5 Home Fragrances That Are Pure Magic for Small Apartments
A well-chosen home fragrance can be magical for a small apartment - especially for a studio apartment like the one I live in! I would even say that candles, reed diffusers, and room spray are just as important as your other apartment decor in terms of making your space feel like your personal oasis.
In this video, I'm sharing 5 of my favorite home fragrances that I use in my studio apartment decor, from Diptyque room spray to Le Labo Santal 33. In my opinion, these are the best home fragrance products in terms of quality, and are a bit more on the splurge-worthy side, I'll admit. But if you're wanting to level up your candle game with luxury home fragrance and home scents that last, these are my personal favorites.
So let's talk about how to make your apartment smell good!
Video Transcript ↓
They say that a picture's worth a thousand words, but a fragrance? That's probably worth a couple thousand.
Because scent really is our most powerful and primal sense when it comes to memory and emotion.
For example, one whiff of Bath and Body Works' cucumber melon body spray, and I'm back to 4th grade Steffi rocking butterfly clips and body glitter, listening to Mmmbop on my CD player. 🙃
Scent is powerful!
Which is why, when it comes to creating your dream apartment, home fragrance is just as important - if not more so - as decor.
So in this video I'm going to share the 5 home fragrances I'm currently loving, obsessively burning, and constantly diffusing in my studio apartment.
Because let's be honest: of all the living situations out there, home fragrance is especially important to studio apartments…
Because our kitchens are mere feet away from our bedrooms. Enough said.
And before we dive in, I wanted to let you know that you can now watch my free workshop, "Decorate Your Dream Apartment Without Spending Money on the Wrong Decor For You" whenever you want!
In this FREE, 1-hour workshop, I’ll teach you how to…
Discover your personal style so you can decorate a space that feels like YOU
Create mood boards to help you visualize what your apartment could look like before buying things
Shop for decor in a way that will save you money and allow you to buy things that actually fit your space and your personality
If all that sounds like exactly what you need to create the dreamy apartment you’ve been yearning for, click here to watch the workshop!
Big Sur is intoxicatingly beautiful. It’s earthy yet sophisticated, with notes of California cedar, amber, and musk. And according to its description, it’ll transport any space to the California Coastline. Who wouldn’t want that?
But unlike many coastal-inspired scents, Big Sur is not a light, oceanic scent. It’s more earthy and foresty to me, with almost hints of rich berry thrown in.
And best of all, both the candle and the reed diffuser are strong. Not obnoxiously strong, just wonderfully robust.
You know when you can barely smell a candle or reed diffuser in a room and you're like "why aren't you doing your job"? Big Sur is the opposite of that. She makes sure you know she's there, filling your space with her enchanting scent, and that’s exactly what I want from a home fragrance: persistence.
2. Rudy’s 60-Hour-Candle
This scent was my boyfriend Kobee’s brilliant discovery. It’s his barbershop, Rudy’s, 60-Hour Candle. Just about every time he gets his hair cut, he brings back one of these bad boys, and let me tell you, this is a bad boy alright.
Don’t let its small, sleek, unassuming appearance fool you: this candle does not eff around.
With notes of palo santo, moro, and rockrose, it’s primal, earthy, and masculine, while still managing to smell, well, pretty. It’s basically a bonfire in a cup.
If you love woodsy, smokey scents that fill a space and stubbornly last (60 hours to be exact), you can order this off of Rudy’s website if you don’t have a location near you. Kind of a risk not smelling it in person first, I know, but this badass scent for the daring anyway. 😉
3. Fleur d'Oranger by Diptyque
Diptyque’s Orange Blossom room spray will make you feel like you're walking through an actual orange grove.
It’s definitely a departure from the previous two fragrances I've talked about, which are more woodsy and heady. Nope, this one is fresh, floral, and feminine.
I'm a firm believer in using home fragrance to express your masculine side and feminine side and everything in between the two! It's all about variety.
What I love about Diptyque's orange blossom scent is that it smells real. And what I mean by that is, while it's floral and feminine, it's not perfumey and chemically, like so many floral scents are.
It smells just about as close to a a real orange grove as you can get.
So if you ever want to uplift the mood of your space with just a few spritzes of pure joy, this room spray is all you need!
4. Santal 33 by Le Labo
Okay so this next fragrance isn't technically a home fragrance. It's a perfume, and a high end one at that - at least for what I usually spend on these kinds of things. It's Santal 33 by Le Labo, and it may just be my favorite scent ever.
And while it's a technically a perfume, let me tell you, it makes an amazing room spray because it lingers in the air just like you want a room spray to do. And the scent it leaves is magical.
With notes of violet accord, cardamom, iris, ambrox, cedarwood, leather, and sandalwood, Santal 33 strikes the perfect balance of floral and woodsy.
It somehow manages to be fresh and effervescent yet also thick and complex at the same time. I think that's what I'm so fiercely attracted to this scent: it's beauty lies in its perfectly balanced duality, so you never stop feeling fascinated by it.
5. Sandalwood Amber by Antica Farmacista
If you've watched my other home fragrance videos, you know I can't really do a home fragrance video without mentioning Antica Farmacista. They're my overall favorite fragrance brand, and honestly Sandalwood Amber is just one of my many favorite scents of theirs.
Kobee and I have been diffusing Sandalwood Amber in our bathroom for several months (yeah, an Antica diffuser lasts a long time!) and it completely elevates the experience of our tiny, 35 sq ft bathroom.
With notes of Tunisian Amber, Vanilla Bean, Sandalwood, and Tobacco, this reed diffuser is moody, heady, and frankly, sexy.
She's smokey, sweet, and warm - perfect if you want to feel tucked in on cozy winter night.
So there you have it! Those are the 5 home fragrances that I'm really loving right now.
Let me know in the comments below: what is a home fragrance that you're really loving right now? Are you gravitating more towards the cozy, woodsy scents or the bright and floral scents?
Let me know what you're burning these days!
And if you’re still not sure how to create your dream apartment and you're wondering things like:
“How do I discover my personal style so that I can make these good choices for my decorating?”
“How do I become more confident in my interior styling choices?”
“How do I mix styles?”
“How do I actually arrange things in my apartment?”
Then I got you covered…
If you're wanting to dive deeper into learning about how to style your apartment step by step, that's where my online course Small Apartment Styling School comes in!
Small Apartment Styling School basically holds your hand through your styling process and tells you exactly what to do step-by-step, so by the end of the course you feel like you know your style, you know what to buy, and you know how to place it in your apartment with confidence.
Imagine living in an apartment that actually boosts your mood everyday and makes you feel welcome, and makes you feel a sense of belonging and being at home.
Just because you rent your space doesn't mean you can't own your style, and Small Apartment Styling School helps you do that!
My current students have been a raving about how helpful the course was for decorating their apartments and I am so proud of what they've achieved after enrolling in the course!
Small Apartment Styling School will help you decorate your apartment step by step, including:
Figuring out your personal style
Choosing a color palette
Mixing different interior styles
Learning about the different interior styles that are out there and which ones might be a good fit for you
Arranging and accessorizing your apartment room by room - living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom.
All of this and more is in Small Apartment Styling School, so if you want to learn more and join the waitlist for the next time it opens for enrollment, click here!
For daily glimpses into my studio apartment life, you can follow me on Instagram @moda.misfit.
And for regular doses of apartment styling tips and small space decor inspiration, subscribe to my YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when a new video goes up every week.