How Do I Make Fragrances Last Longer?
Dear Ask Ari,
What is the best way to increase the longevity of a perfume while you wear it? I’ve heard that rubbing Vaseline on the place where you put perfume and then adding the perfume on top worked? Or do you just have to reapply all day?
-Longing For Lasting Power
What is the best way to increase the longevity of a perfume while you wear it? I’ve heard that rubbing Vaseline on the place where you put perfume and then adding the perfume on top worked? Or do you just have to reapply all day?
-Longing For Lasting Power
Lovely Longing,
Please note that Longing is no 101 advice seeker. She already knows one of the classic tips for extending fragrance longevity: applying your fragrance on top of a thick, sticky moisturizer like Vaseline or Aquaphor can significantly improve its lasting power. (Much like overly dry soil has trouble absorbing rain, dry, unmoisturized skin is less able to hold on to fragrance.)
So we can assume that she's already familiar with all of the usual methods for increasing fragrance lasting power: layering your fragrance with matching products (our #2 best-seller, Aqua Universalis, comes in body oil, body cream, and hair mist form), tossing a bottle of Bath & Body Works Moonlight Path into a volcano to appease the perfume gods, tossing a bottle of Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar into a volcano to appease the perfume gods, etc., etc. Been there, done that!
So we can assume that she's already familiar with all of the usual methods for increasing fragrance lasting power: layering your fragrance with matching products (our #2 best-seller, Aqua Universalis, comes in body oil, body cream, and hair mist form), tossing a bottle of Bath & Body Works Moonlight Path into a volcano to appease the perfume gods, tossing a bottle of Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar into a volcano to appease the perfume gods, etc., etc. Been there, done that!
If you've run out of Bath & Body Works and/or volcanoes, we have a new tip for you to try. A few months ago, Arielle Shoshana's manager Katri found a drugstore product called FragranceLock (pictured above!) that absolutely delivered on its promise to not only extend overall fragrance lasting power, but to extend each phase of fragrance development. The key ingredient in FragranceLock is acrylate, a chemical compound derived from acrylic acid that forms a film over the fragrance it's sprayed on to prevent the fragrance molecules from evaporating. Acrylates are also commonly found in hairsprays, where they function as a fixative to preserve your hairstyle.
So here's our hack within a hack: if you own a hairspray that contains "Acyrlates" or "Acrylates Copolymer" on the ingredients list, you already have a bottle of FragranceLock at home! (I tested this with an Oribé hairspray on top of one of perfumery's most fleeting beauties, L'Artisan Parfumeur Safran Troublant, and saw comparable results to FragranceLock.) Please do NOT use a craft store acrylic spray for these purposes; both FragranceLock and hairsprays contain moisturizing ingredients, such as apricot and grapeseed oils, that a spray can from Home Depot is unlikely to have.
Fragrantly Yours,
Ask Ari