Fall is when the diffuser comes back out. The windows close, the lamps go on earlier, and the house starts to smell like whatever was last cooked in it. These six fall diffuser blends are written the plain way: the oil, the number of drops, and the hour each one suits.
Every recipe uses only the eight single-scent diffuser oils we carry at the dim hour: lavender, sweet orange, peppermint, pine, rose, lemon, grapefruit and ginger. If you own three or four of them, you can already make most of what follows.
Before you start
A few rules apply to all diffuser recipes, these included.
- Distilled water, always. Tap water leaves mineral deposits that clog an ultrasonic diffuser. Fill the tank first, then add the oil on top of the water.
- Two to five drops in a full tank. More oil does not make a better room. Every blend below stays inside that range, and each total is listed so you can check. Start with fewer. You can always add a drop.
- Mind the size of the tank. The recipes are written for a full tank of about 200 ml, the size of our Flame Diffuser. In a smaller one, such as the 65 ml Mist Diffuser, stay at the low end of the range: two or three drops in total.
- Clean the tank. Oil leaves a film. Unplug the diffuser, empty and wipe the tank every few days, rinse it once a week, and let it dry. A clean tank is also the only way to smell this week's blend instead of last week's.
- Give the room a break. Diffuse where there is some airflow, and switch it off after an hour or so.
- For the diffuser only. These oils are for scent. They are not for skin and they are not for drinking.
Six fall diffuser blends
Four O'Clock
- 3 drops Sweet Orange
- 1 drop Ginger
Total: 4 drops. Orange peel with a thread of heat behind it. It suits the hour when the light starts to go and the lamps are not on yet.
Woodpile
- 3 drops Pine
- 1 drop Sweet Orange
- 1 drop Ginger
Total: 5 drops. Cut wood, with a peeled orange somewhere in the room. This is the one for the first properly cold evening of the season, when the heating comes on and you remember where the blankets are.
Open Window
- 2 drops Grapefruit
- 1 drop Peppermint
Total: 3 drops. Sharp, cool and a little bitter, like the air on a cold porch. Use it in a room that has been closed all day, in the half hour after you get home.
Late Garden
- 2 drops Lavender
- 1 drop Rose
- 1 drop Lemon
Total: 4 drops. What is left of the garden in October: dry lavender, one rose, a strip of lemon rind. Rose tends to take over a blend, so one drop is enough. An early-evening recipe, for a chair and a book.
After Dinner
- 2 drops Ginger
- 2 drops Lemon
Total: 4 drops. Fresh ginger grated next to a cut lemon. It is a brisk smell that sits well in a house where dinner was just cooked, and it belongs to the stretch after the dishes are done.
Ten O'Clock
- 1 drop Lavender
- 1 drop Pine
Total: 2 drops. The smallest recipe here and the quietest: lavender at the edge of a stand of pines. It is for the last hour of the evening, with one lamp on and nothing left to do.
If a blend comes out too faint, add one drop of the first oil on its list and stop at five. If it comes out too strong, empty the tank, rinse it, and start again with a drop less.
Diffusing safely around pets
Cats, birds and small animals are far more sensitive to diffused oils than people are, and that applies to every recipe on this page. Keep a door open so an animal can leave the room whenever it wants to. Never diffuse in a closed room with a bird. Store the bottles where no animal can reach or lick them, and wipe up any spills. If you are unsure about your own animal, ask your vet before you run the diffuser around it.
Where to go from here
Treat these as a starting point for your own essential oil blends for fall, not as a fixed list. Change one drop at a time and write down what you liked. The oils and both diffusers sit together in The Calm Ritual collection.
When you have worked through these six, The Scent Recipe Book has twenty-four blends of its own, six for each season, written the same way: the oil, the number of drops, the room it suits and the hour it was written for.