Reed diffusers are one of the best ways
to add a powerful and natural scent to your home
and frankly, we love them here at the CMS HQ.
So instead of going out to the mall and buying a tiny one for $15
or a large fancy one, at a department store, for $50,
today I'm going to show you just how easy and quick it is
to make your own reed diffusers with things you either have at home
already or can pick up for much less than this little slice of highway robbery.
So here's what we'll need.
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A dark glass bottle, blue, green, brown, whatever.
The darker the better and this is also a great opportunity to upcycle.
I'm actually using, for this one, a vanilla extract bottle
that obviously I finished. I just peeled off the label,
and, by the way, I have a video on how to do that,
which I will link down below. Now we want dark colors because
they help keep the essential oils intact longer by limiting their
light exposure, and you can see all my essential oils
are in these dark glass bottles. The glass is really important
because essential oils do better in glass than they do in plastic.
And finally we want one with this really teeny, tiny, small opening
because the smaller the opening, the slower the
solution will evaporate and the longer this will last.
If you don't have any bottles that you can upcycle, don't worry.
You can pick one up online, at a health food store.
You can get it at a hobby store, the dollar store, or even a thrift shop.
Next, we're going to get some rattan reeds.
Now these have small channels, which help move the oils up
from one end to the other. They're kind of like celery
if you look at them like this. Now some people say bamboo skewers
do the same thing. They don't. They are pretty much solid,
and your oil will not be able to move up the channel.
Now you can get these at a hobby store or a craft store.
You can also order them online, and I will put links
for that in the description box down below.
Now for the exciting part. We are going to make the reed diffuser
mixture, and you are going to need three critical ingredients --
a carrier oil, a carrying agent, and the essential oils themselves.
First the carrier oil. You need an oil to help
the essential oils wick or be carried up the reed.
Something too thin, like water, would evaporate very quickly,
and our diffuser would be useless.
Plus water and oil don't exactly jive.
Something too heavy, like olive oil or jojoba oil, would actually clog
the reeds up. So the just right oil is actually
sweet almond oil, or you can also use safflower oil or mineral oil.
Next up, we'll add a carrying agent, if you can part with it, something
to help ease the oil up the reed and to thin the oil out.
Now cheap vodka, colorless, flavorless, works best.
You can also use rubbing alcohol, but it has to be a minimum 90% rubbing alcohol,
because when I did 75% in my initial test, it did not work at all.
Finally, we'll add a combination of essential oils.
Pick something to suit the mood and your mood of the room.
If it's your bedroom, you would want something calming.
If it's the kitchen, you'd want something invigorating.
If it's the front entryway, you'd want something energizing, and maybe every
so often you move the energizing one into the bedroom for a bit.
Remember to use good quality essential oils,
and I'll link to some of my favorites for you down below.
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So here's how we're going to mix it all up.
First, I'm going to take this bottle, which we just picked up at the
craft store, so obviously it's clean. It was about $3.
And because it's a relatively large bottle, I'm only going to fill it halfway
with the carrier oil, and I think that's completely reasonable in terms of volume.
Then that way you can always make up more of the product,
and you're not wasting a whole bunch of it in one go.
And now we get to have a little bit of fun.
We're going to figure out the essential oil combinations
that we're going to put into the carrier oil.
So here's the deal. You want to put 30 drops total
of essential oils into the half cup of carrier oil.
And the reason that number is important, if you put anything more, you might find
the scent is a little overpowering. And if you don't put in enough,
you might find that the scent is too faint.
But of course, you play around with it and you see what works for you.
So what that basically means is, depending on the recipe you choose,
you're going to put, if I have 3 here, 10, 10, and 10.
Or if you're just using one, you're going to put a whole 30 drops
right into the carrier oil. And to finish this mixture up,
we're just going to add our carrying agent in.
I am using cheap, flavorless, colorless vodka,
and I'm going to add in a teaspoon.
Give your mixture a thorough spin and then pop your reeds into the bottle.
I'm using about eight here. The more reeds, the more scent,
but the faster you're going to use up that solution.
You want to have at least a few inches of the reeds
popping out of the bottle, so feel free to trim them to size.
I like to initially leave the reeds in overnight and then let the oil take
its time working its way up the reeds.
The next morning, just flip them over, and now you've got
some well-saturated reeds. You can see they're a little darker,
and your room is going to be smelling amazing.
Now, because the mixture does have a tendency to separate,
you want to swirl the bottle just like this, kind of like a
martini, once a week, just to help mix everything together,
and then of course you can flip the reeds weekly as well.
Now, if you want a heavier scent, you can do this more often.
The best part is that over the long haul it is substantially cheaper
to do it this way than to get the mall diffuser.
And, of course, you get to create the exact scents that you want in your home,
and let me tell you from personal experience that's more than half
the fun of doing this. I think you're going to love trying
this out, and definitely you're going to love smelling your own creations.
Check out CleanMySpace.com/essentialoils to find out some of my favorite
EO combinations and some other great reed diffuser tips and tricks.
Be sure to do your research on safe use of essential oils.
This is especially important if you have pets or if you're pregnant.
If you're going to try this project, be sure to tag us in your photos
on Instagram. I'm @MelisssaMaker.
The creepy guy behind the camera is @TheChadReynolds,
and we are @CleanMySpace.
There's a button down there that lets me know you care.
So click it if you liked this video and click this button right here
to subscribe and begin your journey to a cleaner life.
Thanks so much for watching, and we'll see you next time.
Good on you for sticking around, because this is the part where I share
our other great videos that might be of interest to you.
To my left, you will see two such videos.
The first one is my DIY baking soda deodorizer recipe, and the other one
shows you various ways to get stickers off your glass.
Hope you guys enjoy them and I'll see you soon.