Luxury Home Fragrance: diffuser reeds, candles and room sprays to try

@mrsoaroundworld
luxury home fragrance scent reed diffusers candles room sprays baobab jonathan adler bamford molton brown true grace neom organics

Looking for home fragrance ideas? Here are 15 of my favourite reed diffusers, candles and room sprays

Home fragrance or home scents are quite important to me – it is one of the things our friends and family who visit our house always mention. I never thought twice about it until I started to get questions about luxury home scent combinations – and which precise diffuser reeds or candles I had in each room of the house.

I have no formal knowledge in the area as you can imagine, so what I am sharing are the diffuser reeds, candles and home sprays we have in our house. We have made some changes in our ‘scent direction’ recently, and the selection of luxury home fragrance items below do reflect that. There are SO many other brands and options there – but these are the ones we chose for our house.

Without further ado, here is my luxury home fragrance edit – with 10 of the diffuser reeds, candles and home sprays we have. I will split them up in areas just to make this easier.

 

1. Best Luxury Home Fragrance Diffuser Reeds

I currently have 3 scents around the house – one for the downstairs area, which includes the hall, living and dining rooms, another my bedroom and dressing room, and another for all the guest bedrooms and bathrooms (which is our overall scent in Spain as well, and you will see why in a minute).

We had been with the same brand for pretty much 5 years – and that would be True Grace’s Amber (in XL diffusers for main rooms, and normal size in bedrooms) and Curious Bergamot for all the bathrooms. But the latter isn’t so easy to find any more, so we have made some changes in the last couple of years.

I rotate my reed diffusers twice a week – Monday when the cleaners come and Friday ‘for the weekend’ and it does matter to me how long they last (so you will not have any surprises here). There are many other scents and brands that smell amazing … but they do not last. And the ones we have chosen for our home do.

Costs £168 for the 250ml (totem) diffuser, £355 for the 2 litre and £695 for the 5 litre reed diffuser. Get it from John Lewis, Harrods and Amara . 

I first came across Baobab as a toiletry brand in Beverly Hills (of all places) and then, all of a sudden, they were everywhere (well, in special places).

My 2 preferred fragrances are the Platinum (silver) and the Aurum (gold) and I currently have this scent in ‘our downstairs’ area, covering our living room, hall and dining room, in a mix of 500ml basic diffuser and 2-litre totems (which are pretty stunning).

I have the Aurum diffuser (500ml) and 16cm candle in my bedroom.

 

Costs £50 from John Lewis. Refills from £30.

I have been buying True Grace’s products for years as I think their scents are really well made and they are a ‘local company’ from just outside Bath, Somerset. Besides their normal sized diffusers, I have been buying their XL diffusers which take 6 refill bottles directly from them (they used to have a shop in Bath but now we just email their customer service team).

The XL diffusers are great value as they around £150 which would cover the cost of 3-4 refills and the glass (but the pack comes with 6 bottles).

Amber has been our scent for many years, and will continue to be in our guest bedrooms and study. We have Curious Bergamot (which is different from the normal Bergamot) in our bathrooms, but sadly it has been discontinued. I bulk bought 12 refills last time and I am down to the last 6 – so we have started looking for a replacement (which we found) for our bathrooms. I foresee that the current stock we have will last us til the end of the year.

 

Costs £58 for 250ml from Liberty London.  Refills cost £35.

I like quite a few Bamford products (their hand wash is divine) and I saw their reed diffusers at their Bicester Village location on sale and decided to buy one. I love the Fig Leave scent and now currently have this on my bathroom. I will ‘extend’ this scent to all the other bathrooms in the house as my True Grace stock runs out. I love how gorgeous the sticks are too.

 

2. Best Smelling Luxury Home Candles

If you haven’t done a ‘candle masterclass’ at a Dyptique store, I highly recommend one. Basically you just walk in (at one of their quieter stores) and when the staff ask if you’d like any help, you say yes and let them explain everything there is to explain about candles. They will also help you match the scent to the room you will be using it in.

How to burn and care for candles

It’s really important that the first time you burn the candle, the entire surface area becomes liquid – this could be way over a couple of hours. Candle specialists recommend 1 hour per inch of the candle diameter. This will ensure that the wick soaks up the paraffin and that the candle will burn evenly down to the bottom.

Also, you should be trimming your wicks (I did not, in all honesty, but I do now) to ¼-inch (0.5cm) length. By shortening the wick you allow it to burn more slowly and also avoid unsightly black smoke marks around the edge of the glass.

As a general rule, you should avoid burning any candle, no matter how big, for longer than two because it can cause the wick to move off centre. The smaller the candle, the less time it should burn for.

I find that lighting a candle for 30 minutes to an hour fills up a room with scent – so I always light our candles for an hour maximum before guests arrive and I make sure I extinguish them way before, so there is no smoke. For ambience, I then have non-scented and flameless candles around the house.

Also, don’t out off the candle – use a candle snuffer or just the lid if your candle comes with one (they are there for a reason).

 

Costs £47 for 190ml (burn time: 60 hours) from Diptyque

Never ever did I think I would like the smell of quince – but turns out it is quite lovely in one’s living room. Also, Juniper is perfect for our home office (or maybe it is just the thought of a gin and tonic that keeps me going). In all honesty, I never really loved the most commercial Diptyque scents and only when I went into their Marylebone store (for a few hours) did I ‘find my scent’.

 

Cost £78.00 for the Max 10 (60 hours), £108 for the Max 16 (150 hours), £212 for the Max 24 (400 hours) and £415 for the Maxi Max (800 hours). Get them from Selfridges, John Lewis 

I have a Baobab Platinum candle (the Max 24) in my living room and I have a Baobab Aurum Max 16 in my bedroom, which pairs with the diffuser.

There is a bit of arbitrage on Baobab products – they are ‘better value’ in Euro-based countries due to the exchange rate (this is a Belgian brand) and some sellers on eBay which I have tried on occasion and had no issues.

 

Costs £16 (burn time 20 hours) from Selfridges (Global), Look Fantastic (UK/Europe) and Beauty Expert (North America), Feel Unique (Global)

This is my favourite Neom scent (and one I had in my bedroom for a few years) – and it is the one I chose to take with me pretty much everywhere I go. It became a ritual on my trips (namely alone) and I like the familiar smell of this candle when I am at a hotel somewhere around the world.

 

From $50 to $99 depending on size from Pottery Barn (you will not be able to check the website if you are in Europe)

There are fake candles and fake candles and these ones made by Luminara for Pottery Barn are, without a doubt, the best we have ever found and bought. They are made of real wax and the flicker really looks real. I love the timer setting – ours come on at 6pm every night around the house for 5 hours. We also have the outdoor version (and the timers are for 8 hours).

They are absolutely worth the money and I cannot recommend them enough.

Please note that Williams Sonoma (who owns Pottery Barn) have cut access to their USA websites from Europe as a way to deal with the GDPR requirements. Every other USA company seems to have sorted this issue, but not them (which is a shame). You can access via a VPN (which is what I do!)

 

Costs £50 for 4 from Amazon UK or Amazon USA

These are fabulous for pretty much anywhere around the house and outside too. They work with a remote control or a timer.

 

Costs £12 for a pack of 50 from Amazon UK or USA

I have been buying these 8-hour tea lights (and other Bolsius unscented candles) for years – they to last 8 hours which is perfect for an evening of entertaining (or just at anytime). I have a list of other Amazon items you can find here.

 

3. Best Luxury Room Sprays

I use these very sparingly and in fact I did not have them for a while – but found that they were absolutely necessary.

Costs £26 for 100ml from Molton Brown 

Still one of my favourite smells in the world and I pray that they don’t discontinue this product as it is harder and harder to find.

 

Costs £20 from Selfridges, Space NK, Nordstrom

 

Something a bit different (which I had featured before) and much loved by my readers. It does what it says on the bottle, I promise and in this case, no need for candles!

 

4. Luxury Diffuser and Burner Oils

Costs £150 (inc. the burner oil) from Selfridges, Liberty London (in gold) Net a Porter, Saks Fifth Avenue  or £80 (for just the cage) from Selfridges or Tom Dixon.

I have been really looking forward to an upgrade of my oil burner and finally found this Tom Dixon cage diffuser which not only looks beautiful.. it really works. The candle makes the top rotate and it all really works (and a treat with the 8 hour tea lights I mentioned before).

I really like the Orientalist fragrance, but you can use any essential oils mixed with water. I also love and recommend Tom Dixon’s hand washes too.

 

Costs £79 from John Lewis (I bought mine at Selfridges but isn’t available online for some reason. I also found this one on Amazon UK/Europe (click here for Amazon USA) which is only £24 but looks exactly the same…)

I really wanted to get on the mist bandwagon but I thought that most mist diffusers were a bit on the ugly side until I found this one from Esteban at Selfridges. I also got the Tech & Tonka burner oil which we thought paired well with the Baobab Aurum I have in my bedroom.

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed my luxury home fragrance edit and find a reed diffuser, a candle, home spray or oil burner that will bring a bit of joy!

 

Until the next time.

xo

Mrs. O

 

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PS. Make sure you read my Christmas Candle Edit.

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