Repurposing perfume oil

March 23, 2009 9:13 PM

Can I make a room fragrance from perfume oil?

I have some nearly-full bottles of Body Shop perfume oil, which I don't want to wear any more. (Some I was given, some I'm just tired of the scent). How can I best use these as a room fragrance? I could only find one fairly elaborate recipe to make a spray. I tried just putting some on a cottonwool ball but it didn't work! Ideally the solution would not involve candles as I have little kids.

posted by slightlybewildered to home & garden (6 comments total)

Get an oil burner or one of those oil rings for light bulbs.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:26 PM on March 23

I do this with lavender essential oil to make a linen spray: a splash of cheap vodka or everclear (bottom shelf will do) in the bottom of a spray bottle, 20-30 drops of oil, top up with distilled water. Shake and squirt. Perhaps a bit of glycerine to stablilise it. As that linked site notes, you have to use denatured alcohol commercially, but for personal use, I doubt the ATF will bash your door in.
posted by holgate at 9:49 PM on March 23 [2 favorites has favorites]

You could use the oil for a reed diffuser.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 10:09 PM on March 23

Put a few tablespoons of rubbing alcohol into a spray bottle, pour in about 1/5 of a body shop bottle of fragrance, shake (the alcohol cuts the oil), then top up with tapwater. I use a bottle like this to spray my bedsheets, winter jacket, shoes, carpet, etc. And if my clothes are rumpled, I hang them on the shower rod, spray them, and then smooth them out (I wouldn't do this with an expensive silk blouse or anything similar that could get visible spots from a dot of perfume somehow), but things like jeans, dark pants, synthetic sweaters, yoga pants, bedsheets, etc that won't get water-spotted- will be smoothed & scented.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:28 PM on March 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

I do what pseudostrabismus does, but rather than a spray bottle, I use a Misto. 10-12 drops and the rest filled with water is great. I actually use essential oils (clove, cinnamon and a touch of patchouli). The scent is light enough that it also makes a nice body spray.
posted by zerokey at 11:04 PM on March 23

Thanks all. I wanted to find a balance between oil-and-water-shake-it-lots and recipes with a bunch of complicated ingredients with disodium in their names. I've bought reed diffusers before but found them to produce an overpoweringly strong smell in the room they were in.
posted by slightlybewildered at 11:30 PM on March 23