Looking for the best Pura scents for Pura’s smart diffuser system? Same!
There are so many choices; it honestly got a little overwhelming for me. I decided to test out all of the most popular scents to bring you (and me!) a little clarity.
In this guide, I’m taking you through the world of the Pura diffuser, a smart plug-in wall diffuser that’ll transform the atmosphere in your home.
Best Pura Scents
I smelled Pura scents until I couldn’t smell anymore (nearly 30!) – and I had my family and friends double-check my work.
These are the very best Pura scents for every mood and season.
- Best Spring Pura Scent: Santorini
- Best Summer Pura Scent: Ocean Mist & Sea Salt
- Best Fall Pura Scent: Red Currant
- Best Christmas Pura Scent: Holiday
- Best Hotel Pura Scent: Retreat
- Best Clean Pura Scent: Linens & Surf
- Best Vanilla Pura Scent: Havana Vanilla
- Best Bedroom Pura Scent: Dusk
- Best Kitchen Pura Scent: Volcano
Pop any of these winners in your Pura device and the different types of scents will totally set the mood!
Quick Reviews of Pura Scents
I don’t want this article to be a mile long, but I do want to provide a little commentary on each scent I sampled.
Here’s the 5-second take on each fragrance to help you choose which ones are right for your home.
Also, just in case you don’t know – Pura is free of harmful chemicals and is pet and kid-friendly.
Holiday/Christmas Pura Scent Reviews
NEST New York’s Holiday review: 5/5. The best Christmas scent – complex and makes you want to come back and smell it again.
Barro-Co.’s Fir & Grapefruit review: 5/5. Wonderful Christmas smell. Complex but not overwhelming. It was my favorite Christmas scent before I smelled Holiday by NEST.
Thymes’ Frasier Fir review: 5/5. Lovely Christmas scent – like a real, live tree. But it’s pretty straightforward, and the fragrance intensity is strong.
Anthropologie’s Fresh Balsam & Cedarwood review: 5/5. Milder than Frazier Fir but still has a nice, live Christmas tree scent. Not very complex, but nice nonetheless.
Capri Blue’s Chestnut Embers review: 4/5. Very nutty. A mild holiday scent – one of those warm scents that’s not bad but not a favorite.
Thymes’ Highland Frost review: 4/5. Smells like a Christmas tree farm, but very subtle. It’s lovely but not as good as other similar scents.
Fall/Autumn Pura Scent Reviews
Votivo’s Red Currant review: 5/5. Autumnal and fresh. Perfect for fall.
Thymes’ Simmered Cider review: 3/5. A good fall scent in theory but somehow smells like bubblegum. Several agreed.
Clean/Summer Pura Scent Reviews
Pura’s Linens & Surf review: 5/5. Best clean linen smell for sure. If you’re looking for clean fragrances, this is the GOAT.
NEST New York’s Ocean Mist & Sea Salt review: 5/5. Very lovely summer scent. Fresh.
Disney’s Mirabel Mango Tropical review: 5/5. Perfect summer scent with tropical and tangy notes of blood orange, pineapple juice, and juicy mangostino. The scent is supposed to be as bright as Mirabel’s personality, and I could not agree more.
NEST New York’s Almalfi Lemon & Mint review: 5/5. Fresh and interesting. A good summer scent.
Pura’s Lavender Fields review: 4/5. Spa atmosphere. Very straightforward.
Barr Co.’s Sugar & Cream review: 3/5. Giving vanilla sugar from Bath & Body Works.
Becki Owen’s Coconut Calm review: 3/5. More vanilla than coconut. Eh.
Living Room/Bedroom/Perfume-y Pura Scent Reviews
Unify Co.’s DUSK review: 5/5. Gorgeous, understated, all-year home scent. Easily one of my favorite Pura scents.
Studio McGee’s Cardamom Blossom review: 5/5. My husband’s favorite all-year smell. Like an upscale department store – familiar yet distinct. Possibly giving vibes like the cardigan of a treasured librarian who always meets you with the perfect book.
Capri Blue’s Havana Vanilla review: 5/5. Very sensual, extremely vanilla, and would make for a lovely entryway or hallway scent, if that makes any sense.
LAFCO’s Retreatreview:5/5. Hotel lobby vibes. I just went away for the vacation of my dreams, and my hair is blowing in the wind. I’m living my best life.
Brooklyn Candle Studio’s Santorini review: 5/5. Smells like a rich person’s library. Giving spring vibes.
Moodcast’s Daydreamer review: 5/5. Very perfumey. A great bedroom scent. I love it!
Unify Co.’s SALT review: 5/5. Lovely. Not as memorable but lovely.
Disney’s Casita Floral review: 4/5. It’s nice, but a litttttle bit too perfumey for my tastes. Matches the spirit of Encanto but not an all-time favorite for me.
Read more about the Disney Encanto fragrance duo here.
Kitchen Pura Scent Reviews
Capri Blue’s Volcano review: 5/5. Citrusy and fresh. A lovely home kitchen scent. Hype on this one may be a bit intense, but it is a really nice scent.
LAFCO’s Champagnereview: 5/5. Very grapefruity and perfect for kitchens and bathrooms.
Pura’s Sugared Lemon review: 4/5. Sweet and lemony… not surprising. A decent summer kitchen scent.
The variety of fragrances from Pura is kind of overwhelming, but as I get new ones, I’ll continue to expand this section with these quick takes!
Understanding Pura Scents
Pura is different from a lot of other diffusers on the market because they partner up with top perfumers and luxury fragrance brands from around the world.
That means you can get scents you already know and love for use in your Pura smart diffuser.
Companies like Capri Blue, Anthropologie, and Disney are among the growing roster of partners.
Scent Categories
There are also many scent options in a variety of categories. Let’s take a deeper look at those.
- Citrus: lively, refreshing, and energetic fragrances from ingredients like lemon, bergamot, mandarin, and grapefruit.
- Fruity: can range from juicy, sparkling notes to more sensual and creamy qualities – blackberry, peach, apple, pear, pineapple, apricot, and banana are some examples.
- Fresh: my mind instantly goes to fresh linen, but fresh can include watery, airy, and even citrus components.
- Amber: heavier scents that are rich, textured, and sensual. Notes include vanilla, saffron, spices, and some woods.
- Woody: offers warmth, mystery, and a feeling of luxury. Examples include eucalyptus, cedar wood, patchouli, vetiver, cashmere, and sandalwood.
- Floral: notes like tuberose, jasmine, rose, violet, and orange blossom are floral scents, and they can be blended with other scent categories to create some pretty unique combinations.
The more scent categories you have in a single fragrance, the more complex it is.
As an example, SALT by Unify Co. is so complex that I couldn’t really figure out what I was smelling – just that it smelled good. Here’s a look at the notes:
- Top notes:pineapple leaf, bergamot, white grapefruit, orange, salty ozone
- Middle notes:sage, rosewater, freesia
- Bottom notes:sandalwood, amber, cashmeran, blonde woods, wetland woods, musk
On the other hand, simpler fragrance vials like Havana Vanilla by Capri Blue are pretty straightforward. To me, it smells like straight vanilla with a tiny bit of masculinity.
Here’s a look at the notes in it:
- Top notes:vanilla, bergamot
- Middle notes:smoky tobacco
- Bottom notes:sandalwood
It’s all interesting when you start diving into it, but at the end of the day, you probably just want to know: what are the best scents for my tastes? Let’s get into that!
How to Choose a Pura Scent
What scents you gravitate towards is very much a personal preference. However, there’s a reason why certain fragrances are widely loved – some scents are universally appreciated.
That said, you may find your individual taste leans towards a certain category.
Filter by Categories You Enjoy
My dad leans towards citrus – he loves any fragrance with grapefruit in it.
Or you may prefer woody scents as they can offer warmth and a feeling of homeyness. Or perhaps you love Amber scents with notes like vanilla, which can feel a bit sensual and warm.
No matter what you like, you can easily filter down the Pura choices by selecting your Scent Type.
If I know I love grapefruit, I’m going to filter down the Pura scents to include Citrus. Then, Pura will show me scents I’m more likely to enjoy.
To me, citrus is a very kitchen-y scent, which is probably why I think Volcano is the best kitchen scent.
Seasonal Scents and Moods
Aside from general scent preferences, different fragrances fit certain times of the year and even different parts of your home.
A good kitchen scent is a different mood than a good bedroom scent. And I want different scents in Autumn than I do in Spring.
You can actually filter Pura scents by Mood, which can help you create the atmosphere you’re going for in different parts of your home.
If I filter by Cheerful, I get a list of scents that create that feeling in your space. I can totally vouch for the ones that popped up here!
Holiday and Santorini are two of my favorite scents, and they absolutely evoke a feeling of cheeriness anytime they’re diffusing.
Using the Pura App
Pura is so much better than old-school wall plug-in devices because it’s smart!
The Pura diffuser has an app so that you can set schedules and scent intensity right from your smartphone.
There are several pre-configured schedules to make setup even easier:
- Rise and shine
- All day long
- Work from home
- Relaxing wind down
If none of those match when you want to smell your Pura fragrance, you can set custom schedules. It all ensures you don’t waste any of your Pura fragrances.
Smart Diffuser on a Budget
I absolutely love that Pura is a smart device, and it doesn’t come with the smart device price tag.
We also have Aera, and we just don’t use it anymore because not only is the device super expensive, but the fragrances are, on average, $60 a pop.
If I were going to do a Pura review and an Aera review, Pura would come out on top for me almost every time. Each has its pros and cons, but the price difference is definitely a big deal.
Pura is so much more accessible and sustainable. It’s also amazing for gifting. If you know someone who has a Pura device, load them up on some exciting new scents!
Pura 3 vs Pura 4
I have both the Pura 3 and the Pura 4 device, and the ease of use with the Pura 4 is worth the money.
One of my favorite features of the Pura 4 is the automatic fragrance vial detection. It’s worth the increase in price (which isn’t really that much) as it saves you a lot of time and hassle.
Aside from the auto-detection, the Pura 4 smart home scent diffuser also automatically adjusts diffusion based on the temperature in your home, which helps you get the most out of your diffuser.
You can get some pretty good deals on the Pura 3 right now, though, so if you find a deal you can’t pass up, the Pura 3 is still very much worth it!
You’ll just have to scan each fragrance vial in the app vs it detecting the vial automatically.
Whichever way you go, the Pura system is seriously awesome.
Best Pura Scents FAQs
What are the best Pura scents?
The best Pura scents are Santorini (for springtime), Ocean Mist & Sea Salt (for summertime), Red Currant (for fall), Holiday (for the holiday season), Retreat (for hotel lobby vibes), Linens & Surf (for a clean atmosphere), Havana Vanilla (very sensual), Dusk (perfect for bedrooms), and Volcano (ideal for kitchens).
What are the best Pura holiday scents?
The best Pura holiday scent is Holiday by NEST New York. Most Christmas scents are straight Frasier fir with no complexity, but Holiday has that classic note with a ton of underlying intrigue. It can’t be beat in my book!
What are the best Pura scents in terms of reviews?
The best Pura scents in terms of sheer number of positive reviews are Volcano (58,000+ reviews), Frasier Fir (10,000+ reviews), Holiday (10,000+ reviews), Santorini by Brooklyn Candle Studio (7,000+ reviews), Santorini by Antica Farmacista (7,000+ reviews), and Grapefruit by NEST New York (7,000+ reviews).
What are the best Pura scents for the bedroom?
The best Pura scent for the bedroom is Dusk by Unify Co. A few runners-up include Daydreamer, Cardamom Blossom, and SALT. These are all lovely and complex, and I made notes that several smelled like a rich person’s home (for what it’s worth).
What are the best seasonal Pura scents?
The best seasonal Pura scents include Santorini (for springtime), Ocean Mist & Sea Salt (for summertime), Red Currant (for fall), and Holiday (for wintertime).
When does Pura come out with new scents?
Pura is constantly releasing new scents, especially seasonal ones. In 2023, they released seasonal winter scents, a November road trip collection, a huge summer collection… the list just goes on. You can find new Pura scents on their Instagram page.
Conclusion
Whether you want your home to smell like a hotel lobby (hello Retreat) or like all you do is run loads of laundry (hey there, Linens & Surf), I hope this Pura scent guide helps you find the perfect vibe for your humble abode.
You can purchase a Pura home fragrance device and fragrance vials on Pura’s website or on Amazon. Comment your favorite scents below!
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