Perfume… have I been a fool?

[HeartofTeFiti]

I love fragances, and I have amassed a lovely little collection, but now my perfumes which I “saved for best” are getting old - most of them are at least 15 years old. They live in a cupboard, cool and dark. Somehow they just don’t smell as luxurious and gorgeous as they used to.

Are they simply going off due to age … does that happen with perfume? Or is it perimenopause playing with my sense of smell or my hormones so the fragrances that once suited me, smell wrong now?

In terms of scents, I was a fan light fragrances, of Issy and anything Marc Jacobs. I would still love to wear these kind of fragrances (mainly sentimental reasons, because the love of my life once told me that whenever he was near me, he could smell flowers and it drove him to distraction.)

Help me, wise strangers of the internet, what is wrong with me/my perfumes these days?

15 years is a long time for perfume,they're old now.

Yes perfume does go off. Keeping it in a cool dark place delays it but can’t completely prevent it.

Unopened bottles will last longer but not indefinitely.

15 years is a long time for an opened bottle.

Yes op, perfumes do go off and also temperature can change the scent. If you've kept them in a really warm room temperature then that would be why. Try to stick them in the fridge for a little and see if it helps.

I was born in a hot country and everyone keeps them in the fridge 😂

Yes old. If you want perfume to last for years keep it in a fridge, preferably one not opened constantly. A mini fridge used for that purpose is probably ideal. But 15 yrs is a very long time!

It's far most likely to be hormones.
I used to gravitate towards fresh green & light florals until I was menopausal. Now I'm enjoying Chypres as the lighter florals often just don't smell right on me now.

It could be all of the above but perfumes definitely do go off and will alter over time as they do this, especially after they've been opened. Kept in good conditions they'll last a few years and in some instances can last several but I'd be surprised if they were intact and unchanged after 15 years, that is a very long time!

I'd chalk it up to a lesson not to keep for best. Sentimental things of course can be kept (or replaced like for like) but I'd otherwise get rid and start again and keep things to a smaller collection you like now, that will be used.

I wore Chanel 19 for years and menopause suddenly made me hate the smell! I ended up - after lots of sampling- using a Floris fragrance instead. Trial and error.

A perfect example of why we shouldn’t save things for best! Live and use.

As someone who actually owns hundreds of vintage perfumes, many of which I purchased 30-40 years ago and many more of which are even older than that - no, perfume does not on the whole go off if stored out of the light.

There are a very, very few that do, but in my experience it is very unusual. The ones that do go off will go off no matter how stored.

The first thing to do with a perfume you haven't used for a long time is to spray it a few times into a sink to clear out any dried out or semi-evaporated stuff near the nozzle. The juice in the bottle proper however should be good.

I would put it down to your body changing and your tastes changing. Visit a good perfume department a few times and spray a few scents and find what you like now. L'Eau d'Issey for example, is a classic of its time, but perhaps there are more alive and interesting scents to be found these days...

My taste in scent has completely changed since menopause. I used to love woody, leathery, spicy and more unisex/masculine perfumes. Now I am drawn to sweet, florals, citrus ones which I used to find repulsive. I love Baccarat Rouge which in the past I'd have loathed. I have Jo Malone wild bluebell, peony and suede blush, velvet rose & oud, givenchy interdit nocturnal Jasmine. Years ago I'd have loathed all of these.