Scents of the Season
Cold snappy fresh air laced with evergreens and holly. The sweet peppermint smell of candy canes. The comforting smell of gingerbread. The cozy aromas of eggnog, cinnamon, and spiced cider. These are the scents we save all year long just for the holiday season, scents that hold memories of family, friends, snuggles by the fire, and gifts under the tree. I adore the smells of the holiday season, and I like to fill the house with these seasonal scents. And by “fill the home with seasonal scents,” I mean bring ALL the holiday smells into the house…at the same time. Different rooms call for different smells-for example, gingerbread in the kitchen and candy cane in the bathrooms. Then there is evergreen near the Christmas tree and a woodsy fire and holly in the game room…you get the idea.
Artificial Fragrance or Natural Essential Oils?
This season I decided to try something new. I decided to switch from artificial fragrances to natural scents using essential oils. I would love to say that I was motivated to go natural because of all the cons of using artificial fragrances in your house. But, in all honesty, it’s because Pier 1 (as we all knew it) went out of business, and they were my #1 supplier of holiday home fragrance. And you know what they say…necessity is the mother of all invention. In this case, the switch from artificial to natural has the huge added benefit of it being better for my family, so yay!
Finding the Right Essential Oils
The first step in the “great fragrance switcheroo of 2020” was to build a list of essential oils needed to make all the holiday essential oil blends. I started by googling “Holiday Essential Oil Blend Recipes.” When you are not super familiar with essential oils, the results are daunting. For example, which recipe for “gingerbread” is better? The one with 3 drops of cinnamon or the one with 2 drops of cinnamon and 1 drop of nutmeg? Also, what the heck is frankincense, and do I even like that smell? Which “fir” essential oil is best… there are like 7 of them?
Finally, after many hours of research, recipes found, and the essential oil shopping list complete (which included 16 different oils), I ventured off to the store to buy the essential oils needed. WOAH! WHAT? NEARLY $200.00? Ok, new plan. Find a place to purchase already blended holiday smells by experts who know how to make nice smelling holiday smells. So, here we are at the punchline of this post, to share with you some AMAZING smelling holiday essential oil blends I found in my quest for natural scents for the holiday season.
Amazing Holiday Blends
I found two companies with great-sounding holiday essential oil blends box sets, Plant Therapy, and Revive. Undoubtedly there are many more, but these are the two that sounded most appealing to me. If you want to know what essential oils are in each blend, check out the links below. However, if you want to know what I think they smell like, I will be using my novice level expertise in essential oils and my 0 hours of marketing experience to attempt to describe the smell of each one. Enjoy.
Plant Therapy: All Bundled Up set
The first box set is from Plant Therapy. I went with the All Bundled Up set because I wanted to try all the holiday smells they offer. The kit comes with Candy Cane, Christmas Tree, Gingerbread, Holly Berries, Sugar Plum, and Winter Wreath. Every single blend in this kit smells fantastic. Exactly what I was looking for, and I am so pleased with this set. An added bonus is many of these scents are available in room sprays, hand soaps, and lotions.
All Bundled Up set includes:
- Candy Cane – You know that smell that wafts past your nose as you pop one of those swirly peppermint candies in your mouth? Well, this is that unmistakable smell.
- Christmas Tree – Nestle your nose in an arm full of fresh fir tree clippings and inhale deeply. That’s the smell of this blend.
- Gingerbread – Am I baking gingerbread or diffusing this oil blend? The world may never know.
- Holly Berries – Picture the following scene from a *not * Hallmark movie. Ruggedly Handsome Mountain Man with a 10 o’clock shadow who builds log cabins in his snowy little mountain town is at the tree lot buying a Christmas tree to donate to the local children’s home. High-powered executive from out-of-town here to spend Christmas with her sister is stumbling through the tree lot on her wildly inappropriate 4-inch spike heels. She trips and falls into Ruggedly Handsome mountain man, the smell she breaths in…its in this bottle. Buy it now.
- Sugar Plum – When you smell this one, you can’t help but smile. It’s orangy and sweet and brought me right back to when I was a kid in the 80’s drinking an Orange Julius at the mall. *Sigh*
- Winter Wreath – Fresh, minty, and sweet. If you could take the smell of the cool winter air at a Christmas tree farm and turn it into candy, this is what you would get.
Revive: Deluxe Christmas Box
From Revive, I purchased the Deluxe Christmas Box kit. This kit comes with: Christmas Tree, Peppermint Latte Pumpkin pie, Christmas Morning, Holiday Heaven, and Spiced Apple. This box was good but not as amazing as the Plant Therapy blends. Some of the blends were great, and others I did not like much at all. For me, the shining star of the bunch was Christmas Tree. This one might be my most favorite of all the scents. I also liked Peppermint Latte, Pumpkin pie, and Christmas Morning. Holiday Heaven smelled similar to Christmas morning, just not as good. Spiced Apple was a flop for me; it just didn’t smell like Spiced apple at all. I had the highest hopes for this one, and this might be why I was so disappointed.
Deluxe Christmas Box set includes:
- Christmas Tree – It’s fresh, comforting, and exactly how I think a Christmas tree should smell. Every time I smell this one, I smile and *sigh*.
- Peppermint Latte – This one is so good. My sister thinks it smells like Peppermint bark and, I think it smells like a Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks. Either way, it’s a win.
- Pumpkin Pie – Catch the smell of a freshly baked pumpkin and put it in a bottle. That’s it.
- Christmas Morning – This one grew on me the more I smelled it and is now one of my favorites. You know when you walk into a grocery store this time of the year, and the cinnamon pine cone smell almost bowls you over, but then it melts into something so delightful? That’s this scent. Cinnamony at first and then followed by the warming smells of Christmas, nutmeg and clove. This would be a great oil to update the smell of your cinnamon pine cones.
- Holiday Heaven – This is a very similar smell to Christmas Morning but has a stronger orange scent and lacks the warmth of the Christmas Morning blend. It’s not one of my favorites.
- Spiced Apple – I can’t quite figure out how to explain this smell, but it definitely does not smell like spiced apple. I appreciate the difficulty of creating a scent for something that doesn’t have an oil to extract from it and the difficult task of combining a variety of oils to mimic the smell. But still, this is a miss for me.
To conclude, both these companies have holiday essential oil blends that I will be using for Christmas for years to come. I am sold on the switch from artificial fragrance to natural essential oils, and I hope this review has helped you make the switch as well.
