Diffusing It! – The Most User Friendly Way To Scent The Home

By Olfactoria After last week's Candle Post, we are going to take a look at Diffusers today. Using Diffusers is a very practical and low-maintenance way to scent a room. Just put it up and the rest is great smell. A Diffuser is a (hopefully pretty) vessel holding a liquid room fragrance, essentially the same as contained in a room spray. You stick in reeds, made from bamboo in most cases, and the scent diffuses along the reeds into the air, evaporating slowly. The practice allegedly comes from Italy, where spices and herbs where put in olive oil and spaghetti were put in as diffusing sticks. A 100ml sized diffuser lets you enjoy the scent for at least two or three months, depending on the temperature in a room as well as its size. Funnily enough (I am certain there is a perfectly logical explanation for this, but I always abhorred physics, so don’t ask me!) the diffuser in the smallest room in my house, the bathroom, has to be replaced the most often. In large rooms evaporation seems to take longer. I love that I only need to select a scent I like, assemble it (takes under 10 seconds, even for clumsy people) and need not think about it any more. I am only reminded of their existence when I get a whiff of great fragrance in passing, or when a guest comments or inquires after the good scent. This is a good thing when you have children, who love to explore, are fascinated by fire or distract you at any given moment, all of which makes open fire (as in candles) a bit of a hazard. I just make sure to put the diffusers high up, then all is safe (except when you have a cat, tune in next week for scent solutions for cat owners). I have a signature scent for each room of my house. I vary a little according to season or curiosity, but only in the living room. The other rooms tend to keep their assigned smell. My bathroom smells of fig leaves. The kitchen of Vanilla. The hallway always smells woody. The bedroom has Lavender. The boy’s room White Musk. My office smells of Bergamot or a similarly uplifting citrus blend, to keep me awake. The dining room gets Cinnamon or other spicy blends. In the living room I use the fancy stuff, meaning more complicated perfume-like scents, it is the only room where I like variety (and where that is tolerated - if not actively encouraged - by my husband.) Anthousa (meaning “the perfect bloom”) is a very interesting brand specializing in Home Scents. I love many of their different fragrances, especially Sweet Basil and Heirloom Tomatoes, Fig Leaves and Bitter Almonds and Pomelo and Kumquat are scrumptious. No need to describe them their names say it all. Italian perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi makes great perfumes, but he excels at making diffusers too. I love that I can scent my living room with perfumes I love to wear myself. Teint de Neige, Yerbamaté and Piper Nigrum are my favorites, each one catering to a very different mood. A more affordable range of diffusers can be found at L´Occitane. They offer glass and reeds separately, to be filled with the scent of your choice, available in practical refill bottles. Their Fig Tree Leaf Home Perfume is what makes our toilet the best smelling one in the city Your browser may not support display of this image. Diffusers are my best friends for providing an easy way to keep the home well scented, even if one doesn’t have a lot of time to devote to the topic. Fragrant Greetings from Vienna, see you next week! Availability of Anthousa and Lorenzo Villoresi through their websites or on First in Fragrance. In the US, Candles Off Main also carry Anthousa diffusers. Image courtesy of Photo8.com