By March
First off, everyone – thanks for the many comments on last week’s mope-post of mine, on scents for mourning. I read them all, and there are some great stories and images there. My dad’s doing well, all things considered – he wound up with an incision from just under his eye all the way down to the corner of his mouth, which is not what we thought we’d signed up for, but it’s healing nicely and they’ll take the stitches out in a couple of weeks.
I was working on another post for today but it hasn’t coalesced (congealed?) correctly, so you’re getting this instead – random thoughts about house-smells.
It’s the time of year when folks like me – folks who don’t usually scent their houses with anything in particular – bust out the “Smell of the Tree” room spray or the holiday cinnamon-stick and clove potpourri. I like to think about the way people’s houses smell when I walk into them. I am pretty sure that if you took me blindfolded into the houses of, say, my father and the people in this area whose homes I visit the most, I could correctly identify them. And the interesting part about that for me is, it’s not like there’s one particular smell marker for each house – wet dog, mildew, cigar, etc. Each house is a mysterious accretion of the smells of the lives of the people who live there. I couldn’t name a single “note” in those house-smells. And yet I could distinguish among them.
Our house smells … fine. I hope. When we first moved in it had a new-house smell (new paint, etc.) which I hated. But now it smells like old wool carpets, dust, art supplies and furniture oil, with an overlay of whatever we’ve cooked or baked. Awhile ago I got tired of buying boxes of cookies that disappeared in five minutes – we have a wicked sweet tooth over here – and so I said, if you want sweets, you have to bake them yourselves. I didn’t save any money, and what we make doesn’t last any longer, but frankly, I’d much rather have a slab of pumpkin bread, warm from the oven and smothered in butter, than an Oreo. And the bonus is the baked-pumpkin-bread smell.
We use unscented laundry detergent, in one of those low-water front loaders, and after awhile the clothes get this kind of sour smell, even when they’re clean. Putting vinegar in the bleach dispenser helps, and I tuck mismatched socks dabbed with lavender oil in the drawers and the linen closet, so there’s the faint smell of lavender.
Right now I’m using my Annick Goutal Noel, which I blogged about at some point. It’s a room spray, and I think it’s still available online. What I love about it (despite its somewhat misleading name) is: it’s the exact smell of the inside of a nice florist shop. It’s got a hint of wintergreen and eucalyptus, and/but mostly it’s that unique cornucopia of cold air, cut stems, and walking into the chiller where they keep the flowers. It’s a really fun smell, and it’s a nice, subtle background in a room. It’s not beating you over the head with the pine boughs or bonfire.
In the scent-fail department, a couple years ago I bought those Slatkin & Co. plug-ins from BBW, it looks like they no longer carry the line. The scents were something like “Winter” and “Pumpkin,” and they smelled great in the store. No, seriously. Anyway, I got them home and plugged them in and … no matter where I put them, they were overwhelming. It was like being buried alive in a vat of baked pumpkin, or smothered on the Christmas-tree lot, take your pick. I moved those things all over the house, trying to find somewhere I could plug them in that the miasma wouldn’t be too overpowering, and eventually I gave up and threw them away.
Finally, scented candles just don’t do it for me – with all these kids, I’m always afraid I’ll forget one and the house will burn down. However. I do have an (unlit) L’Artisan Figuier mini sitting next to me as I type this, and it always smells deliciously, faintly figgy. Also, next to my bed is the candle of Annick Goutal Sac de Ma Mere (“my mother’s purse”), which is the scent of a fabulous leather bag with powdery makeup, kind of along the lines of the newer version of Cuir de Lancome, only more suede glove and less powder. It’s a lovely smell, even unlit.
Your turn now – do you boil potpourri on the stove, deck the halls with fir boughs, bust out the orange oil for the pre-Thanksgiving dusting? Could you identify the signature smells of the houses of your nearest and dearest, whether or not you could pick out individual elements? What’s your favorite house-smell?
image: Fireside Friends by John Weiss. This makes me laugh ‘cuz you know that house smells like wet dog.
As much as I love perfume, I don’t like perfuming my house. I do like nice smelling cleaning products and detergents. I tend to add some essential oils to my washing to make it smell nice. Plus I bake my own bread; nothing on earth can beat that smell!
This is the time of year I love leaving the windows open in the lovely afternoons. Which, since I have 3 cats, is not such a luxury. When I have candles, I have to put them on top of the book case, it’s the only place the cats can’t set their tails on fire ignoring them. In a few weeks, the oranges and lemons will be ripe. The smell of a fresh, ripe orange is nothing at all like the ones in the store. They smell almost floral, a bit of neroli in the peel. Then, no matter how cold it gets, the doors stay open. The aloes are blooming and the fig tree is dropping leaves. It’s a great smell.
mmmm…love ur home smells
i had a friend who loved keeping her windows open all the time, and even when it got really cold she would crank her heat up….and still keep her windows open! i miss her :-((((
ok, so miss adhd over here has tons of smelling things all over the home from an danya decker diffuser in kids bathroom to the beautiful santa maria novella terracota pomegranit thingy! my latest creation was to finally take ALL my perfume samples and fill up a huge glass container, covered it with a gorgeous silver dish that was left to me by my grandmother (AH) and that sits on my coffee table….if I have guests, I will put some candy in the silver dish…everywhere there are stashes of “smelly goods”(candles, essential oils,oh yes and PERFUMES) also turpentine, oils and linseed, (yup, I paint) lavender, patchouli, rosemary, aloe vera and sometimes mint on my balcony. We bake choc cake on thurs and fresh challah(bread,plain and pure wholewheat) on friday plus all the food we prepare for the Sabbath! Well that is a LOT of stuff…. thats why the meditative smell of frankinsence and mhyrre are so appealing right now! any body know what essential oils are good to attact those “dust mites” But heck, I have a gorgeous dog and 4 farting males ….just saying..
Your house smells like mine, with the farting males! =)) and the paint supplies. First thing you smell when you walk in my front door is the stronnnnnnnng smell of turps. And naptha. I do a lot of drawings with a 9B pencil and lighter fluid/naptha.
Good thing nobody smokes in this house! 😕
btw….it’s THURSDAY! Can I come over?
;))
xo >-)
u could definitely come over…alas we are already on friday…yum….so let me knwo if u ever make it over to this side of the world….we will bake whatever day it is for u! what do u do to the pencil with the naptha? loooove the turps…but tell me one thing, if u “accidently” should fart do they include u in their gang?
I also love that AG Noel spray, but I haven’t quite figured out how to deploy it effectively. Do you just spray up into the air, or what?
Also meant to add what an interesting topic this is – people’s house do have unique smells, kind of surprised to realize I haven’t seen it discussed before.
I just squirt it straight down my throat….. no, okay, I squirt it in midair over the bed and run away. The way I do with any room spray. One squirt.
It’s fun thinking about the way people’s houses smell, isn’t it?
Aren’t they lovely? I would love to have one in each room, but can’t bring myself to adopt yet another expensive scented hobby. I’m going to try making a few of my own diffusers, though, over the holidays.
I look at those diffusers with the sticks jutting out of the bottle, and all I think about is the mess it’s going to make when one of the twins knocks it over. :”>
I think the same thing, too, March, but they’re so lovely that I ended up putting mine on a shelf slightly out of the way, and also one on the back of the powder-room commode, and so far no spillage (yet … :) )
I wish I had an out-of-the-way place….
I always visualize my children knocking it over first and then one of the pets eating it and the mess that would result in. Not a pretty picture.
They do look like they could be a bit dangerous, but the good ones are usually quite wide, and heavily weighted at the bottom. I’ve knocked over any number of perfume bottles (Lutens, anyone?) with a passing glance, but haven’t yet had any problems with the diffuser.
As an alternative, perhaps a lovely terra cotta pomegranate from Santa Maria Novella?
I’ve got a lovely reed diffuser from Agraria (Charlotte Moss Collection, Left Bank) that I received as a gift from a friend of mine, and it scents the main room of my house, greeting me as soon as I enter the front door.
OOh! I have the Bitter Orange diffuser. sooo pretty!
xo >-)
Like Mals, we get the damp/musty smell. It’s just about inevitable where I live – the air conditioning can only do so much to keep the humidity in check for 6 months out of the year. Fortunately, the cooler, drier weather is here, and now that the windows and doors have been open for a few weeks, it smells like …. dusty books. I’m currently purging our enormous collection of books (and I hope they find a good home through our library’s books sale) and you can smell that when you walk in the door.
I burned my Pacifica Roman Frankincense candle last night. Mmmmm … that smelled good and somehow holiday-ish.
Is that Pacifica the greatest thing since sliced bread? Their scents are amazing, particularly when you consider the price. I love the Tibetan Mountain one, and the fig and something or other. 🙂
and 2 new lemmings r born for my next trip to us….
Enabler! I just happened to be in Home Sense and saw a (as always, discounted) Roman Frankincense candle and snapped it up. Do I NEED any more candles? No. Ah well, I usually burn quite a few this time of year.
I remember as a kid remembering how exotic our friend’s house smelled – their parents were from Jamaica, and I imagine it was from whatever they were cooking. I think I could identify a few other houses – my grandparent’s old house had a specific scent and I have a lot of friends with small kids, so their houses have a similar scent also. I wonder what our house smells like – I imagine it smells like our dog, but I grew up in a house with a zillion pets and worked at a pet store, so I wouldn’t notice that if it was there!
I don’t use any scent in the home currently – I feel like I comment this all the time, but my husband gets migraines and they are often triggered by scents. He’d think I was trying to kill him if I burned scented candles or used room sprays. Pre-husband, I would always get a pine tree candle from somewhere for the holidays, and have used the B&BW Christmas tree scent room spray in years we didn’t have a real tree. At least we get real trees now, so I just stand close to get my fix!
When I was a kid, during the 70s, a family from Vietnam moved in down the street. It was like they were from Mars. Their house smelled so exotic. I was terrified of their food then, but I’d love some now.
So sorry about your husband. Yes, you’ve mentioned it before. I don’t roll my eyes only because certain common smells (gasoline, diesel) sicken me almost instantly. So I’m sympathetic.
It might be that it is the smoke (Even non-visable) smoke from the candle and not the scent which triggers the migrane. Maybe you would do well with a diffuser, and try to stick with relatively simple scents in it.
Very timely post, March. Autumn and winter definitely make me want a snug, warm, welcoming house on all levels from the physical to the olfactory. I burn essential oils on an Aromastone in the evening and I put cloves in th canister of my Dyson and my Dustbusters with a quick burst of fragrance. I make bread most days and bake pretty much daily so the house often smells food-y. Combined with my love of perfume, mainly orientals, woods, leather and incense, I do wonder what kind of fragrance greets people when they come in. Hopefully, they don’t feel the need to put Vicks under their nose ( a la Silence of the Lambs) before they come over! :d
Cloves in the vacuum canister is a great idea; thank you.
you bake daily?
😕
(trying to figure out how I can get to your house on a regular basis ;))
xo >-)
If you can get here, you would be most welcome! We could have a London sniffa…just imagine!
Today’s recipe was Green Tea Cupcakes and a Nutty Apple Loaf. My house smells great…and I am probably 5 lbs heavier!
Oooooh! A use for that bottle of whole cloves! Thanks!
My home usually smells like peppermint and lavender. I use the essential oils for utilitarian purposes, (The peppermint to keep mice away and the lavender to keep the house and inhabitants free from fleas. I live in the midwest, I have pets.) but as an added benefit my house smells really good. This time of year I like to make orange pomanders and I usually make those Christmas tree ornaments from applesauce and cinnamon with the kids. Both make the house smell amazing. I would personally love those terracotta amber balls from L’Artisan but I don’t live the kind of life where $100+ air fresheners are a reality.
The amber balls are great, but what you’ve got going at your house smells better, I’ll bet!
What Masha Said.
And talk to me (us) about the lavender/mice thing. We live just down the road from one another, as you know…and it’s Mice Season. Those li’l bassids are invading my kitchen, once again. Help!
xo >-)
Well, we live on the beach, no mice here, just hurricanes, and tropical storms….
But I remember in Scotland we had mice in our vegan commune all the time, couldn’t kill them because of the karma, you know? But in the end, a good exterminator is necessary, they can find the source of all the nests and deal with the mouse overpopulation issue….
Palmetto bugs, Masha, palmetto bugs. Even as a devoted animal lover, I’ll squish those things without a second thought.
Eeeww!! I remember living on the Gulf of M, and those things would have an Extreme Mating Night, OMG, it was like a horror movie along the rivers….
SO DISGUSTING. I saw them in New Orleans for the first time. Like something out of a horror movie.
Peppermint oil repels mice – I once bought a product specifically for it and it came with sachet type things to put around the house. But you can just put a few drops on a washcloth or cotton ball and stuff them around the house. There is lot o info on the web about this, but here is a good link
http://aromanaturals.net/mice-peppermint.htm
Thanks!
xo >-)
Yup the peppermint is for mice, the lavender for fleas. I wipe down the cupboards and thresholds with a mixture of essential oil, water and alcohol and I spritz it behind furniture, in the corners, closets, etc, especially this time of year. I also toss peppermint teabags into the cupboards and dresser drawers.
Snap Traps. I’m the Quing (Quean) of snap traps. 8-x
You Quean! All mice fear you!
;))
xo >-)
i fear march, with a snap trap ouch!
Oh thank you for the tip! I will buy some peppermint oil tomorrow. Just got rid of my critters and want them to stay away.
BTW usually scent my house with eucalyptus, lavender or lemon essential oils.
Okay, everything you listed makes me think your house smells great.
No home scents for us. Our house usually smells of fresh garlic, freshly baked bread, or other kinds of good food. Why spoil that?
^:)^
xo >-)
I love to burn Japanese incense, especially at this time of year and I have recently fallen in love with Thymes Frasier Fir candle. I have two dogs and a cat so I need all of the good smellin’ things that I can get.
I love the Fraser Fir candles, too. I get the votives, and burn them on the window sill right above my kitchen sink. It’s just enough to scent the kitchen while I’m in there working, without overpowering the whole house.
Thymes has got a line called Indigenous that has several other good scents, too, and I have those votives as well that I break out at different times of the year.
Hm. This new Thymes Frasier Fir sounds like something I should investigate.
Howdy, March! I’m a little late, as usual. I second the folks on the Thymes Fraser Fir. Don’t have the candles, but the reed diffuser in it is quite nice. (Now where is it?) Will have to check out the AG Noel home scent. When DH cooks and the whole downstairs smells of it, I pull out my Bond No. 9 Little Italy candle and 20 minutes later, it’s all freshened up.
Okay, will definitely have to check the Thymes out! And the Bond sounds lovely.
It’s hard to know what your own home smells like because you’re used to it. I love open doors and windows and even leave them open when I’m not home (I have a very protective dog and live in a quiet, safe neighborhood).
But in the cooler months, I’m afraid smells “come up.” After a rain, there is a faint smell of mold and cat pee (I don’t have a cat – but am surrounded by eucalyptus trees, the leaves of which smell like cat pee when they are wet). I love candles and in the months when the windows are pretty much closed, I have them burning.
Hardwood floors help to keep the “dusty” smell from coming up and I beat my sofa pillows to release dust from them. So, I’m hoping my house doesn’t smell like much of anything…but of course, I’m sure it does. I just hope it’s not too awful.
I feel your pain, Kym. Our house is ancient and boogered-up (El O is sloooowly fixing the rigged nonsense from previous owners but it’s slow going)….and I could swear there is a cistern under the right front corner of the house – on some rainy days we have actual SNAILS on the front porch siding. Now…..where would those snails be coming from …..:-?
The best way to check your house smells is to go away for a day. Being in the house all day (I work from home most days) means you have no opportunity to clear your olfactory palate (which is why smokers and some cat/dog owners are unaware of the scent). Coming home after an entire day – or weekend – gives me the opp to see where the stink level is. With a houseful of guys and dogs…..b-(
But I wouldn’t worry too much. Unless you are running a kennel or an abbatoir out of your home, most people just adjust their noses accordingly, when they come into another person’s space. They’re there to see YOU, after all, not critique your odors. :d
xo >-)
A Certain Someone got me hooked on the Goutal Noel room spray. I don’t have it – yet – but it will be mine in time for the hollerdays. In the meantime I’m using a candle that is very similar – I got it at a Mart sample sale so I don’t know where they’re sold retail – but it’s Whispering Pines by Hill House Naturals. ‘whispering’ is the right word for it – lit, you don’t get that ‘a whole forest just fell on me’ smell – it’s more the smell of a fresh-cut tree in another room, with flowers scenting the space as well…very subtle.
I am terrified of having a stinky house. I have a large, farting man and a huge, farting dog – the smaller dog farts on a smaller scale. I take their beds (the dogs’ not the man’s ;)) out daily. We have one of those Dyson knock-off vacuums so twice a week, Ms Psycho here, washes the filter and the canister and wipes the filter down with geranium and bitter orange essential oils – a nice combo. Since I vacuum twice a day it leaves a nice scent. Our bedroom curtains are scented with Mitsouko Because I Can. [-( 😉
But last night, it was all undone. El O fried hamburgers. b-(
xo >-)
Mitsouko. Because I Can. Now where are the marketing people??!!
Why are dog farts so disgusting?
No, seriously. Why? Their diet can’t be any grosser than mine is. >:p
I love watching that little guy stick his tongue out.
You. Are. A. Nut.
xo >-)
I AM QUING. [-(
wait, where is the guy sticking his tongue out?….
Because dogs who are kibble fed get a diet that is not appropriate to their digestive tract. My dog is fed a raw diet- mainly meat and some vegetables- and maybe farts twice a year. ( I obviously don’t count her farts or keep a record!)
She was kibble fed for the first year and passed a lot more wind then.
I so wanted to add an emoticon but don’t seem to be able to manage that.
Here in the UK we have The White Company, which sells a range called Winter – candles, lamp burning oil, pot-pourri and spray in a gorgeous blend of cinnamon, clove and fresh orange. It’s unlike any other orangy/spicey Christmas home fragrances and I have been addicted to it for years, and probably go over the top with all the products. The first whiff of that almost prepares me for the pre-Christmas nightmare, and it comforts and uplifts me.
Last year (I think at your recommendation, March!) I bought Annick Goutal’s Noel in the spray and candle; they are beautiful and provide a refreshing break from the Winter scent. Almost like the forest came in on the breeze to blow away the fug.
Regarding plug-ins – I can’t think of any that I have liked and yes, I too end up throwing them away. Not so easy when you are in someone else’s house! But I am beginning to think they must be toxic, and I always end up with a migraine if I am forced to sit in room with one.
My aunt’s house was always choking with the smell of spaniels, rotting meat and cigarettes, which I hated, but sometimes now think of the reek fondly …..
I do love those Winter candles.. I know I have plenty but still, when the catalogue arrives, I find myself ordering more….:d
Wow. Spaniels, rotting meat and cigarettes. You win the ugh smell of the day. b-( On a more positive note, so glad you liked the Noel!
Years ago we used scented oils in those oil warmers—the glass dish you fill with water and a few drops of oil, with a small candle underneath. I loved those—I remember a eucalyptus oil and frankincense especially—but now, with a cat, I’m afraid to use them. For the same reason we rarely light candles, but I have a few sitting around that, even unlit, will really scent a small space like a powder room or office. By Kilian’s Taste of Heaven is especially potent. I’ve had it for six months or so and have never lit it but the whole room has a fantastic lavender scent. I also have the Dans l’atelier de Cézanne candle—more subtle, but it’s supposed to smell like paint and turpentine and old wood. That’s how I’d like my house to smell.
It’s tricky with cats, isn’t it? My Persians were sooooo curious about everything, if there was trouble, they’d find it fast….
That Cezanne thing sounded soooo nice.
Paint, turpentine and old wood? Oh, goodness. That sounds like heaven.
if you add in ‘farty dog’ you have my house! 😉
xo >-)
Front rooms are Trapp candles on a melter – Amber & Bergamot right now, which is just soft & lovely, sometimes sexy cinnamon. My bedroom smells of the vase of white stock that’s sitting on my bedside table, which is wonderful. When I’m feeling splurge-y, I bust out the Esteban Ambre room spray and go to town. I don’t think there’s a lot of food smells – I don’t cook meat, and I rarely bake (because there’s no one but me here to eat that pumpkin bread and oh, boy, would I!), so unless there’s still a lingering steamed broccoli odor from my lunch, it’s not too kitchen-y in here.
However, my downstairs neighbors use those gawdawful plug-ins things. And not the nice Slatkin ones – the cheapo, kill-you-with-synthetic-apple-pie-smell ones. If she leaves her back door open, the smell will sometimes waft up to me on my back porch – it makes me gag. I do not see how people can stand living with that in their homes. (But then, she’s a smoker, so she probably doesn’t notice it as much.) My mother has a proclivity for cheap vanilla candles – the kind that smell like melted plastic with a little vanilla thrown in. I’ve been known to surreptitiously turn off the melter when I’m over there.
Those plug-in things are terrible! Whenever I come across them, I try and unplug them if I can do so without anyone noticing!
Ugh on the cheap vanilla candles… I accidentally bought some once for a dinner party, thinking they were unscented, and I was so disgusted we ended up not using them. How can people stand those super-potent plug-ins?
For health reasons, I often make fish soups of various kinds (good for cardiac health, good for weight loss, easy to cook on the weekend and then have for dinner through the working week).
So I need heavy duty aroma cleansing when I do this.
Which means Bitter Orange candles, to be lit when making soup.
I like a fragrant diffuser for the bathroom, something lavender or pine or rosemaryish.
Oh, I love fish and seafood, but yeah, heavy duty incense is necessary afterwards! Strong benzoin is a good choice, and maybe, a cinnamon broom? (are they an American thing, man they are strong!)
Gah, we cook fish, and love it, but the way the smell lingers is so annoying. Bitter Orange candles sound perfect.
Our house is only 11 years old, but the basement has already acquired that damp-musty smell that I used to think of as the smell of old people’s houses. (Confession: when I was a kid, my grandmother used to drag me around with her to visit all her cronies. Their houses, for the most part, smelled the same. You know what else? There’s a part of Chergui that reminds me of it.) Also, our beagle-lab mix sleeps in the finished portion of the basement, so there’s a persistent doggy odor there too. I’m not fond of the wet-ashes smell – it burns the back of my throat, and it’s so bitter – but that tends to permeate the house in the winter too.
I bought six of those small Noel candles from Parfum1 in their last 20% off sale, intending to give them at Christmas. Now I’m not sure I can bear to give them up; they’ve been stored under my bed and even still packaged they give off a lovely throw. They smell somehow cool…
Have also been burning Pumpkin Spice candles from Wal-Mart, which are actually lovely, spicy and pumpkiny and not too sweet. Also love the Slatkin “Winter” candles from B&BW – I stocked up on those last spring when they were on clearance. I keep an open one in my closet. Yum.
Oh, that damp musty basement, is that not the greatest smell on earth?! Reminds me of my childhood. And I kind of like that doggy smell, in proper doses.
I have those Slatkin candles! Darn, where did I put them? They’re in a clost somewhere.
Some of my favorite home scents are Scentsy Vanilla Suede (smells like Angel), Midnight Fig (reminds me of Diptique Philosykis, and Amber Road which reminds me of my Diptique candle Marons Grill which I paid a small fortune for last year.
Fig fig fig mmmmmm.
I make and collect incense, and the kids and I came up with a great “gingerbread blend” that we use in winter. Well, except there’s no winter where we live now, oops! So we’ll probably just stick with the basic frankincense and myrrh thing, or maybe go with “coconut and ‘gator nuggets” blend!
Frankenmyrrh. :d Could be worse.
Wait, where are you now? I think… Florida?
Yes, Land of the Christmas Palm and the Roll-Out Cotton Batting Snow! Hey, I don’t miss all the snow shoveling, but I’m still not used to eating alligator….
Masha, our local Publix sells bundles of leaves every fall! I about fell over the first year I saw that. :-)
Yeah, but the smell of the jasmine even in winter is extraordinary. 😡
I have an enormous incense collection-all kinds. Resins for the incense warmer or for charcoal, Japanese, Indian, Tibetan, handmade by Nathaniel Musselman (for one example) as well as a huge essential oil inventory (I’m a certified aromatherapist) that I use with an Aromastone or a diffuser. I burn incense every night when I get in from work and again as part of my going to sleep routine. On mornings when life seems bleak, I burn a stick in the bathroom or the bedroom when I am getting ready for work. It helps. I love the Olfactory Rescue Service blog and Essence of the Ages is one of my prime sources of incense. It’s not a cheap habit, but my house always smells good; not like a head shop but with the faintest traces of something special that you can’t quite put your finger on.
I also arrange cut flowers in the house every week, from the store or the yard, depending on the time of year-and try to select something (even a scented leaf or eucalyptus) that has some smell to it. One of my long time loves that is in bloom now but not to everyone’s taste is Mexican Marigold.
When the weather is chilly I have a fire 2-3 nights a week and the house retains that kind of smoky smell for at least a day.
Like March, I do not use any scented laundry products but I do use essential oils (a few drops) in my dish washing liquid. I have an old bungalow and when I re-did the kitchen I did not add a dish washer-I am the dishwasher, so the scent as I get all steamed up with hot, soapy water is delightful.
Not much for baking but I love long simmered foods (soups, stews, casseroles, chilis) so at least a few times a month I can enjoy the anticipation of a good meal and some olfactory memories of it when I walk in the house.
I don’t burn candles because I repainted the whole place a few years ago, and saw how filthy my ceilings were after more than a decade of steady candle consumption-and high end ones at that!
In the late summer, the whole house is redolent of night blooming jasmine for several weeks. It’s not a note I can bear in perfume but the real thing is bliss.
I use Murphy’s Oil soap on my linoleum and hardwood floors, so there is always a mild undercurrent of that, too.
Damn, if I must say so myself, coming home is always a pleasure!
I love the smell of incense in the background — quality incense in a place that burns it regularly, and your house must smell great. Combine that with some cut flowers and I’d be in heaven.
I wish our fireplace weren’t so smoky. Sadface. Although when it rains, all winter, we get that damp smoke smell in that part of the house, which I love.
Isn’t that jasmine smell incredible? When we visited Florida for awhile I got to experience it.
It sounds like you’ve set up a pleasurable environment to come home to. 😡
I usually don’t use scented products for my house, except for one woodsy candle that I light now and then, but last weekend I bought the Dyptique Épinette candle and I really like its smell. If I get another candle, it’ll probably be Dyptique Feu de bois. I just love that kind of smell. But I also love how my house smells with food in the oven… :)
And I don’t notice it when I’m there, but I’m sure I could recognize people’s houses by their smell. I seem to recognize people’s houses in fragrances all the time: one aunt’s and one grandmother’s houses, in particular, seem to come up all the time. But I wouldn’t tell my aunt, because it’s usually linked to me not liking said fragrance… :)
No, don’t tell her you don’t like the scent, agreed! If she got that stuck in her head, it might make her unhappy (and no huge hardship for you, right?) Although… I had a friend years ago who used a particular kind of plug-in to the degree that I *smelled* like it when I left. Gag.
Dyptique makes excellent candles. They got kind of lost in the crush.