Home Decor: Should You Use Orange or Jasmine Scented Candles?
The sense of smell is often overlooked in home decorating, but scented candles and use of aromas can be very powerful tools in creating the right effect for a room. Aromatherapy is defined at dictionary.com as: the use of fragrances to affect or alter a person's mood or behavior. Below you'll discover some specific scents and fragrances that you can use while decorating your home that can potentially impact your own and your visitors' moods. Don't think this is just a strange "new age" thing that's not relevant or important for you. It might be more important and powerful than you think. People can remember smells for years- indeed, when a whiff of an old perfume wafts by, memories and emotions (hopefully good ones) may come crashing back! The aroma of fresh bread baking, apple pie, even that of a rose, can interrupt the most harried person, and give them a momentary break in their hectic day.
One of the most compelling aspects of smell is that it almost can't be ignored. It entices you at an almost subconscious level. People can get accustomed to various sights and sounds, but it is almost impossible to ignore or tune out a scent. It has also been demonstrated that the pleasure we get from eating is in large part due to the aroma of the food. Food aroma and taste are very intertwined.
Marketers use scents in promoting all kinds of everyday items. Perfumes and other additives are added to many products to help encourage you to buy one product rather than another. Home sellers are encouraged to have the aroma of fresh bread or cinnamon rolls lingering about or to use scented candles with orange or lavender to help prospective buyers feel calmer and more relaxed. Scent lets you try out or enjoy something without diminishing it for the next customer too. For example, smelling the bottle of shampoo does not make it any less effective for the next person, and smelling the fresh cinnamon rolls does not break your diet.
You can create the right atmosphere in your home decor projects by carefully selecting the scents and choosing specific aromas that tend to evoke desired effects on emotions. One tremendous advantage of using scent as a home decorating strategy- it's much easier to change out scented candles than to repaint the room, and much more economical too!
Over the thousands of years that incense and oils have been used, certain scents have been used to help with our emotions. The following is a small sample of these and may help provide you with some ideas to try when experimenting with use of scents in your home decorating plans.
To Ease: Anger and Aggression Try: Lemon, Bergamot, Chamomile, Jasmine
To Ease: Anxiety Try: Vanilla, Lavender, Orange, Patchouli, Sandalwood
To Ease: Fear Try: Cedar, Ginger, Patchouli
To Ease: Hysteria Try: Chamomile, Lavender, Jasmine
To Ease: Emotional Fatigue Try: Cinnamon, Jasmine, Orange, Peppermint, Eucalyptus
To Ease: Physical Fatigue Try: Basil, Lemon, Lavender, Orange, Peppermint
To Ease: Nervousness Try: Chamomile, Coriander, Orange
To Ease: Sadness Try: Jasmine, Rose
To Ease: Stress Try: Cedar, Geranium, Lavender, Patchouli, Rose
To Ease: Tension Try: Chamomile, Jasmine, Lavender, Lemon, Orange, Rose
Once you have found a few scents that you like and that work out for you, you have several choices as to how you'll get the aroma into the air. A very important factor in this regard is that you need to control the aroma level - too much, too fast can be overpowering and ruin the effect. On the other hand, if the scent is too weak, because, for example, there is too much breeze, the scent can be un-noticeable.
Commercial air fresheners are available with various scent combinations, and are inexpensive and readily available. However, they generally don't add much to a room's appearance, and they are also not as potent typically.
Scented candles are convenient and can provide soothing lighting effects as well. These are available in a wide range of sizes, shapes, colors, and scents to fit in with the visual decor of your room. These work on the idea of evaporating the essential oils (where the scent is located) into the air as each scented candle burns.
Incense is generally burned and incense can change the scent in a room quite quickly. Incense is also fairly inexpensive. However, because it is burned, the selection of aromas is different. Since the incense is often glued onto a wooden stick, you will need some sort of incense holder that not only will hold the incense, but also catch the ashes.
Another option for dispersing scent is using oil burners or diffusers. These work by letting the essential oils evaporate. Some work just by letting the oil evaporate, or by placing the oil in a clay ring around a light bulb. The light bulb then provides a small amount of heat that evaporates the oil. Other oils can be heated in an oil burner. As a general rule, the hotter the oil, the faster it will evaporate, and the stronger the scent will be. However, remember the idea is to evaporate the oil, not to burn it.
Hopefully you now have some ideas on how you can get started on including the sense of smell with scents and aromatherapy in your home decor projects. Choosing the right scented candles or incense aromas will give your home decorating project that extra element of surprise that you might really benefit from, resulting in greater comfort for you and your guests. So, did you figure out if orange or jasmine scented candles will be the best fit for you yet? Well, refer to the above list, or just try them out on your unsuspecting friends to try to figure it out. Anyway, it's easy, it's inexpensive, and you can have fun experimenting!
Copyright Liz Hekimian-Williams
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About the Author: Liz Hekimian-Williams is founder of Giftsprings Home Decor and Personalized Gifts and writes about home decorating and family issues. Subscribe to the Giftsprings email list and you'll get a free e-cookbook, free discount coupon code, and special alerts to some of their best sale deals. Giftsprings features home decor and personalized gifts, such as personalized wind chimes and novelty scented candles.
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