“Diffusing is a neat way to say I want to take command of this living room, or I want to take control of the energy of my bedroom,” Panton told mbg when she stopped by our office earlier this week to celebrate the launch of her new book, Essential Well-Being: A Modern Guide to Using Essential Oils in Beauty, Body, and Home Rituals. From this perspective, diffusing oils can be a creative act of self-care—an opportunity to mix your own scent medicine and have fun doing it. When it comes to choosing essential oils to add to your custom blend, approach it like a layering game. First, there’s the top note—the one that will hit the nose right away. That will be a citrus oil like sweet orange or lemon, or a strong astringent scent like bergamot and spearmint. Then, you’ll want to add on a middle note—one that is slightly less strong—like a lavender, ginger, or eucalyptus. Finally, you can layer on a base note—the subtlest one that will linger in the air the longest. Think sandalwood, vetiver, or rose. Diffusing one top, middle, and base oil together is a quick way to make a well-rounded blend, and Panton adds that woodsy and floral essential oils, as well as herbal and citrus ones, pretty much always smell good together. But there really aren’t many hard-and-fast rules, she adds, so have fun with it and see what scent combinations smell the best to you. First thing in the morning and right before bed are also moments poised for scent ritual. “I love putting my diffuser on about an hour before I’m going asleep. Then I close the bedroom door and do all my evening rituals, then I walk into the bedroom, and I know all I’m going to do is go to sleep,” Panton adds. But really, she says, any time you want to leave a sweet mark on your surroundings is the perfect one to get blending: “Thinking about the intentionality around it is half of the magic.” Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
