We are smelly people in that we love a house that smells (nice). While I would love to have the time to ensure that the house constantly smells of fresh baked bread I haven’t sadly. I’ve done everything in the past from putting tumble dryer sheets down the back of the radiator (this works actually but you get bored of the same smell fairly quickly) and placed fresh flowers everywhere (Roy and I like different floral smells and living in what looks like a florist can get expensive).
Herbs from the garden have been used to scent the house however they don’t last long and with rooms with high ceilings the scent doesn’t seem to fill the room like I’d want it to.
What I do not like are air freshener sprays, gel thingies and other air-clogging artificial smelling home scents. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried everything from the humble plugin to the mighty revolving motion activated sprays however none of them feel natural and I don’t suppose any of them are as healthy as we’d like to think. My youngest has sensitive skin and things like sprays don’t tend to do him any good.
My favourite scent provider of choice at the moment offers a range of scented candles and more which I can use to fragrance my home safely and without selling a kidney on the black market. I use a variety of candle types and air fresheners from diffusers to wax melts and enjoy the memory-invoking scents they provide, as well as the longer lasting yet not over-powering fragrance.
I always had candles burning BC (before children) however floating candles, and hot wax don’t necessarily work well with curious toddlers. Our home now (which I adore!) boasts fabulous fireplaces in the living room and dining room, our room as an original fireplace feature and even the kitchen has a useful mantelpiece over an original bread oven, all of which are fabulous places to house my candles.
My current favourites, not least because they are inexpensive and last well are wax melts. I like a mixture of scents from lavenders, jasmine, freesia and citrus scents and use these regularly. I’m not one for vanillas however the range of Christmas scented melts available is fabulous, from Christmas Tree to gingerbread. I like a scent that captures my mood, the season and which lifts a room ideally.
For rooms that I would like to have a constant yet not over-powering scent a diffuser is a good choice. Reed diffusers diffuse perfumes gradually as the scent travels up the reeds. We have one in our room which provides a pleasant but not over-strong scent all day long.
Candles are the traditional format and I enjoy both tealights and larger candles (all of which are great for giving as gifts too). I look forward to lighting a candle and enjoying the warm glow as well as the scent it provides. A candle can motivate me depending on the natural oils used or even calm and relax me.
Clearly I am something of a scent tart! I can never get enough of candles, wax tarts and so on which makes me easy to buy for! My question for you today is: What is your favourite scent and why? I’m not sure I could pick an absolute favourite myself as so many smells mean so many things however I would be curious to see what your must-have fragrances are!
This one I get quite excited about (yes I know, I really must get out more!). I loathe bin smells and at this time of the year, when it’s getting warmer our bins seems to pong more, despite being emptied regularly – especially the outside one (which is only emptied fortnightly – great when crammed with poo-ey nappies!). I have had bin fresh things you spray, stick in the lid, powders… and whilst they have smelled nice, the effect doesn’t last and soon we are back to our usual pongy bin area. This spray is ideal, has the same odour neutralising and antibacterial action and it’s “rainforest” scent makes walking past or opening our bins much less of a horror!
Scent is such an important thing. A certain smell can bring a memory back instantly and can completely change your mood. I am a very smell-conscious person! Zoflora are releasing a new fragrance shortly, and I’m actually quite excited about it (again, if I get this excited about cleaning products I need to get out and about more, perhaps get a hobby….?).