Scent To You

The picture behind is 'Battersea Power Station By Night'

Reed diffusers are all the rage at the moment, with people trying to eliminate artificial air fresheners from their homes.  However, the ones on the lower end of the market can often contain alcohol (if the oil is stated to be ‘highly flammable’ it most likely contains alcohol.)

The flip side of that is the purer oils can cost upwards of £20, so why not save some money in the long run and make your own?

All you need is:

Bamboo skewers

A small clean glass bottle

Aromatherapy base oil

A selection of essential oils

Start by giving the bottle a thorough clean, particularly if it’s a wine bottle as you don’t want the former contents messing with your final scent. 

Now it’s time to mix the scents.

If you have a few essential oils and are unsure if the scents will mix well, remove the caps, hold the bottles tightly together and waft under your nose.  This should give you an indication of how well the oils will blend. I personally used a mixture of vanilla and sweet apple, which created something close to the aroma of apple crumble.

Place half a cup of aromatherapy base oil, such as sweet almond, into a mixing jug and, slowly, start adding essential oils: 20 drops is a good starting point. Stir and inhale the scent.  Is it where you want it to be, or does it need a little more?  Keep repeating this adding and stirring process until you have your desired scent.

You can use ordinary barbecue bamboo skewers for this project, but be sure to snip off the sharp end - partly because pointy things are dangerous and, more importantly, to open up the end of the skewer, allowing the oil to flow more freely.

I used about 10 skewers, which was around the right number to ensure each reed got some space in the bottom of the bottle.

Pour your scented oil into the bottle, add your reeds and you are pretty much done!

For the first couple of days, be sure to rotate the reeds top to tail, and back again, to guarantee that they are entirely covered with the oil.  This ensures that the oil has a channel to travel up through.

Enjoy the aroma!