Do Fake Plants Smell?

It’s common for artificial flowers and plants to have no scent or a slight, less-than-desirable, plastic smell. Don’t let this stop you from using artificial flowers! It’s easy to take your artificial flowers (and plants) up a notch by making them smell as good as they look.

Whether you want a strong scent or something more delicate, we’ve tried and tested several scents and methods of application so you don’t have to!

Before we start adding scent, it’s important to clean your artificial flowers regularly to prevent the buildup of dust and mold. Mold buildup can cause your flowers to have an unpleasant odor. For more information or advice on cleaning, check out our How to Clean Artificial Flowers blog.

How to Add Scent to Artificial Flowers?

It’s important to consider what texture your artificial flowers are; “wax” artificial flowers and leaves may not retain scent as well as “fabric” artificial flowers and leaves. To find out which methods we’ve found to work best with “wax” and fabric imitations, keep reading.

Before you start adding scent to your artificial leaves, make sure you’re in a well-ventilated space.

Using Fragrance

For sprayed scents, you can hold the plant or artificial stem at a distance and gently spray all over the plant, or for a more realistic effect, you can use a sprayer up close and spray only the flowers.

Using Essential Oils or Diffusers

One to two drops of essential oil or liquid diffuser scent can be added directly to the center of the flower.

To add scent to artificial leaves, place one to two drops of scent on a cloth and "rub" into the leaves.

To prevent any color distortion on artificial stems, we recommend choosing an alcohol-free diffuser.

Using Scented Lotions

For scented creams or lotions, simply add a pea-sized amount to your hands and "massage" into the plant.

What scent should you use?

To enhance your artificial experience, try to find a scent that matches your artificial rose. Applying rose scent to a beautiful artificial rose can easily be mistaken for a real rose!

For flowers, a mild floral scent will create the most realistic tone; for leaves, menthol or woody pine scents work best.

Essential oils are often very strong and may be too overpowering. Experiment to find the essential oil that works best with your type of artificial rose, for example, using lemongrass essential oil on herbal roses is both effective and realistic.