Make your perfume last longer

 

Make your perfume last longer! The most common question I get when hosting fragrance events is how to get perfume to last longer. So many women and men spritz their favourite scent in the morning and 40 minutes later they can’t smell it. I know this is particularly frustrating when the cost of a good designer fragrance is hitting $150 these days. It’s a sizable investment and they want to get the most out of it.

 

There are some pro tips you can adopt that will allow you to get the very most from your fragrances. I asked some of the world’s foremost expert for their advice. Here is what they advise:

Scent Fatigue: According to Roman Poquet, Senior Fragrance Development Manager at Firmenich in New York City, scent fatigue is the biggest cause of this problem. “Most often, there isn’t any problem with the strength of a fragrance,” he says. “What happens is we become accustomed to the fragrance that we wear daily and it no longer registers in our nose. Our senses become used to it so we don’t smell it like others do.” The simplest way to solve this is to have four or five fragrances that you rotate regularly. “I have five scents that I use regularly. I change them up often so I don’t get used to one in particular.” He says if you think your scent isn’t lasting on you, ask a friend or coworker for their honest opinion. It may be just fine but you don’t notice it.

Body Lotion: L’Oreal’s Celine Launay, a perfect expert in Paris, says that our body chemistry affects how long fragrance lasts. “That is why I advise anyone to test a fragrance for a good 30 minutes before buying. Spray your wrist and then allow it to sit on your skin for half an hour to see how it really smells on you. A perfume can smell very different on two people. It’s all body chemistry.” She says one simple way to make scent last longer is to apply the scented body lotion on skin first, then spray the scent over top. The body lotion can really extend the length of the perfume.

Concentration: Another way to solve the problem of disappearing fragrance is to adjust the concentration. If you are wearing an eau de cologne, you’ll find 1 to 5% concentration. Moving to an eau de toilette will increase the essential oil concentration to 12%. An eau de parfum will have up to 20% concentration. But the highest scent concentration you can buy is parfum. That is the strongest perfume on the market with 40% concentration. (Read about them here)

 

In the end, so much of finding a signature fragrance is trial and error. You have to wear a scent and give it some time. Rotate a few fragrances regularly and you’ll enjoy them all for years to come.