By Jennifer Hussein and Sarah Madaus
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We love a great candle as much as anyone else, but if you're not a fan of open flames — or tend to forget about them — the best room air fresheners are the perfect fireless deodorizers to make your house smell divine. Whether you're looking for an affordable, under-$10 (or even an under-$5) pick, or want to aromatically spruce up your place with a unique, luxury home fragrance, our staff has got you covered with our tried-and-true picks. There's even an Allure Best of Beauty winner thrown into the mix that we bet you'll love as much as we do.
Because hoards of reed diffusers and room sprays land on our desks daily, the Allure team has learned a thing or two about sniffing out the best scents. Just like fragrances for your body, everyone has a unique olfactory taste (and budget), so our team has rounded up an array of fruity, floral, and crisp hints of clean linen to fill your home with.
Unpleasant odors are a thing of the past, thanks to the best air fresheners that Allure editors are currently loving. Below, take a look (or, rather, a whiff) at our favorite diffusers, oil warmers, and room sprays.
Why It's Worth It: Courtney Cox's home and cleaning products earned our Best of Beauty stamp of approval not only for the selection of fine fragrances (we're partial to the fresh, floral steeped rose scent), but also because Homecourt's Room Deodorant neutralizes neturalizes odor molecules with a blend of zinc, yeast ferment, and charcoal, which means you won't find any chemical fumes.
Best For: Room refreshes, car air freshener
Key Notes: Rosewater, geranium, ylang ylang, guiacwood, vanilla
Why It's Worth It: Our team loves Nest New York's Wild Mint & Eucalyptus Reed Diffuser so much that we just had to give it an Allure Best of Beauty Award for its incredible scent. This oil-based aroma blend fills large and small spaces alike with invigorating notes that make your home smell like a five-star spa at all times.
Key Notes: Mint, eucalyptus, sage, ginger, basil
Why It's Worth It: From the makers of the famous Poo-Pourri comes Home-Pourri's Air + Fabric Multi-Purpose Odor Eliminator can be sprayed onto just about everything that needs an aromatic refresh but can't fit in the washing machine (hello, living room couch cushions). Pet odors and stubborn post-cooking scents are no match for this spray because it doesn't just mask smells but neutralizes them at the molecular level with its essential oil-based, proprietary Funk Lock Technology.
Best For: Pet odors, cooking odors
Why It's Worth It: Bath & Body Works is the O.G. of home fragrances, so no wonder its Eucalyptus Spearment Concentrated Room Spray made its way onto this list. This home spritzer combines invigorating eucalyptus leaf with earthy sage and sweet spearmint to evoke the spirit of a yoga studio — but, you know, in your own home.
Key Notes: Eucalyptus, clary sage, spearmint
Why It's Worth It: One of Allure associate digital beauty director Sarah Kinonen's top picks for her home is Diptyque's Baies Room Spray. This fruity-floral cocktail contains harmonious notes of roses and blackcurrant leaves that'll make your home smell as delicious as a freshly baked pie.
Best For: Living room, bathroom, bedroom
Why It's Worth It: As its name suggests, the Pura x Nest New York Smart Home Fragrance Diffuser is not your average automatic air freshener. What makes Pura's device so unique is its ability to connect to an app via Bluetooth to adjust all of its settings, including aroma intensity and diffusion time, in just a few clicks. It's also worth noting that this device dispurses its scented vapor at up to 1,000 square feet and holds two vials at a time, with each lasting up to 700 hours.
This particular starter kit comes with two oil blends from Nest New York to get you started. One is Bamboo, which contains the earthy scent of the plant along with floral jasmine and fruity citrus, while the other is Grapefruit, a juicy scent that contains its star note along with floral lily of the valley and herbal coriander blossom.
Best For: Entire apartments, large rooms
Key Notes: (Bamboo) bamboo, jasmine, citrus; (Grapefruit) grapefruit, lily of the valley, coriander
Why It's Worth It: Love the fresh scent of floral lavender? Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Lavender Room Freshener Spray is an affordable, under-$10 spray air freshener that has a stamp of approval from our very own editor-in-chief, Jessica Cruel. This non-aerosol spray bottle has a lovely floral-herbal scent that's powered by, you guessed it, lavender essential oil.
Who It's For: Bedroom, bathroom
Why It's Worth It: Luxury it-girl brand Aesop makes swoon-worthy home and beauty products. Similar to its popular Aromatique hand wash, one spritz of this room spray fills your space with earthy, herbaceous fragrances.
Best For: Room refreshes, post-poo, upholstery
Key Notes: Geranium, incense, patchouli
Why It's Worth It: Don't be fooled, even though this looks like traditional perfume, L'Avant Collective's room spray packs a powerful punch of fragrance for fabrics and rooms. The warm, delicate notes aren't too sweet, and the scent will linger for hours everywhere you spritz.
Best For: Clothes, luggage, room refreshes
Key Notes: Ylang-ylang, bamboo, lavender, geranium
Why It's Worth It: Why choose from one scent when you can have nearly endless options with the Aera Mini Diffuser? On top of offering over 40 essential oil-based fragrance options like palo santo, citrus, feu de bois, and more, plus collaborations with fragrance brands. This plug-in device's fragrance intensity can easily be controlled through a Bluetooth-enabled app.
Who It's For: Entire apartments, large rooms
Why It's Worth It: Forget expensive candles and pricey essential oil diffusers, because Glade's Plug-Ins Scented Oil Air Freshener Warmer will transform your living area into an aromatic dreamscape for less than $10. Once you connect it to an outlet, this plug-in air freshener starts automatically and its intensity can easily be adjusted by a quick turn of its control dial.
This particular starter set comes with one refill of the brand's Aqua Waves scent, which contains an aromatic blend of florals like jasmine, lilac, hyacinth, iris, and osmanthus that are paired with crisp water and fruity mandarin.
Best For: Trash can odors, large rooms
Key Notes: Jasmine, lilac, hyacinth, iris, osmanthus, water, mandarin
Why It's Worth It: You're probably familiar with Febreze's Odor Eliminating Air Freshener Room Spray in some capacity — after all, it's a household staple for a reason. The Febreze air freshener makes your home smell like freshly washed laundry, thanks to its notes of crisp linen. Like every air freshener on this list, this spray is also free of red-flag ingredients like phthalates and formaldehyde.
Best For: Pet odors, post-poo
Key Notes: Linen, fresh air
Why It's Worth It: Warm and spicy, this oil diffuser smells like a smoky bar in the best way possible. To keep it from smelling too strong, add one reed at a time and swap it out every few weeks. The ceramic vessel makes nice decor, too.
Best For: Living room, dining room
Key Notes: Pink pepper, lemon, rum absolute, tobacco leaf
Why It's Worth It: Allure market shopping editor Angela Trakoshis recommends Brooklinen's Bright Idea Room Spray. This delightful spray fills the air with a three-note mix of spicy cardamom, floral geranium, and grassy vetiver to aromatically soothe your senses. It's great as a non-cloying bathroom spray, if you know what we mean.
Key Notes: Cardamom, geranium, vetiver
Why It's Worth It: Vitruvi's essential oil diffusers are gorgeous, but if you'd like to save some counter space, the brand's Warm Linen Natural Air Freshener Spray is a great alternative. Every spritz of this essential oil-based spray douses your space with a blend of relaxing lavender and soothing vanilla.
Best For: Linens, room refreshing
Why It's Worth It: Don't want to worry about stocking up on aromatherapy essentials for 60 days? Then grab Air Wick's Scented Oil Air Freshener Warmer, a $4 buy that only needs to be refilled bi-monthly when used on its lowest setting. This nifty device is one of the best plug-ins for its automatic spray feature that delicately spurts a stream of scented oil vapor. Its scent intensity can be controlled by turning its easy-to-use dial and, as a bonus, this device also comes with a refill of its clean linen scent.
Best For: Set it and forget it, entire homes
Key Notes: Clean laundry, sunshine, white flowers
Elevate your space with more Allure editor-approved home fragrances:
Now, watch actress Jennifer Garner react to TikTok's biggest beauty trends:
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