Apartment Therapy Partnered with Aera on an Exclusive Smart Home Mini Diffuser Line — Explore the Scents and Get Yours Now

If you ask me, there are two things that have the power to make or break a space: lighting and scents. I feel like I’ve got the ambient lighting figured out in my own apartment, but it wasn’t until I tried Aera’s scent diffuser that I finally felt like I’d nailed the scent aspect, too. In fact, I geek out over home fragrance so much, I interviewed the VP of Aera’s parent company about what sets the brand’s products apart from your typical essential oil diffuser. Turns out, there’s a lot to it. But the customer enjoys a seamless home scenting experience despite the science behind it. For its latest venture, Aera teamed up with none other than Apartment Therapy to create two limited-edition versions of its mini diffuser, as well as three all-new scents. The Inspired Spaces collection was designed in collaboration with our CEO, Maxwell Ryan, to add a “finishing touch” to your already carefully curated home. 

“Home fragrance is an area that we’ve seen take off over the past five years, so partnering with Aera to personalize their smart technology and create signature scents inspired by our audience-sourced House Tours is very exciting,” said Maxwell Ryan, founder and CEO of Apartment Therapy. “The collection we put together is super personal to me, and it’s inspired by the move to cozy, traditional styles that we’ve seen lately echoed in design, color, and also, now, scent.”

A couple of my colleagues and I got to try the new offerings, and I can speak for all of us when I say you’ll want your own home smelling of these original new scents, too. Lucky for you, they’re available to shop now!

The new collection features Aera’s mini scent diffuser in two limited-edition colors: terracotta and forest green. You’ll find it incredibly easy to operate. Just plug the device into a power outlet, insert the scent pod, and use the controls on top to set how strongly the scent is diffused. Aera has a larger diffuser for bigger spaces, but the mini is designed to scent rooms up to 400 square feet. What’s also cool is you can use the Aera app to set scenting sessions or create schedules, so you can schedule it to begin working right before you come home, for example. 

As for the three scents from the collab, those are Brooklyn Brownstone, a subtle fragrance with notes of log fire, sea salt, and fresh air; English Cottage, which has floral notes like gardenia and tuberose, as well as amber, grapefruit, and fig; and Tuscan Villa, which smells of bergamot, sage, and lavender, among other notes. I’ve tried the latter two, and although English Cottage is a pleasant, fresh floral scent, I’m especially fond of Tuscan Villa’s complexity, as it has both warm notes, like vanilla orchid, and greener notes, like the sage and lavender.

As AT’s marketing and brand partnerships coordinator explained in her review of the mini diffuser, Aera employs a science the brand calls “surround scent” to allow you to control how many microdroplets of a fragrance are dispersed in your space and, in turn, how strongly the scent permeates. “Like surround sound, the scent diffuses evenly throughout the room, with no obvious source,” Emma wrote. “Because the droplets are so small (in fact, 100x smaller than the average aerosol droplet), they burst quickly and release pure fragrance molecules. I kind of can’t wait to dazzle my guests with that info when they ask why my apartment smells so good.”

I love my big Aera diffuser for large spaces, but the mini diffuser has been even easier to work with. Because it plugs into the wall, it doesn’t take up any floor or shelf space, and it doesn’t have a cord. And although it was technically created for smaller rooms, I still find that it’s able to scent both my kitchen and living room if I plug it into an outlet between the two spaces. (I also have an open floor plan, so that helps). If I only want to scent my living room or entryway, I plug the diffuser into a corner outlet in the area, and it creates a nice bubble of lavender or gardenia that’s still subtle despite diffusing in a small space, so it never smells overwhelming. When I work from home, I prefer to sit on the sofa and turn the diffuser onto a lower setting. It quietly disperses the scent every few minutes, helping me feel more relaxed in my environment as I type away. The diffuser’s terracotta shade adds a nice pop of color, but it, too, is still quite discreet.

Alicia, AT’s deputy commerce editor, has also been enjoying her new scents in the mini diffuser, particularly Brooklyn Brownstone. “As someone who is manifesting living in a Brooklyn brownstone, I was drawn to this scent based on packaging and name alone,” she said. “Luckily, the scent is as cozy as a warm apartment on a cool fall evening. This subtle scent is calming and layered and will entice you to spend the night (or day) at home.” She also noted that the log fire note wasn’t overwhelming and “didn’t make my apartment smell like a bonfire, like other wood fire-scented candles I’ve tried in the past.”

No matter what kind of fragrances you’re into, you’re bound to find one you love among the Inspired Spaces trio. We’re confident that you’ll also appreciate how effortless Aera makes it to create a soothing, cozy-smelling ambiance in your home — no matter how big or small it might be. Shop the diffuser and scents today, and get ready for your next visitor to ask where that enticing smell is coming from.

Shop products from Aera and Apartment Therapy’s Inspired Spaces collection here.