I tried a wide variety of non toxic air fresheners in my home and I’m sharing the best ones. The safest, most effective non-toxic air fresheners use plant-based goodness like essential oils or charcoal to actually neutralize odors instead of masking them with harmful chemicals.

For context, I live in a high pollution city with a big dog, so natural air fresheners are a must in my home. I’ve bought and tested wall plug in, essential oil home scent diffusers, room sprays and am rating them based on their effectiveness, ingredients, value for money and scent.

If you want to cut to the chase, here’s a quick breakdown.

Why Switch to Non Toxic Air Freshener

Typical options can release volatile organic compounds (aka VOCs), phthalates and formaldehyde into the air. Conventional aerosol sprays hide thousands of undisclosed synthetic chemicals behind a proprietary “fragrance loophole” so you have no idea what you’re breathing in. Ditch the Febreeze spray, Glade plug in, and Little Trees car fresheners and switch to ones made with plant-based, natural ingredients.

Clean home fragrance is superior to conventional ones for so many reasons:

• 100% plant-based ingredients and complete ingredient transparency so you know what you’re breathing
• Free from synthetic fragrance, phthalates, and propellants found in conventional sprays
• Safe for kids and pets
• Better for indoor air quality: No aerosolized VOCs lingering in your home
• Plug ins are convenient and hassle-free, just plug and forget!
• More sustainable: Some of the brands I mention use recyclable or refillable packaging, cutting down on plastic waste
• Risk-free alternative to candles when you don’t want to burn one
• Real essential oils offer actual aromatherapy benefits, not just masked odor

You may not even realize your home smells bad! Since you’re so used to your own home you stop noticing when it’s smelling funky.

Types of Natural Air Fresheners

1. Beeswax candles to help purify air and scent spaces naturally with essential oils
2. Simmer pots
3. Home scent diffusers
4. Passive diffusers
5. Reed diffusers with essential oils (Brands like Neom Organics and Red Flower NYC make 100% natural ones)
6. Room spray
7. Incense
8. Air purifying plants like snake lily and ivy
9. Place bowls filled with baking soda around the home

I tried Neom Organics Essential Oil Diffuser Wellbeing Pod (overall fave!)

I’ve tried a variety of high-quality ultrasonic diffusers, all diffusing pure essential oils without any synthetic scent and, my top pick is Neom Organics Wellbeing Pod waterless essential oil diffuser. I’ve tried passive diffusers and they hardly work plus it’s a hassle having to go grab an essential bottle to drop more oil on them. I love that I can customize the essential oils I use and the amount of time I have the diffuser working. It’s versatile and portable and can be used in the home and the car. The larger one can be used for bigger spaces.

Essential oil diffusers have come a long way and there’s no having to fill them up with water and clean gross containers. You simply fill the empty jar it comes with using any natural essential oil you want.

I did knock off a point in my performance rating because it’s a little loud when you’re tryin to sleep. I’ve tried other waterless aromatherapy diffusers before and this one fills up smaller spaces very well.

Price: $17 for Starter Kit / $11 for refill
Performance rating: 4/5
Scent strength: 4/5
What I love: Excellent performance, portable, and fully customizable. The amber light at the bottom works as a night light.

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I tried Enviroscent Non Toxic Air Freshener Plug Hub

Enviroscent’s non toxic plug in air freshener offers the best value for money in my experience. They’re under $20 for a starter kit and I find that they work super well for the first few weeks, but do lose their scent faster than advertised. It’s a small, round and white device that’s discreet and modern-looking. I appreciate there are no liquids involved so zero risk of damaging furniture or causing any kind of accident.

A refill only costs $11 and they have a ton of beautiful scents to choose from like Rainwater Bamboo, Pineapple Coconut and Lavender Tea Honey. I also love how eco-friendly they are using sustainably sourced paper packaging for their refills. Enviroscent is also fully transparent with their ingredients and use a mix of essential oils and fragrance oils.

I really like the fresh, watery brightness of Rainwater & Bamboo, but their Lemon Leaf & Thyme is their strongest scent. I feel like this doesn’t just simply mask dog odor, but neutralizes it while adding a nice scent.

Price: $17 for Starter Kit / $11 for refill
Performance rating: 3/5
Scent strength: 3/5
Scents: Rainwater Bamboo, Pineapple Coconut, Lemon Leaf Thyme, and Lavender Tea Honey
What I love: plug in to the wall and forget! Liquid free and eco friendly.

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I tried Drift Home Scent Diffuser (Andrea’s fave!)

Drift’s plug-in air freshener works really well and is my fave out of everything I’ve tried. I love the clean minimal design, customizability and how noticeably better the stinkiest room in the house now smells. It continuously releases scent using clean ingredients and no harmful chemicals. Compared to Enviroscent, I would say Drift is a little higher end, larger in size and customizable. I love how sleek and minimalistic the device looks. I can also customize the scent strength using three power settings. Level 1 is great for small areas and level 3 for larger areas). Their scents are safe for pets and kids and the fragrance they use is free of phthalates, parabens, mineral oils, DEA, and harsh chemicals.

Keep in mind Drift uses fragrance oils and not essential oil so the throw is pretty strong. They come in a small liquid bottle and you simply remove the cap and stick it in the opening. I love their scent Grove for summer! It’s super bright and juicy with notes of citrus, mountain greens, vanilla sugar, and blond wood.

Price: $35.95 for a Starter Kit / $15.95 for refill
Performance rating: 4/5
Scent strength: 4/5
Scents: Wild Lavender, Grove, Cabana, Teak, Open Air, Strawberry Shortcake, Whipped Cream
What I love: wall plug in, customizable power settings, unique scents

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I tried Realm Air Spray (budget!)

I’ve tried TONS of nontoxic room sprays from a bunch of different brands, and Realm is hands down the BEST affordable spray. They’re Clean Label Project certified, easily accessible at Target and Erewhon, are fully transparent with their ingredients, and made without phthalates, carcinogens or endocrine disruptors. This has performed better than any other room spray I’ve tried AND they’re the best value for money. The mist comes out extremely wide and fine (more than other brands!), the scent lasts longer and the lever is actually sturdy and high quality. You also get double the amount of product than most other room sprays.

I’ve tried all four scents and my favorite is Verbena Santal, which has notes of Violet, Lotus, Verbena, Lily Of The Valley, Tearose, White Musk, Amber, and Sandalwood. Saffron Citrus is a warm yummy citrus (notes of cedar, oak moss, saffron and mandarin). For a fresh laundry type smell go for Fresh Poplin.

Price: $12 for 8.5 oz
Performance rating: 4/5 (if we’re just talking among sprays then 5/5 but sprays ultimately fade quickly)
Scent strength: 4/5
Scents: Verbena Santal, Saffron Citrus, Fresh Poplin, Lavender Bergamot
What I love: high performance, so affordable, certifications, easily accessible at Target and Erewhon

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I tried Rowe Casa Organics Room Spray

Rowe Casa Organics is the best 100% natural room spray I’ve tried that uses only essential oils. For me it comes down to the quality of the nozzle and how well they spray, since the formulations are pretty similar across all-natural brands (essential oils mixed with a liquid base). I’ve found that many brands eventually start leaking around the nozzle, or worse, the nozzle completely breaks after time! RCO is a brand worth looking into if you’re looking for a one stop shop for all your non toxic home care needs. Their room sprays come housed in a beautiful amber bottle and are made with distilled water and therapeutic grade essential oils.

An essential oil scented spray is also more functional since the properties of essential oils can be antibacterial. Fantastic as a refreshened spray for my non-toxic yoga mat.

Price: $18 for 4 oz
Performance rating: 4/5
Scent strength: 4/5
Scents: Lemon Orange, Lemongrass Grapefruit, Peppermint Vanilla, Pine Lemon, Rosemary
What I love: 100% natural

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I tried Maison Louis Marie Reed Diffuser

If you love the elegant look of a reed diffuser, Maison Louis Marie is my favorite that uses clean fragrance. I love that they offer diffuser refills that help you save quite a bit of money. For a budget option I’ve enjoyed Craft & Kin. I’ve had my reed diffuser for over half a year and it’s about half way done, so I expect it to last a full year. Personally, reed diffusers are not my go-to. because the clean ones aren’t as strong like a typical reed diffuser found in stores. If you don’t mind a more subtle reed diffuser, I recommend Maison Louis Marie, Craft & Kin and Red Flower’s organic reed diffuser. Bois de Balincourt is my all time favorite scent, followed by Icila and Nouvelle Vague. The scent strength is subtle, not overpowering.

Price: $95
Performance rating: 3/5
Scent strength: 3/5
Scents: Bois de Balincourt, Nouvelle Vague, Vallée de Farney, Icila
What I love: minimalistic and elegant look

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I tried Dedcool Air Freshener (for car and closet)

If you’re looking for an air freshener for your car or closet, I recommend Dedcool. Drift and Enviroscent do offer car fresheners, but Dedcool is the only clean perfume brand I could find that makes one. I love that I can enjoy their Taunt fragrance as I’m driving around and use them in my closet to keep my clothes smelling good too. Taunt has notes of Vanilla, Bergamot and Amber and isn’t overwhelming at all.

Price: $12
Performance rating: 4/5
Scent strength: 3/5
Scents: Taunt, Aura, Red Dakota, Madonna Lily, Blonde
What I love: so versatile – use it in the closet, car or drawers

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Or Invest in an Air Purifier!

Skip if you already own one, but honestly the most effective way to truly freshen the air in your home is to use an air purifier. One that also diffuses essential oils simultaneously is an added perk! My Canopy Air Purifier does both and I love it! Truly clean air means less effort trying to constantly make it smell fresh. I’ll come back and update here, but this post is getting very long.

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Clean Burning Beeswax Candles

Obviously, candles are a tried-and-true favorite air freshener for many of us. I’m sharing some of my favorite summer candles made with natural wax and essential oils. Beeswax is considered the best for air purification out of all the natural waxes out there.

Summer Solace Tallow’s Flora Iris (Andrea’s fave!)

This is one of my holy grail candles for summer. It’s made with beeswax and tallow rendered fat of California pasture-raised cattle, orris butter, iris and Palo Santo for a captivating grounding floral scent that’s an instant mood lifter. You have to experience it to understand. Some scents are just too good to even try to describe.

Natural Sloth’s Summer and Lavender Lemonade

Natural Sloth’s candles are Made Safe certified and made with yellow beeswax and organic essential oils and has a subtle citrus lavender scent that’s calming and perfect for warmer months. I’m currently loving their Summer candle as I write this and it’s got organic lemon, lemongrass, tangerine, orange and spearmint oils for a fresh citrus scent mixed with the warm earthiness that yellow beeswax emits. For a super fresh scent, their Breathe candle is made of eucalyptus, peppermint and grapefruit and smells invigorating. (Note that Natural Sloth is very softly scented and for a strong essential oil candle go with Terralite.)

Primally Pure also chooses to use beeswax for its air purification ability. They blend it with coconut wax and essential oils and their best summer scent is Cool Citrus Breeze in my opinion. My main complaint is their standard candles are small and burn quickly as a result, so the deluxe is worth it. This smells sweet and floral with bergamot and tangerine essential oils.

100% Natural Incense for Summer

Clean incense is an amazing way to purify and cleanse the air. My absolute favorite non toxic incense that’s authentic, safe for pets and made with 100% natural ingredients is Incenzo. Their Unbind scent is made with Bamboo, Jasmine, Agarwood, Sandalwood and without any synthetics, petroleum-based additives or charcoal core. Incenzo uses only plant based botanical ingredients like woods, flowers, resins, and herbs along with elm bark as the binder. Another amazing summer scent is their Unfold scent featuring orchid. It’s floral, light and uplifting.

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