6 Tips to Make Your Fake Plants Smell Great

There’s nothing better than the aroma of a nice houseplant…but sometimes, there’s nothing worse than the aroma of a houseplant. If you’re interested in adorning your home with fake plants, there are many perks, like the functionality and seemingly unlimited lifespan of fake plants.

However, one downfall is that fake plants can have a musty, plastic scent. To remedy this, many fake plant owners put lotion or perfume on their plants’ leaves, but this compromises the lifespan of a fake plant by attracting dust.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in learning how to make your fake plants smell great. So, we’re going to outline a few tips that will make your fake plants smell good, so you can kiss that musty smell goodbye!

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Avoid lotion and perfume on leaves

Although it might seem like a productive way to make your plant smell fresh, putting lotion and perfume on your artificial plant, is actually extremely harmful. When you put lotion or perfume on your plant, you are attracting bad particles that can deteriorate your plant and compromise its physical appearance.

We’ll admit this: putting lotion or perfume on a fake plant does mask the musty smell that often comes with artificial plants. However, it is not worth it because you’ll end up making your plant look bad over time.

Plus, if you put perfume and lotion on your plant, you’re making your plant smell good, but you’re not making your plant smell good in a convincing way because real plant smells aren’t as potent as perfume and lotion.

Using essential oils at the base of the plant

If putting lotion and perfume on your plant attracts dust, then keeping lotion and perfume away from your plant, keeps dust away. That makes putting essential oils at the base of your plant a great solution. They won’t attract dust and it masks the undesirable smell that comes with artificial plants without compromising the physical appearance of your plant.

Essential oils also provide a light scent that is more realistic and won’t overwhelm the room.

Essential oil diffusers

Essential oil diffusers in the same room as your plant can mask the undesirable smell that comes from fake plants. Even more importantly, you can choose an essential oil that mimics the smell of live plants, creating the illusion that your artificial plant is real.

Essential oil options are seemingly endless, so it doesn’t matter what type of plant you have. You’re sure to be able to find a similar scent.

Some plastic smell is expected

We understand. This is not the tip that you wanted to read. However, the reality of owning fake plants is that some plastic smells are expected.

Think about it this way: would you rather have a little bit of a plastic smell or an overwhelming smell that comes from lotion or perfume? If we had to guess, you’d probably choose the plastic smell.

If you use essential oils, you will barely be able to notice the scent of the plastic. Plus, over time, the odor will neutralize as you grow accustomed to it.

If you’re worried by the fact that your fake plant might smell like plastic, keep it away from places where the smell will be noticeable. For example, if you keep a window open frequently, put the fake plant next to the window, and avoid putting your artificial plant in a room where the door is often closed.

Regularly cleaning dust and blocking mildew/mold buildup

An important factor that will help keep your fake plant smelling as great as it can is being sure that you maintain your plant. This means you cannot let dust, mildew, and mold build up on your plant.

Often, your fake plants smell bad not because of the plastic itself but because you’ve let substances build up on the surface of the plastic.

To avoid mold and mildew, make sure you clean your plant regularly, but also make sure you don’t let your plant get wet because that creates mold and mildew. If your fake plant collects moisture, immediately wipe the plant off with a cloth.

Water and distilled vinegar for hard to remove smells

It is always possible that your plant has ingrained odors; in other words, odors that are extremely hard to neutralize. If you have a fake plant that was once located in a place where there was cigarette smoke or other intense odors, you’re going to want to make sure that your plant does not trap these harsh odors.

To remove these smells, you can make a solution that is one part distilled water and one part white vinegar. Once you make the solution, spray the leaves to loosen the harsh and embedded scents.

This is a great tactic for hard-to-reach places, too, because with the spray bottle, you can reach crevices that are hard to clean.

Once you’ve sprayed down your plant with the water and vinegar solution, let the mixture sit on the plant for a few minutes, then wipe the solution off the plant. Doing this ensures there won’t be any mold or mildew that grows on your plant because as we’ve discussed, moisture will make your plant smell bad.

We’ve been over a lot, but we hope that you’ve learned a lot about how to make your fake plants smell great. Whatever reason that you chose fake plants, now you know some tips for making them smell great.

Do you have a tip for overcoming the musty, plastic smell of artificial plants? Please share it with us in the comments!