These two are often asked about together, and usually the real question lies behind them. Do you want to tend the scent in your home with your own hands, or do you want it simply to be there without your having to think about it. Answer that and the choosing is done.
The 15 ml bottle of essential oil is for the person who wants to adjust. You drop a few drops into a bowl of warm water, into a mist diffuser, onto a small piece of wood in the wardrobe, and each time you decide how strong it is. The 100 ml diffuser with wooden reeds is the opposite: it stands in one place in the room and releases evenly all day, with no electricity, no flame, and no need for you to be there.
The wooden reeds work by the weather, not by the clock
The most interesting thing about a reed diffuser is that it lives by your room. The wooden reeds draw the oil up and release it into the air, and the speed of that release changes with temperature, with humidity, with whether the room is open or shut. The same bottle in Hanoi in July and in Da Lat in December will give you two different rhythms.
So we usually tell you to turn the reeds according to how the room smells, not according to a fixed date. When you walk into the room and find the scent fainter than you like, that is the time to turn them. On dry days with the fan running often, you will turn them more frequently. On damp, rainy days with the doors shut, you can leave them longer and the scent is still enough.
The number of reeds is a dial too. A small room of about ten square metres usually needs only three or four reeds. A wide living room open to the kitchen may need more. Add one reed at a time and sit in the room for about half an hour to hear it; that is the surest way.
The 15 ml bottle is for the small corners
Essential oils composed by ZUNGZA in a 15 ml bottle usually go to the places where a diffuser bottle is hard to stand. One drop on a piece of wood in the towel drawer. Two drops in a bowl of warm water beside the desk through a long afternoon. A few drops in a mist diffuser in the bedroom about twenty minutes before sleep, then switched off.
A small bottle is also the easiest way to get to know a direction of scent before committing to it for a long time. Use it for a week, at different hours of the day, and only then decide whether you want it to become the standing scent of your living room.
Many homes keep both. The diffuser in the hallway or the living room, making the shared base, while the bottle of essential oil follows each task of the day. Those two do not compete; they share the work.
A few questions you often send us
How long does a 100 ml diffuser last
It depends on the room and on how many reeds you put in, usually a few months. A draughty room with many reeds goes faster; a closed room with few reeds lasts longer.
How often should the reeds be turned
Turn them when you find the scent in the room fainter than you like, because that rhythm changes with region, with temperature and with humidity. Some homes turn them every few days, some once a week.
Where do essential oil and candles differ
A candle brings light along with a fifteen-minute stretch for the scent to come up, suiting the times you sit down. Essential oil and a diffuser work more quietly, suiting the whole day, even when you are out of the house.
Read more a flame or a wooden reed, two ways of bringing scent into the house, scents for the bedroom and the living room, and how to keep a bottle of essential oil.