Tuesday, May 25, 2010

How to Select a Fragrance for Your Powder Room when You're Having a Party

A pleasing powder room fragrance when you're having a party is different from any fragrance that you'd use in any other room.

You can go all out when it comes to choosing a powder room scent - unlike choosing a living room fragrance for your party - that may sit adjacent to the room where your food buffet table is set, your dining room.

The room fragrance for your party is like room decor, but for your nose.

It's always a delight to walk into a room and get a whiff of a scented candle or a room diffuser that smells like perfume. One of the things that you want to add to a powder room when you're having a party is a strong sense of coziness, and a beautiful fragrance will help you to do that.

Add scents to a powder room that evoke a natural, comforting smell of home, like a smell that mimics wood burning in a fireplace, a leather sofa, or a fresh bouquet of flowers.

The main thing to think about when you're hosting a party is choosing a scent that isn't too powerful.

A room diffuser or a candle in your powder room should coexist with the powder room by complementing the room.

When you're shopping for powder room scents or home fragrances, the main goal is to find a fragrance that will complement the room in a subtle way. If the style of your powder room is minimalistic or is mostly pale in colors, it's wise to choose a flowery Lily of the Valley scent that will work perfectly.

If your powder room is paneled in a dark colored wood, evoking a baroque-type feel, scent the room with a gardenia, creamy-type floral scent. Of course, a spicy or woody scent would be a nice complement to a dark powder room (with no windows or painted a dark color), too.

Room diffusers

Fragrance diffusers offer a more authentic smell than candles, because the heat of a flame happens to break down some of the smell. Diffusers release a scented liquid through sticks or a machine, which makes the fragrance more true to nature.

Diffusers are a sensational way to showcase delicate floral scents, which don't stand up to the heat of a candle. In powder rooms that are small in size, go for woody and amber fragrances - they fill up a small space beautifully. If your powder room has a vintage feel to it, scent it with lavender or potpourri diffuser sticks to give it an old-fashioned fragrance.

Candles

Candles smell best when you follow these rules:

To avoid a fire, double stick tape (found at a hardware store) the candle to it's holder and double stick tape the candle holder to the counter top surface.

Place your powder room candle close to the center of the room - not on a side table or windowsill. You want the fragrance to fill the room completely.

Avoid burning candles with different scents in your powder room. Doing so can produce the same olfactory effect that playing a Mozart symphony, the Stones (as in, the Rolling Stones), Celine Dion, and Michael Jackson at once. Not good.

Light your powder room candles briefly once or twice when they're brand new, that way they will light faster the next time you light them; on the day of your party.

Trim the wicks of your candles before relighting them every time. The candle wick should be narrow and short, about the sixth of an inch. When it's longer or frays into a mushroom shape, the flame will smoke and burn too big.

It's best if you burn your powder room candle(s) for a period of no longer than about three hours. When candles burn longer than three hours, they melt too quickly because the wax has overheated, which evaporates most of the fragrance.