A single bottle of perfume often lasts for a while. Here's everything you need to know about when perfume expires and how to know when it's time to throw out an old bottle.

What Is the Shelf Life of Perfume?

Perfumes are made up of various scent notes. The notes used in each individual aroma impact self-life. Fragrances that feature deep base notes such as tonka bean and leather are likely to last much longer than perfumes with floral or fruity base notes.

Light fruity and floral perfumes that feature notes such as carnation and green apple often expire in as little as a year after purchase. Perfumes with deeper base notes have been known to last for more than 10 years before expiring. However, the average shelf life of a perfume is three to five years. You must keep a close eye on the appearance and scent profile of your perfume so you can recognize when it is getting old and needs to be thrown out.

What Are the Signs of Expired Perfume?

Because there is no hard and fast rule for when perfume expires, you should not throw out a bottle of fragrance just because you purchased it over a year ago. As long as the aroma looks and smells normal, you can still wear it. You only need to throw it out when either the smell or appearance starts to become off.

Some fragrances smell better as they age, similar to how wine tastes better the longer it ages. However, most perfumes start to smell slightly different when they expire. You may notice a subtle sour tinge to the scent of your fragrance that indicates it might be old.

You should also consider the color of the perfume. Most fragrances are clear or have translucent coloring, but when the product starts to get murky or looks darker than it did originally, it is probably an expired aroma.

What Happens If You Accidentally Apply Expired Perfume?

Sometimes you may not realize a fragrance is old until you apply it. If the coloring of the fragrance appears normal but the scent is less potent than usual or smells a little sour, the perfume is expired.

Because perfumes mostly consist of fragrance oils and ethanol alcohol, they rarely cause skin irritation if you spritz on an expired aroma. Wearing an expired perfume will have little effect on your health, but you may smell a little different than you expect if you leave on the fragrance. You may also notice that the aroma is not as strong as usual and starts to dissipate within a couple of hours of application.

In general, eau de toilette fragrances remain noticeable for three to six hours, while eau de parfums linger for six to eight hours. Age impacts the longevity of a fragrance, so expired perfume is likely to fade prematurely and cause the scent to be short-lived.

Replace Expired Fragrances Today

When it is time to replace expired perfumes, you can find a great selection of delightful fragrances at LaBelle Perfumes. Browse our catalog today to find your new favorite aromas!

Resources:

• https://www.lamaisonduparfum.com/en-us/blogs/news/article-5
• https://www.instyle.com/beauty/fragrance/does-perfume-expire
• https://alexandriafragrances.com/blogs/blogs/perfume-past-expiration-date