Our homes are everything right now—our office, our gym, our café  and our sanctuary. Spending around 23 hours a day within the same four walls is disorienting and sometimes claustrophobic, but if home is a nice place to be then the experience is vastly improved. And I’d argue one of the best ways to beautify the home is with scent.

Being surrounded by nice smells is very important to me—I’ve written at length about how I choose shampoo based on its (transporting, otherworldly) scent alone. Diptyque’s herby Baies and ember-y Feu de Bois scented candles have pride of place on my bookshelves, but now that I have unfettered daily access to my diffuser, I’ve begun to take great pleasure in cocktailing essential oil blends like a crazed mixologist. I like a recipe, so I tend to pluck a wood plus a herb plus a fruit from my basket of little dark glass vials, drop them in and see what comes out. But I’m mostly operating at whim. To take this scent cocktailing to a mood-, nay, life-enhancing level, I quizzed three aromatherapists for their secrets to the perfect blend. Here’s what they had to say.

How an aromatherapist’s house smells

“I like my house to smell fresh and bright,” says aromatherapist Juliana Lachance of Wanderlust Botanicals (her mists and oils are usually available to buy through Etsy, but her store is temporarily closed due to the pandemic). “I like to use citrus essential oils to cleanse the air and give rooms a fresh smell.”

Saje’s in-house aromatherapist Trevor Ellestad takes a more esoteric approach. “I think less about the way that I want my home to smell, and more about the way that I want it to feel,” he says. “When I’m at home, I often want to feel light and renewed or tranquil and relaxed—the same feelings I get when I am walking through the forest beside a cold mountain stream, or stretching out on a tropical beach as the sun is going down. Because of this, I am most often drawn to deep, woodsy aromas or those that remind me of chill, exotic places.”

Delivery methods to try

“I personally love burning incense before meditating or doing yoga, or after a nice clean,” says Julie Clark, aromatherapist and founder of Province Apothecary. “If you have a few essential oils, it’s super easy to put three to 10 drops in a small spray bottle, add some water and shake. Voila, you have an aromatherapy spray that you can use in any room. And most people have scented candles around, so this may also be a very easy way to start.”

Lachance also likes the versatility of an aromatherapy spray. “You can leave them at the door and mist the air quickly if there’s an unexpected guest; you can spray a pillow mist around your bed at night,” she says. “My favourite thing is using essential oils to freshen up the bathroom. I have created an amazing blend that cleanses the air and hides any bad smell: Spearmint, eucalyptus, rosemary, grapefruit and lime.”

Ellestad is ultrasonic diffuser all the way, “not only for their function, but also as a beautiful piece of decor. A diffuser uses vibration to turn essential oils and water into a refreshing cool mist that adds moisture and aroma to the air,” he explains.

Expert blending strategies

“When making perfume, one uses top, middle and base notes so that the scent lasts,” says Lachance. “If you’re creating a cocktail for your home, top notes like citrus and floral oils are uplifting and can be evened out with middle and base notes of woodsy, resinous oils.” Balance is key. “What usually doesn’t blend well is a lot of very strong essential oils, for example woodsy oils that are not balanced out with a citrus.”

Clark takes an intuitive, Love is Blind-esque approach. “I love lining up my essential oils with the labels away from me, smelling each one and asking myself, ‘Do I feel like this today?’ It’s really simple but the results are awesome,” she says. “Every day may be different or you may want the same scent for a week.”

Ellestad advocates free-wheeling experimentation. “Start playing around with mixing oils in your diffuser in any way that feels intuitive to you. Generally, start with two or three oils and don’t feel scared to add a few more drops of something if you start diffusing it and you aren’t enjoying it,” he says. “Just remember to keep track of how many drops of each oil you use so you can recreate it if you fall in love. Every aromatherapist has a story about the perfect blend they could never replicate because they forgot to write down the recipe.”

Uplifting scents for daytime

“Personally, I love citrus and herbs to uplift my mood and help me concentrate,” says Clark. “A great mood-boosting work blend would be lemon, bergamot and rosemary.”

“Look for blends that have a higher balance of top notes for their uplifting and energizing qualities,” suggests Ellestad. He points to Saje’s Elevate Energizing Diffuser Blend of mandarin, lemongrass and yuzu, which is “specifically formulated with the kick in the pants you need to thrive in your home office all day long.”

“A blend that I use while I am working at home is geranium, bergamot and patchouli—it’s very happy, uplifting and grounding,” says Lachance. “I would also suggest a focus blend: one that combines any citrus essential oil with basil, rosemary or peppermint, which are well-known oils for awakening the senses and concentrating focus.”

Calming scents for evening

“I love flowers and trees to help me relax,” says Clark. “A few favourites are rose absolute, lavender and clary sage, plus frankincense, cedar wood and black spruce. A great calming blend would be clary sage, lavender and cedar.”

“If I want to feel more relaxed, I start by selecting an essential oil that I believe will most help me achieve this state (often using the largest number of drops), and then I build around that core aroma by selecting two or three other essential oils that I feel can support,” says Ellestad. “Top essential oils for adding to your nighttime routine that will help you wind down after a long day include lavender, roman chamomile and orange.” He likes the Saje Unwind blend of lavender, bergamot and geranium “for anytime you want to feel calm throughout the day or right when you close up shop and want to transition into evening.”

Shop the scents:

SajeSaje Elevate Energizing Diffuser Blend, $16, saje.com
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ScentualsScentuals Ultrasonic Diffuser, $81, well.ca
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Province ApothecaryProvince Apothecary Cedar Wood Essential Oil Incense, $16, provinceapothecary.ca
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Bed, Bath And BeyondEllia Essential Oils, set of 3, $40, bedbathandbeyond.ca
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SpruceTatine Bergamot Candle, $68, sprucetoronto.com
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