How to Diffuse Essential Oils Without a Diffuser (13 Ways)

As an opening nugget of interest, your olfactory system is one of the oldest sensory realms in the evolutionary history of us humans (and mammals) and is otherwise known as the ‘sense of smell’.  This amazing sensory arena draws in smells and aromas, then checks, ensures, regulates, transmits, determines and informs your brain.

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It only makes sense that essential oils can play such a beneficial role in your overall general health and well-being. Today, I’m going to talk about how to diffuse essential oils without a diffuser.

Benefits of Essential Oils

Natural diffusion of essential oils can play a positive role in maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle. For instance, if you regularly use certain essential oils (such as Lemon, Valor, and Lavender) you can improve your immune system and prevent a common cold (source).

Even if you do succumb to the sniffles, you can still use essential oils to relieve them.  These are all the first small steps to becoming self-reliant and responsible for administering your own healing medicinal tinctures.

Where Essential Oils are Used

For centuries, essential oils have been used in health and beauty preparations as well as food provision and health-care treatments. Their unique qualities have been proven to bring us to balance, serenity, and tranquility. They can boost mood, strengthen the immune system, soothe skin, tone muscles, ease digestion, and improve your mental state (source).

There are more than 3,000 varieties of volatile aromatic compounds, with the nature of an essential oil varying from plant to plant, species to species, season to season, location to location and of course the way it is distilled.

How to Diffuse Essential Oils Without a Diffuser?

Here are some of the methods you could use to achieve exactly that!

1. Use the Pillow

To aid a deep relaxing nights’ sleep place 3-5 drops of Lavender or Roman Chamomile (or a mixture of both) essential oil onto your pillow. These wonderfully potent aromas promote relaxation and reduce stress (source).  Also, it restores the balance to the nervous system. Lavender is safe to use on babies and children too.

Here are more essential oil blends to help you with your sleep.

2. Use the Bath

Bath time can be one of the best ways to ease away the stresses and strains of the day. What better way to increase liberation than to use essential oils. They have multiple beneficial values and by adding a few drops you can cure minor ailments.

Adding them to a hot water bath will let the essential oil diffuse. Here are the best smelling essential oils you can use for that. Also, some of the examples here too.

Vetiver Oil

A tranquil, grounding and reassuring energy oil, often used in trauma – help with self-awareness, calmness, and stabilization. A nervous system tonic, it aids the reduction of hypersensitivity and is also useful in panic attacks and shock.

Ylang Ylang

Due to its calming and uplifting effects, it can be used to treat anxiety and depression. Promotes cheerfulness, courage, optimism and soothes apprehension. It is a moderate to strong sedative which can help with insomnia (source).

Marjoram Oil

Diminishes pain associated with colds, fevers, inflammation, muscle overexertion, toothache, and headache. Marjoram has no adverse side effects.

3. Use a Vacuum

There’s no better time to boost your mood than when there are chores to do – so next time you have to change the filter in your vacuum cleaner remember to add a few drops of your favorite essential oil. Hoovering will give you a completely new, more pleasant experience!

Here are a few essential oil suggestions:

Wild Orange

If you’re feeling low or blue, try refreshing and invigorating wild orange. It’s hard to feel down in the dumps with this essential oil permeating your room – it’s been shown to increase positivity.

Rosemary

This releases an earthy and uplifting scent and thus can promote concentration, relieves tiredness and even have antidepressant-like properties.

Clary Sage Oil

Self-Esteem, confidence-boosting, hope and mental strength inducer, efficient fighter of depression, this is a great oil to promote a happier mind balance (do not use around alcohol).

Read More: How to Use a Diffuser?

4. Use Spritzer Bottle

Better than using supermarket shelf products. You can easily create your own mind an elevating, room cleaning spray with a little tepid water and a creative combination of your favorite essential oils.  Re-cycle an old refillable plastic spray bottle by filling it with tepid water out of the kettle.

Then, add a few drops of essential oil. This can be used over drapes, pillows, quilts, carpets, rugs or simply sprayed into the atmosphere.

The oils you might want to try:

Tea Tree

Fights germs, bacteria, and viruses deter lice and other pests.

Eucalyptus

A clean smelling powerful germicide.

Pine

It can effectively kill yeast spores, E.coli, and other household germs and is faultless for ridding the bathroom of mold and mildew – leaves a naturally fresh scent.

5. Use a Napkin

You don’t really need to think about how to diffuse essential oils without a diffuser to come up with this method yourself. You can always add a few drops of your favorite essential oil and breathe it in. That’s especially useful if you’re in public places or when you go traveling.

Another great way to use napkins – put one in the car air vent and enjoy the aroma. It will last during the journey and calm you down. Also, you can get more creative and make your own decorations that would look better than a napkin in your car. Anything that can absorb some oil will work.

6. Use Your Stove

In case you’ve been searching for a facial steamer on Amazon, forget it. Get some water, add essential oils to it, pour it into a saucepan and put it on a stove. If you want to enjoy the steam and get a small facial at home, let the water boil and make sure that steam is directed towards your face.

Otherwise, just let it simmer and enjoy the aroma that will spread throughout your whole room.

7. Buy a Diffuser Necklace

Diffuser necklaces are getting more and more popular. You can find them anywhere really. The idea behind having one is the fact that you’ll both inhale the aroma but also the smell of it.

Just add a few drops to the pad and keep it inside the necklace. Warning! It won’t last long so you’ll need to constantly change those pads.

8. Use Bath Bombs

It’s so fun to make your own bath bombs. You can always add a bit of essential oil to each of them and enjoy your bath with the aroma of your choice.

Here is an amazing bath bomb recipe at Beauty Crafter.

9. Use Toilet Paper

Not sure how to diffuse essential oils in your toilet? Well, you could simply add a few drops of it to your toilet paper and enjoy the aroma.

Just make sure not to add too much so it wouldn’t irritate your skin.

10. Make Your Own Reed Diffuser

Get a glass container with a narrow opening, a few reed sticks, add ¼ of a cup of safflower or apricot kernel oil to the glass and 20 drops of chosen essential oil. Don’t forget to finish with 2 tablespoons of alcohol as it will help the oils to go up the sticks.

Pour the mixture into the glass, put the sticks in and enjoy the aroma all around the room. It’s a simple way to diffuse oils and yet beautifully magical! Looks nice too, you can use it for decorative purposes.

Here is a great video on how to make one yourself.

11. Use a Cotton Ball

You can use a cotton ball for the same purpose you could use a tissue. Not everyone has tissues at home!

12. Use Stuffed Animals

Now that’s for mamas and papas who want to make sure that their babies get to experience the aromas too. Add a few drops of essential oil to the stuffed animals and let your babies enjoy the smell.

Don’t overdo it though. Baby’s lungs and skin are much more fragile than an adult’s.

13. Use Decorative Lava Stones

Add a few drops to those and you’ll notice how well your room smells. They are also known as aroma stones too. Anyway, just google lava stones and you should be able to get them for a few bucks. They look lovely too!

General Tips

Ass you’ve already realized, you don’t need to know how to diffuse essential oils without a diffuser to come up with your own ways to do that. There are no rules and you can be as creative as you want!

Conclusion

Now that you’ve learned all the ways to use essential oils, which one will you choose? Comment below with your answers. Also, if you have any ideas or would love to share a few new diffusing methods, let us know in the comment section!