it.

For your example, since you have such a small amount, try a drop or two, shake it and test it on a sample, like a washcloth, and let dry. You can then get the perfect ratio that way, but it does involve some testing and waiting to dry.

I think the oil could cause some problems