So you want your home to smell like a hotel — not a cheap motel, but a 5-star luxury hotel. That’s totally possible, but you do need to pick the right scent and find the best way to disperse it across your home. Below, we walk you through choosing a luxurious fragrance and the best way to scent your home.
What scents are luxurious?
The first step to making your home smell like a hotel is choosing the right scent. While you can buy candles, room sprays, and diffusers made by luxury hotels, they cost quite a lot of money and usually only come in one scent. If you’re looking to pick out your own fragrances, here are some luxurious scents you should explore:
Citrus
If you want a lighter, energizing scent that still smells fancy, look no further than citrus. Oranges, lemons, limes, and even grapefruits add a bright note to candles and make them smell as fresh as a crisp pair of clean white sheets on a hotel bed. If you find some other scents on this list too sweet or cloying, seek out a citrus candle for a clean, perky fragrance. (Check out our collection of citrus-scented candles if you need some inspiration).
Florals
Florals are one of the most popular luxury hotel scents for a reason. Jasmine, rose, geranium, lavender, tuberose, lily: there are so many scents to pick from, you’re bound to find one that you like, whether you prefer your home to smell like a single flower or the inside of a hothouse. Many luxury hotels base some or all of their signature scents on florals, and after getting yourself a floral candle, you’ll understand why.
Spices
Spices add depth and nuance to fragrance profiles, making them more complex and enjoyable. Spices may be more smoky, sweet, or herbal, and can range anywhere from cinnamon-scented candles to sweet marjoram reed diffusers. If you’ve always thought of spice candles as “too sweet,” there’s a whole world of scents out there for you to explore.
Wood
If you want a heavier, muskier scent, look for a scent that incorporates woodier fragrances, Cedarwood and sandalwood are two of the most common wood-based scents, but there are some others as well. Wood-based fragrances are an especially good choice during fall and winter, when the scents of citrus and florals may feel a bit too light.
How to incorporate scent into your home?
Now that you’ve chosen your luxurious scents, you need to figure out how to disperse them around your home to make it smell like a hotel. Thankfully, there are many different ways you can spread fragrances around your house. Here are just a few:
Candles
Obviously, we’re a big fan of candles here at Homesick. Not only do they smell great, but they also provide atmospheric light and they look aesthetically pleasing while sitting on an end table. Since they’re solid, you don’t have to worry about liquid sloshing around, meaning that they can be stored easily in different locations. Of course, you do have to be careful with the flames, but as long as you put them in a stable place away from drafts and remember to blow them out, you’ll be golden.
Diffusers
Reed diffusers passively release fragrance into the air thanks to channels in the reeds. They do not require a power source or an open flame and can be placed almost anywhere in your home. Electric diffusers use either heat or sonic waves to atomize fragrance molecules and release them into the air. While their fragrance is stronger than that of reed diffusers, they do need to be plugged into a wall outlet and can’t be run continuously, lest they overheat.
Soap and Lotion
Scented soap and lotion are a hallmark of luxury hotels, and they’re a fantastic way to make your home (and yourself) smell like a luxury hotel. Some people can be sensitive to scented products, so make sure to do a patch test before jumping into a scented bubble bath or slathering yourself in floral lotion.
It’s totally possible to make your home smell like a hotel. For the best results, you should start with a clean, neutral-smelling house. If your place is smelling a little funky, check out our ultimate guide on how to make your house smell good.
