I’ve been doing lots of fancier DIYs lately, so I decided to step it back with a simple DIY for freshening up linens, sheets, and rooms—just in time for spring. A simple, fresh blend of peppermint and lavender essential oils are diluted in water to create a simple spray you can use to spruce up your sheets and blankets and pillows, or maybe even the inside of your car if it’s starting to smell like feet and winter and dog. Easy peasy, peppermint squeezey.
We’ve got a few different things we can use to emulsify small amounts of oil into large amounts of water. Essential oils aren’t technically oils—they don’t contain any lipids—but they are oil soluble. Polysorbate 20 is well suited to dispersing essential oils into water, while polysorbate 80 is better suited to heavier (true) oils. Both will work here. I would avoid Olivem300 and Turkey Red Oil so you’re not misting oils onto your linens. If they’re linens you don’t wash often the oil on them could go rancid (especially the Turkey Red Oil), and that’s kind of gross.
You can definitely mix up the essential oil blend here to create pretty much any kind of linen spray, so let your imagination run wild! Linen sprays are incredibly easy to make. They come together quickly, they’re fun, and you can make your house smell puuuurty. Awww, yeah.
Peppermint Lavender Linen Spray
0.7g | 20 drops peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)
1.1g | 30 drops lavender essential oil
5g | 0.18oz polysorbate 20 (USA / Canada) or Polysorbate 80 (USA / Canada)35g | 1.23oz distilled water
0.2g | 0.007oz Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada) (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at recommended usage rate [why?])Weigh/count the essential oils and Polysorbate 20/80 into a small beaker or glass measuring cup, and whisk everything together to combine.
Add the water and preservative, and whisk again—the mixture should become slightly cloudy.
Decant into a 50mL (1.69 fl oz) mister bottle (the exact one I used was from New Directions, but they discontinued them a while ago). To use, mist over any linens or laundry you’d like to freshen up.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this spray contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative this project is likely to eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
I have used this blend a few weeks ago for bath bombs for kids. It is sooo lovely! What a nice idea to use it as a bed linen spray.
I was busy with a spray today too. My daughter asked for a strawberry hair spray. So I used 85% cyclomethicone 5% dimethicone 300 and 10% fractionated coconut oil with 2 drops of strawberry fragrance. All very synthetic I have to admit. Waiting for her to come back to try out.
That was my last spray bottle. Sigh….
In a pinch I pick up spray bottles out of the travel section of stores like Wal-Mart and especially Target (they have nice ones). They are a little more expensive per unit this way but it allows me to have instant gratification while waiting on big orders of packaging (which I buy from Bulk Apothecary, usually).
How fun! I have been toying with the idea of making something similar, it’s just so hard to restrain myself from adding all kinds of water soluble ingredients and then further complicating the matter haha 😛
I was wondering if you think one could substitute alcohol for the water, maybe vodka since that is supposed to have very little smell to it. I don’t have the emulsifier and don’t want to buy it. I am also thinking the spray wouldn’t need a preservative with the alcohol, either. What do you think?
You can, just try to choose the highest proof clear grain alcohol you can find to increase the chances of the essential oils dissolving in it. As long as your alcohol content is about 25% you won’t need a preservative 🙂
Hi, Marie: This recipe is so timely — the commercial products give me whopping headaches. For the alcohol content do you mean 25% of the total recipe, or is the alcohol itself to be 25%? I ask because I have vodka that shows on the label to be 40%. Will that suffice? I also have Sapphire’s Perfumery Alcohol – have you used it, and if so, what’s your opinion? Thank you. C.
The entire recipe needs to be at least 25% alcohol content to be self-preserving. I’m afraid my brain isn’t working terribly well right now as I’m rather sick, so I’ll leave the math on the 40% vodka to you, but I think it should work out to be at least 25% alcohol. I like the perfumery alcohol as I find it dissolves EOs very well; you could replace the polysorbate with more of the perfumery alcohol if you use that 🙂
I’ve been using essential oils to freshen my clothing since my sister first introduced me to it about 10 years ago. Now I make my own. My favourite (and I can’t believe how many compliments I get about my ‘perfume’) is patchouli oil. It’s a little bit of heaven…
I’ve never used polysorbate in mine (I just use distilled water and EO and shake each time) but I’m going to try this. Thanks for the tip!
Oooh, patchouli. I do love it… you’re reminding me that I need to dig it out of my EO cupboard and work with it more! It’s been too long, dear patchouli Thanks for sharing and happy making!
This is a good all-purpose spray & I’ve made versions of this before. What I really need, and I can’t find a recipe for anywhere, is an Anti-Static Spray. What would you advise for that?
Hmm. Perhaps include a cationic ingredient? Though that would really only work for hair and skin… computers and what not are definitely not my forte!
Great recipe. I makes these all the time but I don’t use a preservative because I go through them in less than a wk
If you’re going to do that, can I recommend using alcohol as your solvent instead of water? That way they will be self preserving 🙂
sounds like I may be taking a risk. i’ll just add the germall plus i don’t have anything against it, i was being cheap and wanted to save it for my lotions lol..
I’m only on my second ever bottle of LGP; it should last you a verrrrrry long time! No need to be stingy 😉
I love the mix of Peppermint and Lavender (Especially French!). Some people say how Peppermint is a great energizer but when I first got into Peppermint, it was with Lavender for an inhaler for relaxing. Ever since Peppermint is a relaxer. It also comes in handy for headaches & carsickness so it’s definitely a soother.
My spray has French Lavender, Peppermint, Dark Patchouli, Himalayan Cedarwood, & Oakmoss Absolute. So divine!
How interesting! That really goes to show how memory of a scent heavily influences how it makes us feel 🙂 Your blend sounds divine!
Hi, Kristen: could you give the essential oil proportions/recipe for your spray? it sounds exotic and lovely! Collee
I’ve never thought of lavender and mint! I always turn to lavender and geranium with a wee bit of citrus as the top note to freshen anything.
#roomspraysforthewin!
Oooooooh, now there’s another one on my to-make list. Dangit, Penny
Tag! You’re it!
Hi Is it possible to use other e-waxes that are solid in room temperature perhaps by reducing the amount from 5g instead of polysorbate 20 or 80?
No—the spray will not spray if it is thickened (which a solid ingredient will do)—it’ll come out more like a fire hose blast. Also, e-waxes and solubilizers are just plain ol’ not interchangeable.
I use a similar blend to this but I use spearmint instead of peppermint and it is amazing. In fact I made a spearmint and lavender face wash that is so refreshingly wonderful to wake me up every morning.
Oooh, how lovely! I can definitely see how the spearmint would be particularly nice in the morning rather than the more aggressive peppermint 🙂 Thanks for reading!
I had a lovely happy mother’s day wind down with a visit from ten trillion tiny ants making their way to and from my kitchen trash can. Humblebee to the rescue! Remembering that peppermint is highly undesirable to ants, I whipped up a batch of this subbing the lavender for more peppermint. Peace and tranquility restored! My kitchen is minty fresh and ant free.
Thank you Marie for teaching me how to use the ingredients you inspired me to buy. Thank you for encouraging imagination and creativity whilst pointing out boundaries unwise to cross.
Ha! I love it when DIY solutions save the day 😀 Muahahaha, them ants didn’t stand a chance 😉 I’m so happy to hear that my wee blog is helping you get inspired and make things!
Does this need to be shaken with each use?
The polysorbate should keep everything evenly distributed so it doesn’t need to be shaken 🙂
Hello,
What if I want to replace the essential oil with fragrance oil, what would the total of the g or oz. for 50 ml bottle
thank you, excited to try it
I typically recommend ~1% fragrance or less as it’s quite strong 🙂
Can i use Phenoxyethanol as a preservative on my Linen Spray? and Face Mist? 🙂
I don’t recommend it as it is not complete; you can learn more here 🙂
Could some of the water in this be subbed with alcohol/perfumers alcohol to make a room or body spray?
I’d probably recommend subbing all the water and the polysorbate for perfumer’s alcohol; the polysorbate is pretty sticky.
Thank you. ♥️
No worries—happy making!
Hello, I’m really new here, so I have a question. Why did you use Polysorbate and Liquid Germall instead of just perfumer’s Alcohol? Is there some sort of advantage?
BTW, your blog is so great, and your Youtube channel too!
I suspect it was an availability thing—many of my readers have a very hard time finding it. There’s a good amount of discussion in the comments if you read up, though.
Oh, I see, I thought it could be something like fixation or durability. I actually started to wonder about this after I read the comments, hahaha! Thanks for the reply!
No worries, happy making!
Hi
I want to make a lavender one and lemongrass one and rose geranium one how much essential oils do i use?
I’ve got an FAQ on this 🙂
Ok thanks
So i will need to found out the maximum usage of essential oils for water?
There’s no maximum usage of essential oils for water—it’s just the maximum usage, by percentage, in weights. It doesn’t vary with the carrier. The linked FAQ includes a link to a big list of maximum usage rates 🙂
I just made this but used cardamom, grapefruit and lavender for my essential oils. This is so lovely and perfectly fits what I wanted! That is for this recipe!
That sounds lovely! Enjoy 🙂
I am curious why you used LGP? It is not supposed to be used in sprays. Which Optiphen would work instead?
Liquid Germall Plus (INCI: Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate) isn’t supposed to be used in aerosols, but I haven’t found anything specifying it can’t be used in mists. I found this interesting thread on the topic, including this quote: “Particles from a spray bottle are much bigger and heavier than those from an aerosol, so are less likely to linger in the air, thus less likely to be inhaled/ingested. I think this is the reason that only aerosols are mentioned in the USA/Japan warning.” I hope that helps!
It does, thank you.
Hi and thankyou so much for your fabulous work … your site and youtube clips are such a great resource for inspiration.
I’m wondering whether a mix of hydrosol and perfumers alcohol could work as a spray for linen and wool clothing? If so, what ratios would you suggest please?
Do you have this formula in percentage?
You can convert it to % yourself with this tutorial 🙂
Thanks. My numbers are a bit wonky but hopefully there are future posts of sprays with percentage 🙂