Chaos with Christmas Scents: Air Wick Fresh Pine & Juniper
History
Updated Nov. 2024
When I visited our daughter Carrie a few days ago, her home smelled amazing! The fresh, woodsy scent came from an Air Wick plugin with Fresh Pine and Juniper essential oils—perfect for the holiday season.
She had some candles burning too, but the fresh pine and juniper fragrance was my favorite. It’s such an easy way to bring a cozy, festive feel to your home!
Once I bring home potted Poinsettias for the season, I like to use Scentsicles (those handy scented sticks) to add a festive aroma. I simply tuck them into the pots, and they fill the room with that perfect holiday fragrance. It’s such an easy and worry-free alternative to candles.
Here’s a post I wrote about them a while back—take a look!
I loved the fresh pine and juniper aroma in Carrie’s home, so I made a trip to Walmart to grab the same plugins for myself.
Walmart
There were so many options for aromas and diffusers that I found myself a bit overwhelmed! I ended up texting Carrie a couple of times to confirm exactly what brand she was using, and she helpfully sent me a picture. While I managed to find the fresh pine and juniper oil refills, the actual diffuser to hold the oil was nowhere to be found. What should have been a quick and simple purchase turned into a bit of a scavenger hunt!
As I kept searching, Carrie called to let me know the diffuser usually comes packaged with a bottle of oil. She suggested I might need to grab a different scent just to get the diffuser, then swap in the Fresh Pine and Juniper refills. Thankfully, I finally found the diffusers—and even discovered an Air Wick Advanced Plug in Scented Oil Warmer sold separately.
I picked up mine at Walmart, but I also noticed Amazon offers them in a pack of four (I’ve included my Amazon affiliate link for convenience). Walmart only had three left, so I bought all three along with a five-pack of Fresh Pine and Juniper. oil refills. That should be plenty to keep my home smelling festive through the holidays!
Setup
I skimmed the instructions—pretty straightforward. Just remove the cap from the oil and snap it into the diffuser. One thing that caught my eye was the reminder to keep it upright to avoid spills. Simple enough!
Our house isn’t very big, but I figured three plugins would be just right. One fresh pine and juniper plugin went in the kitchen, another in the living room, and the last in our bedroom. The soft glow they gave off when plugged in was a nice touch. I set them up in the late afternoon before we headed out for a while.
When we returned, we were greeted with a lovely, Christmasy scent filling the house.
A Scent-Sational Overload
Later that night, as we relaxed watching TV, the pine and juniper scent from the plugins became even more noticeable. The house smelled great—festive and fresh—but as the evening went on, the scent seemed to get stronger.
By the time we went to bed, the Christmasy aroma was still going strong. At first, I figured it was just lingering because I’d handled the plugins while setting them up—sometimes a scent sticks in your mind like that! But as the night wore on, every time I woke up, the pine scent felt even stronger. It eventually became so overpowering that I had to pull the covers over my nose. I considered getting up to unplug the one in the bedroom but decided to wait until morning.
When morning came, the house was completely filled with the woodsy aroma—so much so that it was overwhelming. My first thought? Three plugins were definitely overkill! I removed the one from the bedroom and moved it to the garage. Now, we have the best-smelling garage in the neighborhood, and even Browser (our dog) seems to enjoy it out there!
Even with one less plugin, the scent was still pretty intense inside. That’s when I thought, Maybe these are adjustable? Sure enough, there’s a little dial to control the intensity of the scent. I adjusted them to a lower setting, but I couldn’t help but wonder why Air Wick put the adjustment dial on the bottom—it’s a bit awkward to use.
Lesson learned: Less is more, even with something as lovely as a Christmasy scent!
A Few Days Later
Just a few days later, I noticed the plugins were already running low on oil. That couldn’t be right, I thought. Curious and a bit puzzled, I decided it was time to check out Air Wick’s website to see what might be going on.
Well, turns out I should have paid closer attention to the instructions from the start! The first issue? I had plugged them in upside down! No wonder the oil was disappearing so quickly!
The Scent Strength Mystery Solved
Soooooo, when I thought I was dialing the scent down… I was actually cranking it up! I completely missed the fact that the indicators got larger as you turned them up. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense—if only I had been looking at them from the right angle.
But nope, I’d been looking up at them from underneath, since I was so focused on keeping them “upright” to avoid spills. Ironically, I had them upside down the entire time! Lesson learned: Read the instructions and double-check the setup!
Moral of the Story
If you can’t laugh at yourself, what fun is life, right? 😊
Sure, I made some silly mistakes, but at least I’ve finally tamed the Air Wick Fresh Pine and Juniper scent! I’m almost out of essential oil, but luckily it’s easy to restock. I might even branch out and try some of their everyday scents like Lavender and Waterlily, or Fresh Linen. They even have one called Fresh Waters.
Now, you might be wondering, Why share such a ridiculous story? Well, it doesn’t matter how old, busy, or educated we are—we all make goofy mistakes sometimes. And if I’ve done it, I guarantee someone else has, too (or something just as funny)!
Leave me a comment and share one of your own “oops” moments—I’d love to hear it!
Leave me a comment and share your faux pas!
