Introduction
Summer is a great time to make a fresh start and try new things. With the warmer weather and longer days, it’s also a great time to try out new fragrances. However, while a lovely scent can be the perfect finishing touch to your summer look, it’s important to be aware of how summer perfumes interact with your skin in the heat. In this post, we’ll look at the appeal of summer perfumes, how heat affects them, and the potential allergic reactions they can cause. We’ll also share tips on how to enjoy your favourite scents without compromising your skin’s health.
Table of Contents
Perfume and Summer
I’d say summer is probably the best time to wear perfume. In summer, people tend to be more active and outgoing, especially when they’re not weighed down by heavy clothes or kept out of public spaces by rainy weather. As people interact more, they tend to wear more perfume. People tend to choose perfumes that reflect their personality and make them feel good with a beautiful scent.
Perfumes can also help to offset the effects of the heat by spreading their fresh scents and bringing a light cheer to the atmosphere. In summer, people often opt for lighter, fresher perfumes to keep cool. These fresh scents not only give you a cool, refreshing feeling but also mask the smell of sweat, which is one of the things nobody wants to deal with in the summer heat. Among the most popular perfume notes for summer are:
- Aquatic Notes: These mimic the freshness of water, marine, or ocean, evoking the cool, crisp feeling of a seaside breeze.
- Floral Fresh Notes: Bringing the lightness of flora, these notes include flowers such as jasmine, rose, lavender, and carnation, adding a delicate and refreshing touch.
- Citrus Notes: Often considered the rockstars of summer fragrances, citrus notes like lemon, orange, and bergamot provide an invigorating and energizing scent.
How Heat Affects Perfume
While summer’s abundance of vitamin D brings many benefits, it also introduces a challenge that can’t be ignored: heat. The heat also affects the way perfumes smell, making them less potent. To understand this effect, you need to know a bit of basic physics.
In the summer, our bodies soak up heat from the sun, which makes our skin temperature go up. Our bodies produce sweat to help us cool down. This evaporates and reduces our body temperature. Since perfumes are liquid like sweat, they follow the same physical principles. As our body temperature rises, the perfumes we apply also evaporate more quickly.
The quick evaporation has two main effects: perfumes last less time on the skin, but their scent is stronger. The heat makes the fragrance molecules spread out more quickly, which makes the scent stronger at first. On the downside, this also means that the scent fades more quickly, so you’ll need to reapply more often to keep the fragrance going strong throughout the day. It’s not just how perfume behaves on the skin that’s affected by heat, but also how it behaves in the bottle. UV rays and high temperatures can cause chemical reactions in perfumes, especially oxidation. This can affect the fragrance and change how it smells.
Perfumes with natural essential oils, especially citrus oils, are particularly prone to this kind of degradation. The delicate balance of the fragrance can be disrupted, which can result in a scent that is less vibrant and more muted.
Allergic Reactions and Phototoxicity in Perfumes
While it’s a bit of a hassle when perfumes don’t last as long in the heat, it’s not the biggest issue when it comes to sun exposure. The sun is also a major source of ultraviolet (UV) rays, which can cause phototoxicity.
Some materials, like furocoumarins, can cause skin reactions when they’re exposed to UV light. They’re often found in certain plants and essential oils, like citrus oils. When these substances are put on your skin and then exposed to sunlight, they can soak up UV light and react chemically with your skin cells, damaging them. This can cause phototoxic dermatitis, which is marked by redness, burning, blistering and discolouration of the skin. These reactions can be pretty severe and look a lot like a sunburn.
There’s even the potential for long-term changes in skin pigmentation. It’s worth noting that phototoxicity is a big issue when it comes to wearing perfume in the summer, as it can cause painful and long-lasting damage to the skin.
The International Fragrance Association (IFRA) identifies the following phototoxic chemicals commonly used in fragrance development:
- 5-Acetyl-1,1,2,3,3,6-hexamethyl indan
- Angelica root oil
- Bergamot oil expressed
- Bitter orange peel oil expressed
- Cumin oil
- Grapefruit oil expressed
- Lemon oil cold pressed
- Lime oil expressed
- Methyl N-methylanthranilate (restricted now)
- Methyl beta-naphthyl ketone
- Rue oil
- Tagetes oil and absolute
- Citrus oils and other furocoumarins containing essential oils
As you can see, many of these phototoxic raw materials are related to the citrus family. Extensive research on this topic is available in the IFRA Standards Booklet. How can you tell if your perfume contains one of these phototoxic substances? The good news is that most of the top manufacturers stick to IFRA guidelines and test how well their fragrances work with other ingredients. However, not all perfume manufacturers stick to these guidelines or know exactly what’s in the essential oils they buy. It can be tricky to know which raw materials were used in a perfume if not all of the materials are listed on the label.
Preventing Allergic Reactions
If you’re dealing with common allergens like limonene or linalool, patch testing is often the best option for consumers. However, patch tests can sometimes give the wrong result or don’t show immediate reactions, depending on how sensitive your skin is and how it’s structured. The simplest and most effective way to avoid phototoxic reactions on your skin is to avoid applying perfume directly to your skin. This method not only stops your skin coming into contact with phototoxic materials, but also protects it from all the potentially harmful raw materials in the fragrance.
There are lots of advantages to applying perfume to your clothes rather than your skin. Firstly, it stops your skin coming into direct contact with allergens and phototoxic substances, which reduces the risk of allergic reactions and skin irritation. Another benefit is that clothes provide a cooler surface than your skin, which helps the fragrance last longer. Applying perfume to your clothes or hair not only protects your skin but also helps the scent last longer. It’s worth being careful with coloured perfumes, particularly ones with vanilla or resins as they can leave stains on light fabrics. To avoid this, just test a small, inconspicuous area of your clothing first or use clear, non-coloured perfumes on your garments.
Conclusion
Summer is a great time to try out new fragrances and enjoy the refreshing and uplifting scents that perfectly match the season’s energy. Just be aware of how heat affects perfumes and take care to avoid skin irritation, and you can enjoy your favourite scents all summer long. It’s a good idea to go for lighter, fresher notes that not only lift your mood but also help cover up any unwanted odours from sweat. Applying perfume to your clothes or hair can help the scent last longer and protect your skin from any potential allergic reactions. With these tips in mind, you can wear your favourite perfumes with confidence and make the most of the sunny days ahead.
Take care of yourselves and your noses.
References and Further Reading
For those eager to delve deeper into the world of perfumery, here are some resources for further exploration:
