Natural Car Air Freshener

What is that smell ? We’ve all been there. Maybe you’ve got messy kids. Maybe you just completed a long road trip. Either way, your car smells bad. You could reach for conventional car air fresheners, but doing so traps you (and your passengers) in a small space with dangerous air pollutants. Save some money and your health with DIY car air fresheners instead!

Items Needed - 

• Syringe
• Container with tight fitting lid
• Baking Soda
• Essential Oil(s) 

• Use a drill to create some holes
• Fill 2 x lid size with baking soda
• Put a few drops of essential oils of your choosing over the baking soda
• Close the lid and place it in the vehicle
• When essential oil smell diminishes slightly, shake the container or add more essential oil drops as required
• Change baking soda once every 6-8 weeks

drilled holes much cleaner look !!!

Modified Air freshener -

• Salvaged an old car freshener found in any supermarket, emptied the poisonous liquid and thoroughly cleaned the inside before filling it with baking soda + essential oil - few drops only  

That's It Folks !!! 

Perfume making at home

Super strong perfume that lasts 6+ hours 

Items needed - 

• Essential oils - 2 or more the better
• Perfume storage glass container [ it has to be glass as pure essential oil disintegrates anything other than glass over time ]
• Carrier oil - Olive / Extra Virgin Coconut oil
• Syringe

• Measure equal quantities of essential oils of your choosing, in this case i used 0.1 ml of each oil [ marked by 2 red arrows on this 5 ml syringe ] and put into a glass container. I used an empty 10 ml essential oil bottle 
• Measure about 7 ml of Carrier oil into your glass container
• Close with screw type lid & shake until all essential oils + carrier oil mix properly
• Open perfume container lid while keeping your finger tightly pressed on the top & tilt it [ once ] upside down, and tilt it back to right side up. Remove finger from the top of the bottle & you will see a drop worth of essential oil + carrier oil on your finger tip, apply that on your body. One drop per side of the body is [ all thats needed ]. 
• Given I used a 10 ml bottle, mixing 0.1 ml of 3 essential oils equaling 0.3 ml + 7 ml Carrier Oil results in [ Super Strong Perfume ] which lasts 6+ hrs with just one application. 
• Please DONT over do it, as it is, its pretty strong.
• For a larger container, mix 0.2 ml of each essential oil of your choosing + Carrier Oil 
• Try not to apply this drop on your skin which comes in contact with clothes or anything other than skin on skin, as pure essential oil resulting in fabric/ plastic/ metal disintegration over time 

My Home made perfume using Lemon/ Jasmine/ Rose  stored in a 10 ml bottle + body lotion made of same ingredients stored in a shower gel 250 ml bottle

If perfume can be stored as seen in above pic, so much the better as there are two lids holding your perfume guaranteeing the strength wont decrease over time like most shop purchased perfumes do.

Aromatherapy 101

What is aromatherapy -

                                     

                                      Is a form of alternative medicine that uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person's mind, mood, cognitive function or health.

Aromatherapy is the treatment or prevention of disease by use of essential oils. Other stated uses include pain and anxiety reduction, enhancement of energy and short-term memory, relaxation, hair loss prevention, and reduction of eczema-induced itching.

Two basic mechanisms are offered to explain the purported effects. One is the influence of aroma on the brain, especially the limbic system through the olfactory system. The other is the direct pharmacological effects of the essential oils. While precise knowledge of the synergy between the body and aromatic oils is often claimed by aromatherapists, the efficacy of aromatherapy remains unproven. However, some preliminary clinical studies of aromatherapy in combination with other techniques show positive effects. Aromatherapy does not cure conditions, but it is suggested that it helps the body to find a natural way to cure itself and improve immune response.

                                    

Items you need - 

• Oil burner - candle or electrical 
• Essential oils
• Syringe
• Tea lights 
• Vegetable oil 
• Cotton Wicks
• Stainless steel container where oil + wick to be lit 
• Water 

Experiment # 1 - oil burner/ essential oil/ tea light/ plastic lid as base/ water

• Items were arranged as seen in this pic. A plastic lid was placed as a base for the tea light, which helped in relocating/ igniting the candle inside the oil burner. This setup proved a single tea light can last for 3 hours of continuous use. But, as time progresses, candle wax decreases thus having to refill " spent " wax with new " left over " candle wax from other larger candles in the household. Due to the size constraint of a tea light, refill process [ wax + water ] has to be done every 30 mins or so depending on how strong the candle flame is in relation to water on top of the burner. Further experimentation proved [ if ] candle flame is higher as in 1: 2 ratio, faster  water evaporation + shorter candle burn time. But putting a plastic base was a big mistake as i found out later on and was discarded.

Experiment #2 - oil burner/ essential oil/ steel container/ vegetable oil/ cotton wick/ a old coin/ water

• Same experiment was repeated but instead of tea light, vegetable oil + cotton wick was used. It has to be stated, burning any vegetable oil [ does ] leave black soot inside & around the oil burner, that is un avoidable. Wick has to be pre soaked completely in vegetable oil prior to being lit and the flame has to be almost at the oil level, otherwise, you get black smoke. You need to place a old coin at the bottom of the steel container so the wick doesnt get submerged in oil with each re fill. This setup proved once and for all, longer burn time as opposed to 30 min window for tea light [ as wax levels decrease ] but water need to be refilled often, depending on how large the oil burner is. With vegetable oil, single refill burn time = 5.5 hours [ based on size of stainless steel container as seen above ]. 
• So, why a syringe ? that is used to extract fixed quantity of essential oil that is to be put in the water on top of the oil burner, so you maximise lifetime of  essential oil containers. Taking a 5 ml syringe, you only need to draw up to the first marker from the bottom of syringe. See pic with essential oil + syringe for the [ two ] red arrow markers. 

• Taking into consideration a single tea light burns for 3 hours [ on a single use basis ] and if one lights this badboy for 12 hours a day, you would need 4 tea lights a day. Which equates to 112 approximate tea lights a month, which is not cheap. But with vegetable oil, you would only need 2 1 litre bottles to last 1 whole month of 12 hours daily use.