Florida Water is a citrus and spice cologne that has been made in New York since 1808, and for most of that time it has done double duty: a splash-on scent for hot days, and the everyday spiritual water of hoodoo, Santería, Espiritismo, Vodou, and Latin American folk practice. It cleanses, it cools, and it pleases the spirits, and it is the bottle you will find on more altars than any other.
This page tells you what Florida Water is, what's actually in the bottle, how people use it, and how to make a batch yourself when the bottle runs out.
What Florida Water Is
Florida Water is an alcohol-based cologne with a citrus, floral, and clove scent, sold in the tall bottle with the fountain-and-flowers label, and it has been made by the same company, Murray & Lanman, since 1808.
It started life as an ordinary toilet water, the kind Victorian men and women splashed on after washing, and it is still sold in drugstores for exactly that. What makes it different from every other cologne is what happened to it in the Americas. Somewhere in the nineteenth century, it became the water that practitioners across the Caribbean, the American South, Mexico, Central America, and Peru reached for when they needed to cleanse a person, a room, or an altar, or to set something sweet out for the spirits. Today it is the single most common bottle in a botánica, a hoodoo worker's kit, or a curandera's bag, and the same bottle sits on Espiritismo altars, in Vodou temples, and on the mesa of a Peruvian curandero.
The name has nothing to do with the state. It refers to the Fountain of Youth, which legend put in Florida, and to the floral scent. Florida Water is, in the company's own framing, the water of youth. Its Spanish name, Agua de Florida, is the same product and the same idea.
What's in Florida Water and What It Smells Like
Florida Water is made of alcohol, water, and a blend of essential oils, and it smells like sweet orange and bergamot up front, lavender and rose in the middle, and clove and cinnamon underneath.
The label on the Murray & Lanman bottle lists alcohol, water, and fragrance, and the exact formula is a company secret. The scent is close enough to read, and perfumers agree on the outline: it is built on sweet orange and bergamot rather than the sharper lemon of European colognes like 4711, with neroli (orange blossom) and lavender for the floral heart, and clove and cinnamon for the warm, spicy finish that makes it recognizable from across a room. Some describe a touch of rose.
The alcohol is why it cools on the skin, why it evaporates in a minute, and why it is flammable, which matters when you use it near candles. It is a cologne, not a perfume: light, short-lived, and meant to be splashed rather than dabbed.
Florida Water History
Florida Water was introduced in 1808 by the New York perfumer Robert I. Murray, David Lanman joined the company in the 1830s, and the same firm, Murray & Lanman, still makes it more than two hundred years later.
Through the 1800s it was one of the most popular toilet waters in the United States, sold to men and women alike as a bracing splash for after a shave or a hot afternoon. It traveled south with trade, and by the end of the century it was in every pharmacy in the Caribbean and Latin America, which is where it changed jobs. The practitioners of Hoodoo in the American South, of Regla de Ocha and Espiritismo in Cuba and Puerto Rico, of Vodou in Haiti, and of curanderismo from Mexico to Peru already used cool, sweet, scented waters for cleansing and for offerings. Florida Water was cheap, strong, sweet, and available at the drugstore, and it became the standard.
It is a rare case of a commercial product being fully adopted by living traditions. In the provinces of Huancabamba and Ayabaca in northern Peru, colognes and perfumes are part of every offering a curandero makes, and Florida Water is the one they reach for; in Guatemala, Maya healers use it in their work; and across the Andes and the Amazon, curanderos spray it from the mouth over a participant at set points in a ceremony. In the United States, it is so tied to Hoodoo that people search for it with "voodoo" attached, which is the wrong word but the right instinct. The documented history of Florida Water has the sourced version.
Florida Water Spiritual Meaning
Florida Water means cleansing and cooling in spiritual practice, and in most of the traditions that use it, it also means sweetness offered to the spirits and the dead.
The logic runs through every tradition that uses it. Water washes. Alcohol cuts through what water can't. Scent that is sweet and cool is pleasing to spirits, ancestors, and saints, who in Caribbean and Latin American practice are understood to be drawn by fragrance and offended by staleness. And a thing that is "cool" in the spiritual sense, in Hoodoo and in Lukumí thinking, calms what is "hot": anger, conflict, illness, the evil eye. Florida Water is the everyday way to cool a hot situation.
So the same bottle does three jobs. It takes off what's on you. It makes a place fit for the spirits. And it gives them something sweet when they arrive.
How to Use Florida Water
To use Florida Water, you splash a little on your hands and pass them over your head, the back of your neck, and your arms to cleanse yourself, and you spray or sprinkle it in a room, on a floor, or on an altar to cleanse a space and welcome the spirits.
Everything below is a variation on those two moves.
How to Use Florida Water for Cleansing
- On yourself. Pour a little into your palm, rub your hands together, and pass them over the crown of your head, the back of your neck, your face, your arms, and the soles of your feet. This is the after-work cleanse, the after-a-hard-conversation cleanse, and the last step after an egg cleanse.
- In a spiritual bath. Add a capful to a full bath, or to a bucket of water you pour over yourself from the neck down, and let yourself air-dry. Many practitioners do this on Fridays or before a working.
- As a floor wash. Add a capful or two to a bucket of mop water and mop from the back of the house toward the front door to send what's stale out. Finish by pouring the last of the water outside the front door.
- In the corners of a room. Spray or sprinkle it into each corner of a room, then the doorways and windowsills. This is the smoke-free alternative to burning sage, and it is the one to use in a rental, a hospital room, or anywhere smoke isn't welcome. Many practitioners use both, spraying the corners after the smoke has cleared, and a Florida Water smudge kit bundles the two.
- On your tools. Wipe your pendulum, your tarot deck's box, your altar cloth, your candle holders, or your stones with a cloth dampened in Florida Water before and after use. Keep it off the cards themselves.
- On your hands before and after a reading. Readers wipe their hands with it before touching the cards and after the client leaves.
How to Use Florida Water for the Spirits and Ancestors
- On the altar. Pour a small glass of Florida Water, or a glass of water with a few drops in it, and set it on the ancestor altar or the spirit table. Refresh it weekly. In Espiritismo this glass of water, the bóveda, is the center of the practice.
- As a sprinkle. Sprinkle a few drops across the altar, over offerings, or on photographs of the dead.
- At the cemetery. Pour a little at the grave when you visit and before you leave.
- On a dark moon or at Samhain. Set it out with the other offerings when the dead are closest.
How to Use Florida Water for Protection
- Trace a symbol. Dip a finger and trace a protection symbol on doors, windowsills, and mirrors: a cross, a pentacle, the Algiz rune, or a sigil of your own.
- Sprinkle the thresholds. Sprinkle it across the front step, the back step, and the windowsills, and follow with black salt if the trouble is serious.
- Wear it out. A little on the back of the neck and the wrists before you go somewhere heavy, and again when you get home.
Other Ways People Use Florida Water
- To dress a candle, in place of oil, when the candle is for cleansing, cooling, or the ancestors. The candle dressing guide has the method.
- To anoint a petition before it is burned or placed under a candle.
- To cool your head. A splash on the temples and the back of the neck on a hot day is what the cologne was made for, and it is still the first thing many Caribbean grandmothers reach for when the house gets tense.
- After a fight or a fright. Hands, head, feet. Then a glass of water for the spirits and a thank you.
Florida Water Cleansing, Step by Step
A full Florida Water cleanse of yourself and your home takes about twenty minutes: you cleanse the house from the back to the front door, then yourself from the head down, then set out a glass for the spirits.
- Open the windows. Cleansing sends things out, so give them a way to go.
- Mix the wash. A capful or two of Florida Water in a bucket of clean water. Add a pinch of salt if you have it.
- Mop or wipe from the back of the house to the front. Start in the farthest room and work toward the front door. Wipe doorframes and windowsills as you go.
- Pour the last of the water out the front door. Not down the sink. What you gathered leaves the house.
- Spray the corners of each room with straight Florida Water, then the doorways.
- Cleanse yourself. Splash into your palms and pass them over your head, neck, face, arms, and feet. Let it dry on you.
- Set out a glass. A small glass of water with a few drops of Florida Water on the altar or in the kitchen, for whoever watches over the house. Say thank you.
Agua de Florida
Agua de Florida is the Spanish name for Florida Water, and it is the same Murray & Lanman cologne, though a Peruvian-made version under the same name is also sold across South America and in botánicas in the United States.
In Peru, Agua de Florida is central to the mesa, the curandero's altar of objects, where it is offered, sprinkled, and sprayed from the mouth over the patient as a blessing and a cleansing. In Mexico and Central America it is the water curanderas use after a limpia, the same way it is used after an egg cleanse here. If a botánica sells a bottle labeled Agua de Florida with a slightly different label, it is the Peruvian license, and practitioners who use it swear it is stronger. Both work.
How to Make Florida Water
You can make Florida Water at home from alcohol, distilled water, and essential oils of sweet orange, bergamot, lavender, clove, and cinnamon, and it takes ten minutes plus two weeks of resting.
It won't be Murray & Lanman, whose formula is a secret, but it will be close, and a bottle you made and named is its own kind of powerful. Here is a working recipe.
What you need
- 1 cup (240 ml) of high-proof vodka or Everclear. Witch hazel works for a gentler, skin-friendly version with a shorter shelf life.
- ½ cup (120 ml) of distilled water
- 20 drops sweet orange essential oil
- 15 drops bergamot essential oil
- 10 drops lavender essential oil
- 6 drops clove essential oil
- 4 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
- Optional: 4 drops neroli or 2 drops rose absolute, and a strip of fresh orange peel and a few whole cloves to steep in the bottle
- A clean glass bottle with a tight lid
How to make it
- Pour the alcohol into the bottle and add the essential oils one at a time, swirling after each.
- Add the distilled water and cap the bottle. It will go cloudy; that is the oils meeting the water, and it settles.
- Add the peel and cloves if you're using them.
- Name it. Hold the bottle and say what it's for: cleansing, cooling, the ancestors. If you were raised with a blessing for this, use it.
- Rest it for two weeks somewhere dark, shaking the bottle once a day. Two weeks lets the oils marry and the alcohol pull what it can from the peel.
- Strain out the solids and bottle it. Kept capped and out of the sun, a vodka-based batch lasts a year or more, and a witch hazel batch lasts about three months.
Use it exactly as you would the store bottle.
Where to Buy Florida Water
Florida Water is sold at botánicas, at most drugstores and pharmacies in cities with a Caribbean or Latin American community, and online, and it comes in three common sizes.
- The 7.5-ounce cologne is the classic bottle with the fountain label, and it is the size most people keep on the altar.
- The 12-ounce spray is the size used for rooms, corners, and floor washes.
- The 2-ounce spray is the travel size that fits a bag, a car, or a desk drawer.
- A Florida Water smudge kit is a bottle sold together with a sage bundle for a full house cleansing.
Florida Water soap is the same scent in a bar, used for a daily cleansing wash. If you're searching "Florida Water near me," try the nearest botánica first, then the ethnic-foods or personal-care aisle of a big pharmacy, where it often sits with the aftershaves.
Safety
Florida Water is for the outside of the body and for spaces, and it is not for drinking, because it is mostly alcohol and fragrance.
- Never drink it. The searches for "is Florida Water safe to drink" are mostly people asking about Florida tap water, but the cologne answer is the same: no.
- Keep it away from open flame until it dries. It is flammable. Dress a candle and let it dry before you light it, and never spray it toward a lit candle.
- Keep it off the eyes and away from broken skin.
- Try a small patch first if your skin is sensitive; the alcohol and the clove oil can sting.
- Keep it away from cats. Essential oils, clove and cinnamon in particular, are hard on cats, so spray rooms when they're out and let it dry before they come back.
Florida Water FAQ
What Is Florida Water?
Florida Water is an alcohol-based citrus and clove cologne made by Murray & Lanman since 1808, and it is the standard spiritual water for cleansing, cooling, and offerings in Hoodoo, Santería, Espiritismo, Vodou, and Latin American folk practice.
What Is Florida Water Used For Spiritually?
Florida Water is used spiritually to cleanse a person or a space, to cool a hot or tense situation, and to offer something sweet to spirits and ancestors, usually by splashing it on the hands and head, spraying it in a room, or setting a glass of it on an altar.
What Does Florida Water Smell Like?
Florida Water smells like sweet orange and bergamot with lavender and a warm finish of clove and cinnamon, and the alcohol makes it feel cool on the skin.
What Is in Florida Water?
Florida Water is alcohol, water, and fragrance, and the fragrance is built on sweet orange, bergamot, neroli, lavender, clove, and cinnamon. The exact Murray & Lanman formula is a company secret.
How Do You Use Florida Water for Cleansing?
You use Florida Water for cleansing by pouring a little into your palms and passing your hands over your head, neck, arms, and feet, or by adding a capful to bath water or mop water and cleansing from the back of the house toward the front door.
How Do You Use Florida Water for Protection?
You use Florida Water for protection by tracing a protection symbol on doors and windowsills with a wet finger, sprinkling it across the thresholds, and splashing it on the back of your neck before you go somewhere heavy.
Is Florida Water Safe to Drink?
No, Florida Water is not safe to drink, because it is a cologne made of alcohol and fragrance oils. It is for the skin, for rooms, and for altars only.
Can You Make Florida Water at Home?
Yes, you can make Florida Water at home from vodka or witch hazel, distilled water, and essential oils of sweet orange, bergamot, lavender, clove, and cinnamon, rested for two weeks. The recipe is above.
What Is Agua de Florida?
Agua de Florida is the Spanish name for Florida Water, and it refers both to the Murray & Lanman cologne and to a Peruvian-made version sold across South America, both used the same way.
Is Florida Water Hoodoo or Voodoo?
Florida Water is used in Hoodoo, the folk magic of the American South, and in Haitian Vodou, Cuban and Puerto Rican Espiritismo, Santería, and Latin American curanderismo, but it belongs to no single tradition. It is a drugstore cologne that all of them adopted.
What Are Florida Water Soap Benefits?
Florida Water soap carries the same cleansing scent into a daily wash, and people use it for a quick spiritual cleanse in the shower before a working, after a hard day, or on Fridays.
What Is the Difference Between Florida Water and Kananga Water?
Kananga Water is Florida Water's sister cologne, also made by Murray & Lanman, built on ylang-ylang instead of citrus, and it is used the same way, with a particular reputation for work with the dead and for spiritual baths.
Does Florida Water Expire?
Florida Water does not expire in any way that matters; the alcohol preserves it for years. The scent softens after a long time open, so keep it capped and out of the sun.
Keep a bottle where you can reach it. Hands, head, feet, a splash in the corners, a glass on the altar. Two hundred years of people who needed a cheap, sweet, cool way to clear the air settled on this one, and they were right.
If you make your own moon water, a splash of Florida Water in the same mop bucket gives a floor wash both the moon's intention and a clean, bright scent.
