Essential oils for a relaxing evening at home

At the end of a long day, the way a room smells can make it feel like a different place. Adding a few drops of essential oil to your diffuser is an easy way to change it. This guide looks at which scents suit the slower hours, how to use them, and which NOTE oils and blends to start with.

A scent changes how a room feels. It is not a treatment, so choose by smell, and stop using an oil if it does not agree with you.

Soft and warm for the evening, bright for the morning

Scents that feel restful tend to be soft rather than sharp: dry woods, warm spice, gentle herbal florals and sweet citrus. Cool or sharp scents such as peppermint and lemongrass feel brisk, so they sit better on a desk in the morning than beside the sofa at night.

NOTE's four everyday blends follow the day the same way. Wake Up is the morning blend, Breathe the midday blend, Balance the blend for working hours, and Pray the evening blend.

Single oils for a quiet room

A single oil holds one ingredient, so lavender smells like lavender and nothing else. These five suit the end of the day.

• Lavender · soft herbal flower. Not a sweet floral, and a familiar scent for the bedroom. NOTE uses it in Balance and in Pray.
• Cedarwood · dry, warm wood. A quiet base. It sits well under lavender.
• Sweet Orange · sweet citrus peel. Juicy and easy to like. A ready partner for ginger or lavender.
• Ginger · warm spice. A slight bite at first, and a good fit for rainy evenings in the cooler months.
• Geranium · leafy, a little rosy. Green first, then a soft rose. For rooms with plants and open windows.

Blends, if you would rather not mix

• Pray · lavender, sweet orange, frankincense. The evening blend.
• Giáng Sinh (Christmas) · cinnamon, honey, vanilla, sweet orange. For December.

You can see all fourteen NOTE oils, eight single oils and six blends, on the NOTE essential oils page.

Two oils that work together

If you like to mix, start with a pair NOTE already uses in its own scents:

• Cedarwood and lavender, which sit together in Balance.
• Lavender and sweet orange, two of the three oils in Pray.
• Ginger and sweet orange, a pairing NOTE also uses in a room spray.

How to use them

1. Add 3–5 drops to the oil diffuser you already own, or to an aroma stone.
2. On a stone, give the oil 1–2 minutes to soak in.
3. To mix your own, start with two oils on the same stone and adjust from there.

Do not apply essential oil directly to skin. Keep out of reach of children. Stop using it if you feel unwell.

NOTE does not sell oil diffusers. Use NOTE oils with the oil diffuser you already own, or with the small aroma stone NOTE sells.

Prefer something you can set and forget?

A reed diffuser scents a room on its own, with no flame and no power. For the bedroom, NOTE's Green Field reed diffuser brings together lavender, Roman chamomile and German chamomile. See the NOTE reed diffusers page, or read how to use a reed diffuser.

Where to buy NOTE essential oils

Essential oils are sold at two stores in Ho Chi Minh City: 2nd Floor, 42 Nguyen Hue (inside The Cafe Apartment), District 1; and 34 Nguyen Duy Hieu, Thao Dien. Before you come, message NOTE on WhatsApp or Messenger to find out which store has the scent you are after. NOTE delivers within Vietnam. If you are visiting, buy in store and take it home with you.

Next time you are in Ho Chi Minh City, stop by one of the two stores and smell the oils side by side before you choose.