Home Fragrances
By Sarah Osee
Photo: © dreamstime.com
 Home fragrances help address unpleasant household odors and they give your home an appealing smell. Common types of home fragrances include scented candles, spray air fresheners, plug-in fresheners, one-drop oils, and lots of plastic and ceramic containers that hold solid or liquid aromatics and potpourri.
Candles are the classiest way to address odor because they're decorative and socially acceptable almost any time. You can burn a candle at the dinner table when you have guests, or in other rooms when entertaining, and create a cozy atmosphere and add an appealing scent.
Another way to add a pleasant fragrance to your home is to use spray air fresheners. They work quickly and do a good job in an enclosed environment, but classy, they're not.
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Unlike candles that are perceived to add ambience, freshener sprays are perceived to cover up. Other air fresheners, like solid sticks and plug-ins that use heat to disseminate scents, are not noticeable and if used constantly, they keep a low, but permeating level of scent in a room. If you want your home to smell of a certain fragrance all the time, and you especially want that fragrance to greet you when you return home from work or other outings, these "always on" fragrances are the best choice.
Potpourri is slower acting and is seen as more natural, although the exact chemical scent can be used in both commercial potpourri and solid air fresheners. The perception of "natural" comes by way of real potpourri, which is a conglomerate of flowers, buds, seeds, leaves and twigs that have naturally occurring scents. The potpourri that you buy nicely packaged may have some natural scent, but it's almost always "helped" by adding other ingredients.
All scents, no matter what form they're in, that are sold as air fresheners can trigger asthma and allergy attacks, so be careful when deciding what you'd like to use. |
