Turn Your Home Into A Good-Smelling Oasis With Fragrance Layering

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Legendary fashion designer Christian Dior once said that "long after one has forgotten what a woman wore, the memory of her perfume lingers." His comment wasn't just a marketing ploy to sell more bottles of Dior fragrance. Experts have long explored the power of scent and its ability to instantly evoke memories. They've found that since humans used to rely more heavily on scent for survival, the parts of our brain that fire up when we smell are strongly connected to the areas that form memories and make decisions.

That's all to say that Dior wasn't wrong when noting that the memory of a perfume can linger. So in addition to finding your signature fragrance, why not make your home smell fantastic, too? You may not realize the surprising truth about the role smell plays in interior design. When you're intentional with fragrance at home, it can trigger a sense of calm and comfort, and deepen the happy memories that you and your guests form inside your home.

You may already be practicing the small habits that will make your home smell better than ever. But recently, more people are turning to a technique called fragrance layering to turn their homes into a good-smelling oasis. Also known as scent-scraping, the concept is simple: rather than simply one source of a good scent, like a candle or air freshener, you layer different sources throughout your house. This can help strengthen the fragrance impact, leaving your home extra inviting and luxurious.

Start by determining the scent you'd like to imbue. It shouldn't be a single fragrance. Instead, you can choose a scent family, like citrus, woody, fresh, or floral. Within these broad categories, find scents that complement and play off each other. For instance, use soft florals — scents like rose and iris — in the more romantic, tranquil areas of the home, and then layer those with greener florals like lily of the valley or neroli for a crisp freshness in rooms like the kitchen. In summer months, you could also add some earthier tones into the mix, like a Paddywax tomato leaf candle or cedarwood incense.

Often, bringing in a scent from a different family can enhance the fragrance rather than work against it. For instance, vibrant citrus scents pair well with warm, spiced scents like rosemary, cinnamon, or black pepper. Of, if you go heavy on woodsy fragrances throughout the home, you can use some dried lavender to soften it in some rooms.

Get creative with the items you use to layer these scents. Candles, diffusers, and incense can all add dramatic lighting and calming vibes to rooms where they're used, bringing atmosphere and dimension along with their scents. Sprays are nice to have in areas like bathrooms or kitchens where strong smells can threaten your scent-layering efforts. And remember to pull scent from elements that you might already have, like fresh flowers, citrus, or evergreens from the backyard. Other times, you can use simple and affordable ingredients to create your own items, like a DIY air freshener spray that will keep your home smelling fresh for less.

Don't feel overwhelmed by making an initial choice for scent-scaping in your home. Since filling a home with a fragrance means relying on products that don't last forever (like candles, diffusers, incense, freshening sprays, and plants or flowers), you have freedom to switch up your scent frequently. Some people choose one per season. Others love an energizing scent for the daytime, and then they switch to something more calming (like lavender) for evenings or weekends.

One key element of fragrance layering is to work with design elements you already have and incorporate into your home. For instance, maybe you have a large fireplace that you love to use. In this case, you can layer other woodsy scents throughout your home, like pine scented candles in the bathroom, a diffuser with NaturoBliss cedar-scented oil for the bedroom, and a simmer pot with evergreens and spices for the kitchen. Along with smelling divine, this layering will create a complex harmony in your space, reinforcing your design choices in a way that hits all the senses.