Once you make the commitment to invest in collecting high quality perfume, you want to get the most out of every purchase. One of the best ways to do that is to find the best storage solutions that help your fragrance last longer.
Read through my list of tips for you.
8 Best Storage Tips for Longer Lasting Fragrances
Here is everything you need to know about how to properly store your personal fragrances.
1. Keep Away from Direct Heat Source
Heat is one of the greatest enemies to personal fragrances. In addition to fragrance oils, all categories of fragrances have varying amounts of two dominant ingredients: water and alcohol.
Because of this, the quality of your fragrance can quickly diminish if it’s left near heat for an extended period of time.
Heat causes fragrance to evaporate. This is when the liquid fragrance actually becomes a gas. It’s the water and alcohol that rise as vapors from the rest of the fragrance formula – leaving behind fragrance oils and other ingredients.
If you’re conducting a science experiment, all of this would be fascinating and informative. But if you simply want to spray on your perfume, excessive heat exposure can prevent this from happening.
Left under or near a heat source for too long, and there won’t be anything left to spray. Only a gooky mess will remain inside the fragrance bottle. Inaccessible. Useless.
2. Avoid Direct Sunlight
On a related note, you want to store your fragrances away from direct sunlight.
Direct sunlight is more intense because it’s an unfiltered path from the sun to your fragrance bottle.
Direct sunlight generates more heat than a furnace, radiator, or other heat source. It’s even hotter than a sunny day in the shade.
With temperatures as hot as 115°F (46°C) or higher, heat generated by the sun can get dangerously hot. Kyle the meteorologist can explain that to you through the video demonstration.
If a human is exposed to direct sunlight over an extended period of time, their health is sure to suffer.
Cardiovascular strain, stroke, dizziness, irritability, fainting, and more can plague a person in direct sunlight.
So you can imagine how the chemical composition of a liquid solution can be disrupted by direct sunlight.
Your fragrance will smell different, usually worse than it did prior to direct sun exposure.
And if your fragrance bottle is made of something other than glass, direct sunlight can melt or distort the bottle if you aren’t careful. A damaged bottle can cause fragrance to spill out onto the surface below – wasting your fragrance and damaging the surface.
3. Original Packaging is King
There are times when you can’t resist a sale on a spring fragrance that you’ve been eyeing for months.
After you buy it, you might be tempted to open up the bottle to fully experience this new scent even though you know you won’t be wearing it for four months or more.
It might be hard to resist opening the original packaging, but in this instance that’s actually the best decision that you can make.
Fragrances are safest in their original packaging. They’re formulated to have a decent shelf life. By keeping your new fragrances boxed and sealed, you’re ensuring that the scent doesn’t begin to oxidize, or diminish in quality.
Delayed gratification is key. Once the new season begins, you can then enjoy your fresh, new scent.
4. Humidity is the Enemy
Moist air poses as much of a risk to your fragrances as dry heat.
Humidity can slowly break down the composition of your perfume or cologne over time. For instance, if you store your perfume in the bathroom, you might notice condensation from inside the bottle.
As moisture builds up inside the bottle, the fragrance itself can change. This is because excess moisture begins to dilute the fragrance formula.
So as tempting as it might be, it’s important not to store your perfume in the bathroom. If you live in a warmer climate, you’re at risk of moisture damaging your fragrance even if it isn’t being stored in the bathroom.
In such cases, it helps you to find the area of your home with the most moderate temperature, and then store your fragrance there. You might even consider running a dehumidifier in your home if humidity is often high.
Either way, keep your fragrances out of the bathroom and any area of your home that’s consistently humid.
5. Keep a Lid on It
If you’re rushing to get dressed, it may seem more effective to keep the lid off of your fragrance bottle so that you can spray on your fragrance more quickly. But this is a mistake.
Many fragrance bottles are known for their iconic design. Some of them look more like a sculpture than perfume bottles. But even elaborately designed fragrance bottles have to be functional as well. Designing them is both an art and a science.
Fragrance companies want their fragrance to perform well for you, so they design bottles that will contain the liquid and preserve it for an extended period of time. Therefore, it’s important to keep all components intact.
The lid on your fragrance bottle is just as important as the bottle itself. Keeping the lid on prevents premature evaporation due to persistent air exposure.
You don’t want your precious scented liquid to slowly evaporate from the bottle when you can very easily place the lid back on it after each use.
6. Avoid Extreme Temperature Fluctuations
In addition to not keeping your fragrance bottle in high heat conditions, you also want to avoid frequently altering the environment in which you place your fragrance.
Fluctuations in temperature can create all kinds of problems for your personal fragrance. You don’t want it to get too hot or too cold.
Placing your fragrance in the freezer wouldn’t be the end of the world, but there’s also little to no evidence that using the freezer to store your fragrance would be of any benefit to you.
Extreme temperatures are a threat, though. If your fragrance has been in the car and outdoor temperatures are frigidly cold, and then you bring the bottle inside and place it right next to a heat source, that could pose a problem.
It would be better to allow the bottle to reach room temperature while on a shelf in a closet or somewhere similar.
If you must take your fragrance with you to work or a special event, it would be better to transfer some of it to an atomizer. These travel-sized containers are not only highly portable, but they help preserve the fragrance that remains in the original bottle.
In situations where the smaller dispenser is exposed to fluctuating temps, any changes to the scent will only occur to the lesser amount instead of the entire bottle.
7. Find a Dark Location
Fragrance bottles can be so beautiful that you want to openly display them. While organizing your fragrance collection is a great idea, you don’t want to place your bottles in an area where they’d be exposed to direct or indirect sunlight.
If you have a dresser or other storage unit inside your closet, that would be an ideal location to keep your perfume, cologne, or other fragrance bottles.
Otherwise, you might want to place them inside a drawer, or another place where there isn’t any heat, moisture, or extreme cold.
8. Keep Your Bottles Room Temperature
Fragrances function best when they’re kept at room temperature. You might notice challenges with operating the sprayer on your bottle when it’s too hot or too cold.
Liquid can leak out of the sprayer instead of forming a light, even mist. Larger drops that seep out might stain your clothing or ruin a wood surface.
Extreme conditions can cause bottle components to expand and contract, ruining them. When possible, keep your bottle at room temperature in order for it to function best.
How Will You Know if Your Fragrance Has Gone Bad?
If your fragrance isn’t stored properly, it might age more quickly. Usually, you can see and/or smell when your fragrance should no longer be used.
There are two visual indicators that can help you determine whether or not your fragrance has gone bad: color and texture changes.
Firstly, there might be a color change. If you notice a darker hue or a completely different color, then you might want to refrain from using that fragrance. If a scent that was light blue is now brown, or if a pink fragrance is now dark amber, then that’s a pretty good indication that something is happening inside that bottle, and it might be time to part ways with that fragrance.
Another visual clue is a textural change. Is the liquid cloudy? Is it really thick and syrupy? In either case, your fragrance may no longer be usable.
Note that discoloration can occur if only essential oils are used to scent your fragrance. This is a natural occurrence. But if a combination of natural and synthetic oils were used to make your fragrance, then a drastic change in color might indicate that it’s getting old.
In terms of scent indications, you can almost immediately smell when something is simply “off” about your beloved fragrance. If the scent is no longer appealing, or smells sour or rancid, then you probably shouldn’t use it.
Lastly, if you still have the original packaging, and also recall when you first opened the fragrance, then you can look for the shelf life icon.
Most cosmetics have an icon with a number and letter inside that’s printed on the back of its outer packaging. Sometimes this icon is on the rear of the product itself.
Typically, this icon is in the shape of a round container with its lid tilted open. You might see “12M,” “6M,” or even “26M” printed inside the open container. The numbers and letters combine to symbolize the number of months the product will be considered viable before expiring.
Not all perfume companies include this, but some do. This symbol can offer you a clue as to whether or not you can still use your fragrance once opened.
What’s The Best Way to Store Your Fragrances?
To get the most out of your fragrances, you want to store them in a dark environment that has a moderate temperature.
Avoid extreme temperatures, humidity, and direct sunlight. Also keep your scents in their original bottles and with the lid on when they’re not in use. Only transfer or decant your scents when absolutely necessary.
Personal fragrances are an investment. One bottle can last for months, and even years, so you want to get as many sprays out of each bottle as you possibly can.
To keep your fragrances smelling wonderful and spraying out properly, store them in a dark place at room temperature.
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