Your bathroom medicine cabinet is super convenient for most things. The bottle of allergy medicine the doctor prescribed for you to take during pollen season, the only sunscreen you trust to not leave a white cast, and a hairbrush or maybe a comb all have a place there. But what about your perfume collection?
It turns out that storing your favorite fragrances in your bathroom may not be as much of a no-brainer as you thought. In fact, improperly storing your perfume bottles can affect the way they wear over time. I tapped Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty, Health & Sustainability Lab Director Sabina Wizemann to walk through the best ways to store perfume and explain why the bathroom shouldn’t be your first choice.
Why shouldn't perfumes be stored in the bathroom?
For starters, a bathroom doesn’t provide stable climate conditions. “Bathroom conditions can change quickly, from hot showers and bright vanity lights to open windows or a running exhaust fan,” Wizemann says. “These fluctuations in temperature, humidity, and light can alter a product's formula by speeding up the evaporation of volatile ingredients (solvents) or causing fragrance ingredients to degrade when exposed to heat or UV light.”
These changes in formula can lead to scent and quality discrepancies over time compared to when you first purchased your perfume. “It may be less fragrant or have a completely different scent, or it can look more cloudy or darker, or even have some precipitation (like a sediment) on the bottom of the bottle,” Wizemann says.
How long does it take perfume to expire?
While most perfumes don’t have an exact expiration date “their longevity depends on storage conditions and their composition,” Wizemann says. Fragrances that contain light, citrusy notes will typically fade more quickly compared with rich, woody, musk, or resinous notes, she explains. “Open perfume, if stored properly, I would guess [can last] three years, but possibly more. I have some from five or six years ago, and they still smell the same as when I first opened them.”
Where is the best place to store perfume?
Now we know the bathroom isn’t necessarily the best place for perfume. But, according to Wizemann, there are a few places that will help you properly preserve your favorite fragrances. “Cool places, with stable temperatures, away from sunlight, such as bedrooms, closets, or drawers” are ideal for fragrance storage, she says.
So there you have it. While it's a little less convenient, perfume can be expensive, so it's worth taking the extra care to store it properly, and making sure every spritz smells just as it should.
