Car air fresheners play a crucial role in maintaining a pleasant atmosphere inside your vehicle. They help eliminate unwanted odours and keep the interior smelling fresh and inviting. Here’s how to make car air freshener with your favourite perfume, and different ways to safely get the most out of your car air freshener.
Why Do People Use Car Air Fresheners?
Driver & Passenger Comfort
The right scent can contribute to a greater sense of focus and calm, helping you make better decisions on the road. This same effect may be seen in your passengers, particularly children, helping maintain cordial social atmosphere that reduces stress and distractions to the driver.
Make sure your scent is not overpowering to passengers, and that you check for allergies beforehand. If driving a child, check for this and any respiratory conditions with their parent or guardian.
For Car Rentals, Audience Retention
If you run a car rental service, scent can improve your customers’ user experience and perceived brand value. An addictive, hard to place scent helps increase the likelihood of word of mouth and repeat business, stabilising sales and reducing customer churn.
Air Quality
Some essential oils, such as lemon and tea tree, may be present in your perfume with disinfecting properties that can improve your air quality by killing airborne pathogens. Your perfume may contain these essential oils, albeit in smaller amounts.
Neutralise Odours and Help Neurodivergent Drivers
If you’re a driver who struggles with sensory processing, the wide range of outside smells and noise can be overwhelming and distracting. An air freshener can help to mask these smells and provide a familiar focal point to process overwhelm.
That said, this may not work for everyone. Regular breaks or rest stops, or other sensory processing tips may be the better option.
Selecting the Right Car Freshener Materials
For your DIY car air freshener, you'll need absorbent materials that can hold and release fragrance effectively.
Felt, wood and cork are excellent choices due to their porous nature.
Cork can also be shaped to a wide range of use cases and designs.
Mason jars with a perforated lid allow you to conserve your scent for when you need it.
Additionally, select perfume with scents that you enjoy and that are suitable for use in a confined space like a car. Make your car smell better with refreshing and invigorating fragrances like citrus, mint, or lavender for your car air freshener.
Difference Between Scented Oils and Perfume When Making Car Air Fresheners
Perfumes offer a wider range of scents and so you can use a scent with more personal meaning than essential or fragrance oils may hold. This can really help with gifting
Depending on the strength of your perfume, you may need to use more perfume than you would for the same amount of scented oil. Stick with EDPs (eau de parfum) to make your perfume last longer- these are stronger than most high street perfumes (eau de toilette) and so your homemade car air freshener will need less perfume to work.
Many felt cloths contain acrylic, so the alcohol content in perfume may cause some microcracks that damage the integrity of the fabric. Alcohol may also cause certain inks to run, so it’s best to start small with a basic design and find the right felt fabric for your scent.
The alcohol content in perfume can degrade varnishes and some types of wood. The process for the wood itself is slow but it’s still advised to use unvarnished pegs, and to test different types of wood else buy a large pack of cheap pegs.
Alcohol may dry out cork and make the material brittle, so be mindful of this when carving and pinning the material.
How to Make Car Fresheners, In 4 Different Ways
Here’s how to make your own do it yourself car freshener, with quick and easy recipes for each absorbent material.
How to Make a Felt Air Freshener for Cars
Ingredients and Materials:
· Absorbent material (felt, wood, etc.)
· Perfume of your choice
· Scissors
· Hole punch
· Ribbon or string
Instructions:
1. Cut your chosen absorbent material into desired shapes for your car air fresheners. Common shapes include rectangles, circles, or novelty shapes like hearts or stars.
2. Place a few drops of perfume onto each piece of absorbent material. Start with a small amount and add more as needed to achieve your desired fragrance intensity.
3. Allow the perfume to soak into the absorbent material for a few minutes to ensure even distribution.
4. Once the fragrance has been absorbed, use a hole punch to create a hole near the top of each freshener.
5. Thread a piece of ribbon or string through the hole and tie a knot to create a loop for hanging.
6. Hang your scented car air fresheners from the rearview mirror or place them in other convenient locations throughout your vehicle.
How to Make a Mason Jar Air Freshener for Cars
Ingredients and Materials:
· Small mason jar with a lid
· Baking soda
· Perfume of your choice
· Scrapbook paper or fabric
· Scissors
· Needle or small nail
Instructions:
1. Remove the centre part of the mason jar lid.
2. Use the lid as a template to cut a circle from scrapbook paper or fabric that fits inside the outer rim of the lid.
3. Poke several small holes in the scrapbook paper or fabric using the needle or small nail.
4. Fill the mason jar halfway with baking soda.
5. Add several sprays of perfume until the baking soda is damp but not wet, mixing well.
6. Place the perforated scrapbook paper or fabric inside the outer rim of the lid.
7. Screw the lid onto the mason jar.
8. Hang or place the mason jar air freshener in your car.
How to Make a Wooden Peg Air Freshener for Cars
Ingredients and Materials:
· Wooden clothespins (peg style)
· Perfume of your choice
· Zip-lock bag or airtight container
Instructions:
1. Spray the clothespin several times with perfume, ensuring it is well-soaked.
2. (optional) Place the soaked clothespin in a zip-lock bag or airtight container and let it sit for at least 24 hours.
3. Clip the scented clothespins onto the car’s air vents, seat pockets, or any other desired location.
4. Refresh the scent by reapplying perfume to the clothespins as needed.
How to Make a Cork Air Freshener for Cars
Ingredients and Materials:
· Wine corks
· Screw eye hooks
· Perfume of your choice
· Airtight container
· String or twine
Instructions:
1. Insert a screw eye hook into your cork.
2. Apply several sprays to your cork, ensuring it is well-soaked.
3. Allow the cork to sit in the airtight container for at least 24 hours to fully absorb the oils.
4. Cut a length of string or twine and thread it through the screw eye hook to create a loop for hanging.
5. Hang the scented corks from the rearview mirror, gear shift, or any other suitable location in your car.
6. Refresh the scent by reapplying essential oils to the corks as needed.
Where to Place and How to Use Your Homemade Car Air Freshener
To maximise the effectiveness of your DIY car air fresheners, consider the following tips:
- Hang the fresheners in areas where air circulation is optimal, such as from the rearview mirror or air vents.
- Avoid placing the fresheners directly on surfaces that may be damaged by perfumer’s alcohol or fragrance oils.
- Refresh the scent as needed by adding more perfume to the absorbent material.
- Store any unused car air fresheners in a sealed container to preserve their fragrance.
Felt Car Air Freshener
You can hang felt air fresheners from the backs of your front seats, or your window winders if you have them, mixing and matching scents if your passengers prefer different ones.
If your diy air freshener too strong, or distracting when dangling from your rearview mirror, you can simply toss it on the floor by an unused seat of your car (don’t do this where the car’s foot controls are located), or shove it in your glovebox for a subtler effect
With some scissors, felt and glue (and staples for backup), turn your felt into fun shapes and caricatures to entertain your guests. This is a great way to celebrate on birthdays, milestones, and seasonal events, or simply personalise your car interior both whimsically and affordably.
Mason Jar Car Air Fresheners
Did you realise your mason jar is also a bath salt, toilet bomb, washing machine cleaner hoover disc? They all share similar ingredients for a wide range of fun and useful tricks. Simply complete the recipes in each of the links just provided.
If your perfume wouldn’t damage your carpet and seats, you can sprinkle your mason jar car freshener over the surfaces and leave it to sit overnight. The baking soda deodorises these surfaces while the oil component of your perfume infuses the surface with your favourite scent. In the morning, simply vacuum for a fresh and fragrant car interior.
Wooden Peg Car Air Fresheners
You can clip your peg to your car’s air conditioning system for fresh and cooling scents in summer such as citrus and eucalyptus.
This same trick can be done in winter with something seasonal and spicy, such as cinnamon and nutmeg for a warming and comforting effect.
Like felt car air fresheners, wooden peg car fresheners offer greater spatial control over the scent in your car. If your kids prefer different scents, consider clipping their favourites to the backs of your front seat, or to a handheld device or item of clothing. Be sure that your passengers do not touch your car air freshener to avoid skin sensitivity or accidental ingestion of your scent.
Cork Car Air Fresheners
Cork is a soft material, so you can pin notices and decorative elements to your air freshener.
If decorating this way, be sure that any pins are securely fastened in the cork and that any notices or decorative items wouldn’t be damaged by your perfume’s alcohol or oil content.
For large pieces of cork, you could carve this into specific shapes or use cases. For example, you could turn your cork air freshener into a handmade flower pot. Just ensure your plant fits securely, and doesn’t obscure or distract from your vision of the road. Fake plants are also recommended to avoid perfume leaching into your soil.
How to Make Your Car Smell Nice in Other Ways
To make your car smell better, keep your car on a regular cleaning schedule. Pay particular attention to your seats, carpet, air conditioning system and glovebox. For best results, get your car professionally detailed and cleaned.
Food is fragrant but not in a way that makes a long drive fun so avoid eating in the car and set the example for your passengers. If you must eat in the car, be sure to keep the window open, avoid spills, immediately clean surfaces and dispose of rubbish, and vacuum as soon as possible.
For similar reasons, its best to avoid smoking. Tar and nicotine stains can discolour your surfaces and leave an unpleasant musty smell to linger in your car. Smoke outside and downwind of your car, or with the car doors and windows closed.
If you have aroma beads or potpourri, you can use these in place of a dedicated car freshener.
Safety When Using Your DIY Car Air Freshener
It’s not advised to smoke in your car while using a car air freshener. This is because the essential oils in your car freshener are flammable, and contact with flame or hot ash could trigger a fire.
For scented oils and perfume, it’s advised to reapply scent with at least one car window fully open. This dissipates alcohol and fragrant oil fumes, which may cause confusion and breathing problems when built up.
It’s also advised to wait at least 10 minutes after an application to begin your drive. This is to check for delayed symptoms, and reduce the risk of travel sickness and mistakes on the road. The nose gets blind, so you and your passengers may have been exposed to a higher concentration of scent than realised.
Pets can be extremely sensitive to perfume, so its best to put your air freshener away in a sealed bag before driving with them. Children are more resilient but still vulnerable, and may suffer from sensory overload without the language to communicate this. Talk to your child and ask them how they feel about your car freshener, and keep your scent away or as weak as possible around them if they’re uncomfortable.
Conclusion
With homemade car air fresheners infused with your favourite perfumes, you can transform your driving experience into a fragrant delight. By following simple DIY steps and using readily available materials, you can create customised car air fresheners that keep your vehicle smelling fresh and inviting wherever you go.
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