Getting a hint of your perfume during the day is one of the few simple pleasures we can enjoy these days. However, having to get up and reapply your favorite fragrance every hour isn’t exactly ideal.
Thankfully, there are several ways to ensure your scent lasts all day. But whether or not you’re applying it correctly in the first place has a lot to do with how long it will stay put.
That’s why we reached out to a handful of master perfumers to get their expert insight on how to properly spray on your go-to perfumes, so you’ll only have to do it once.
Apply Fragrance Directly to Skin
“Perfume is designed to interact with your own body’s chemistry and the warmth from your body,” explains Ixchel Leigh, a 40-year and counting master perfumer, founder of Artisan Parfums, and author of the fragrance anthology, Aromatic Alchemy.
In other words, to apply fragrance anywhere other than onto skin directly actually disrupts and works against how the formulation was built and intended to be used.
“How long the scent lasts on your skin is dependent on the perfume and how dry your skin is,” Gerard Camme, president of the fragrance house, Atelier Cologne adds. “If your skin is dry, the scent will fade more quickly. So if you want it to last longer, moisturize prior to application.” This is exactly why everything smells more fragrant (for better or worse) in the summer.
Avoid the Mist-and-Walk
We’re all guilty of the mist-and-walk-through strategy at one time or another, which Leigh considers not only an absolute waste, but can also impact the surrounding furniture or decor.
“With spritzing perfumes into the air, it will also drop onto your clothes and the floor or furniture and can stain from the residue,” she cautions. “I’m not a fan of spraying it in your hair either, particularly if your fragrance is in alcohol, because it dries the hair.”
