The surprising place you should store your perfume

According to a fragrance expert

Beauty Crew Beauty Writer / July 23 2018

When it comes to perfumes, two rules are universally understood and accepted: Fragrances should be applied to pulse points (such as behind the neck and on the inside of your wrists), and they need to be stored out of direct sunlight.

But when it comes to the latter, most of us are doing it wrong. In an exclusive interview, CEO and co-founder of Commodity Fragrances, Ash Huzenlaub revealed to us that the best place to keep your perfumes or colognes is actually in the fridge.

We know, it took us by surprise, too!

“What people don’t know is that fragrance should be refrigerated, as it’s the best way to prolong its life and avoid any discolouration from sunlight exposure,” he explains.

While your fragrance wardrobe might look great on your dresser or on your bathroom shelf, you should keep your favourite scents in the fridge where they will be away from direct sunlight, as heat causes a perfume’s chemical bonds (the things that give a fragrance its scent) to break down over time. This break down subsequently results in a fragrance going ‘off.’ 

Additionally, Huzenlaub reminds us that “many of the ingredients [in your fragrances] are harvested and natural”. As such, “the best way to extend their shelf-life is to keep them refrigerated”.

With that being said, it’s time your favourite fragrances migrated to the vegetable crisper!

If you haven’t found your Holy Grail fragrance just yet, you might want to check out seven beauty editors’ all-time favourite fragrances and discover the delicate scents we’ve fallen in love with this year.

Where do you store your perfumes? Let us know in the comments below.

Main image credit: @commodity

Kate started working for BEAUTYcrew in early 2016, first as a contributor, and was then named Beauty Writer in 2017. She loves picking the brains of the industry's top experts to get to the bottom of beauty's toughest questions. Bronze eyeshadow palettes are her weakness and she's forever on the hunt for the perfect nude nail polish to suit her fair skin. Her words can also be found in Men's Health magazine, and she now works in PR.