Category — Applying Perfume

You put your perfume on in the morning, but by lunchtime the scent is gone.  So how can you make your perfume last longer? Or even all day?

First of all, you need to understand that how long your fragrance lasts on your skin depends much on your own physical makeup.  For many people, perfume or eau de parfum lasts for approximately six to eight hours, but eau de toilette will generally only last for about half that time.  However, depending on the concentration of eau de toilette—the higher the better—it should last on your skin a bit longer.  But what if you weren’t blessed with normal skin and have skin that is either dry or oily?  Well, that is going to impact how long your perfume will last.  For those of you with dry skin, you can expect to lose your scent faster than someone with oily or combination skin.  Since those of us with oily skin have a higher degree of moisture, we retain the fragrance longer.  On top of that, everyone has a different PH balance to their skin.  That is to say that the natural levels of acidity in the skin varies person to person.  Other factors, such as anything that brings about a hormonal shift in your body, stress, medication and even the food you eat can have an impact on how long many hours you can expect your perfume to last throughout the day.

One of the best ways to keep your scent all day is to layer it on with different products.  What I mean by that is that if your fragrance also has a lotion or soap that comes with it, use those as well.  The soap in your morning shower, the body lotion then the perfume.  If your favourite perfume doesn’t have a complimentary line on products, make sure you use unscented soaps and lotions.  If you don’t, those scents will be at war with your perfume.   And of course, make sure you dab or spritz your perfume on your pulse points.

Applying your perfume when your skin is still slightly moist from your shower is also beneficial.  This is because your pores are still open—assuming you took a warm or hot shower and not a cold one!—and this allows the scent to absorb into the skin easier.  One of the best ways of doing this is to spray your perfume into the air and while still naked and slightly moist, walk through the falling particles.  You’ll find your perfume lasts much longer when you do this.

Another trick for those of you with dry skin is to smooth a little petroleum jelly onto your pulse points before applying your perfume.  The perfume will cling to that fine layer of jelly instead of completely dissipating on your dry skin.

Do you use your finger tips to apply your fragrance?  Don’t!  It will last longer if you use a cotton ball, or bet yet, use an atomizer.  And when spraying, hold the bottle about twenty centimeters (eight inches) away from your body, applying an even amount over the area surrounding your pulse points.

There is a science to applying women’s perfumes.  It’s simple yet effective and will increase the staying power of your fragrance of choice.

So, let’s begin.  Your major pulse points are between your breasts, around your ankles, the sides of your neck, the base of your throat and behind your knees. These are the spots to which you should apply your perfume.  However, there is something you should keep in mind.  If you wear a watch around your wrist, or some sort of pendent or chocker that rests in one of these places, the perfume could have a chemical reaction with the leather or metal and dull or damage the material.

Your skin type also comes into play here.  If you have dry skin you’ll need to reapply your perfume more often, but for those of you with oily or combination skin, this isn’t necessary as oily skin retains the scent longer.

Now, before you get to the point of reapplying, you need to know how much to apply in the first place.  The rule of thumb is that less is more.  A light spritz on a pulse point is really all that’s needed.  And this is especially true if you’re attending any kind of crowded event, where every man and woman in the room may be wearing some kind of scent.  Too many fragrances trying to overpower each other in the same room isn’t what anyone is after.

Here’s a little known tip that’s perfect for the social event scenario mentioned above.  Spray the outside of your hand instead of your wrist.  This allows the scent to defuse outwardly instead of inward, creating an airy and subtle release of your fragrance.  Another way of achieving this effect is to spray your perfume into the air and then walk through the scent as the particles fall around you, adhering to you.  This way of applying your perfume is subtle, yet extremely effective.  And you don’t need to worry about damaging the fabric of your clothes when you do this as they will not be affected in any adverse manner.

And there’s another reason why less is more, unfortunately it’s one we would rather not think of.  As we age, our sense of smell is not as sharp as it once used to be, and this dulling effect means we might not be able to gauge whether we are wearing too much, instead of just enough of our favourite perfume.  We might end up assuming that since we can’t smell our cologne on our own skin, that no one else can.  Never assume that!