How to make your perfume last longer

Lifestyle Saturday 02/November/2019 16:33 PM
By: Times News Service

Your favourite perfume surely loves you as much as you do. But having it fade away in two or three hours might make you rethink your choice. Maybe the fragrance is just not meant for you (what a shame!). Or perhaps the real reason is that you’ve just been using it wrong. Here are 5 ways to keep your favourite scent intact all through the day.

Start clean
Like the beginning to anything good, always start clean. Wearing perfume to conceal a bad odour is the worst thing you can do to the fragrance (and to yourself). The best time to wear perfume is after a nice warm water shower. Warm water opens up pores and helps the perfume seep in better. Spray some on immediately after a shower when the skin is still moist.

Layer it
If you really love a particular fragrance and want it to linger around all day, don’t hesitate to go the extra mile. There’s a reason your favourite fragrances come in those sets of three – body wash, lotion, and perfume. Even if you’ve skipped the body wash, make sure you at least get the cream or lotion. The perfume molecules hold on better to moisturised skin as opposed to skin that is parched. However, if you don’t have fragrances from the same set, it’s safer to use unscented lotions or fragrance-free moisturisers as layering scents that don’t complement each other might alter the actual smell of your perfume.

Tip – If you want some on your hair, go for a mist as it has lesser alcohol content. Spray some on your comb and brush it lightly through your strands. Just like your body, make sure your hair is well-conditioned, so it absorbs the fragrances.

Focus on pulse points
Pulse points are located behind the ear, along the neck, the inner wrists, and also behind the elbows and knees. The skin at these areas is thinner, and the veins run closer to the surface. And, of course, because these points are always pulsating, it emits heat and is, therefore, warmer than other areas of the body. This works in favour of the perfume and helps it evolve.

Tip – If you want to give your perfume additional holding power, apply some regular petroleum jelly on the pulse points, and then spray. You’ll find the fragrance lasting way longer.

The right distance
The ideal distance is between 5-10 inches, but it also has a lot to do with how strong you want the fragrance to feel (and how strong it really is). The idea is that your skin shouldn’t feel too wet when you spray. Finding the ideal distance is important so that the perfume doesn’t form a concentrated puddle in a particular area when you spray too close, and neither do you end up wasting it by spraying most of it in the air when you spray too far.

Do not rub in
There is a difference between lightly dabbing the perfume, and rubbing it in. Rubbing is a bad idea as it creates excessive heat and breaks up the perfume molecules quicker. It speeds up the entire scent journey and can distort the delicate top notes.

Antara Bose is a model turned fashion and beauty consultant. A popular blogger, anchor, and voice over artist, she maintains a deep connection with the local fashion industry and is passionate about discovering and celebrating aspiring talent as well as promoting animal rights. For fashion updates with a side of humour and sarcasm follow Antara on instagram: @antarabose and on Facebook: Antara Bose.