Following our essential oil air freshening strategies, how about a spray?

A great recipe can be found in the book Better Basics for the Home.  I LOVE this book and also used it for making the all-purpose cleaner you saw in earlier posts.  It is full of great home cleaner recipes that are easy and work well.

To make an air freshener spray:

• Get a spray bottle
• Combine 8 drops lavender, 2 drops each of bergamot & clove, 2 drops peppermint, 1/2 cup vodka, & 1/2 cup water.
• Spritz rooms and freshen air to your heart’s content.

When I made this, I combined the water and vodka, feeling a little skeptical about the vodka. It just seemed a little weird to me.  Vodka?  But I tried it, and you can’t smell it.  I am assuming it’s presence is a bacteria-lowering one.

I also did not have bergamot and I couldn’t find my lavender essential oil (EO) anywhere, so I used rosemary EO, eucalyptus EO, and orange EO- 10 drops of each, and it came out beautiful!

Tip:  If you decide to make your own blend, a good way to see if it is going to smell good together is to uncap the EO’s you are considering and then hold them together under your nose.

So, it is winter and you are sick of smelling your own socks.  We want to freshen the air, opening windows is not possible, we will not buy weird plug-in air fresheners or sprays due to the ingredients and their negative effects, so….?

Essential oil diffusers!

To use:

1. Find a diffuser. I have found them at Michael’s Craft Store, Marshall’s, herb shops, and natural food shops.  They range in cost from $5-$20.
2. Get a bunch of tea lights (small candles you can buy 100 of for about $5).  Can be found at Target.
3. Pick an essential oil or an essential oil blend you enjoy.  Also found at herb shops or natural food stores.
4. Place the tea light in the bottom of the diffuser.
5. Fill the top of the diffuser with water.  Leave a little space on top to lower spills if moving the diffuser.
6. Put 3-4 drops of the essential oil in the water (can use more or less to achieve the smell potency you desire).
7. Light the tea light.
8. Smell nice smells.  Enjoy!
   

   Currently enjoying a blend of orange, bergamot, lavender, & rose.

I have never been into those store-bought plug-in or spray deodorizers much (no matter how hard they try, they just smell really weird to me),  but now so even more for 2 reasons:

1.  My husband is very sensitive to scents.

2. There are some funky aspects to air fresheners/deodorizers out there. I am talking about Glade and Lysol-type products.

According to Green Living Online, these deodorizers cease the smell by one of two ways:

1. Coating the nasal passage in oil

2. “Releasing nerve deadening agents”  Eesh.  Point taken.

The common no-no ingredients to check for are:

• formaldehyde (yep, scary)
• phenol
• methyl chloride
• 

  This is for you formaldehyde.

  These ingredients can cause negative health effects ranging from mucous membrane irritation, headaches, or allergic reactions to more serious effects like cancer.

What is the solution?  Essential Oils!  Yay!  Straight-forward, lovely smelling, and formaldehyde-free

Stay tuned for talk about essential oil diffusers….