Recommendations for Non-Woo Essential Oils with Particular Scents

February 2, 2020 12:18 PM

Purchased a diffuser for my wife. We are both enjoying it. However! Looking for somewhere besides Amazon to purchase scents that are more "masculine" and not so floral. Snowflakes after the jump.

We have found that we enjoy the more "masculine" or woodsy, musky, etc. scents that I purchased on Amazon. Think Campfire, Dirt (literally!), etc.

Looking for reputable online sellers that tend more towards these scents vs. every floral/lavender/etc. scent seems to make our living area smell like a florist shop.

I have no problem with Amazon or not-Amazon.

posted by kuanes to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Do you have some sort of natural foods grocer near you? Most have a pretty good selection of essential oils (Frontier is a pretty common brand and is not an MLM). Benefit of going in person is there are always testers and you can smell before you buy.
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:35 PM on February 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: People use Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oils for diffusing. They have plenty of dirts, campfires, and other amazing scents that are very earthy. You will find many options there. You can also buy smaller samples to try them out.
posted by MountainDaisy at 12:50 PM on February 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Demeter Fragrance! here
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 9:09 PM on February 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the replies. I'm staying away from my natural foods grocer near me because, well....the woo factor.
posted by kuanes at 4:41 AM on February 3, 2020

Edens Garden has some nice woodsy scents. They do have a bit of woo on their site, but I just ignore it. They're also non-MLM which is nice. Here are some of their earthier blends:
Earth & Wood
Cedarwood
Forest Fresh
Meditation
posted by purple_bird at 9:57 AM on February 3, 2020

The natural grocer near me has a little sample rack of essential oil testers to smell, which I've found helpful in figuring out what I'm after (and not). Even if you're ordering online, though single scent essential oils are usually pretty easy to suss out on the so-flora-it's-almost-potpourri <> musky-forest-floor spectrum. My partner and I tend to blend single scents rather than using premixed, which is a fun ad hoc game to play. It's usually pretty clear what scents I'm going to like for being non-floral. Herbs, citrus, woodsy scents (cedarwood and the like), and musky scents (frankincense, vetiver, etc) are all good, and a combination of a few can be good/interesting.
posted by lhputtgrass at 10:38 AM on February 3, 2020

If you have pets, please be careful of the types of oils you diffuse as they can be dangerous to your pets' health.
posted by poppunkcat at 10:51 AM on February 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

Juniper Ridge has a bunch of woodsy smelling stuff. I have not tried their essential oils, but I do have and like their christmas fir tree room spray and their Mojave cologne which makes you smell like you've rolled around in a mesquite bush (in a good way).
posted by gamera at 1:00 PM on February 3, 2020

+1 on researching if they affect your pets!

Examples of masculine-smelling essential oils:
Cedar - there are a few types, they're quite different from each other
Clove - found in many male colognes
black pepper - also in colognes, but $$$

If you're in to citrus: litsea cubeba is cheap and has a lot of staying power compared to other citrus.

Liberty Naturals is one of my favorite essential oil suppliers. I don't know if they do blends, though, as I only buy them pure for soapmaking. They're probably overkill for what your needs, though.
posted by Neekee at 1:44 PM on February 3, 2020

Just to be clear: essential oils are natural oils and often sold as a single distilled or extracted scent/flavor; fragrance oils are a blend of synthetic and natural or all synthetic scents. You are most likely to find essential oils and essential oil blends at "woo" places, so if natural, essential oils are indeed what you are looking for then go there. If you are not concerned about synthetic fragrance oils then Black Phoenix and Demeter should have plenty to choose from.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:54 PM on February 3, 2020