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I just want to thank everyone for visiting my site! I'm glad I could be of some help with the effusion topic. It just happens to be something that I have spent a lot of time researching.
A few people wrote to me and I wanted to address their specific questions.
Marilyn wrote: Ditto what Cathy just wrote! Your instructions ( with pictures!!) are very clear and concise.I think I would like to try this myself and was curious as to which fragrant oils worked best for you, aroma wise. Does it perfume the whole house or is it contained to basically the room its in?Again, thanks for doing such great research!Marilyn
I can tell you this Marilyn: These will smell up the entire house within one hour of lighting. My house is around 3500 square feet. When lite on the main level you can smell it upstairs. I have purchased a number of small bottles of essential oil and fragrance oils. I try to stay away from the dark colored ones because they tend to clog the stone. If I do use them, I dilute them further adding more alcohol to the mix.
I mentioned that I purchased my fragrances from http://www.brambleberry.com/
I ordered from them and was very happy with the oils and also with the delivery, so I am sticking with them. Here is a sample of the type of scents they sell:
Red Apple, Arabian Spice, Sandalwood, Vanilla Pumpkin Spice, Almond, Cranberry, Musk and Woodland Pear....they have plenty more too. Each scent has a full paragraph describing it. It also guides you in what scents are strong and which ones are soft. I suggest you start with a small amount (1 oz) because it's the cheapest. That way if you don't like it, you haven't spent a fortune.
I personally have used:
- Arabian Spice-too spicy for me
- Lemon Verbena-soft, not very strong
- Herbal Essence-just like the shampoo
- Fresh Linen-wonderful and fairly strong
- Beach Breezes-one of my favorites
- Coconut Lemongrass-love this, but it is a dark color and clogs my wick
- Applejack Peel-great around the holidays
- Drakkar-holy cow, it's like filling your entire house with men(Ok, don't know if that's good or bad!)
I'm getting ready to place another order with them. Just read through the descriptions to see what you would want to try.
Kristine wrote: Hi Christy,
Thank you for sharing your experience and recipes! I had never heard of soaking the wick, so am off to do so! I work from home in my basement grooming dogs and I love useing the effusion lamp down there with lavender in it. However it does get expensive buying the oils. So thanks very much!
Kristine: soaking the wick will keep it clean and working well. The stone gets clogged from the oil. Soaking it cleans the oil out of those pores. I have also read that if your wick will not light you can burn pure 91% isopropyl alcohol for a few hours without adding any oil and this will clean the stone out.
Someone from The Garden Web also asked what Lampe Berger is. It's just a "brand" of effusion lamps and oils. She wanted to know if she could burn any other oil in them. The answer is yes, but the company wouldn't advice it. That makes sense for the company. Buy their lamps and buy their oils.
I'm too cheap!
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Regarding the Lampe Berger catalytic effusion lamps, their fuels consist of 99% isopropyl alcohol (a.k.a. isopropanol). Just isopropanol for the Neutral blend with added perfumes for the scented blends. At $25/Lampe Berger fuel bottle versus $5 for a bottle of 99% isopropanol, guess what I am using! This is in the Vancouver, BC, area of Canada.
ReplyDeleteI cannot use artificial fragrances (99% of those are petroleum-derived) as they give me headaches. That is not the case with essential oils. That's why I only use essential oils with my catalytic lamp (not a Lampe Berger).
I have not had any issue with the wick clogging. I alternate using essential oils with burning just the alcohol to ensure that the wick and stone stay clean. My favourite essential oils (EO) are lemon, neroli, jasmine, sandalwood and cedarwood. Rose EO would be lovely but it is so expensive that usually you can only get an EO that has been diluted in a base oil unless you want to pay $100/oz for the purestuff.
Usually I only fill my lamp halfway with isopropanol and add anywhere from 3 to 6 drops of EO. I usually snuff the lamp as the smell gets pretty strong for me after a while. YMMV.
Frederica
Frederica,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing and sharing some great information on these lamps. Sounds like you have it down to a science!! You go girl!
Hi I live in the UK and cannot find Distilled water anywhere, Is De_ionised water suitable for making my own oils please, id be very grateful if you could help me. Thanks in advance :-D
ReplyDeleteJulie: Deionized water and distilled water are not the same. If you can't find distilled water, mix the alcohol and oils without it. It should work just fine. Some people don't add the distilled water. I think it will be fine. Hope this helps!
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