Macerating Your Fragrances

You’ve just gotten your hands on a brand new bottle of perfume and you’re excited to try it out. You’ve tested it in store and it smells incredible. However, when you unbox your new fragrance and spray it on, you can barely smell it. It doesn’t smell as intense or heady as it did in the store. Not to worry, you didn’t get a bad batch of perfume, there is a science behind this!

You may have heard of the phrase macerating your fragrance. This essentially changes the perfume subtly to increase and improve its scent. Let’s explore how to macerate your fragrance and whether it makes a difference.

Types of Fragrances

First let’s recap on the types of perfumes. Often you’ll come across eau de cologne, eau de toilette and eau de parfum. While each perfume on the market has its own unique scent, they are commonly alcohol-based. This means they’re made with a mixture of essential oils and alcohol. The smell of a fragrance depends on the essential oils used, and the intensity often varies based on the level of alcohol the perfume contains. 

You’ll also find perfume oils which have a more concentrated fragrance, and do not contain alcohol. These are produced by adding a carrier oil to essential oils instead of alcohol. 

Typically, alcohol based fragrances benefit from the maceration process. When you buy perfumes, new batches released from the factory can smell different than what you’re familiar with or come across as very lightly scented. This is not an issue with the concentration and the perfume hasn’t been reformulated. It simply lacks maceration.

What is Fragrance Maceration?

Maceration is also known as the process of oxidising your fragrance. This enables the alcohol in your new bottle of perfume to evaporate. Often, perfume houses will macerate alcohol based scents in their factories and this is a controlled procedure carried out by themselves. But once in a while, certain perfumes may require just a little bit more maceration. You can easily carry out the maceration process for your new fragrance at home if you find the scent too light or faint. Think of it as akin to aerating a bottle of fine wine by decanting it. This allows the wine to breathe and its aroma compounds are released after being stored in the bottle. In fact, the process of macerating your fragrance is much simpler!

How to Macerate Your Fragrance?

Macerating your perfume is not as complicated as it sounds, and there’s no art or learning curve to it. Anyone can do it! When you’ve opened a new bottle of perfume and upon spritzing it on, and you’re not satisfied that the fragrance is coming through fully, this is time for you to macerate your perfume. 

Don’t put that bottle back. Continue to pump out 5 to 10 pumps into the air, making sure you’re fully pressing on the nozzle. All you have to do after this step is to close the bottle and place it back in the original box. The next thing you have to do is to store the perfume in the box in a cool and dry place for 1 month. Make sure you’re keeping it away from any sunlight. The back of a cabinet or drawer in your bedroom is an ideal place to store your perfume that’s macerating. Don’t leave it in the bathroom as the hot and humid air is not ideal for perfumes. If you’re able to place the fragrance in a cabinet or drawer that you don’t open often, that’s even better. Over the period of 1 month, the scent will get stronger and darken slightly in colour, giving you the ideal fragrance you’re after. 

Affordable Fragrances in Singapore

Now that you’re an expert in macerating your fragrance, you know exactly what to do when a bottle of perfume you get does not smell as strong as it usually does. If you’re keen to test out various fragrance intensities and want to shop for affordable alcohol and non-alcohol based perfumes, check out Aurel Singapore. Aurel offers a wide range of perfumes to suit all preferences and you can conveniently buy fragrances online. You can also test fragrances and pick up your online perfume purchases at the Aurel Experience Centre.

Don't forget to checkout our online store for women's fragrance for your loved ones!