Each year in the summer season I observe the same rituals at home that bring a touch of daily joy to the setting. In late spring scented candles are put away in cupboards for the coming months, plain candles come out for dinner time round the table, and I scent my home with my favourite summer-y essential oils either on reeds around the house for a steady gentle aroma, or in a diffuser for a direct hit when needed.
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I posted about making a reed diffuser and my favourite summer essential oil mix a few years ago and it was a popular post so this is a bit of an update on that. I have also brought the ritual forward a little this year thanks to the good weather and so much time about the house. Reed diffusers are such a lovely way to scent the home, but good quality ones are very expensive. Building up a stock of oils you like alongside a carrier oil is a great way of cutting costs whilst still enjoying something luxurious. Buying a stock of oils is a initial investment but sticking to a couple of favourites to start with works out at a fraction of the cost of a good quality diffuser set with far more longevity, especially when mixed in a carrier oil (or in water in an electric diffuser) it takes ages before they have been used up.
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Finding my Mediterranean Summer Scent
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In summer I like my home to smell of scents that remind me of Mediterranean holidays, balmy scents that evoke the natural flora and fauna of these locales. I find that citrus, herbs and greenery are the scents most likely to evoke this for me and tend to avoid floral notes. Over time I’ve developed a few favourites, and a basic ratio of what works together. In my stock I have a selection of fruits, herbs and something fresh and green to accent as a base note. I have a lot of oils that fall within this category and think they can be mixed and matched on this ratio really happily. On my fruits I have sweet orange, lemon and litsea, in herbs I keep marjoram, red thyme, lemongrass, cardomom, peppermint and spearmint, in fresh greens I have pine, eucalyptus, and Vetiver.
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Scent is so personal, and attached to memory, my personal happy place is somewhere in Italy by the sea. And my favourite combination, which forms this tutorial, is based on the smells of the island of Capri where I got married. A few other suggestions which remind me of summertime in hotter climbs from my stock are; Lemon mixed with Cardamom and peppermint, or Litsea, mixed with Red Thyme and Spearmint. For something really simple and fresh I often combine lemongrass with pine which reminds me a little of a summer long ago in Kyoto.
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My Capri-inspired scent owes a debt of gratitude to the perfumery Carthusia which is based in an old monastery on the island of Capri. Capri was love at first sight for me, the incredible light almost impossible to describe with an otherworldly glow, the winding paths, ancient sites and grottos, the cliff tops and butterflies. The sea, of course. And the smell. Capri is verdant with flora and fauna, and Carthusia produces scent based on ingredients that grow naturally on the island. Two of my all time favourite perfumes are made by Carthusia (Mediterraneo and Via Camerelle). I love smells that remind me of the island, so I have used notes in these two perfumes as a reference point, you could easily do this with any scent you love.
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What you will need:
- A bottle or vessel for your mix, I use an old stoneware jug from H&M.
- Reed diffusers, you can buy these inexpensively online, I used Amazon.
- Carrier Oil (I use sweet almond).
- A selection of essential oils.
I have done quite a bit of reading about this and the most common advice for a room scent is to make a ratio as follows. 250ml of carrier oil (I use sweet almond) and just over 100 drops of essential oil comprised of both top and bottom notes. The recipe for my summer scent is 70 drops of top notes to 30 of base notes. Of course if you are using an electric diffuser you can play around with the number of drops of essential oil to water using the guidance included with your diffuser.
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Recipe:
- 250ml Sweet Almond Oil
- 100 drops of Essential oil, comprising 65 drops citrus (I used Orange and Lemon), 10 drops herbs (I used Marjoram, Red Thyme and Eucalyptus), 25 drops base note (I used Vetiver).
Choosing the top notes for my scent were all pretty easy, the obvious Mediterranean citrus smells of orange and lemon blended with herbs like red thyme and marjoram gave me pretty much exactly what I was looking for. To ground the scent I wanted something which had the lilt of walks on hot days in the mediteranean, I have chosen a plant not native to Italy, Vetiver which is native to India, but which shares similarities with citronella and lemongrass so blends really well with my other elements providing a cool and zesty backdrop to the herbs and citrus.
Once you are happy with the composition of your scent, leave the reed diffusers for a few hours in the bottle to absorb the scent and then turn them over to start scenting the room. I really enjoyed playing around with these scents and, although I haven’t recreated my favourite perfume, I have created something that provides an evocative hit of the smell of holidays. Do let me know any winning recipes you come up with in the comments below, I’d love to hear your summertime combinations!
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