How to Wear Perfume So It Lasts
Wearing perfume can’t be that hard, can it? Well, maybe it can. If you find that your perfume doesn’t smell as strong as you’d like, that it wears off quickly, or that your other scented beauty products are distorting the scent of your fragrance, the answer might be to apply and wear your perfume differently.
Perfume is designed to interact with your skin’s warmth and oils, but if your skin is dry when you apply your perfume, it won’t last long. You need to apply perfume to moisturized or oily skin, or even put it on your clothes if you live in a hot climate. Store your perfume properly, use it up quickly, and don’t rub it in or mist it into the air and walk through it. Instead, follow these tips for fragrance that lasts all day.
Apply to Your Pulse Points
Perfume should be applied to pulse points because these are the warmest areas on your skin, and that warmth both allows the perfume to diffuse across your body as well as interacting with the ingredients in the perfume to influence the course of the scent. Don’t apply perfume to your wrists or other pulse points, like your inner elbows, and then rub them together or rub them on your neck. Doing so can crush the bright top note and interfere with the emergence of the middle and base notes, damaging the crispness of your fragrance. Instead of rubbing it in, just spray it on your skin and let it dry down on its own. Always apply perfume by spraying it directly onto your body, rather than misting it into the air and then walking through it.
You should also keep in mind that your wrists and neck aren’t the only pulse points on your body. You can apply perfume to your inner elbows, the backs of your knees, and even to your ankles. One of the best places to apply perfume is behind your ears – the skin here is oilier than it is in other locations, which can help your fragrance remain strong for longer.
Moisturize Before Applying Fragrance
Dry skin doesn’t hold onto fragrance very long, so moisturize your skin with an unscented lotion before you apply perfume. You can also apply perfume fresh out of the shower – the moisture on your skin will help the fragrance stick longer.
Don’t Cover Your Fragrance with Clothing
If you spritz your fragrance underneath clothing, you’re just covering up the scent. Apply to areas that aren’t covered by clothing, such as your neck, ears, and wrists. If you’re wearing a short-sleeved blouse, you can apply perfume to your inner elbows. If you’re wearing a short skirt, apply it to the backs of your knees for scent that wafts up throughout the day.
If you live in a hot climate, you may want to avoid applying scent directly to your skin because you’ll probably quickly sweat it off. Instead, apply scent to the outside of your clothes. The fabric will hold the scent for much longer than your skin can – even after washing, in some cases. You can also spritz perfume on your hair, but you may not want to if the fragrance contains alcohol, which can dry out your locks.
Buy Smaller Bottles of Perfume
The ingredients in your bottle of perfume will oxidize with time, which breaks down the scent. A bottle only stays fresh for about three months, so you should buy smaller bottles of perfume. You should be able to use up a 1.2- to 2.4-milliliter bottle before it goes stale. Of course, if you wear two or three spritzes of your favorite scent every day, you can probably go through a larger bottle before it goes off.
Store Your Perfume Properly
Exposing perfume to light, heat, temperature changes, and humidity affects its scent profile and can even affect its color. Exposure to ultraviolet rays can change the color of your perfume, so always store it in the box it came in to protect it from light. Keep your perfume out of the bathroom – the changes in humidity will make it go stale faster and can make the raw ingredients used in some perfumes smell weird. Store perfume at room temperature, about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and protect it from temperature fluctuations to keep the scent strong and fresh for longer.
Do you find that your fragrance doesn’t last as long as you’d like? With just a few small changes in how you wear and store your perfume, you can smell wonderful all day long.
xoxo D.
