As is usually the case, we begin by asking ourselves, what is a perfume - not what a perfume does - but what is a perfume. A perfume is a combination of perfume oils and a solvent. The perfume oils may either be natural or synthetic and the solvent is usually a cosmetic grade alcohol. A solvent is used so that the perfume oils emulsifies and there is consistency in the juice. In addition, it makes the perfume oils easy to disperse.

The opposite is true of formulas like room or body mists which you often have to shake before you spray. This is because, the formulation is probably water based.

Perfume hack - pay attention to the whether your fragrance is alcohol or water based.

From the date of manufacture, perfumes will usually last 3-5 years. Two main factors determine if its going to last 3 or 5 years:

1. The quality of the alcohol
2. Is the perfume synthetic or natural.

Perfume hack - pay attention to the quality of the solvent

With perfumes made from natural ingredients, the scents don't get rancid over time, per se. Instead of going rancid, the perfume tends to have reduced silage with lower intensity over time. With lower quality synthetic molecules, the scent could change quite drastically after the chemicals in them start to breakdown.

Perfume hack - The better quality the alcohol, the more stable the formulation .

Check out Lalique Perfumes below. They have a very long silage of about 8 -10 hours and have a 5 year expiry after date of manufacture. They are quality perfumes with an extremely good alcohol grade as a base.