Cheap Thrills: Reed diffuser refills at Target

Yes, you're at the right blog. I tend to be quite particular about home scents and use the nicest ones I can find where it really matters: bedrooms, living room, my bathroom and kitchen. But some areas in the house can use nice but simple home fragrances that don't necessarily come from Saks or Bloomie's. While most of the cheap reed diffusers in Target are not my thing (basically, anything that has fruit or synthetic cinnamon), I've found that their home brand sandalwood and lavender are positively nice.I pour them into cute bottles and jars, add reeds I buy in bulk online (reeddiffusers.org) and the basement and entrance from the garage smell delightful.

Of course, if it's too good to be true it usually is- one catch is that these bottles evaporate in 2-3 weeks, making them not as cheap as they look (it's under $10 each), still they are reasonably priced and a good alternative.

Photo by me.

L'Occitane Fig Tree Leaf Diffuser

My home scenting adventure continues.

I was at the local L'Occitane store stocking up on my favorite hair products (yes, I know that a suspicious amount of posts starts with this sentence. What can I say? L'Occitane need to start selling their conditioner and hair mask in family size packaging), when I smelled something familiar and wonderful.

Fig.

My love for fig scents is well-documented here, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover the Fig Tree Leaf reed diffusers .They also come in other scents and I even got one, I think the Provencal Landscape, which I'll review when I break it open, but right now I'm all about the incredible aroma of a fig tree in the middle of summer, lush, green and heavy with fruit that is about to ripen. The thing about good fig scents is the balance between the leaf, wood and fruit, and this L'Occitane product is a really good one. Now I want a full range of body, personal care and perfume with this smell. And also a laundry line, while we're at it.

I only got the refills, not the entire set, because I prefer to hunt for nice bottles and containers in other places and I've been buying the reeds in bulk online ever since I discovered I can use diffusers all over the house as long as they are placed strategically out of cat and harm's way.

L'Occitane Fig Tree Leaf Diffuser refills ($16, 3.4 oz) are available from L'Occitane stores all over creation as well as online.

Image: Gelini's Fig Tree byDeborah J Humphries

Voluspa Italian Tangelo Reed Diffuser

I don't know what took me so long to realize that reed diffusers are an excellent way to scent the house. I guess I was worried about certain cats knocking them down and causing all kinds of domestic mayhem, so I stuck with messy lamp rings. But a couple of months ago when we moved house and replaced most of the floor and table lamps, I decided I no longer wanted to deal with the rings and gave diffusers a chance. I discovered they are perfectly feline resistant, as long as I place them out of the fuzzy ones' way.

I was in Bloomigdale's home store for some kitchen items when I saw the Voluspa display. I've smelled their products before and liked them a lot, but this time I was paying attention. The husband found several of them too sweet/foody for his taste, but agreed that they were all very nice and well made before ushering me back towards the Le Creuset section. But the following week some Voluspa products went on sale through one of the online retailers, so a couple of Italian Tangelo reed diffusers found themselves being shipped to me.

Italian Tangelo is a blend of citrus fruit- Italian Tangelo & Mandarin, Tangerine & Grapefruit, and that's exactly what you get. There's a nice balance between tart and sweet, it smells natural and edible and has a good through without making the area around it smell like it was sprayed with an air freshener. I turn the reeds upside down every other day, so the scent keeps flowing and true to the promise, it's very long lasting (they say four to six months. I've been using it for over a month now and it's still full and fresh). I keep the diffuser bottle in the base from its box for extra stability. It's quite nice and the black olored reeds add a nice touch. I see one in Baltic Amber in my near future.

Voluspa basic reed diffusers ($55) are available at Bloomingdale's, online and in store, as well as from several other online retailers.

Photo: florida-citrus.com