Essential oil sprays are used in aromatherapy to support various issues of health and well-being. While a body mist may be all you’re after, these sprays easily double as room sprays, linen sprays, or car freshener sprays. The basic recipe is the same. The difference will come in when choosing a particular scent or blend for your very own homemade essential oil spray.
In this article, I’ll show you how you can get your home filled with rich fragrances of essential oils quite quickly and easily.
One of the most important decisions is which oil(s) to blend. I quite like choosing oil blends that uplift your spirit and refresh your natural environment. However, picking an essential oil blend that works best for you & your family is a priority. You’ll just have to try and see what you like. To start, follow my oil spray recipes below for some inspiration!
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How to Make Essential Oil Spray
Let’s get started with the basics. Follow this guide to learn how to make your own DIY essential oil spray. It will work for rooms, body, or linens – you choose!
Ingredients
- 4 oz spray container
- 3 fl oz distilled water
- 1 fl oz ethanol alcohol
- 48 drops of essential oils (2% dilution), blend of choice (see my essential oil recipes below)
Directions
4 oz spray bottles with labels and droppers
Get them here
- Gather the Materials: If you want to make an essential oil spray, the first thing is to get the materials needed for the project. The ingredients required include essential oils, distilled water, a small amount of alcohol, and a 4 oz spray bottle. Glass bottles are preferred over plastic bottles.
- Label the Bottle. Labeling the bottle is necessary for easy identification. This will help your household members not to ingest the content in any way. Also, if you make multiple sprays, this will help you keep them apart.
- Start with Alcohol. After labeling the spray bottle, add 1 fl oz of minimum 60% ethanol content alcohol, such as Everclear grain alcohol or rubbing alcohol. This step is NOT optional. Alcohol not only helps the oils to bind better and the scent to last longer, it also eliminates microbial growth and contamination in your spray. (Read more on Tisserand Institute’s Effective Use of Alcohol for Aromatic Blending)
- Add Essential Oils. Now it is time to put the drops of chosen essential oils into the bottle. Blend the oils according to your choice or specific health needs. Let this mixture sit, covered, for at least an hour to allow the aromas to develop.
- Top Up with Distilled Water. Finish off your oil spray recipe by pouring the distilled water to the top of the container.
- Shake Well. After adding your ingredients, shake the bottle vigorously. This will cause the oil particles to dissolve completely in the water. Always shake the bottle again just before you want to use your spray.
- Spray. Spray your homemade aromatherapy spray around your room and surroundings. You will inhale the soothing fragrance, and benefit from the therapeutic properties.
Woman spraying body mist like a perfume.
Precautions
- Please remember that alcohol is a solvent and so are many essential oils. Avoid direct contact with counter tops or finished wood to avoid damage to finished surfaces.
- Avoid spraying around open flames or flammable areas such as gas or propane stoves, or candles. Both the alcohol and essential oils are volatile substances.
- If you’re making a body spray, avoid phototoxic essential oils if you plan to be exposed to the sun in any way while outdoors after use.
- With the alcohol content stabilizing the spray, you don’t need to store it in the refrigerator. It can last for months with no concerns. If you wish to refrigerate, you can, but it is not needed.
- I’m often asked about witch hazel in a room spray recipe. It is a skin soothing replacement for water. However, if you’re simply spraying the room or air (or linens), it is not needed to spend money on witch hazel. Simply use the distilled water.
10 DIY Essential Oil Spray Recipes
As an essential oil enthusiast, vary the recipes by blending essential oils as you like. This will give you new recipes to use as the need arises.
Here a few recipes with healthy fragrances to try out this season. They include citrus scents, earthy and woody scents, herbaceous scents, and floral scents from our favorite spring diffuser blend recipes. Enjoy these different natural scents for your room, bathroom, or car carpet freshener. If you’re feeling creative, make up your own blend. Use 48 essential oil drops of choice.
1. Citrus Delight
- 12 drops Grapefruit
- 7 drops Lime
- 12 drops Sweet Orange
- 10 drops Mandarin
- 8 drops Bergamot
With this blend, please remember the photo toxicity of citrus oils and do not use this spray on your body if you plan to head outside into the sun.
2. Pep In Your Step
- 20 drops Tangerine
- 8 drops Peppermint
- 10 drop Lime
- 10 drop Lemon
3. Happy
- 20 drops Sweet Orange
- 10 drop Lime
- 18 drops Melissa
4. Morning Meditation
- 18 drops Hyssop
- 18 drops Cedarwood Atlas
- 12 drops Frankincense
5. A Walk In the Woods
- 12 drops Juniper Berry
- 12 drops Clary Sage
- 12 drops Cypress
- 12 drops Pine
6. Spring Flowers
- 10 drops Ylang-Ylang
- 15 drops Geranium
- 23 drops Palmarosa
7. Feel The Breeze
- 20 drops Bergamot
- 15 drops Palmarosa
- 8 drop Cedarwood
- 5 drops Lavender
8. Pillow Spray
- 20 Lavender
- 10 Cedarwood
- 18 Ravensara
If you’re creating blends specifically for sleep or an easier time winding down at night, browse through our other essential oil blends for sleep. You may find more inspiration for your evening-time pillow sprays or room spray.
9. Stay Calm Mama
- 22 Roman Chamomile
- 18 Clary Sage
- 8 Bergamot
If you’re working towards more peace and calm in your life, you may like to vary your recipe with these 7 essential oils that help calm nerves. Feel free to come up with your own blend from the oils you have available at home.
10. Lemony Lime
- 30 drops Lemongrass
- 10 drops Lime
- 8 drops Lemon
If you’ve found a recipe you like, you may wish to prepare a larger quantity at a time. Use larger bottles (like these 16oz glass spray bottles here). Or if you’re still experimenting, you may wish to use 2 oz bottles instead and half the recipe. Experiment by blending your favorite essential oils to get a scent blend that’s all your own!
Bonus tip: if you love these blends in a spray, also try them in a DIY aromatherapy candle recipe.
How to Use Your Essential Oil Spray
Essential oil sprays can be used in many ways such as room sprays, linen sprays, car freshener sprays, or body mists. Here are some ideas on where you could use your essential oil sprays.
Enjoy a fresh room scent after using your DIY room spray with essential oils.
DIY Room Sprays
Enjoy a calming and exciting breath by making your favorite room sprays. Freshen up your room and relieve stress, anxiety, migraines, and other health issues using a room spray.
Depending on the season of the year and situations, you can make spring sprays or winter sprays. Other varieties include fall sprays, Christmas room sprays, and immunity-boosting sprays.
Linen Sprays
Give your clothing, bedding or window curtains a unique scent by applying essential oil sprays on them. This will deodorize the fabric and leave an appealing freshness. The therapeutic fragrance can calm your nerves or lull you to sleep if you use oils for better sleep.
You can also use the linen spray right while ironing. Or, you can spray it onto your towels for that additional home-spa touch!
Car Freshener Sprays
Eliminate bad odors in your car using an essential oil car freshener spray. But beware that the oils can affect the leather or other accessories in your vehicle – so only spray into the air, not onto the interior. If you prefer to use a small unit diffuser in your vehicle instead of an essential oils spray, this is a great car diffuser model.
Carpet Freshener Sprays
If you have musky carpets indoors or out, use an essential oil spray to disinfect the rug and leave a clean scent behind.
Also works great for sports gear such as shin pads, smelly shoes, or gym bags. Basically, anywhere you’d use Febreze, try your homemade room spray!
If you’ve enjoyed this recipe and guide to making room sprays, please share, tweet and pin – and let us know in the comments below.
You might also like our essential oil recipes for cleaning to help make your home more natural.
The key is letting it sit before you add the water!
So genius thank you thank you thank
Hello, Emma! The recipes are absolutely amazing and the smell is so great! But I have one issue – my room spray is not clear, it’s cloudy. What did I do wrong and how to make it clear? I used ethanol + distilled water + 45 drops of EO. I would appreciate your advice, thank you!