I think I mentioned in a post somewhere that my cat is sick. For you animal lovers, please know that we have been to the vet and we are working on a treatment and so the cat is getting medical attention and we have a plan. But with this condition comes some unpleasant symptoms. As many of you have experienced a situation where someone is sick you might be aware of the unpleasant odors that accompany certain situations. I love candles and I have many with wonderful scents and fragrances. I love to burn them to add to the comfort of our home. Many companies have recently produced a lot of fruity and fun type of scents. All of those scents are lovely when you are just wanting to light a candle for the ambiance. But when you want to scrub the air and really have the odor be gone a pretty little tea light is not going to do the trick. While I imagine a diffuser would be the best way to use the essential oils, I have been put mine in candles. I actually feel that the essential oils help disinfect the air and not just mask the odor. I could just be deceiving myself, I don’t know, but I DO know that the essential oils help elevate the smell whereas the fru-fru candles do not.
What I do is put a mixture of drops in a tealight. And place them around the house.
Since my cat’s disease involves her digestive system I usually add a few drops of Peppermint to a non-scented tea light. Peppermint essential oil contains menthol, which is a proven aid to digestion. While the “proven aid” could mean through oral consumption . . . I hope that breathing it in assist with the digestion. Because there is no way I can feed it to my cat! It also helps with nervous stress.
I often use lavender essential oil for calming nerves. Plus it is a nice scent to have around the house. I feel it helps deodorize the air.
Another essential oil I use to help scrub the air is Tea Tree. I think of its strong scent as fighting off bacteria, fungus, and viruses. I recently used this in the sugar scrub I made for these very same properties.
I use Eucalyptus because of its strong menthol type of aroma. It really helps combat odor.
I also use Ylang, Ylang because it helps with nervous conditions and is used in perfumes and cosmetics (for its aroma).
Sometimes I will have a candle with Lemon-grass essential oil in it because of its anti-depressant affects and its antiseptic properties. The Orange essential oil also is an anti-depressant, and has a list of other benefits including aiding in digestion.
Again, many of the benefits might be from taking them orally or using them topically, but I think that having the oil released into the air helps too. And since I am not going to put them ON my cat or have her ingest them the air release is as close as we are going to get.
I do not put Frankincense into a candle because the one time I did it burned oddly. It seems highly flammable. So while I think Frankincense Essential Oil is great to use, I don’t put it in the candles. I have been pouring it on a paper towel and leaving it in the room. Many sites recommend this as the one oil to get. If you are only going to get ONE oil, they say, get Frankincense. So I added it to my collection. It has a strong woody aroma. One of the benefits of it is thought to be help with the digestion so that, in addition to the strong aroma is why I add it to the scents in our home.
I really would like to get a diffuser, but I am not sure what to get. I feel as if the “good ones” are really expensive. So I am beginning to look at some less expensive ones and read the reviews. Reviews are always to be taken with a grain of salt, huh? One person “loves it, it is perfect” and another thinks it is “the worst thing in the world, not worth the money”. For now, I mix my own oils, just putting a few drops into a tealight. Then after it burns the oil is still in the holder and it lets off the scent. I really feel that essential oils do a better job of removing unpleasant odors then flowery candles or spray deodorizes. I LOVE my beautifully scented candles, but to me, they are to add to a nice clean aroma not for cleaning the air. Since I posted when I bought my oils I thought I would share with you how I am using them . . . besides in sugar scrubs!
What do you use to alter the aroma in your home? Do you know of a good diffuser?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 