The first in a series of ‘how to make’ blogs – this time we look at making room and linen sprays.
The most important consideration is to find the right liquids to suspend your fragrance in. One of the best options is to use Formulators Alcohol as it’s safe to use on linens. This is mixed with de ionised water (which doesn’t go off as quickly as tap water) and an ingredient called polysorbate 20 which helps to mix the fragrance oils with water and is derived from coconut fatty acids.
A good basic recipe to make 200ml room fragrance is:
120ml Formulators Alcohol (you can use vodka if you wish!)
60ml de ionised water (or used cooled boiled water as an alternative)
5ml polysorbate 20 (you could leave this out and shake the bottle well before each use)
To this you add up to 15ml of your choice of fragrance depending on how strong you want the spray to be. You can choose from essential oils and/or fragrance oils.
For a luxurious christmassy spice mix try 7.5ml of each of organic Green Mandarin Essential Oil and Cinnamon essential oils.
Using pure essential oil does make the spray much more expensive, so you could use some synthetic fragrance oils instead. Base Formula have a cinnamon fragrance which you could use to replace some or all of the cinnamon essential oil in the above mix, and plenty more fragrances to choose from.
Bristol Botanicals make the most wonderful synthetics (in addition to a wide range of stunning natural extracts), particularly florals. For a floral spray, combine their Rose perfume oil with Geranium essential oil. A few drops of a citrus, such as sweet orange, would add a lighter note to the spray too.
Mix all of the ingredients and pour into a 200ml bottle with a spray dispenser. The beautiful Miron glass is perfect as it helps to preserve your room spray and keep the contents as fresh as possible.
If you are making a spray for linens that will come into contact with your face – e.g. a lavender linen spray for your bedding, then start with a much lower amount of lavender essential oil – e.g 2ml, otherwise it may be too strong. NHR Organics High Alp Lavender is the nicest available, in our opinion.
If that all sounds like far too much bother, we have a lovely spray with Sandalwood, Frangipani, Cedar and Green Mandarin!
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