Do you want to diffuse your favorite essential oils at home and enjoy a refreshing scent? You can experience this by diffusing essential oils using homemade reed diffusers. It can be made as a super simple do-it-yourself (DIY) project.
The materials you need include a container with a narrow opening, and alcohol. Other ingredients are essential oils, carrier oils, and reed sticks. These are simple materials found at home or in local stores at very cheap prices.
Learning how to make a reed diffuser will help you get fresh air throughout your home – and promote better health.
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A DIY essential oil reed diffuser is easy to prepare, and easy to use.
Here are the different items you need to make powerful reed diffusers at home:
How to Make a DIY Reed Diffuser
The materials for homemade reed diffusers are: a jar with a small opening, and new rattan reed sticks. You also need essential oils and carrier oil of your choice.
A Jar with a Small Opening
Stainless steel, ceramic, glass, or earthen containers are suitable for making reed diffusers. The jar must have a small opening for proper diffusion. Do not use plastic containers to prevent adverse reaction with essential oils.
A container with a narrow opening measuring about 5 inches or 10 inches is preferable. You can get affordable vases and containers with colours to match your walls at craft stores.
The narrow opening will curtail the rate of evaporation. It will make your home have a mild fragrance.
Another way to reduce evaporation is by creating an opening on a container with a cork top.
Use New Rattan Reed Sticks
New rattan reed sticks are better than old ones that may not be effective. Longer reeds will help to diffuse more aromas from the bottle than shorter reeds. These sticks are put in a glass bottle or any other preferred container. You can easily add a mixture of essential oil and carrier oil.
Pick Your Favorite Essential Oils Carefully
Pick highly concentrated, 100% pure essential oils. Good quality oils will give you a better fragrance than poor quality oils or synthetic fragrance oils.
Pairing two or more essential oils with complementary aromas is better, as the oils can supplement each other. Here are some more tips on learning how to blend essential oils. Of course, if you have an absolute favorite oil, you can also use only one essential oil. Or, you can use a ready-made blend from a reputable essential oil company.
Reed Diffuser Blend Ideas
- Essential oils for anxiety include lavender, orange, marjoram, chamomile, and sandalwood oils.
- If you want to boost your energy, you need lemon oil, ginger oil, basil oil, peppermint oil, and tea tree oil.
- Calming essential oils for soothing body pains include jasmine, geranium, and lavender oils.
Best Carrier Oil for Reed Diffusers
Use base oils or carrier oils to dilute essential oils with strong aromas. These carrier oils neutralize the properties of essential oils.
Some carrier oil options include:
- Fractionated coconut oil
- Avocado oil
- Almond oil
- Olive oil
- Jojoba oil
- Apricot kernel oil
- Safflower oil
- Sesame seed oil
- Grapeseed oil
Consider the color and thinness of your carrier oil before using it for the project. If your oil is thinner (like FCO), it can circulate faster to all the reed diffusers.
If you are using a transparent jar, choosing the color of your carrier oil is important, too.
TIP: Carrier oils have a smell to them. Don’t pick strong carriers like sesame oil or hemp seed oil. They’ll overpower the scent of your blend. Pick neutral scents such as sunflower, almond, jojoba, apricot kernel, grape seed or Fractionated coconut oil.
Most persons wonder if you can use water to dilute essential oils with a powerful fragrance. It is not recommended as water evaporates much too quickly.
Alcohols used for diluting the strong essences of essential oils include vodka, rubbing alcohol, or perfumer’s alcohol.
How to make the Reed Diffuser Oil Mixture
Follow these steps if you want to make a homemade essential oil reed diffuser with a good and comforting scent.
- Fill your container with 1/2 cup of carrier oil. This should fill it about half way up. Don’t fill your container all the way to the brim. Leave some space. If you have a super small container, adjust this recipe accordingly.
- Put 30 drops of essential oils. For an effective combination, add at least thirty drops of essential oils into your 1/2 cup of carrier oil. If you want to mix two different oils, put fifteen drops of each type of oil into the jar. If you have a super-small jar, don’t add a full 30 drops. Go for a ratio of about 75% carrier oil, to 25% essential oil. If you are using a small jar, or prefer a lighter scent, the ratio of carrier oil to an essential oil should be closer to 85% carrier to 15% essential oil.
- Add a teaspoon of alcohol. Use a product with at least 90% alcohol, such as rubbing alcohol or cheap vodka. The combination of vodka and carrier oil helps the oil to evaporates faster, which you want, since the combination has to make its way up the reed sticks. Again, if you have a super small jar, only put 1/2 tsp of alcohol or adjust the recipe accordingly.
- Stir your blend. Simply shake or swirl your container around. After turning it for a quick minute, it will become a perfect blend.
You could buy the jar from a local store or simply select from used containers in your home. If there is no spout in the measuring jar (for accurate pouring), get a little funnel for pouring your oil mixture into the vessel.
Drop the Reed Sticks into the Jar and Spread them Out
Put the reed sticks into your homemade reed diffuser and spread them out. Do not leave all the sticks leaning into one direction. You need about eight reed sticks in the container to have an effective fragrance at home. Leave them in overnight, and then turn them around the next morning. You’ll see the rattan sticks are saturated with oil when they’re darker in color.
How to Maintain your Reed Diffuser and Oil
To enjoy a fresh aroma from your reed diffuser, maintain it in the following ways:
- Saturate Both Ends with Oil: After putting the reed sticks in the reed diffuser for an hour, take them out and drop the other end into the jar of oil. This procedure will ensure both ends are saturated with oil. Within 24 hours, you will smell the fresh fragrances coming out of your reed diffuser.
- Stir the Oil Weekly: Ensure the oil in your reed diffuser blends well by stirring the oil once or twice weekly.
- Turn the Ends of Your Reed Sticks Every 3 Days: If you want to continue enjoying a good fragrance, turn the ends of your reed sticks every three days. This process will prevent the oils on your sticks from drying out. A dried out rattan stick will stop producing a nice smell. It is advisable to stir the oil before turning the ends of your reed sticks, too.
- Pour More Oil into the Reed Diffuser: If you notice that the fragrance of the essential oils is reducing, add more oil into the reed diffuser. This could happen even during the simple turning of the sticks. The reduction in smell occurs because the quantity of oil in the jar is reducing. Increase the oil level in your diffuser.
- Change the Reed Sticks if They are Completely Saturated: When the reed sticks are totally saturated in oil, you should change them. You may ask, “How Do I know that the reed sticks are saturated?” When the sticks appear darkened in color, and they stop producing smell, they are over-saturated. Saturated reed sticks cannot diffuse or release the fragrance from the oil. Hence, it is better to change such sticks completely. You can get 80 rattan reed sticks for under $10 here.
Final Thoughts
Reed diffusers are a beautiful home accessory.
If you can make your own homemade reed diffuser, you will save money, enjoy a fun DIY project, and stay healthy!
If you have any questions about the supplies or procedures used during this tutorial, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line!
Resources
(1) Homemade Air Fresheners: Essential Oil Reed Diffusers – https://naturesnurtureblog.com/essential-oil-reed-diffusers/
(2) How to Make Reed Diffusers – https://m.wikihow.com/Make-Reed-Diffusers
(3) What are Essential Oil Carrier Oils – https://www.essentialoilhaven.com/essential-oil-carrier-oil/
Tammie
How do you keep the product from separating?
Angel
Hello, ty for the tutorial, where do I find the rattan sticks? Ty in advance
Emma Carter
Hi Angel, you are very welcome! Thanks for your question. I usually re-stock with these rattan sticks here off Amazon.
Marcia Hainchek
I don’t have a dropper. What would 30 drops of essential oil be equivalent to? Thanks!
Emma Carter
Hi Marcia, 30 drops of essential oil are roughly 1/4 tsp; actually, the math is 25 drops of essential oil = 1/4 tsp. But it always depends on which oil you’re using and how thick or runny it is. So 1/4 tsp, in this application, is a good estimate. A 1/4 teaspoon filled right to the brim will get you pretty close to the recipe’s 30 drops’ measurement.