Air fresheners that are safe for your home

Supermarket air fresheners and candles can be cheaper than the handmade, boutique style you can buy but are they safe for your home and your family? Here are some ideas for air fresheners that are safe for your home.

Air Fresheners & Candles

How much do you spend on air fresheners and/or candles? Do you feel better that your house smells like the air freshener than if it didn’t?

This isn’t a criticism about how clean your house is or a lecture on the environment but just to raise your awareness to some facts and some alternatives.

I’m not a greenie but when I heard about how harmful the chemicals are in air fresheners for your home, I stopped buying them. If you’ve got a couple of toilets, you buy a can of air freshener for each or a scented candle for a few rooms of the house and it certainly adds up.

Air fresheners are harmful

Glen20 used to be one of my favourites, especially for killing germs. At $8.00 a can, it’s a hefty price but makes marvellous claims for killing germs in various situations in your home.

Glen 20, according to Material Safety Data Sheets is up to 60% Ethanol.

MSDS online says,

Ethanol is dangerous: The following should be worn whenever using ethanol: Respirator, Boots, Long rubber gloves, Industrial aprons, Overalls, Chemical safety goggles, Face shield. It’s really dangerous to breathe in Ethanol and Glen 20 is mostly Ethanol. The other major ingredients are at least as dangerous Propane up to 30% and Butane up to10%.

Via Reckitt Benckiser

Supermarket candles are harmful

At anywhere from $5 to $20 from the supermarket, they are always going to leave a big dent in the grocery budget. Not only that, if they are made from paraffin wax which is derived from petroleum, coal or shale oil they are very toxic.

When it’s burnt, paraffin wax releases toxic compounds into the air, including acetone, benzene, and toluene – all known carcinogens.

Paraffin candles also produce a fair bit of soot – the black stuff caused from flickering flames – and when the soot is airborne it can be inhaled.

When scented candles are burned, they give off tiny particles, so small that you could fit a thousand of them across a single human hair. The problem with particles this small is that they can get into the bloodstream, and they have been associated with both short- and long-term health problems, including asthma and cardiovascular disease.

What to do instead to make your home smell nice

I don’t know about you but I have wonderful memories of my grandmothers and mum’s houses smelling nice naturally. Freshly baked goods coming out of the oven, fresh fruit (my nanna’s house always smelled like pineapple) and a fresh, clean smell because they (or we as kids) cleaned the house.

Here are some tips:

• Dust smells. If you keep on top of the dust in your house, there’ll be less musty odours and a cleaner fresh smell. Sweep or vacuum floors regularly, wipe feet at the door on mats and wash the mats regularly, wash curtains, clean blinds and windows and dust furniture, light fittings and fans etc.
• Open your windows and let the fresh air in.
• Think of using odour neutralisers instead of artificially scenting your home. Plain bicarb soda is an excellent absorber of unwanted odours.
• Fresh scented flowers like roses, jasmine, jonquil and lavender are highly scented. Fresh or dried as pot pourri are a great natural scent.
• Essential oils mix with water (or alcohol) make an excellent room deodoriser, linen spray, air freshener, fabric furniture refresher.
• Diffusing essential oils are a natural way to not only add a fresh scent to your home but depending on the oil you diffuse, can set a calm relaxing tone in the house (lavender), or an energised tone (housework or homework) with peppermint.
• Make a stove top air freshener with citrus peel, cinnamon bark, cloves, peppercorns, rosemary, eucalyptus etc. Heat until boiling and then lower to a simmer for approx 30 mins.
• If you do use candles check very carefully that they are made from natural wax like beeswax and only essential oils added.

Keep it natural, keep on top of the dust and dirt in your home and open the windows in your home and your home will smell naturally fresh and you’ll not avoid harmful chemicals coming into your home, you’ll save a lot of money buying air fresheners and candles from the supermarket.

How To Make Your House Feel ‘Homey’ With Scented Candles

Utmost comfort and reliability are the top priorities of homeowners when maintaining their home in good condition. To do so, they enhance light fixtures, add stylish furniture, put up cheerful decorations, and paint their walls with pleasant colors. However, style and design aren’t enough to transform a house into a home. If you want to know how to make your house feel ‘homey’ with scented candles, here are some tips.

Excellent lighting and decorations solely stimulate the eyes, but some may overlook the sense of smell. Thus, to make a home feel like a real home, homeowners should also improve the fragrance of the house with scented candles.

Cozy scents can be created in various ways, especially using scented candles, which are made from candle wax infused with special fragrance oils. Using scented candles in your home can significantly improve its style and ambiance plus make your house feel ‘homey’. Scented candles are more than just ambient lightning. You can make the most of them through these following tips.

Choose the Right Scent

Your first motivation for purchasing scented candles is to add fragrance and boost the feeling of coziness and comfort inside your home. Therefore, the most crucial part of the selection process is to choose the right scent.

Scented candles are created from a combination of natural and synthetic fragrances, which are derived from essential oils and artificial aromatic chemicals, respectively. Since essential oils are derived from nature’s ingredients, you can ensure higher quality in stimulating the right fragrance inside your home.

Natural scented candles are often used in aromatherapy,which creates a calm andpeaceful feeling perfect for homes. Essential oils with woody, herbaceous, and floral mixesare the best long-lasting fragrances out of all options. It may take a longtime for them to emit their scents, but once it’s all burned up, you can ensurethat your home will have the best aroma.

Different scents stand for different moods. If you’re up fora bold and lively fragrance with a hint of sweetness, fruity scents are themost ideal. They’re perfect during the daytime to wake you up with their livelyand energetic scent. You can select on a wide array of fruits such as oranges,lemons, grapefruit, tangerines, mangoes, and so much more.

However, if you want to unwind after a busy and tiring day,scented candles with essential oils can calm the mind and body. Look forscented candles with ingredients such as lavender, frankincense, sandalwood,jatamansi, myrrh, jasmine, bergamot, chamomile, and rose. These components areknown to stimulate the smell receptors in the nose, send messages to thenervous system, and create a positive effect on the body’s chemical and energysystems.

Minimize Smoke and Burning Smells

The most common mistake homeowners commit when it comes to scented candles is not burning them properly, which produces smoke and a burnt smell. In some cases, there’s no production of smoke and the burnt smell, but the candles don’t last long. If your house smells like it’s burning, then this will not create a comfortable and cozy atmosphere. The main factors that affect the burning quality of scented candles are the candle’s cleanliness and wick size. To minimize smoke and the burning smell from candles, you have to pay attention to these factors:

• Beforelighting your scented candle, make sure that the candle wick has an adequatelength by trimming it by 0.5 cm. In this way, the flame will not create smoke.Wicks that are too long take a longer time to burn, which will eventually leadto overburning, causing heavy smoke and the obstruction of heat transmission atthe candle’s wax base.

• Onthe other hand, wicks that are too small and short will give you a difficulttime in lighting them up, so carefully melt them with a heat gun and remove themelted wax.

• Inputting out ordinary candles, the disturbing burning smell inevitably diffusesacross the whole room. Putting out scented candles are no different. It’sadvisable to use candle lids or snuffers to reduce oxygen supply, whichdecreases the production of smoke and burning smell.

• Dirtycandles also contribute to the foul burning smell, so always make sure thatyour scented candle is clean by covering it with a candle lid.

Create a Consistent Smell with Scented Candles

Scented candles are often suitable for the living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. To make the most out of your scented candle, you have to make sure that it’s 100% effective and will last for a long while. Every 10 square meters of the room usually require one candle weighing 180g to 220g.

Spacious living rooms might need three to four candles to cover the whole room consistently. Most scented candles last from three to five hours depending on its size, and once you light them up, you have to wait for at least an hour for the scent to diffuse.

The location of the candles also affect their duration andsmell significantly. For the fragrance to remain constant across the room, makesure that there are no spaces where the smell might escape. Lighting scentedcandles inside an enclosed, air-conditioned space has dangerous effects, as theburning of the candle can’t completely oxidize, forming harmful carbonmonoxide.

Conclusion

Scented candles prove that they’re not only for relaxationand aromatherapy. One of their biggest advantages is improving the overallhealth and wellness of people by relieving stress and anxiety, digestiveproblems, blood sugar fluctuations, PMS, cancer, joint pain, and more.