Tricks to make perfume last all day

Do you wear perfume in the morning only for it to fade away after a few minutes or hours? You are not alone. It can be frustrating, as we put on perfume expecting the scent to linger on our skin all day long. With these beauty, tricks your perfume can last long.

Test a perfume before buying it. Ensure you test the perfume on a piece of paper which is often supplied at the perfume store before settling for it. When testing, keep in mind that a scent will not smell exactly the same way on your body as it does on the testing paper. However, the test is to let the fragrance blend with your body’s chemistry and help you narrow down the right match for you. Alternatively, spray a small amount on your wrist and wait 10 minutes before smelling it to allow the full range of the fragrance to emerge. This will help you know if you like the fragrance or not. Test only three different scents at a time because you will lose the sharpness of your senses after that and you may not get a clear idea of any fragrances you try after that. To retain your sense of sharpness during the tests, smell some coffee beans in between tests.

Moisturise your skin. Knowledge of your skin type is crucial in determining how to apply perfume. People with oily skin tend to have no issue with the perfume as the scents lasts longer on oily skin than on dry skin.If your skin is the dry type dab your moisture on it before wearing a perfume. Alternatively, apply some petroleum jelly on your skin and then wear your perfume on top of it. This will make it last longer as the perfume will cling to the petroleum jelly, hence you need not re-apply fragrance later in the day.

Wear perfume at your pulse points. It is recommended that you apply your perfume on your pulse points: on your cleavage, behind your ear lobes, on your wrist and the inner elbows or at the base of the throat. This is because the pulse points are located where the blood vessels are closest to the skin and as a result they radiate heat, which helps the fragrance ooze from skin and emit scent to the air. Apply perfume on your body before putting on your clothes, as some fragrances tend to leave permanent stains on fabrics. Also, when you apply perfume on your wrist, avoid rubbing them together after application. Rubbing a perfume breaks down its molecules, diminishing the scent into thin air. Learn to wear just enough perfume. For instance if you work in an enclosed small, space avoid strong empowering scents.

Understand the different perfume types. Many people buy fragrances labelled either perfume eau de perfume, eau de toilette, or eau de cologne but they have no idea what these mean. Eau de perfume typically means there will be 10 to 20 per cent perfume concentration in it enabling the scent to last long while eau de toilette means it has four to 15 per cent perfume concentration hence the scent only lasts for a few hours. As for the eau de cologne, it has six per cent concentration hence doesn’t last long. Fragrances labelled perfume tend to be pricey and have about 40 per cent concentration of perfume oil, thus last for a very long time.

Store it properly. The best place to store perfume is in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight as light, heat and humidity break down the compounds in a perfume, causing it to be less fragrant. It should also be kept sealed in its protective bottle to avoid evaporation

Published April 2016