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I just realized I’ve been babbling about essential oil aromatherapy diffusers without telling you what kind I use!!!

I’ve never been a fan of the electric diffusers that require you to put some essential oil or oils on a pad and then a fan blows the scent around. They’ve always seemed like high maintenance to me, and I like things simple!! Any of you have experience with that type of diffuser?

Anyway, a while back I bought one of those tea light candle diffusers specifically made for aromatherapy. It had a small glass bowl perched a few inches above the candle. You filled it with water, added a couple of drops of essential oil, lit the candle and waited for the scent to fill your house. The problem with that diffuser with it was that the water would run out before the tea light finished burning. Those suckers can go for 6 hours!! How do they get that much burning power out of a little teeny tea light? I gave up on this diffuser when I added water to it, and the darn thing cracked. Scared the daylights out of me when it made that cracking sound. (Note to self: Adding liquid, even hot liquid, to a hot glass bowl will make the bowl crack! Duh!)

So I hunted around my house and came up with a potpourri diffuser that also uses a tea light candle. The cool thing about potpourri diffusers is that they are ceramic and they use a larger amount of water. Well, I guess that’s two cool things about potpourri diffusers. Mine holds about 3/4 of a cup of water and has a little cover with a steam vent on it. I usually light the tea candle and get some water warmed up in the teapot. I don’t let the water get to boiling, just pretty warm (like when you can see tiny bubbles in it). This “jumpstarts” the aromatherapy diffusion process.

Then I add however many drops of essential oil to the water, put the cover on, and it diffuses away. I leave my diffuser on the stove, out of the way and safe from the dogs! I don’t have to add water, which is great.

This is a great method for enjoying the aromatherapy effects of essential oils in a very pleasant way. Like if you’re feeling nervous or upset, just put some lavender or rose essential oil in your diffuser!

But I’ve read that to get the full therapeutic effect of an aromatherapy essential oil, you should use a nebulizer diffuser. Boy, are they weird looking!!! But they don’t use heat, and supposedly heat can change the nature or qualities of some essential oils. So if you have a bad cold and want to diffuse, say, eucalyptus oil, you should use a nebulizer, or so I’m told. I don’t own a nebulizer yet, but I’m gonna get one for this winter for sure. If any of you have experience with nebulizers, I’m dying to hear about it!!!