Fragrance Guide
Choosing a Fragrance for Each Room
Rose everywhere is a perfectly good strategy. If you want to be more deliberate, here is how we would divide it up.
There is no rule here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling a set. That said, fragrances do behave differently in different rooms, mostly because of how much air moves through them and what else the room already smells of.
Pooja room — rose, lotus or javadhu
Small, usually closed, usually used in the morning. You want something that settles rather than announces itself. Lotus is the coolest and cleanest of the three; javadhu is the most traditional and the most persistent.
Living room — vanilla or rose
Larger, more airflow, and the fragrance needs to survive people walking through it. Vanilla is warm and reads as comfortable rather than devotional, which suits a room where you have guests.
Kitchen — citrus
The one room where you are usually trying to displace an existing smell rather than add to one. Citrus does that without fighting the food. Light it after cooking, not during.
Bedroom — jasmine
Jasmine opens slowly and stays soft, which is what you want at the end of a day. Burn it half an hour before you sleep and put it out before you get into bed — never leave anything burning overnight.
Balcony and evenings outdoors — citronella
Made for exactly this: still air, open door, insects arriving at dusk.
A note on mixing
Two fragrances in adjacent rooms is fine. Two in the same room at the same time is not — they do not blend, they compete, and the result usually smells of neither.
