I love my home to smell sweet and fragrant and discovered reed diffuser’s as a natural alternative to air fresheners. As many of you have probably found, although these diffusers are great and look pretty in the home, they can be rather expensive to buy. So I decided to have a go at making my own and they are very simple and easy to make too.

You will need:

• Glass bottle with narrow opening
• Rattan Reed Sticks (5-8 sticks)
• Carrier Oil (Sweet Almond Oil or Safflower Oil)
• Essential Oil

Choosing the correct materials:

Use a glass bottle with a narrow opening never plastic, plastic tends to react with essential oils. I tend to hang on to my empty glass diffuser bottles but if this isn’t an option for you. Then, I would recommend using a glass container with a small narrow opening this will ensure the least amount of evaporation will occur. Also look for a jar roughly around 5  inches tall (12 cm).

Buy new reed sticks. Old ones start to lose their effectiveness once overly saturated. Reed sticks are fairly cheap to pick up online. I have found bamboo skewer sticks just as effective, just simple cut off the spiky end and to size. Always make sure you cut the sticks so they are double the height of the bottle you are using.

Choose your favourite essential oil.  Make sure the oils are 100% pure concentrate. You can add a few drops of two essentials oils to get the fragrance you require. I tend to buy a set of six so I can swap and change fragrances depending on my mood. But Lavender, Lemongrass and Rosemary are always my firm favourites.

Carrier oil. I’ve tried and failed before finding the correct blend to make my own diffuser oil. I tried using coconut oil as a carrier oil but it just made my oil cloudy once mixed with the essential oils and the fragrance was too weak.  Safflower oil and Almond oil are common carrier oils and I always opt for Sweet Almond Oil.

If you don’t want to purchase a carrier oil, you can substitute the carrier oil for a plain water and alcohol mix such as vodka or rubbing alcohol.

Instructions:

• Pour the carrier oil into your glass so thats it fills a third of the glass, then add 25-30
  drops of your chosen essential oil (15 drops of each if using two fragrances). Give the oils a quick stir to blend together.
• Keep in mind that the water and vodka mixture evaporates at a faster rate than carrier oil, so you will have to refill it more.
• Then add 5 to 8 reed sticks to the glass jar (more reeds added, the more scent is released into the room). Let the sticks soak for 2 hours before turning then upside down to allow the scent to enter the room. Then turn the sticks every week to allow fresh scent to enter the room.
• The oils can be topped up as it slowly evaporates. The diffuser oil and sticks will  last 3 months before it needs completely replacing with new reed sticks and oil.