How To Apply Perfume: How Much and Where To Apply

If perfume feels like a personality trait for you, you’re not alone.

Fragrance can trigger memories and strengthen cognitive performance. Just smelling something lovely can help you reduce stress and  improve your mood  — and having a signature scent can help you feel like the most confident version of yourself.

We expect the most out of perfume, which means long-lasting wear and a scent that stays present throughout the hours… and there is a right way to apply perfume so that you can catch its scent all day. We have a few application tips and tricks for applying perfume so the aroma will linger long after you spray it.

Wearing perfume can help you wake up in the morning and feel ready to stride through the day confidently, or it can help you get in tune with your soft side. There are scents for pretty much every intended mood, but you want to be able to smell your perfume in order to experience the benefits.

If you apply it wrong, your  fragrance likely won’t last well throughout the day. This means you waste more product. With these steps for applying perfume, you’ll know how to create a cloud of scent around you for a continuous lift in your mood.

There’s a right and wrong way to apply your eau de parfum for the best results, starting from the first spritz. When you spray perfume, don’t hold the bottle right against your skin. Instead, spray perfume from a further distance. The length of your arm, or about two feet, is a good spot to spray from.

Having some distance between the nozzle and your skin is the ideal method because it helps the composition of the EDP become well distributed. By misting it from a distance instead of right up close, the ingredients will fall over more of your skin for a longer-lasting and more natural application.

Pulse points are places where you can feel your heartbeat because of  veins close to the surface of your skin — and they’re also places that project heat outwards from the body, making them ideal spots to apply perfume for a stronger scent. 

When your body heat emanates, the perfume on those pulse points will be projected outwards so you and others can smell it.

Spray perfume on your collarbone, inner elbows, the back of your knees, the middle of your chest, the back of your neck, and behind your ears. You can even dab perfume oil onto your navel.

Without a primer, perfume mixes with your skin’s natural oils and body chemistry, which mildly changes the scent.

Along with each person’s preferences for certain scent families, this is another reason why you might not like a scent on yourself that you loved in the bottle. Perfume primer provides a base on top of your natural pH that fragrance can bind to. This way, the scent is never compromised or changed when you wear it.

We love the  Bō Nourishing Parfum Primer  because it hydrates the skin while also bonding to your perfume to increase its intensity.

Less is more when it comes to high-quality fragrances. When you follow the proper steps of where and how to apply perfume, they are effective at projecting the scent outwards.

Any more than a few spritzes in targeted areas can become overpowering. The last thing you want is to get tired of your best perfumes because you’ve irritated your senses from overwear. The goal is to catch a whiff of your sweet scent throughout the day.

Body sprays and eau de toilettes are lighter compositions with less potency; they are never going to last as long as a high-quality eau de parfum.

One reason why cult favorite scents like Creed Aventus remain so popular throughout time is because of their masterful craftsmanship. The quality of the composition earns it the title of a valuable, long-lasting, and strong scented fragrance.

Scent holds better to moisturized skin than to dry skin, so for a longer-lasting perfume wear, combine it with skincare. Using a scented body lotion before applying fragrances and perfumes can do wonders for how aromatic you smell. Additionally, you can spread vaseline (an occlusive that helps trap moisture into the skin) onto your pulse points before spraying EDP or applying solid perfume.

Fragrance layering is the practice of combining more than one scent together on the body to create a multifaceted, rich smell that can be entirely unique to you. To create a signature layered scent, you should be aware of fragrance notes and which fragrance families go well together.

Perfumes are composed of base notes, top notes, and heart notes. Top notes appear first when you spritz a new perfume but last the shortest, while base notes are heavier and hold the scent down. Heart notes unify the top and bottom notes — these are what you smell on your skin even hours after you’ve applied perfume.

You can create your new favorite fragrance by experimenting with different combinations of heavier and lighter scents. For example, amber, oud, and musk are popular base notes that create depth, while citrus and fruits like bergamot are delicate top notes. Florals and spices make for intriguing heart notes.

Layering fragrances creates a longer-lasting scent. Begin the process with a scented body wash or body lotion, and then spray perfume overtop of your prepped skin. If you combine a lotion and EDP of the same scent, you can noticeably intensify its lifespan and sillage!

Perfumes are meant to be worn, not to sit in a box. Whether you prefer to wear your perfume like a secret scent just for you or aim to fill a space with your delectable aroma, you want the most out of your fragrance. Following these steps will enhance the way you wear perfume.

Influence of Fragrances on Human Psychophysiological Activity: With Special Reference to Human Electroencephalographic Response | National Library of Medicine

Overnight Olfactory Enrichment Using an Odorant Diffuser Improves Memory and Modifies the Uncinate Fasciculus in Older Adults | Frontiers in Neuroscience

Perfume Quality and Art | Neurobiology of Sensation and Reward

Pulse | Britannica