How to Make Lamp Perfume
One of life's little pleasures is walking into a room suffused with a lovely scent. Bring fragrance into your home by lighting a catalytic fragrance lamp---also known as a perfume lamp. These lamps, which include a brand called Lampe Berger, are available in countless styles and price ranges, along with an equally large assortment of lamp perfumes---but the best perfumes are often expensive. Make your own lamp perfume, and save money while you fill your home with a luxurious scent. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Isopropyl alcohol
- Distilled water
- Essential oil
- Self-adhesive label
- Bottle with a cap
Instructions
-
-
1
Open the alcohol, and pour it carefully into a 1-quart container. You will need a 16-oz. bottle of 91 or 99 percent isopropyl alcohol, not 70 percent. The bottle can be plastic, metal or glass bottle, as long as it has a cap.
-
2
Pour 1 tsp. distilled water into the alcohol. Use only distilled water, which is available at most drugstores and grocery stores. Tap water is likely to make your lamp smoke as it burns.
-
-
3
Pour 1 1/2 tsp. of an essential oil (half the bottle, for a light fragrance) to the entire 1/2-oz. bottle (for a more pervasive fragrance) into the alcohol and water mixture. Place the cap on the bottle, and shake it well. This is your lamp perfume.
-
4
Make a label indicating what essential oil or oils you used, and place it on the bottle.
-
5
Follow the lamp manufacturer's instructions to find out how much to use in your lamp. The typical amount is 2/3 the volume of the lamp.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Use more than one oil to make a blended scent, if you like, but the total amount of oil should not exceed 3 tsp., or 1/2 oz. Use high-quality essential oils only, which are widely available at health-food and other natural-living stores. Inexpensive fragrance oils of the kind commonly found in craft stores will often make your lamp give off smoke when it burns.
As alcohol is highly flammable, make your lamp perfume in an area far away from any flame or source of high heat. Keep your lamp perfume away from children and pets, as it is toxic. Only use alcohol-based lamp perfume in a catalytic lamp. It will not work with a reed diffuser, and can damage an oil lamp.
