Reed diffusers are
one of the best ways to add a powerful
and natural scent to your home and frankly, we love them
here at the CMS HQ. So instead of going out to the mall
and buying a tiny one for $15 or a large fancy one, at a
department store, for $50, today I'm going to show you
just how easy and quick it is to make your own reed diffusers
with things you either have at home already or can pick up for much less
than this little slice of highway robbery. So here's what we'll need. ♪ [music] ♪ A dark glass bottle, blue,
green, brown, whatever. The darker the better and this is
also a great opportunity to upcycle. I'm actually using, for this one,
a vanilla extract bottle that obviously I finished.
I just peeled off the label, and, by the way, I have
a video on how to do that, which I will link down below.
Now we want dark colors because they help keep the essential oils
intact longer by limiting their light exposure, and you
can see all my essential oils are in these dark glass bottles.
The glass is really important because essential oils do better
in glass than they do in plastic. And finally we want one with this
really teeny, tiny, small opening because the smaller the
opening, the slower the solution will evaporate
and the longer this will last. If you don't have any bottles that
you can upcycle, don't worry. You can pick one up online,
at a health food store. You can get it at a hobby store,
the dollar store, or even a thrift shop. Next, we're going to get
some rattan reeds. Now these have small channels,
which help move the oils up from one end to the other.
They're kind of like celery if you look at them like this.
Now some people say bamboo skewers do the same thing. They don't.
They are pretty much solid, and your oil will not be able
to move up the channel. Now you can get these at a
hobby store or a craft store. You can also order them
online, and I will put links for that in the
description box down below. Now for the exciting part.
We are going to make the reed diffuser mixture, and you are going
to need three critical ingredients -- a carrier oil, a carrying agent,
and the essential oils themselves. First the carrier oil.
You need an oil to help the essential oils wick
or be carried up the reed. Something too thin, like water,
would evaporate very quickly, and our diffuser would be useless. Plus water and oil
don't exactly jive. Something too heavy, like olive oil
or jojoba oil, would actually clog the reeds up.
So the just right oil is actually sweet almond oil, or you can also
use safflower oil or mineral oil. Next up, we'll add a carrying agent,
if you can part with it, something to help ease the oil up the
reed and to thin the oil out. Now cheap vodka, colorless,
flavorless, works best. You can also use rubbing alcohol, but it
has to be a minimum 90% rubbing alcohol, because when I did 75% in my
initial test, it did not work at all. Finally, we'll add a
combination of essential oils. Pick something to suit the mood
and your mood of the room. If it's your bedroom,
you would want something calming. If it's the kitchen, you'd want
something invigorating. If it's the front entryway, you'd want
something energizing, and maybe every so often you move the energizing one
into the bedroom for a bit. Remember to use
good quality essential oils, and I'll link to some of my
favorites for you down below. ♪ [music] ♪ So here's how
we're going to mix it all up. First, I'm going to take this bottle,
which we just picked up at the craft store, so obviously it's clean.
It was about $3. And because it's a relatively large
bottle, I'm only going to fill it halfway with the carrier oil, and I think that's
completely reasonable in terms of volume. Then that way you can always
make up more of the product, and you're not wasting a
whole bunch of it in one go. And now we get to have
a little bit of fun. We're going to figure out the
essential oil combinations that we're going to put
into the carrier oil. So here's the deal.
You want to put 30 drops total of essential oils into the
half cup of carrier oil. And the reason that number is important,
if you put anything more, you might find the scent is a little overpowering.
And if you don't put in enough, you might find that the
scent is too faint. But of course, you play around
with it and you see what works for you. So what that basically means is,
depending on the recipe you choose, you're going to put, if I have
3 here, 10, 10, and 10. Or if you're just using one,
you're going to put a whole 30 drops right into the carrier oil.
And to finish this mixture up, we're just going to add
our carrying agent in. I am using cheap,
flavorless, colorless vodka, and I'm going to add in a teaspoon. Give your mixture a thorough spin
and then pop your reeds into the bottle. I'm using about eight here.
The more reeds, the more scent, but the faster you're going
to use up that solution. You want to have at least
a few inches of the reeds popping out of the bottle,
so feel free to trim them to size. I like to initially leave the reeds in
overnight and then let the oil take its time working
its way up the reeds. The next morning, just flip
them over, and now you've got some well-saturated reeds.
You can see they're a little darker, and your room is going
to be smelling amazing. Now, because the mixture
does have a tendency to separate, you want to swirl the bottle
just like this, kind of like a martini, once a week, just to help
mix everything together, and then of course you can flip
the reeds weekly as well. Now, if you want a heavier scent,
you can do this more often. The best part is that over the
long haul it is substantially cheaper to do it this way than
to get the mall diffuser. And, of course, you get to create the
exact scents that you want in your home, and let me tell you from personal
experience that's more than half the fun of doing this.
I think you're going to love trying this out, and definitely you're going
to love smelling your own creations. Check out CleanMySpace.com/essentialoils
to find out some of my favorite EO combinations and some other
great reed diffuser tips and tricks. Be sure to do your research
on safe use of essential oils. This is especially important if you
have pets or if you're pregnant. If you're going to try this project,
be sure to tag us in your photos on Instagram.
I'm @MelisssaMaker. The creepy guy behind the
camera is @TheChadReynolds, and we are @CleanMySpace. There's a button down there
that lets me know you care. So click it if you liked this video
and click this button right here to subscribe and begin
your journey to a cleaner life. Thanks so much for watching,
and we'll see you next time. Good on you for sticking around,
because this is the part where I share our other great videos
that might be of interest to you. To my left, you will see
two such videos. The first one is my DIY baking soda
deodorizer recipe, and the other one shows you various ways
to get stickers off your glass. Hope you guys enjoy them
and I'll see you soon.
