It's still masking season - and expected to remain so for a while yet - so this post is about how to make a do-it-yourself mask freshener spray.
Face masks can get a bit (how can we say this politely?)... pungent with continued use. Sometimes they could use a bit of a refresh rather a full wash, and this is where a freshener spray really shines.
What You'll Need
Making your own mask refresher spray is very easy, and you only need 3 ingredients:
- Warm water
- An essential oil of your choice
- A natural soap, either one of:
- An unscented natural bar soap
- An unscented Castile liquid soap
You will also need a small (30 to 60ml) misting spray bottle to dispense your mixture.
The essential oil is the key item here, and is for scenting your spray - the other ingredients are just for diluting and mixing. Any essential oil will do: the best part of this is that you can choose any of your favourite scents, or even mix them.
A Bit of Science
Essential oils are too strong to go on your mask directly, they need to be diluted with water first - but oil and water don't mix. At least, not without some help.
That's where the natural soap comes in! Soap molecules are special intermediaries, with heads that are attracted to water, and tails that repel water (and attract to oil instead).
Adding just a bit of soap to our mixture lets our essential oil get suspended in the water, rather than floating on top:
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Notice that the bottle on the right is milky - that's the essential oil suspended in the mildly soapy water, just how we want for diluting it.
Natural and Castile soaps are perfect for this as they are very mild so they can suspend the oil but won't make the spray feel slick. The soap gets 'used up' as it bonds with the essential oil, so the mix doesn't have a soapy feel at all. Science! Ya!
Making Your Freshener Spray
Making your spray is very easy, and should take less than 5 minutes:
- Fill your misting bottle with warm water
- Add your soap!
- If you have bar soap, peel or cut off about a fingernail sized piece of soap and place it in your misting bottle.
- If using Castile soap, put the tiniest drop of soap into your spray bottle (really - you don't need much!) - Let the soap dissolve
- Add 10-15 drops of essential oil, slightly more for a larger misting bottle
- Shake! The essential oil should turn the water cloudy as it mixes
And that's it - all that's left is to use it on your masks! Use a few sprays to deodorize your masks. Some masks get harder to breath in when damp, so this is best done at the end of a day so the mask can dry before next use.
Tip: Give the bottle a quick shake each time before you use. The essential oils do seperate a bit, even with soap.