Make your own linen mist or room spray at home
Making a pillow mist or a room spray is a simple, practical way to scent your home and your car upholstery, but above all your textiles, such as curtains.
Now that you know how to design a scented car diffuser, let’s turn to making scented mists. Whether you want to create a relaxing atmosphere, freshen up your textiles or scent the air, each mist or spray recipe has its own specific purpose, quite different from that of a traditional reed diffuser.
If you are making your first mist, our “My first scented mists” kit brings together everything you need to make two 100 mL bottles of pillow or linen mist, with step-by-step instructions and a video tutorial.
What is the difference between a linen mist, a pillow mist and a room spray?
At Terre de Bougies, we believe it is essential to tell these preparations clearly apart:
- Room spray: designed to scent the air, it should not be sprayed on delicate textiles, as the oil-based fragrances it contains can stain them.
- Linen mist: formulated to scent linen and fabrics, it uses a gentler base combined with demineralised water, and can include a responsible preservative for a longer shelf life.
- Pillow mist: a linen mist intended for bedding. It falls under its own IFRA category (11B): always check that the fragrance you choose is authorised for this use.
Method 1: our room spray recipe
A room spray is perfect for scenting a room with any fragrance from our range for candles, wax melts and diffusers. The upside is an enormous choice of scents; the downside is that they were not designed for this use.
Spraying can leave stains on your textiles or delicate surfaces. You must also check the maximum dosage authorised by the IFRA certificate if you intend to sell your spray.
We recommend this recipe as a starting point, to be adjusted according to IFRA and your own tests:
- 10% candle fragrance oil
- 90% Augeo base
Follow the IFRA recommendations (category 10B) to ensure a safe dosage that complies with the rules for sale. The certificate is available on every fragrance product page.
Pour all the ingredients into a spray bottle, mix thoroughly and shake before each use. Spray into the air, avoiding delicate surfaces and textiles.
Method 2: our linen and pillow mist recipe
Scent your sheets, curtains or clothes without staining them, using a much lower dosage. To get there, it is important to follow the mixing steps of the recipe. The preservative easily doubles the shelf life of your mist, but it remains optional.
- 3% mist fragrance
- 2% Hebeatol preservative (optional)
- 95% demineralised water
Steps to a successful mist:
- Add the preservative to the fragrance.
- Pour in the demineralised water, stirring gently.
- Always shake the bottle before use to blend the mixture evenly.
- Spray lightly over household linen, pillows, curtains or other textiles.
You will get an even blend, hazier or clearer depending on the fragrance you use.
To help you, we have given each of our fragrances a rating from 0 to 3 to reflect how opaque the mist will be (0 = clear, 1 = very slight haze, 2 = medium haze, 3 = dense haze / distinctly milky look):
- Level 0 (clear): Breath of pomelo, Cashmere sandalwood, Eucalyptus flower, Fig tree and sandalwood, Peach blossom, Red berries, Relaxing lavender and chamomile, Satin pearl, Snowflake musk, Soothing orange blossom, Starry night, Verdant calm
- Level 1 (very slight haze): Sun flower
- Level 2 (medium haze): Cocoon, Monoï, Silky cocoon
- Level 3 (dense haze / distinctly milky look): Cotton purity, Precious patchouli, Relaxing honeysuckle, Sakura blossom, Talco, Tea dream, Vanilla pod
You can warm the fragrance slightly (30°C maximum) before adding it. Bear in mind, however, that the preservative requires a UFI declaration.
Hebeatol® is not essential for a successful pillow mist: it simply extends its shelf life and keeps the fragrance strong for longer.
- Without preservative: 2 to 3 months.
- With preservative: 12 to 24 months.
Method 3: ready-to-use laundry fragrance boosters
Our laundry fragrance boosters, designed for the fabric softener compartment of your washing machine, also work as a linen mist, with no recipe to follow and no dosage to calculate.
Pour the booster neat, with no dilution or preservative, into a spray bottle, then mist it over your curtains, household linen or soft furnishings. Its microencapsulated fragrance is released gradually as the fabric rubs and moves, keeping your textiles fresh for longer.
Boosters are not suitable for pillow mists: this use falls under IFRA category 11B, which their certificate does not cover. To scent your bedding, follow method 2 with a mist fragrance.
Conclusion
All in all, making your own room spray or linen mist puts you in control of the composition and the scent of every preparation. The key lies in balancing the ingredients and sticking to the dosages.
Feel free to personalise these recipes with scents that reflect your style, or give the liquid blend a try, a cross between a wax melt and a diffuser!
