DIY Poo Pourri
As I'm sure you all have probably seen or heard, you can make your own poo-pouri! Or did you know that? If not, here's a little insight into my own DIY poo-pourri adventure!
Poo-pourri! What a funny little creation, but a well accepted creation. ....because who likes walking into the bathroom with that fresh scent of poo?! No one! Am I right?! ....and most "air sprays" can't even mask that scent. So along came the creation of poo-pourri, and it works!
Typically you can purchase an 8 oz. bottle of poo-pourri from anywhere between $20-$35. Some brands cost even more! I didn’t want to spend this much, especially since I already have a bunch of essential oils already on hand. I thought, why not save a little money and look into how these are actually made. Thus started the beginning of my research.
The way poo-pourri works is by creating a layer of oil over the surface of the water in the toilet bowl to act as a barrier for the poo smell. That barrier supposedly traps the poo smell under the water. Now, most recipes I've found contain anywhere from 5 ingredients to only 2 ingredients. These ingredients include mostly essential oils, so my thinking was that it sure would take a lot of drops of essential oils to cover the surface of the water in the toilet (especially when comparing the size of a bottle of essential oils to an 8 oz bottle of poo-pourri)!
I wanted to come up with my own recipe; something that I'd never seen in any of the other recipes, and be able to say that I'd come up with that new recipe that works even better. So in my first experiment, I added a little bit of vegetable oil to my formula in order to match the volume of a large bottle of poo-pourri without pouring all of my essential oils into it. That was an ingredient I'd never seen in poo-pourri. Unfortunately, there was a reason for this. I don't think it worked any better than the simplest of recipes, not to mention the damage that it could cause to plumbing by flushing even the littlest bit of vegetable oil. My mind got the best of me and I started to think that over time it could potentially build up in the plumbing and wreak havoc. Vegetable oil was scratched off the list.
After more experimenting, I settled for a concoction that seemed to work. My recipe for a 4 oz (spray) bottle of poo-pourri is now around 50 drops of essential oils. The essential oils you use, is of course your choice but my go-to oils are different mixtures of Marjoram, Peppermint, Cedarwood, Lavender, Eucalyptus, and Geranium. However, I do use Marjoram in every batch. Next fill the 4 oz bottle almost to the top with distilled water and add a couple of drops of food coloring (just so you can see how much you're getting in the toilet when it comes to spraying time). Then, top it off with dish soap (around 6 drops probably). I don't really measure anything! This formula, of course, will need to be shaken before each use.
I've found that this recipe works as well as the recipes containing more ingredients, in my opinion. . The combinations of oils you use is really just personal preference so you can be as creative as you want! Happy Creating & Happy Pooing!
