Fragrance In The Home...

Scenting your home can define how visitors think about you.
Does your home smell fresh? Do you have living plants and flowers in your main rooms? Do you burn incense? Are you a candle person? How do you handle cooking smells? They are not always pleasant and can be lingering. Americans are funny, we go to great lengths to disguise our body smells, but how many folks really take that same care and thought into how their homes smell? When I lived on the west coast I always had boughs of Bay, Eucalyptus and vases of Rosemary scattered about the different rooms. This would give my home a fresh herb-fragrance. I miss that scent. My niece Lu-Lu used to always say she loved the smell of my house and that when she smelled some of the same components in other places it reminded her of my home. Scent is a primal part of who we are. The smell of our parents, grandmas kitchen, a car, the odd smell of a neighbors home. It is all filed in our olfactory memory and we can be walking down the street and be reminded of something quite randomly, because a fragrance triggers that specific memory.
My house is filled with live plants and usually many vases of roses or other seasonal fresh cut flowers. Fresh and clean with a touch of floral would describe the notes of fragrance in my home. I also have a signature candle I use. Capri/Volcano/No.6. I fell in love with this fragrance years ago at an Anthropologie store. The notes are Mandarin Orange and Sandalwood. Yummy scent and easy to become addicted to. Not too sweet and just the right amount of exotic. You can buy them online. They come in a wide range of sizes and the shapes and colors of the jars have expanded over the years and appeal to most everyone now. I am partial to the original cobalt blue jars.
Some tips on scents in the home. Do not burn candles with fragrance in a dining room or in the kitchen when you are cooking or eating. The smell gets in the way of the smell of the food or the beautiful meal you just set on the table. Make sure you buy a quality candle that is created with essential oils. It will burn more evenly, smell better and not cause allergic reactions to folks with a chemical sensitivity.