SAUNA AROMA

With modern electric sauna stoves one element of the traditional Finnish sauna experience that is lost is the aroma of the sauna room.

The modern sauna is often located within a house and installation costs, fuel availability and health and safety regulations usually necessitate that wood burning is no longer an option. This means that, whilst many of the sauna benefits can still be enjoyed, some of them are lost to price and convenience.

Even so, this need not be the case when it comes to aromas.

With real wood burning stoves and sauna cabins the sauna experience was heightened by the ever present aromas of burning wood and the soothing vapours that they release.

The solid timber walls of the cabin would further add to this by absorbing the aromas of the burning wood and combining them with their own rich scents to produce a unique environment that stimulated all of the senses. Over many years of use these aromas develop and mature giving every wood burning sauna its own unique smell and feel.

Getting a realistic sauna aroma

The good news is that, even with modern saunas, it is still possible to generate the scents and flavours of a traditional Finnish sauna-room.

Any sauna that has a heater using hot rocks can generate a “steam splash” and, by adding specially formulated sauna aroma extracts to the water in the pale, a burst of steam can be infused with a range of specialist scents.

A large range of different aromas are available, however for authenticity and realism the best recommendations would be Birch, pine or eucalyptus. Many other aromas based on different herbs and fruits can also be found and some are claimed to have aromatherapy benefits.

For infrared saunas the luxury of a sauna splash is not an option, however by using an atomizer the same aromas can be released to add to the relaxing and stimulating effects of taking a sauna.

Most sauna aromas come in bottles with instructions on dilution levels and how they should be used included with the packaging. It is normally advisable to clean any hot rocks on to which any of these scents have been splashed after use.