The 10 Best Ways to Scent Your Home: The Daily Details: Blog : Details

The 10 Best Ways to Scent Your Home

A candle will always work, but these days there are alternative options for filling your home with fragrance that go far beyond the Air Wick.

1. Maison Francis Kurkdjian Aqua Universalis Incense Paper
Perfumed with a clean scent meant to evoke water, these thin paper strips can be lit in an old candle jar or kept in drawers for a sophisticated alternative to potpourri. $28 at www.franciskurkdjian.com
2. Diptyque 34 Boulevard Saint Germain Scented Oval
Named for the address of Diptyque's original boutique, the sweet and spicy fragrance celebrates the company's 50th anniversary. Because you don't burn the scented wax in this ceramic ring, it works best in small spaces like a closet or a laundry room. $50 at www.diptyqueparis.com
3. Fornasetti Scented Crystals
The Italian company—known for plates painted with a picture of a woman's face—offers rocks that perfume the room with Fornasetti's signature Otto scent of cedarwood, lavender, and labdanum. $145 at www.barneys.com
4. elizabethW Lavender Square Sachet
A San Francisco company inspired by the owner's outdoorsy great-grandmother, elizabethW upgrades potpourri with a seven-inch-by-seven-inch linen pouch lined with lavender buds. $22 at www.elizabethw.com
5. Costes Signature Room Spray
Visitors to the Hôtel Costes in Paris never forget the lobby's aroma of wood, rum, orange, and oakmoss. Thanks to this room spray, you can appreciate the scent even if you've never left the country. $75 at www.luckyscent.com
6. L'Artisan Parfumeur Amber Ball
Artfully carved in northern France, this terra-cotta ball might look like a simple table decoration, but inside it houses a solid fragrance that slowly releases notes of warm amber. From $50 at www.artisanparfumeur.com
7. Comme des Garçons Incense Avignon Sticks
Light these sticks and put them in a jar filled with sand—you'll instantly be transported to the inside of a church, heavy with vanilla, chamomile, and palisander wood. $55 at www.luckyscent.com
8. Cire Trudon Nazareth Stink Bombs
These unusual capsules are meant to be thrown on a hard floor and broken, their clove and cinnamon scent wafting through the air. Just keep a broom handy. $41 at www.aedes.com
9. Agraria Bitter Orange TasselAire
Agraria offers sophisticated and beautifully packaged candles, reed diffusers, and potpourri, but what it's known for is the TasselAire. Hang this perfumed tassel on the doorknob and you'll instantly be welcomed with the complex scent of clove, citrus zest, and cypress. $40 at www.agrariahome.com
10. Frederic Malle Mécanique Diffuser with Un Gardenia La Nuit Fleur
A high-tech dispenser you charge like a cell phone, this wireless box scents the air with a stunningly perfect re-creation of gardenia done by master perfumer Dominique Ropion. $300 at www.fredericmalle.com
—By Jason Chen

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