Getting rid of the car air freshener smell

[PastMyBestBeforeDate]

My car's been in the garage for a couple of weeks and it's come back today with an air freshener in it. I have just driven it having taken the air freshener down but the hideous chemical smell has got in my mouth and my eyes are itchy. I'm not even particularly sensitive to this sort of thing. It's raining so I can't just leave the windows open. Is there anything that'll absorb the smell - a pot of bicarb or something?

A pot of bicarbonate of soda?

That's all I can think of Banana but I wondered if anyone had any genius smell removal methods.

Borrow a damp dog!

But yes, bicarbonate of soda. You can sprinkle it with your own essential oil if you want to.

Halve an onion and put both halves in there with the cut side upward.

The bicarb is in. I'll try the onion tomorrow.
It smelled serene before, now it smells like a nasty minicab :(

I'm allergic to air fresheners. I'd have given them hell if they'd put one in my car 😠 perhaps you'll need to tell them next time.

I hopefully won't need to use them again as it was a specialist thing and apart from this they've been fine. But yes it's not uncommon for people to react to strong chemical smells- DH gets a headache walking past Lush and my dd has sensory processing disorder - so I'm amazed they do it.

I'm autistic and air fresheners make me gag. DH keeps buying those plug-in ones for the house and I've taken to unplugging and hiding them

I have vivid childhood memories of my dad's car absolutely honking of "new car smell" and I felt sick the second I opened the door to get in. I used to beg him to get a new car because I couldn't stand it.

I have my own car now and I keep it clean, tidy and hoovered but that's all.

Yes amused dd's spd is part of her autism and we don't have air freshener sprays or plug-ins here either. You'd like it here :) We have to do a sweep of holiday cottages for offending diffusers etc.
I love proper expensive new car smell though.

Sympathy, OP! The last holiday cottage we went to had thirteen different diffusers scattered around and it was only a tiny house. I get severe migraines. We ended up gathering them all up and shutting them away in the utility room.

If bicarb doesn't work, try activated charcoal - I bought some sachets of it on Amazon when we got our last second-hand car, which reeked of Febreze.

Who needs 13 diffusers?
Activated charcoal added to my list.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

Yes amused dd's spd is part of her autism and we don't have air freshener sprays or plug-ins here either. You'd like it here :) We have to do a sweep of holiday cottages for offending diffusers etc. I love proper expensive new car smell though.

I've always been too poor to know what expensive new car smell is like

Although tomorrow I'm picking up my shiny new (to me) car, the nicest and newest one I've ever owned, so maybe it will smell fancy!

To be honest Amused I've never owned a brand new car but I've been in them and I've had a couple of approved second hand cars that were lovely. One of which has now been ruined!
Enjoy your new car :)

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

I hopefully won't need to use them again as it was a specialist thing and apart from this they've been fine. But yes it's not uncommon for people to react to strong chemical smells- DH gets a headache walking past Lush and my dd has sensory processing disorder - so I'm amazed they do it.

Haha I got rid of the nasty air freshener smell in my car years ago by buying a chunk of my favourite Lush Karma soap and leaving it on the dashboard (in the paper wrapping) - but I guess this technique wouldn’t work for you!