Scented pinecones are an easy, affordable, and festive way to add some festive fragrance to your home this season. Start off with the vanilla and pumpkin spice hues of fall, then transition into the pine and cinnamon scents of Christmas. And do it all by foraging for your own pinecones!
Many people believe that aromatherapy has the power to heal our bodies and calm our minds. Whether you believe in the purported healing benefits of aromatherapy or not, smelling your favourite fragrances can make you feel relaxed, revitalized, and comforted.
This can be especially nice during the holiday season if you scent your home with festive, cozy fragrances that make you want to curl up and relax.
Use natural essential oils to fill your home with the warmth of the holidays by making this pinecone aromatherapy diffuser! Scented pinecones are easy to make at home as long as you follow a few important steps.
Here’s how to make them!
How to Make Scented Pinecones
What I love most about this craft is how affordable and easy it is to make. You can also customize it with any scent you like and add some extra pizzazz, such as I did with the cinnamon sticks and star anise.
Materials
Make It!
If you don’t already have a supply of pinecones that you’ve collected for crafting, take a walk around a park, wooded area, or tree-lined street and collect a number of pinecones in varying sizes. Choose recently fallen cones that are intact and have a nice shape.
Fill a sink with warm, soapy water and gently wash the pinecones. Once they are clean, take them out of the sink, shake off excess water, and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
For this project, it is best to use pinecones that are completely dry and as open as possible, and the best way to ensure this is to “bake” them in the oven at a low temperature to dry out thoroughly.
Put the pinecones in the oven at around 200 degrees F (or whatever the lowest heat setting of your oven is) until they look open and feel very dry, about 30 minutes to an hour. Take them out of the oven and let cool completely before working with them.
Next comes the fun bit: pick the combination of scents you want to use! I prefer to use only all-natural, pure essential oils as they smell better than synthetic fragrances, and they don’t contain harmful chemicals.
Scenting Your Pinecones
You can choose any scents that you like, but here are some of my favourite essential oils for fall and winter:
To blend your signature essential oil fragrance, add the desired amount of each of your chosen essential oils into the empty glass bottle using the dropper. Screw the lid on and shake the bottle well, mixing the essential oils together to create a new scent combination.
Now, you are ready to scent your pinecones. Using the dropper, apply the essential oil to the gaps in the pinecones. Essential oils are quite strong, so you don’t need a lot to scent your pinecones—just three or four drops per cone is plenty.
Lay the pinecones out in an attractive dish or bowl along with some whole spices for an even more pleasant scent and an attractive holiday display. When the scent fades, simply add a few more drops of your custom essential oil blend to the pinecones.
FAQ About Making Scented Pinecones
How long do scented pinecones last?
The scent lasts me for about two weeks. Afterward, all they need is a quick refresh by adding some more essential oils to your pinecones.
How do you make pinecones smell Christmassy?
To make your pinecones smell like walking through a winter forest, combine cypress, cedarwood, and sweet bird essential oils.
Another great combination to try for a sweeter Christmassy scent is sweet orange, cinnamon leaf, and vanilla absolute essential oils.
Find more Christmas scent combinations in this post.
How to refresh scented pinecones?
All you need to do is add 3-4 drops to each pinecone. Utilizing a dropper can help, or you can shake the essential oils directly onto the pinecones.
