The shelf life of perfume in China is five years sealed and three years opened.
In actual use, perfume can be used all the time as long as it is properly preserved and the smell does not deteriorate.
To determine whether the smell has deteriorated, you can smell whether the perfume has unpleasant sour smell, or whether the main structure and main characteristics of the perfume have been fragmented.
After perfume is produced, the smell is not fixed. With the extension of time, generally speaking, the fresh and refreshing smell of the front tone will become weaker, and the sweet and mellow heavy of the tail tone will become more and more obvious. This has the same reason as wine “the older the flavor”. However, when placed for a long time to a certain extent, or when the storage environment is not good, the perfume changes from quantitative to qualitative, and the smell deteriorates.
In addition, if the perfume was produced before the 1990s or even the 1980s, there will be some ingredients that are now banned by IFRA. If you are concerned about the safety of raw materials, it is natural that the fresher the perfume, the more stringent the IFRA regulations. (Though I get the feeling that old perfume lovers don’t care, because smelling good is what counts.)
Proper storage: avoid light, avoid high temperature.
The stability test of perfume and even skin care raw materials is mainly to look at the two influencing factors of UV and high temperature.
Like the sample on the Sephora perfume counter, each bottle is illuminated by the light, sometimes holding the perfume, and even feeling a little warm hands, which will hurt the perfume in the long run. Fortunately, the counter samples are consumed quickly, and they are sprayed out in one or two months before they deteriorate.
When we are at home, we can put the perfume in the wardrobe or drawer. If placed on an open cabinet or shelf, it can be put into a perfume box to achieve the effect of avoiding light.
If you are more concerned about the preservation of perfume, you can buy a small refrigerator to put perfume, and the temperature is set at about 25 degrees.
If the perfume is a point-dip type without a nozzle, it is recommended to buy a sealing film to strengthen the sealing of the bottle.
Different flavor appreciation period:
1. The higher the proportion of the perfume, the higher the possibility of deterioration over time. Citrus perfumes and colognes are recommended to be used within 3 years.
I have a bottle of Tom Ford Neroli Portofino (neroli oil) that has been in it for over five years and now smells a bit sour. Although the citrus tone itself is sour, the “acid” of the oxidation of raw materials is completely different from the citrus tone, which is not natural and fresh acid. Despite Tom Ford’s aggressive use of natural ingredients, and the EDP concentration of the perfume itself, it is no match for the ravages of time. Love dearly.
2. The higher the proportion of the end tone, the more suitable for long-term wear.
How to tell what kind of perfume has a “high tail tone”? Very simple, the tail tone of the perfume feels thick or has a long fragrance, or the perfume itself belongs to the wood tone, eastern tone and other flavors, which belong to the relatively high tail tone.
I have two bottles of Parfum Chanel No. 5, circa 2010. When one bottle comes out, the scent of vetiver, sandalwood, iris, oak moss, etc., is smooth and smooth, and the smell is rich and full. The other bottle because of improper preservation, spray out a bit of raw material oxidation sour smell. So it’s a little risky to put it away for more than a decade.
What else can go wrong with perfume?
1. The liquid is cloudy or precipitated
If the fragrance concentration is high, and there are raw materials with low solubility in the formula, it is possible to precipitate such raw materials in the liquid because of long-term storage or improper preservation. The sediment is not beautiful, but it is not necessarily the odor component that is crucial to the perfume, to determine whether the perfume is spoiled, or to smell the odor.
This bottle of Jacques Fath Green Water Parfum version, purchased in 2019, is not very old, but it was once left in the car for an entire summer, and the heat accelerated the deterioration of the liquid, creating sediment. Meanwhile, the ravages of the heat make its citrus notes almost unsmelt.
2. Liquid color changes
If the perfume formula contains raw materials with unstable colors, such as natural lavender, natural vanilla, natural citrus, natural white flowers, etc., the color of the perfume tends to become darker over time, such as from colorless to light yellow, from light yellow to a darker yellow. If the perfume adds powder, yellow, green and other pigments, it will also change the overall color of the perfume because of the color change of the raw material, such as from blue to green, pink to light orange red. This situation is very normal and does not mean that the raw material has deteriorated