We’ve shared tons of fun diffuser blends, with scents that fit every mood, day, and situation—a pumpkin pie scent for the holidays, a beachy combination for summer days, a playful aroma for kids, and even diffuser blends inspired by U.S. National Forests.
Want to know the secret to creating your own unique, personalized scents? Give our guide to custom diffuser blends a look and learn how you can discover your new favorite essential oil blend!
Diffusing essential oils
Diffusing is one of the most popular ways to enjoy essential oils. However, there’s more to it than simply making your space smell fantastic. We’ve discussed the science behind aromatherapy and its benefits, but here are a few we wanted to call out as you decide what should go into your custom diffuser blend:
Make your space truly yours. Diffusing is the perfect way to cultivate a made-for-you environment in your space. Want to create an environment of calm as you wind down at the end of the day? Diffuse soothing and calming oils. Looking to enhance your daily yoga practice or meditation? Diffuse grounding oils. Diffusing can be exactly what you need to add purpose and focus to your daily tasks.
Surround yourself with fond memories. Our sense of smell is extremely powerful. Did you know that smells trigger more intense and vivid emotional memories than pictures? Diffusing your favorite oils can trigger those positive memories and emotions you want to keep close at hand.
If you’re curious about different types of diffusers or the ways to diffuse essential oils, check out our diffuser guide to find your perfect diffuser.
Creating custom diffuser blends
Whether your essential oil collection includes just a few oils or dozens, the diffuser blends you can create are limited only by your imagination.
How to get started blending essential oils
As you begin creating your own diffuser blends, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:
Identify and balance aromatic notes. Essential oil blends consist of “notes” that we refer to as base notes, middle notes, and top notes. Top notes are the scents you’ll smell first. These usually include light, fresh oils like Grapefruit, Orange, or Cinnamon Bark. Middle notes make up the heart of your blend. Some oils you can consider middle notes are Ylang Ylang, Jasmine, and Rose. Last but not least, you’ll catch the base notes, which are the undertones of a blend, should complement the top and middle notes, and often linger the longest. A few base note oils include Patchouli, Cedarwood, and Frankincense. Not every blend you try will have all three notes, but it’s important that you develop a feel for the oils that are more dominant so you can add the correct amounts and create truly balanced blends.
Determine your scent preferences. Everyone experiences a different reaction to a scent. As you create your own diffuser blends, start with the scents that you’re familiar with and prefer. As you introduce yourself to a wider selection of oils, you can begin adding them to your custom blends.
Consider the properties of each oil. When you combine essential oils into a diffuser blend, consider the effect you want it to have. There are many types of oil scent profiles, including earthy, woodsy, fruity, minty, floral, spicy, citrusy, resinous, camphoraceous, and herbaceous oils. Each of these types of oils will affect the impact your diffuser blend has. Also keep in mind that we all have different emotions and memories, which means that each of these oils will affect each person a little differently. As a general rule, however, each of these scent types typically offers the following benefits and influences:
- Earthy oils: Grounding, stabilizing, and calming
- Woodsy oils: Centering, steadying, strengthening, and empowering
- Fruity/citrusy oils: Reviving, mellowing, harmonizing, and cheering
- Minty oils: Stimulating, energizing, enlivening, and vitalizing
- Floral oils: Relaxing, sensual, nurturing, and uplifting
- Spicy oils: Invigorating, warming, comforting, and motivating
- Resinous oils: Settling, quieting, consoling, and meditative
- Camphoraceous oils: Stimulating, revitalizing, and renewing
- Herbaceous oils: Clarifying, pacifying, regulating, and balancing
Learn more about these scent profiles here.
How to find the perfect balance in blending
So you don’t waste any of your precious essential oils, we recommend you bypass the trial-and-error phase by performing smell tests before creating your diffuser blend. Choose oils you think blend well together, remove their lids, hold them in one hand, and waft them beneath your nose to get a sense of what they’d smell like together.
YL tip: Oils can smell strong directly from the bottle. Try sniffing the lids instead to get a lighter, more diffused scent.
While you can use as many oils as you’d like in your diffuser blend recipes, we usually stick to 3–5 oils per blend. Of course, what matters most is your personal preference. If you find a blend you like that calls for a single drop from 10 different oils, go for it!
Choosing the right ratios for your oil blends
To find the right ratios, bring one oil closer to your nose and move others farther back. The one that’s closest will be the oil with the most drops in your diffuser blend. The ones farther away will require fewer drops in the mix. Remember that the oils won’t smell quite so strong when they’re diffused with water.
If you’ve assembled a scent combination you love, get diffusing! If it’s not quite right, switch out one or more of the oils until you find one that hits all your favorite notes.
YL tip: Balance the scents. Some essential oils have stronger scents than others. Basil, Black Pepper, Nutmeg, and Cinnamon Bark, for example, all have powerful aromas. Add just a drop or two of these to keep their scents from overpowering your blend.
How many drops of essential oil should I put in my diffuser?
Once you’ve chosen your oils, you’re ready to start diffusing! But wait! How many drops of each oil should you add?
In Young Living diffusers, our recommendations range from 5–25 drops per blend, so be sure to adjust according to your diffuser’s specific instructions.
If you like subtler scents, ease up on the number of drops. If the instructions call for 6–8 essential oil drops, start with 5 and work your way to stronger scents.
YL tip: Did you accidentally add too much to your diffuser and now the scent is overpowering? Turn the diffuser on intermittent diffusing if it has that setting. Next, place the diffuser in a larger room or open a window until your diffuser has space for extra water.
Amazing blends for every occasion
New to diffusing? Start with an oil that has an aroma you already love. Obsessed with Lavender? Diffuse it on its own to enjoy the sweet, floral scent and then use it as the framework to create new combos.
A few essential oils that blend well together
Choose essential oils you use frequently, such as a group of citruses or florals. Go with classic pairings like:
- Thieves® and Lemon
- Peppermint and Lavender
- Cinnamon Bark and Orange
- Frankincense and Cedarwood
- Eucalyptus Radiata and Rosemary
You’ll soon learn which scents you prefer, so you can start experimenting with more varieties. To venture out further into the essential oil blending world, see our mix-and-match infographic to create more delectable pairings.
Don’t be afraid to get creative! You never know what kind of amazing blends you’ll create with a little imagination.
Essential oil combos that’ll whisk you away to the season or holiday you love
Looking to relive that summery feeling or the coziness of the holidays? Using seasons, holidays, and even food as inspiration for your diffuser blends is a great way to start.
- Spring into the season of blossoms with spring essential oils like Roman Chamomile and Geranium. Try out some of our favorite DIY spring blends to find ideas for your custom blends.
- Want to create a summer blend? Start with bright, uplifting scents like Lime or Grapefruit and then add in the smells that remind you of sunshine and warm weather. Not sure where to start? Check out our DIY summer blends for inspiration.
- If fall is more your flavor, start with warm Nutmeg, Cinnamon Bark, or other fall essential oils and build your cozy blend from there. Need a few ideas? Try out some of our DIY autumn blends.
- We love winter’s chilly freshness. Recreate the feelings of the season with oils like Peppermint and Pine. Check out our take on DIY festive blends.
- Are holiday scents at the top of your list of favorite smells? Replicate Halloween’s spooktacular scents, create the smells of freshly baked holiday pie, or even spark the romance of Valentine’s Day with romantic blends.
Check out our blog for more DIY diffuser blends to inspire your custom creations!
Already amazing blends
When you hit a creative roadblock, let us do the heavy lifting and choose one of our custom blends. Try Brain Power™ when you want to create a focused environment or Rise Above™ for an energizing, transformational aroma.
Some of our other popular blends include:
Looking for blends to diffuse around your children? Check out our KidScents® and Seedlings® Calm™ blends. We’ve taken the guessing out of creating diffuser blends with custom blends that are perfect to diffuse around your little ones.
YL tip: When in doubt, visit the blog. We’ll keep creating more diffuser blends for you to try!
Now that you’re a diffusing fanatic, keep your diffuser clean so each blend you try is fresh. Learn how to take care of your diffuser by swinging by this recent blog post.
What are your favorite diffuser blends?
Share the love in the comments!
Some truly interesting details you have written. Aided me a lot, just what I was searching for : D.
nice i like mine
Oh! That’s a great idea. I wouldn’t have thought of that on my own. I will definitely have to give this a try as well!
I just got my starter kit in the mail today! ^_^ It’s almost 8pm, so I’m diffusing 5 drops of Lavender, and 5 drops of Stress Away. My room smells WONDERFUL!
Just got into oils and was given a diffuser. I really want to stay healthy this winter and also work on weight loss. Any suggestions?
Does anyone know how to replicate the Burke Williams Signature scent ?
Have you tried Eucalyptus, Lemongrass, Geranium and Lavender?
I’m starting to make my own organic deodorant and would like to mix essential oils to make and fresh clean scent or baby powder scent, would anyone have any suggestions?
I’ve read that Purification is wonderful for homemade deodorants, I’m about to make some myself.
Citrus blends are one of my favorites – They are always refreshing and make me feel good.
My daughter (in-law) is in her last year of RNschool. She uses Stress-a-way and Treasure of the Season to help her focus when studying. Just got her a locket, but professor in toughest class has let her put it on a Q-tip during exams! (YL oils to the rescue! My words, my opinion–100%! Works for her, may not for others, but we love it!!!)
I like a blend of 5 drops stress away and 2 peppermint and 2 lemon to diffuse at work. Every likes the fresh scent and things have been much happier and calmer since I have started that.
When I’m feeling a bit stuffed up or feeling a cold coming on, I like to diffuse Raven and Eucalyptus globulus. It’s also my wife’s very favorite, cold or not!
Sacred mountain is one of my most favorite oils to diffuse!
But I love making and diffusing my own blends as well…I love citrus in the spring,,it’s like a mini spring cleaning!
Citrus blends are my favorite – always refreshing.
Bergamot, geranium and lemon makes me feel good
They all sound so fantastic!! And that Diffuser is beautiful. I want all these oils too share effectively.
I like Thieves with Peppermint it makes our house smell clean and fresh when I walk in the door.
I love using the diffuser, I use mine almost continuously during the cold and flu season, to freshen the air in the house and so much more! I have one of the older models and have been using it for about 15 years. Would love to upgrade!