Whether candles, sticks or diffusors, I’ve got some option for every taste and every price point for you to scent up your home! Let’s have a look at my fave spring home fragrance options.
What you won’t find are sugary and those ‘fresh laundry’ type of scents – I don’t enjoy them in their artificial form.
Fragrance, memory, and mood
Fragrances are fascinating things. Freshly baked bread: home and comfort. Ground coffee? Invigorating. Lavender? Soothing. Chlorine, for me, is the scent of summer, of days at the pool, while nothing says Christmas like the fresh green scent of fir trees. Fragrances are known to affect our moods, emotions, and even work performance. That’s because the area of your brain that processes memories also process scents: when we smell something, that memory is retriggered (Scientific American). That’s also why scents and what we associate with them are deeply personal. While for you peppermint is something uplifting and invigorating, it might remind me of the dentist and thus of a thing I hate.
Building a fragrance library in your mind
You can also use that: if you meditate, burn the same fragrance every time. After a while, just smelling that scent will make you feel calm. Trouble falling asleep? Make yourself a bedtime routine involving a certain scent: your brain will soon associate that with sleep. (Psychology Today)
What fragrances might evoke in us is deeply personal. I neverthless tried to find some Spring scents that a lot of you might associate with Spring (at least in the Northern Hemisphere): something fresh and green evocative of new life, like buds bursting open. But there’re also some calming AND invigorating scents for when you’re cooped up inside.
Spring home fragrance option: Candles
Diptyque Valentine’s edition
If you like rose scents, you can’t go wrong with Diptyque’s various roses, from permanent (Baies, Rose) to their limited edition they do each year for Valentine’s Day. The LEs never vary that much, so if you liked last year’s, you can safely assume you like this year’s. The 2020 edition alludes to spring in Paris (wouldn’t that be wonderful, in regular times). On top of that, it has a slight note of patchouli that doesn’t remind me of the hippy scents of yore. What can I say? I’m a rose lover, it makes me happy. (Small candles from €32.)
Jo Malone Peony & Wild Suede
It was a happy coincidence I found this candle. Peony & Wild Suede (wha’?) in candle-form (there’s a whole line) is a flowery little thing. It has a warm base note that reminds me of an elegantly and sophisticated, perfumed lady. I can’t distinguish a particular flower, but if you ever wanted your home to smell like a luxury boutique, this is your candle. (Small candle from €29.)
Rituals Wild Fig
This candle is so warm, cosy and figgy-fruity: it’s very much a cosy up at home scent for me, and the equivalent of a cashmere blanket. I’ve run through various jars. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to enjoying a gourmand fragrance. It’s that milky, typical fig that’s maybe not particularly unique, but very, very appealing. For me, it’s also a scent for all seasons: cosy enough for colder days, but also with a Mediterranean feel that evocates sunny days and fresh figs. (€29,90)
Scented Sticks
Rituals Happy Buddha
If you don’t want a burning candle in your home, fragranced reeds (Rituals uses bamboo sticks you put into a jar of fragranced liquid that is then diffused into air) are a nice option: Happy Buddha is an uplifting cedar wood/orange mix that’s very neutral and unisex to me. It’s also the scent that the man in my life tolerates well when my flowers and roses might smell too perfumey to him. (Small size €13,50)
Melts
Yankee Candles
An oldie but goodie: YC melts are the budget option that nevertheless manages mostly nice fragrances that aren’t too cloying and cheap. For spring, I like Lemongrass & Ginger (exactly what the label says) – very fresh with a nice zing of sharpness. If you’re missing outdoors, try Coastal Living: a mix of salty and sweet, like a waft from the ocean that also brings the scent of blooming flowers. (Melts are around €3.)
Diffusors
I’m not a believer in essential oils at all, and nevertheless I’ve got a collection at home: peppermint for a steam bath when I’ve got a cold. Bergamot for baking. Lemon for – I don’t know? If you’re the same, then you just need a clay disk/ornament: Drip a few drops on the clay and enjoy the scent wafting through your home. It hasn’t quite the same ‘throw’ as a candle or sticks, but it’ll scent one room just fine. If you’ve got kids, there’re many DIYs to craft clay ornaments – or you just use any unglazed clay saucers/trays whatever you might’ve at home.
Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods or money for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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