It is important to understand that perfume is different. It differs not only in brands, but also in the degree of concentration of perfume oils. Perfume, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, cologne and other perfumes are distinguished depending on the intensity and persistence of the fragrance.

Perfume- the most concentrated, persistent and expensive type of perfumery. The content of fragrant substances - from 20 to 30%. The spirits have strong base, plume, notes. It is recommended to use in winter and evening.

Perfumery water (Eau de Parfum)- lighter perfumes with pronounced middle notes, but in terms of durability they are almost as good as perfumes. Eau de parfum is sometimes even called daytime perfume, it is ideal for use during the day. The content of fragrant substances is 12–20%.

Toilet water (Eau de Toilette)- a light type of perfumery, in which the top notes are well felt. Fragrances from 8 to 10%. Eau de toilette is less persistent: to feel the aroma, you need to use several times a day.

Cologne (Eau de Cologne)- This is the weakest flavor. The content of fragrant substances in it is from 3 to 8%. Such perfumes are used mainly by men.

The concentration of fragrant substances in other perfumes (deodorants, lotions and the like) is less than 3%. Their aroma is barely perceptible.

The bouquet of perfume also affects the durability of the smell. Muscat, chypre and woody fragrances are more persistent than floral, citrus or marine.

When choosing a perfume, consider its type and composition of ingredients.

Application rules

The persistence of the fragrance also depends on the way the perfume is used, or rather, where and how to apply it.

Where to apply perfume

When the inimitable Coco Chanel was asked where perfume should be applied, she replied: "Where you want to be kissed."

In fact, perfume should be applied on the wrist, behind the earlobe, on the crook of the elbow, on the neck in the region of the interclavicular cavity and under the knee.

These are the so-called pulse points. In these places, the blood vessels are close to the skin, the temperature of these areas is slightly higher. All this contributes to the disclosure and distribution of aroma.

Please note: we are talking about spirits. They are usually produced in bottles with a glass rod on the cork. By the way, it is she who needs to pick up perfume, and not with a fingertip. To smell fragrant, you need only a drop of perfume for each point.

Perfume and toilet water is usually sold in the form of aerosols. If you use them, spray the perfume in front of you and just stand under the scent cloud. Water is less concentrated, so the procedure can be done several times.

Most people apply perfume at the very end, when they are already dressed, or even before leaving the house. Alas, the scent doesn't last long. Clothing absorbs well, but does not give off odors well. And not only perfume, but all the fragrances around. In addition, if you apply perfume on, especially light, there is a risk that stains and stains will remain.

Use perfume immediately after a shower or bath. Clean, steamed skin absorbs fragrance like a sponge absorbs water. In this case, skin hydration is of great importance. If you have oily skin, there is nothing to worry about, but if you have dry or normal skin, then in order for the perfume to last long, the skin needs to be moisturized.

For these purposes, it is best to use a body lotion from the same line as the perfume. Many manufacturers, in addition to perfumes, produce a whole series of care products with the same fragrance. In this case, your perfume will not conflict with the smell of lotion or antiperspirant. If your perfume does not have "companions", use neutral, odorless products.

Didn't have time to take a shower before going out? Smear the pulse points and then apply perfume on them. Such a base will fix the fragrance: it will last longer.

Spray perfume on your wrists and rub them together - you do it, admit it? This is mistake. Any fragrance is multi-layered: first, the top notes are revealed (literally in the first 5–15 minutes), then the middle notes begin to “sound”, and at the end the base notes break through. If the perfume is rubbed, then this process is disturbed, the aroma loses its individuality. So just let the perfume dry.

A few more tricks

In conclusion, a few more that will allow you to feel and give your favorite fragrance for as long as possible.

• Apply a drop of perfume to a comb or sprinkle it with perfume water. Comb your hair. Hair perfectly retains odors: with every turn of the head, a pleasant train will remain behind you.
• Moisten a cotton pad with your favorite perfume and place it in your purse or pocket. This will enhance the aroma and create a fragrant aura not only around you, but also around your things.
• Store your perfume properly. Watch the expiration date and do not leave it in the bathroom. It's too hot and humid there. It is better to keep the perfume in the box in which it was sold: this way they will be protected from sunlight.

Perfumes, like the flickering of a candle, are able to envelop you and give your image magic. But flavors are insidious. If you use the same perfume for a long time, your nose can become so used to it that it starts to seem like the fragrance is less and less lasting with each new bottle. Also, do not forget that if the perfume suits you, you do not feel them. If you "hear" perfume, then it is not for you, or you have poured too much of it on yourself. In this case, it will be uncomfortable not only for you, but also for those around you.

When purchasing perfumes and toilet water, each person hopes that they will be persistent. Agree, there is no point in buying perfume if their smell can disappear after a few minutes. The most common complaint about perfumery is its lack of durability. What does it depend on?

Persistence, first of all, depends on the concentration of aromatic substances in the perfume, the higher it is, the richer the smell will be. For perfumes, it is considered normal durability - 5-10 hours, for eau de parfum it is 3-5 hours, and about 2-3 hours for eau de toilette.

Note that the most persistent of the components are amber, sandalwood, musk, jasmine. The presence of these natural plants in oriental fragrances determines increased persistence, while citrus and floral components determine less persistence. Based on this, the normal durability for citrus perfumes is 4-6 hours, followed by floral ones, which are characterized by durability of 6-8 hours. Most of all, up to 8 hours, oriental perfumes are kept.

By the way, if closer to dinner the smell of eau de toilette is not heard - do not be upset, just renew the aroma.

Perfumes are generally classified into light and heavy. How do they differ from each other? Light ones open quickly and evaporate quickly, while heavy ones open more slowly and, as it were, slowly, but remain on the surface of the skin much longer.

Also, weather conditions also affect the durability of the perfume. On a hot day, perfumes and eau de toilette evaporate much faster. In winter, more expressive tones are used, which in the hot summer period can cause slight dizziness and nausea. In humid weather, fragrances behave softer compared to dry weather.

The persistence of the fragrance also depends on the type of our skin. Experts in the perfume industry talk about "cold" and "hot" skin. Perfume and eau de toilette evaporate more slowly for owners of cold skin, while evaporation from hot skin is quite intense. This has a direct effect on the development of the aroma, but its persistence is less. The special durability of perfumed products is manifested on clothes and hair.

Our perception plays an important role in determining the durability of perfumes and eau de toilette. The absence of a perfume smell in your opinion does not mean at all that it has weathered. There are banal reasons for this, like a common runny nose, hormonal changes and many other reasons. The smell of perfume can be heard from you by other people, then we all have a sense of smell. There is also an addiction to smell. Temporarily replacing your favorite perfumes with others will allow you to feel all the beauty of your old perfumes again after a certain time.

How to determine the durability of a perfume?

It is very easy to determine. Hold the perfume bottle a short distance from your nose and slowly move it around. Weak and strongly pungent smell should alert you, the aroma should be unobtrusive, but persistent.

You can put a drop of perfume on the inside of the brush. After a while, move the brush at some distance from the nose and feel the aroma. If the aroma has not faded and stays on, the perfume or eau de toilette is good.

The perfume industry is growing in volume every day. Literally every day, new fragrances from different brands and concerns appear: from the world-famous Estee Lauder Companies that own DKNY, Editions De Parfums Frederic Malle, Kilian, Michael Kors and others, to small but no less interesting brands, for example, this one. like Brocard, which became the hero of perfume news in 2017.

Along with this, more and more often you can hear the words: “This fragrance doesn’t last on me”, “I don’t feel it after ten minutes.” In fact, the persistence of the aroma is an extremely controversial indicator. The fact that the aroma is revealed differently on each person, everyone already knows, but so far the situation is different with persistence.

The fragrance does not last on me - what should I do?

Do not panic. Let's talk about what resilience is and what it depends on. As everyone knows, perfume components can be divided into the following categories - vegetable, animal and synthetic. Vegetable oils are produced from natural ingredients by distillation and obtaining essential oils. Animal components, such as musk, amber, castoreum and others, mainly serve to fix the fragrance on a person. Synthetic oils are extracted from natural ingredients, for example, from anise oil by special chemical processes. In this way, fragrant substances are obtained that you will not find in nature.

How long you will feel the aroma is determined by the following parameters - the composition of fragrant substances, their concentration and, oddly enough, you yourself. The same fragrance on different people holds and opens in different ways, since the skin of each person has its own characteristics. The second reason why the aroma does not hold on to you is that the body simply ceases to feel it over time. And it's not you who are to blame, and not the fragrance manufacturers, who, as some people think, are trying to deceive buyers, and not the perfumers, who allegedly picked up an unsuccessful composition, but just a case. Each person has smells that he practically does not perceive. And if it seems to you that another perfume composition has disappeared after five minutes, ask those around you - maybe they still hear your perfume?

In addition, we know how to get used to external stimuli: namely, this is how our brain perceives the aroma that we use. Therefore, if the aroma does not change over time, then we can simply stop smelling it.

Now that we have thoroughly and thoroughly considered what endurance is and how it should be understood in a perfumery context, let's go through the myths associated with it.

Myth #1: You shouldn't rub the spot on your skin where perfume has been applied.

On many forums, some argue that this can not supposedly be done, since the aroma disappears in just a few seconds. In fact, when you rub the applied perfume composition, you heat up the skin, and therefore the highest notes of the composition, which you feel at the beginning, disappear much faster.

Myth #2: The best perfume is long lasting and leaves a trail

Perfumes, fortunately, are not created for everyone around you to choke on your perfume. Perfumes are for feelings and sensations. If only bright and suffocating compositions bring you joy and pleasure (namely, such compositions most often leave a trail behind you), then we advise you to experiment and try something more lyrical.

Myth #3: Perfumes last longer than eau de toilette.

It is not known where this myth came from, but, according to him, everything depends on the concentration and amount of fragrant substances. So, perfume accounts for 20-30% of fragrant substances, perfume water - 15-20%, toilet water contains about 5-15%, cologne - 2-4%, fragrant essence - 1-3%.

In fact, intensity and persistence have nothing to do with the concentration of fragrances in your product. Each substance included in the composition has its own intensity of smell and its own physical properties, on which the rate of evaporation from the surface of your skin depends. For example, bergamot essential oil will evaporate in seconds, no matter how you increase the concentration. Therefore, the latter is not related to durability, but the composition of the composition is related to it.

Myth #4: Perfumes without synthetic fragrances last longer

As you might have guessed, this is also not true. Most often, the opposite happens: for example, a natural aroma of a herbal or citrus group will last much less time than its synthetic counterpart, to which fixatives will be added. And the same aforementioned natural bergamot, like its synthetic counterpart linalyl acetate, will evaporate very quickly. Persistence in this case depends on the volatility of the substance - as a rule, light molecules are more volatile than heavy ones.

Myth #5: Persistent perfumes are the best

This myth has its roots in the Soviet past, when perfume was almost impossible to get, and women mostly used the same fragrance. Therefore, the longer he kept, the better he was considered. Now, durability is not the main argument when buying a perfume product, and in selective perfumery, this quality practically does not affect anything.

In conclusion, I would like to mention once again that perseverance does not always rule the show. Choose those compositions that you like, but do not forget: if the perfume does not stick to you, this does not mean that they are bad. Maybe you just don't smell them.

One of the main factors that affects the durability of a fragrance is what type it belongs to. We mistakenly call all fragrances perfumes, although in fact this name is applicable only to perfumes in which the concentration of oils and active ingredients is 20-30%, and the rest is water and alcohol.

Generally, the higher the concentration, the more persistent the scent will be. There is a classification of fragrance types (the names on the boxes are most often written in French), we arranged them in descending order - from the most persistent to the quickly eroding:

Perfume (Parfume) - 20-30% perfume oils

Recently, perfumes with such a concentration are found less and less in the assortment of popular brands: these are rich aromas that require only a few drops to apply. And yes, they are the most durable! This smell can last even more than a day.

Perfumed water (Eau de parfume) - 15−20%

Eau de parfum is found on the shelves in stores much more often than perfumes. As a rule, it is felt on the skin within 6-8 hours.

Toilet water (Eau de Toilette) - 15−20%

Another common type of fragrance is eau de toilette. It is usually lighter and less intense than perfumed. Ideal for summer, hot weather. It stays on the skin for 3-4 hours.

Refreshing water (Eau Fraiche) - 1-3%

The lightest, "diluted" fragrance. Most often, Eau Fraiche comes in the form of body sprays with a subtle scent. Such smells are felt on the skin for only 1-2 hours, but they are not intrusive at all - they just “refresh”.

2. Choose sustainable ingredients

Before you buy this or that perfume, decide on the ingredients that make up the composition. Some notes are felt longer, others disappear very quickly. We have divided the most popular fragrance ingredients into two categories:

Persistent

Musk, chypre and woody notes. Oud wood, moss, sandalwood, amber, juniper, cedar, patchouli, vetiver. Of the citrus notes, bergamot is quite persistent. Floral - rose and lavender.

unstable

Floral and fruity fragrances. Jasmine, iris, violet, peony, orange blossom, peach, strawberry, grapefruit - alas, these beautiful notes are not considered persistent.

3. Find out individual characteristics

Oddly enough, every perfume smells different on different people. And this applies not only to the disclosure of aroma and notes, but also to durability. If a friend says that this or that fragrance seems to her incredibly long-lasting, it is not a fact that the perfume will work on your skin in the same way.

Fortitude- far from the last important characteristic of a perfume product. We all want our favorite smell stay on the skin for as long as possible. But at the same time, it is far from easy to guess in advance whether the spirits will justify our hopes. This is something that cannot be judged by the appearance of the bottle or the aroma of perfume. More precisely, the aroma can tell something to a true connoisseur and connoisseur, but for this you need to have some knowledge. Therefore, the persistence or instability of spirits usually comes as a surprise to us.

First of all the persistence and saturation of the smell depends on the concentration of odorous substances. Any perfume consists of a perfume composition - a mixture of essential oils and other aromatic components - as well as a solvent. The solvent is usually alcohol, occasionally water or oil. The ratio of ingredients in different perfume products is far from the same, the content of odorous substances varies over a very wide range - from 1 to 30%. On this basis, perfumery is usually divided into several classes:

Actually perfume(Parfum) - the most concentrated and most expensive type of perfumery products. The content of essential oils in them is 18-30%. It is believed that the smell of perfume can last for 5-10 hours. However, perfume houses rarely release perfumes in this format.

perfumed water(Eau de parfum) contains 10-20% aromatics. It will surround you with a fragrant cloud for the next 3-5 hours.

Eau de Toilette(Eau de toilette) - relatively inexpensive, and therefore the most common type of perfumery products. It contains only 4-10% perfume composition and lasts 2-3 hours.

Cologne(Eau de cologne) is even less persistent and contains only a couple percent of essential oils. But it should be noted that in the US the terminology is slightly different. American-made colognes correspond in concentration to eau de toilette or even eau de parfum.

The lack of concentration can be fully compensated by the amount of fragrant liquid. Even eau de toilette will retain its scent for many hours if perfumed enough. But at the same time, the smell may be too rich and harsh, so it’s better to carry a bottle with you and refresh the fading aroma from time to time.

But perfume composition also affects the durability of perfume, since different aromatic substances have different degrees of volatility. Some evaporate intensively, forming a strong plume, and dissipate very quickly. Others evaporate slowly, they have a not very intense smell that stays close to the body, but lingers on the skin for a long time. Therefore, perfumes change their smell over time, and for the same reason, those compositions that consist mainly of highly volatile components are unstable.

Fading away very quickly citrus, fruity aromas. Floral scents are a little more persistent. Woody, resinous components such as sandalwood, vanilla, patchouli, vetiver, incense last much longer. Odorants of animal origin have a very high resistance: musk and amber, beaver stream, civet. They not only retain the smell themselves for a long time, but are also fixatives, i.e. slow down the evaporation of other aromatic components. However, animalistic ingredients are added to perfumes in very small quantities, since in concentrated form they have a sharp and far from pleasant smell, and they are extremely expensive. Generally speaking, fragrances that are perceived as light, transparent usually do not have much staying power. But heavy, stuffy, warm oriental compositions are much more stable.

It affects the persistence of the aroma and the individual characteristics of the skin. But everything is not as mysterious and unpredictable as it seems at first glance. The main factor in this case is oily skin. The natural secretion of the sebaceous glands delays the evaporation of odorous substances, so the perfume lasts longer on oily skin than on dry skin. For a similar reason, oil-based perfumes are more persistent than alcohol-based and even more so water-based perfumes.

The durability of perfumery is not the same at different times of the year, in different weather. The colder it is around, the slower the volatile substances evaporate. Perfume also evaporates from the skin and clothes at different speeds. On fabric and hair, the fragrance lasts much longer than on the body, however, it sounds a little different.

Lack of longevity is the most common complaint that consumers make about perfumes. But let's not forget that you yourself are unlikely to be able to objectively assess the stability of the aroma. Olfactory receptors are arranged in such a way that we react to changes in the concentration of odorous substances around us, but we simply stop noticing smells that we are surrounded by for a long time.