Homemade Holiday Fragrances
- 1). Gently rinse a few small lemons and oranges, ridding them of pesticides and sticker residue. Pour a bottle of whole cloves out on a plate
- 2). Stud the oranges and lemons with the cloves. Create spirals, strips, polka dots and star designs with your cloves. Make them as pretty as possible. The cloves will help keep the fruit from rotting, allowing it to dry instead.
- 3). Place your new pomanders in a clear glass bowl of any design. The cloves' scent will mix with the citrus scent and provide an evocative holiday aroma.
- 1). Fill a saucepan about halfway full of water and bring it to a slight boil. Turn the heat down to medium low.
- 2). Add cinnamon sticks, ground nutmeg, citrus peel and a bruised vanilla bean into the water. As the water simmers, the pan's contents will release their scents.
- 3). Add water every hour or so to prevent your saucepan from going dry and burning the contents. Scoop out the scent-makers every two or three hours and replace them with fresh ones.
- 1). Clean and rinse an empty glass bottle, scrubbing it to remove any labels and adhesive residue. You want the bottle to look as attractive as possible.
- 2). Fill the bottle about 1/3 full of sweet almond oil. This clear oil, called a carrier oil, has no scent and no toxic qualities. It helps mix and dilute other oils.
- 3). Add about 30 drops total of scented oil into the bottle. If you want to mix scents, divide the number of scents by 30. For instance, use about 10 drops pine, 10 vanilla and 10 cinnamon or apple spice for a Christmas scent.
- 4). Slide about 10 bamboo skewers into the bottle, allowing them to splay across the inside of the bottle's opening. The skewers will soak up the oil; after several hours, reverse the skewers so the oil-infused portions are now in the air. They will gently spread the scent around a room. When the scent dissipates, reverse the skewers again.