Hi Claire, thank you for this very detailed explanation. To me as a chemist and artesanal perfumer there is, once the perfume is bottled, absolutely NO maceration any more. Only maturation and degradation. Maceration refers, as you described, to the process when raw materials are mixed to a perfume oil (which usually is shipped into the destination country) and maybe, when dissolved into ethanol (which often happens in the destination country), before filtering. After the filtering process, there can't be any further maceration, as there are no solids anymore you could "extract" substances from. To my understanding, maceration is a purely physical process. Maturation therefore is a chemical process. Chemically unstable substances like Aldehydes, Ketones, Amines etc. are changing their chemical structure, especially when Ethanol and Water al solvents are involved. This kickstarts maturation. The perfume changes its scents profile within hours to months until a chemical equilibrium, depending on the formula, is reached. Maturation is a purely chemical process to my understanding. Also, as you said, degradation starts, accelerated with the introduction of oxygen, heat, humidity and UV-Light (some people just misshandle a perfume and miss-call it "maceration" after, pretending it's something good they did). Usually the top notes disappear first and some of the materials might become an off smell. For example Hedione, a material used very often and in huge quantities in perfumers, can evolve some notes that remember you of expired milk. Also degradation is a chemical process. On the other hand, materials like Sandalwood (real sandalwood, not sandalwood aroma chemicals), Patchouli or Vetiver just are getting better with aging. So, a perfume with a lot of those materials might smell richer after "overaging", but most certainly other components are evaporated or decomposed until then and certainly the perfume won't reproduce the artistic idea anymore, it was made for. But hey, when it still smells good or even better to one's nose? One thing certain, that has nothing to du with actual maceration. Thanks for the informative video! And I am very impressed, as you have hundreds of comments and so far I see, replied to all of them! Chapeau!
Thank you so much for your comment! It's very interesting to read. I am particularly interested by your comments on hedione; are there any other aromachemicals which you think really don't benefit from over-ageing? E.g. are chemicals such as ambrox, cashmeran and iso E super extremely stable? Also, what about the synthetic oud accords and saffron used in many affordable Middle Eastern fragrances? Thanks for watching 🥰
Hi! It's very interesting, thanks🎉. This summer is very hot in my country (France) and I tested a perfume at sephora. Few moment later, a strange yellow color appeared exactly where I sprayed. A yellow oily thing. Is this because of the heat? Or a problem with the tester, overused or something?
Whether it’s maturation or maderation vanilla perfumes really get better and richer with age. I don’t think that’s a myth perpetuated by people on social media. I’ve experienced it myself.
They for sure get darker and I think lots of people perceive vanilla as being a note in fragrance that improves over the long term. Thanks for watching 🥰
It’s absolutely massive. I’ve found, and it just means leaving it alone for 3 or 4 months - at least. With cheapies you can’t rely on it being ready to wear, especially mid easterns. The difference can be absolutely black and white. I mess around with making perfume also - and it absolutely needs maceration. Freshly mixed oils usually smells confused. I usually chuck a bit in a sprayer to test it, but am aware that it’s going to improve greatly over time. Don’t underestimate maceration. It’s a must.
This has always been a big bugbear of mine and it is becoming increasingly annoying. 😂 but people like to sound like they “know what they are talking about”, and what better way than to adopt a bit of jargon. Great video Claire.
Thank you! This was actually pretty hard to find much valid information on, especially for the third definition. Someone needs to mass spec some different time point sprays from a bottle and see if there is a difference and how big it is. Hope you are well. 🥰
Thanks Claire! Very interesting. Jax beautiful you explained something similar. Basically that when reviewers use the term maceration they really mean oxidation. And I definitely prefer your term of just "aging". I only own 1 ME fragrance and it didn't change in my opinion. What I do like is that some reviewers just receive the ME fragrance, spray it, let it sit & then review it. Giving it time to age before ever telling us their opinion. Thanks for the all the detailed information you provided!
Thank you ❤️ My 4 didn't change either (from what I can judge and remember, which might not be that accurate as it's not a direct comparison) and I kept them between well over a year and three years. I think giving an opinion after a few months with any fragrance is always going to be a much better review. That's not ever going to be the case with new releases though, everyone wants to be first for views. It's good when people do circle back though. 🥰
I remember first hearing the word macerate regarding perfume. I looked it up and it didn’t seem to be a match to what they were saying. I thought marinate was a better word. That still isn’t exactly the word. You’re right in saying the aging process. I bought an 8 ml decant of the now discontinued Bottega Veneta edp. So many influencers raved about it some years back. I was disgusted. It smelled like furniture polish. I would continue to go smell it again as it made yet another influencer’s top perfume list. Around 2 years later it smelled exquisite, expensive and downright regal. That was the first scent I experienced that with, but not the last.👃
I have Bottega Veneta EDP too! I bought a partially used bottle (actually two) so I can't compare my experience with yours as it wasn't new when I bought it. I think it's a beautiful fragrance too! Thanks for watching and sharing your experience 🥰
@@user-uv9fd9dq5g I have never had a fragrance significantly evolve from time of purchase other than one that went off towards the end of the bottle... I sped up my usage of it as the top notes weren't quite right. It was DKNY Be Delicious. I do buy a lot of my fragrance (apart from Middle Eastern fragrances because they are so affordable) secondhand though.
It would be interesting to “macerate” a perfume, buy the same perfume and compare. there would be factors such as batch differences that might affect the smell but if the “maceration” process truly works, a significant difference should be detectable. Time to experiment Dr. Claire! ❤
Yes, I would think batch variation might be quite a big factor. What I don't understand is that there is oxygen in the bottles at the time of packaging anyway 🤔 you'd think it would age whether it had been sprayed or not? I guess this is the unanswerable debate 😂
@@dr.claire.perfume I don't understand that spraying at the beginning before letting it age. I have a fragrance I bought maybe 20 years ago that is refillable. So, I opened it and soon afterwards the scent changed, I didn't like it. Therefore, most fragrance bottles now almost impossible to open.
@@wicker1234 yes for me, oxidation ruins fragrances because it degraded them, you definitely wouldn't want an open bottle of fragrance, if that's what you mean? I would never deliberately shake my fragrances (apart from for this video) or leave them in sunlight either. It's just not how I would treat fragrances if I want them to be in the best condition for the longest time. 🥰
A lot of points to cover, and I want to start out by going to some comments you made towards the end of your video, regarding the "not have another to compare with" this is not always true, some people will use up a bottle and when it dries they buy another of the same, and often get comments that they believe their favorite fragrance has been reformulated or watered down, but after some time it returns smelling and performing like the one they had previously. We also have people that are familiar with the fragrance because of a decant they bought, and then they order the same fragrance and think they have been scammed by a fake, only later after time the bottle after "maturation" improves. If the main cause of these perceptions was due to psychological perceptions, why does it only happen with some brands and lines? I will give an example, Honor and Glory by Lattafa, has a much much higher incidence of people reporting that it was almost unbearable when they first got it, but after a few weeks, it was beautiful, on the other hand, another perfume by the same brand hardly ever has these reports and is generally always good right out of the box. I have enough perfumes in my collection, and have experienced enough of this effect (in some of the bottles) If I had a emotional / psychological expectation affecting my perception, I would have much more incidences of maturation improving my scents. fact is, about 80% of my middle eastern frags never changed from the first day I got them, but the rest have had anything from minor improvements, to drastic improvements, Khamarah - Lattafa, given the initial hype last year, this one sold out, Lattafa quickly made new batches and released them, I was able to buy one of these new batches, when my box arrived, the bottling date was only 5 weeks or so. I sprayed and it smelled nothing like anyone described, all I was getting was boozy, resin chemical mess, and it only lasted about 4 hours, I kept re trying it over the weeks that passed and noticed it was becoming sweeter and some of the other notes are detectable. today over a year later, this is totally another fragrance, smooth sweet , with those resins, and gourmand notes all detectable, and performance on skin is 12 hours plus. I cannot say what is going on, I am not a perfume chemist, obviously the introduction of air helps improve (SOME) perfumes. all I know is for a fact that something IS happening. and psychology , expectations etc cannot explain away what people are experiencing, people that have had the same perfume, or have a decant, and only affecting some perfumes and not others even from the same brand, kind of rule out the psychological aspect of it all.
Fab thoughts! Thank you! ❤️ I think the problem with samples or another bottle might be that those might be from another batch. I've smelt huge differences with different batches (sample Vs testers in store / used bottles purchased secondhand), but then once you start to wear the new one, you begin to doubt that there was actually any difference. 😂 Of course this could also be the effect of incomplete "maceration", we don't know... I don't doubt that people perceive differences at all, so, somany people talk about fragrances improving, I just think there needs to be some science to show the effects, for example, a mass spec trace over time from spraying the same fragrance would be a fab experiment to see results from and would prove that there were changes, these could then be recapitulated and tested on a control group to see whether people detected differences between the original spray and the later spray. With regard to different fragrances and brands, it could be simply social media, people tend to be persuaded, that's really why advertising is so effective. But of course, also there could be some kind of familiarisation with particular notes or fragrances that make them more palatable over time. We just don't know, but there could be a real effect of "maceration" there too, we just need an effective and controlled experiment. I really hope that someone does one, because I'm super curious to know! 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume I do agree that all the things you mentioned do come into play, of course there are differences in batches, I would also suspect that in some cases, environmental conditions in shipping may also come into play, what if a bottle has gone through extreme temperatures on shipping? also people themselves learn and become better at smelling nuances in their fragrances, over time their noses become trained. in food, some tastes can affect the taste of things you eat afterword's, making some flavors more pronounced others less noticeable, I take all these things into account, and in some cases it is these things that are being experienced. but there are still many instances, and the statistics of it only being true for some perfumes and not others, that lends credence to the maturation effect being true. anyway I appreciate your scientific approach to this phenomena.
Excellent video! I see the words maceration and maturation used interchangeably a lot in the fragrance community. This is an interesting topic and you covered so many points within like what the process might look like from inside the perfume house, and the effects of social media. I have never put away fragrance with the intention of maturation, but can think of several in my collection that have gotten darker, sweeter, or more rich with age. Hypnotic Poison and Addict from Dior, Un Bois Vanille and Ambre Sultan from Serge Lutens are all maturing quite nicely just by me taking my sweet time using them up. 😊
Thank you! I found this really hard to find any information on at all actually, there are a few people trying to explain maceration but no one really says what it is... Talking to perfumers was useful, but ultimately unhelpful when it came to the YT version of maceration. And I think you've hit the nail on the head, there's no need to specifically "do" anything, I think a fragrance will age in your possession without input from the owner. I have some older fragrances, but I don't think I've had anything long enough to smell it noticeably change, I've had my oldest ones between 5-10 years, but I only have a handful that are that old. I've definitely had fragrances with vanilla change colour though, e.g. Aura darkened. And I have older formulations of particular fragrances, e.g Alien and Angel that I treasure, but I didn't have those when they were fresh and young sadly. Thanks for watching 🥰
Where I live, there are small shops that will build you the perfume infront of you (usually really poor quality), and you are instructed to keep the perfume stored in the dark, perhaps in the fridge for no less than 2 weeks, now this is real maceration. Another different situation, since I live in a hot country, if you open and smell the perfume immediately after delivery, and you can feel the bottle is hot, the perfume always smells weird and harsh, in my experience you have to allow it a week or so to rest, and it's a lot smoother and back to resembling what I experienced when I tested it at a store.
I guess fragrance is something that you learn what works for you and you stick with it. I think the debate over how to keep and treat fragrances is something that will continue! Thanks for sharing your experiences and for watching 🥰
I live in Calgary and ordered Gris Dior in December, the day it was delivered to the community mail box we were at a temperature of-45 degrees. By the time I picked it from the mail box it had frozen. I let it defrost 😂 but the colour was weird, the smell was off, such a waste of money.
Thank you! Another timely video, at least it is for me. To be very frank, when I first heard someone say "you need to let a perfume macerate before you judge it," it was about 12 years ago. I was skeptical. I thought it was an excuse, something a perfume seller said to avoid getting a bad review. I have since learned there's more to it than that, but I haven't always been entirely clear what that was.
I'm not sure this video entirely clears it up either sadly 😂 we need an actual experiment with some mass spec traces from sprays from a new bottle at various ageing points to be able to know for sure what is or what isn't going on for definition three. I feel like this is an incredibly divisive topic where there is currently no adequate answer! 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
Claire!!!! I just recorded a video on my conflicting thoughts on macerating a fragrance! Of course not on an educational level more on my complaints 😂😂😂
Yay! I look forward to hearing your views! I always enjoy seeing your experiences. I think you are very, very good at articulating your feelings on fragrances and your reactions to what you've been influenced to buy, and always in such a polite and eloquent way. You need to make more videos Sunny! 🥰
This is a topic near and dear to me as I realized quickly the term we use is not accurate, and I am an ME Frag fan, so it comes up a lot. The first time I heard the term, I thought of chewing or stomping on grapes for wine making... And yet people kept saying get air into the bottle, which sounded like a chemically different process to me than just letting scents marry together with time. After all, it's usually months before you get to a bottle from a manufacturer, which should be plenty of time for fragrances to marry and balance out. I was super skeptical about the idea of "maceration" but every ME fragrance I have had a substantial change for the better. Usually two days makes some weird stuff wearable, two weeks gets you most of the way there, and two months you're getting very diminishing returns in terms of improvement and it's pretty stable scent wise. Because getting air into the bottle was the key, I actually just said oxidation instead of maceration, albeit not to a point of degradation. Is what officially what is happening here? In another life I worked in the vapor industry and eliquid uses flavors from the same houses/companies that do fragrance and also require maturation of the flavors for them to balance out. It's rather uncanny how fresh ME frags are wonky in the same ways as fresh eliquid is. Just way out of balance and weird. (seriously, lemon flavor that hasn't melded yet is exactly the same as the floor cleaner lemon people say Club de Nuit Edt has... It never bothered me one bit likely due to all of the freshly mixed lemon flavored liquid I've vaped over the years) We use the term steeping. There's a variation called 'streathing' which is steeping + breathing, I. E. Letting it marinate with the cap off, and squeezing the bottle to exchange the air periodically, which obviously added another chemical process to the, well, process. Tricks used to quickly steep flavors together for eliquid might seem familiar.... A popular way is to use a shallow panned ultrasonic cleaner with warm water to get those molecules moving and mixing it up. You touched on this in the video - storing and maintaining the aging fragrances is very costly and is a major factor in price differences. That is partially what you pay for with designer! (working on two cases at work involving lawsuits about warehousing of finished goods... It adds a substantial cost to running the business to maintain, staff, and secure a warehouse, and there are tax implications in the US on that as well in terms of inventory. Even if you pay someone else to warehouse it, you're at their mercy and is more costly long term than doing it yourself. ) Stray thoughts - it bugs me when reviewers don't factor in this process when reviewing ME fragrances. I don't have a ton of them, but I guess I have enough to know that evaluation of a fresh bottle alone is kind of dumb knowing it's going to develop a lot in just a couple of weeks. I mean entire notes will be revealed over time and the potency will often level up as well, so why only talk about it when it's in the worse shape it'll ever be? Ideally, we'll talk about it over time to get an idea of where it'll end up. I generally do not wait to wear them, but my rotation is such that enough time will pass before I wear it again to appreciate the improvement. My bottle of Aventus has absolutely 'aged' a little bit since spraying, although that seems apropos for the brand and their reputation. "Fuck it, let's charge $500 usd retail and NOT have it fully ready."
That's really interesting ✨ thank you! I just looked up what solvent is used in e-liquids, apparently it is propylene glycol and glycerol. I bet that does indeed take quite a lot of mixing to get a homogeneous mixture. That industry relies very heavily on flavour and so it must be so important for brands to get that right. Knowledge of these things is going to be critical to a successful product. I agree that storing fragrance prior to and post bottling is going to add large costs too. I have seen people talk about "clearing out atomisers" but I never really understood what they meant with a new fragrance as the atomiser is clear when you first get a fragrance 🙃, I assumed they were referring to introducing oxygen by spraying or perhaps suggesting that the atomiser tubes had some kind of plastic moulding solvent residue left on them? I find the whole lack of explanation in the area really perplexing! I have only ever had 4 new bottles of ME fragrances and I didn't notice any difference in how any smelt after any time period, but maybe I just didn't pay enough attention or the difference wasn't significant enough for me to recognise it as something. You sound like you have a lot of ME fragrances so you probably have more experience in this area. I try never to review a fragrance straight away, I don't think anyone can accurately talk about any fragrance within only a few days and personally, I want to wear it a number of times and get an overall average impression of it. Reviews straight out of the box are just a big no for me. Have a lovely week! 🥰 Thank you for watching!
Your detailed and accurate description of fragrances and process of making them are truly an enhancement to understanding and enjoying my fragrances in a very personalized and special way. Thank you for making my love and passion for fragrances more of a mature enjoyable experience. 👏👏👏👏🏆🥇
The fragrance that I had to seriously attempt to macerate and convinced me that maceration should always be done was Armaf Intense Man Limited Edition because upon opening and spraying it for the 1st time, it literally made me smell like a cigarette Astray. I let it macerate for an entire month and it was a night and day experience. I could easily tell that the smoky nuances blended with the other notes which made it an overall pleasant more harmonious scent. I did extensive testing to ascertain performance, longevity, and smell to be as thorough as possible before I attempted maceration as well as after. Anyone who isn't an advocate of macerating their fragrances is selling themselves short 100%.
Well if leaving it for a month worked for you, then it worked and that's all that matters. Whether it's perception or reality is neither here nor there. What matters is that it's good for you now and that you are enjoying it. I think if people want to spray and leave a fragrance for a month, it's not exactly a lot of effort is it? And if people think it does do something, then they should keep doing it. It's entirely personal choice. Thanks for watching 🥰
Not sure what to reply to the first bit or whether that is meant for me or not, but thank you, I'm happy that you enjoyed the video. I hope I cleared this topic up a bit for everyone. 🥰
Oh I’ve definitely experienced maturation of a few fragrances; mainly Middle Eastern. Nebras really stands out to me because I remember being super let down when I first got it. Nothing like all the descriptions I’d heard. It had barely any presence. Fast forward about six months and it’s a beast. Many ME fragrances are sent straight from production to consumers, and being they are typically lower priced, many people don’t mind the aging process usually. Funny enough, Eilish was very similar to Nebras in both scent and need for maturation in my experience. Eilish now performs quite well. Another one that I adore is Ajmal’s Sacrifice For Her, it too was SO weak at first and now a year later it’s amazing. On the opposite side, I found Blanche Bete SUPER strong when I first received it, but after many months it’s now mellowed nicely..seems smoother and way less beastly. Definitely an interesting topic! I’ve experienced it for sure.
Thank you for your examples! I've only tried Eilish from this list. I think a lot of people have experienced perceiving changes in their fragrances over time if the comments on this video are anything to go by. I feel quite left out in never having experienced this 🤣 thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfumeI also agree about Ajmal Sacrifice as it is ( to my nose ) stronger after 10 months and also lasts so much longer now. I have found quite a few of the vanilla Middle Eastern perfumes and as you mentioned amber perfumes that have improved with time ( again to my nose). Warm regards from Tasmania ❤
I've had one fragrance, cocktail intense. It's an angels share clone. I really disliked it when I tried it the first 5 times. Threw it in a closet for about 4 months. The next time I tried it, the "chemical smell" was gone and I really liked it. So, whatever it did in that closet, I approve.😂
This was interesting to me. I find your explanations clear and cogent. I have unintentionally macerated fragrances - ha ha! I bought Kayali samples and noticed the darkening of Vanilla 28 but TBH still thought it smelled a bit like plastic.
I haven't watched the video yet, but I will say, I have been a fragrance lover for several decades and these things never were an issue: maceration, wearing fragrance in certain seasons, polarizing fragrances. Everything used to smell good, all the time and to everyone... 😂
Haha, yes! It seems social media has made fragrance much more complicated 😂 I absolutely never thought about seasonal fragrance nor whether my fragrance was polarising before YT! 🥰
Hi Claire!!!Excellent video!! So informative and defining!!! You explained everything in detail,so clearly for everyone of us to understand what maceration is! It was like attending a masterclass in perfumery!!!Thank you so much!!!
Thank you ❤️ I really am not sure that definition 3 has enough information. It was a struggle to find any science behind the idea but equally there are arguments the other way too... It's a tricky topic! Thanks for watching 🥰
I do find the current talk of 'maceration' a bit amusing. I think there's a few things at play when people discuss this: 1. Aging. I have a few that have definitely become deeper and longer lasting after a few weeks. I think this also applies to designer/niche when people buy a new bottle of a fragrance they already have and insist that it must be reformulated and now doesn't smell as strong, totally disregarding they've had their last bottle for a couple of years. 2. It's not a fragrance dna they are familiar with and it may not be to their taste initially but, their nose adjusts to it after a few exposures. 3. They try it at a different time of year than it best suits and it's more weather appropriate the next time they test it. 4. It mostly seems to be women who are in the age bracket of having monthly cycles who don't take into account their olfactory senses can change at different times of their cycle.
Yes! I think reformulation is the automatic assumption isn't it? People should probably wait before judging, I guess batch to batch variation might also be significant in some cases. I agree with you that people do need time to familiarise themselves with most things in life to enjoy them, e.g. listening to music is more enjoyable when you know the words, there are probably similar effects with familiarity with fragrance I agree that seasons and hormones also affect our perceptions. I would love to know more about the perceived differences and what they are, real or not! I don't care which the answer is, but I am fascinated 🥰
Congrats on 10K! I've experienced this one two almost three different occasions. The sample smells great, you purchase a full bottle, and then you almost feel scammed when it arrives. A few months later and this weak, watered down, fragrance is 20x stronger. I don't get it.
🤣 it's some kind of unexplainable! I need someone to do a proper study on this!!! I'm desperate to see a mass spec trace to see whether what's in each spray is actually changing! This is some kind of strong belief if it's not actually partially reality... I wish we had more scientific info to explain it, but it's just not out there... I looked! Thanks for watching 🥰
I absolutely loved your video. I knew the terms were incorrect but we know what folks are talking about and the vast majority of us aren’t scientists and perfumery is science or chemistry mixed with art 🧑🎨 I appreciate how you presented this as an essay with your question, then your hypothesis and in the end gave evidence and explanation that your hypothesis that the term aging is actually the correct term! 🎉
Thank you! ❤️ This video was a minefield to make 🤣 Yes I can see if people understand what people mean it's not an issue at all. I guess for me maceration was probably even more definition one than definition two or three 😂
What an amazingly interesting video!! I have only just discovered you...I don't know how you got into my suggestions, but it's been very didactic. Thank you ❤
Our YT fragcomm reference to it, altho I understood what was meant by it (as you so definitively explain here, I.e. aging) has never really sat right with me. Such a great, ‘clean-the-air’ on the subject episode, Claire❤
Thank you ❤️ it's such a complicated topic and it feels like a minefield, I found sources that absolutely deny it's an effect at all as in definition 3 but then others that seem to completely disagree! I don't think this is a debate being solved any time soon! 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
First time I heard “macerate,” all I could think about was putting sugar on strawberries before making strawberry shortcake in the springtime with my mom lol
Thank you for the definition and interesting video. I have few oud oils and some Rasasi cheapies that have improved greatly after being left alone and forgotten about. Yet my more expensive fragrances never improve (not that they need too) just get weaker over time. 🤔
My experience is this: I bought a perfume called Coco alla Vaniglia from a small indie house called Kyse perfumes. At the beginning I remember that the smell was very true to its given name, coco and vanilla. A full on gourmand but not overly sweet and I remembered watching someone said that she was very surprised with this perfume because its lack of sweetness, even though the vanilla note was very prominent to her nose. On the other hand, Cris from the Perfume nest, mentioned that this perfume might only appeal to those with a very very sweet teeth, because she got a comment from someone told her “oh you smell so sweet” but in bad way. At the time, I went to sniff my bottle and it was the perfect amount of sweetness. Months later after letting it sit, I sprayed it and OMG it was an extremely sweet, SYRUPY mess and I despised that level of sweetness. In my case the change in the scent was for the worse.
🤣 haha, yes, wow! That sounds like quite a difference! I guess we can't separate perception here, but it's interesting and would make a good scientific study to try to detect differences in what is in each spray over time. I've not ever tried Kyse, but their fragrances always sound very very sweet from people's descriptions of them. 🍰 🍬 🍭 And how delicious they sound always intrigued me. 🥰
Let you fragrance sit in the right environment in its original box and reduce the air available and it won’t macerate . It’s overly hype because fragrance companies won’t make a dime if you are not worried about maceration
@@sarwarkhan1185 a fragrance will age whatever we do sadly. The time is ticking to expiry from the day it is produced 😢 But yes, reducing UV, humidity and excessive heat will help to maintain it for longer.
This is the first time I've heard of fragrance aging. I had an old bottle of Amber Romance that I bought on eBay. I really like the scent and decided to buy my mom a new one. The new one smelled more synthetic and plastic when I first sprayed it, but a year later I sprayed it again and I noticed that plastic smell was gone. I assumed that my nose had just changed but it didn't occur to me that fragrance aging could be the reason.
Who knows? This is the thing isn't it, in isolation it's hard to tell what's changed. There are a few possibilities here, but either way, I'm happy that you now enjoy the fragrance ☺️ thanks for watching 🥰
I can definitely tell you that a new bottle of Roja Scandal Parfum Cologne didn't smell the same as the previous bottle because I opened it before I finished the old one. After a week or so it was the same.
That's interesting! Was the difference huge initially or was it quite close? I've experienced reasonably big differences, but I think mine were mainly due to batch variation rather than ageing, as Dior use natural sources for some of their florals and they were obtained in different harvests, but as soon as I finish the old bottle I forget how that old batch smelt and readjust quickly to the new batch, like with my Gris Dior sample and bottle of Gris Dior, the sample smelt much more rosy. I guess we'll never know 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
Thank you for another excellent video! Some of my vintage fragrances could be used as chemical mace/pepper-spray;so,I know they have gone through some type of chemical degradation. I have an old bottle of Youth Dew(dark as a cola drink) that could be used as bear-repellant. Also,a small bottle of White Linen that smells strangely ominous. Claire,in addition to your scientist/chemist accomplishments,I think you are also an alchemist. You can take a fairly boring subject and turn it into something fascinating.
Thank you ❤️ and yes! I've had some bad experiences buying vintage fragrances that really haven't been in the best condition. I've managed to get refunds thankfully, but I did just keep a bottle of Marc Jacobs Lola, which I had been searching for as I wore it in my 20s. The top notes aren't the best, but after the first 10 mins it's perfect, so I am tolerant 😂 I remember one bottle of Davidoff Cool Water Woman that I bought in a bundle many years ago, I made the mistake of spraying that inside the house... Wow 😳 it was horrendously off.
Great coverage on the perfumery side of chemically producing a product vs. Colloquial-speak on UA-cam about maceration. Certainly, my older designer and niche perfumes have changed somewhat after a number of years with more and more oxygen introduced into the bottles as I use them up, but not significantly enough to claim it’s better or worse than when I freshly opened them up new. Some are definitely richer and deeper, like my L’Interdit EDP, L’Interdit Rouge, and Guerlain Terracotta, but not necessarily my Carnal Flower that’s been sitting out in the open on my dresser since 2022 (not in direct light). I own 4 ME perfumes and after about a year, don’t detect a significant enough change to claim any benefits of aging at this point. Maybe my nose is deficient 😂, or perhaps my olfactory memory is fleeting and just can’t remember well enough to compare.
Thank you! ❤️ Yes, I can't say my fragrances have changed other than in colour from the ones that I've had from new, some are 5-10 years old now. Those are a relatively small percentage of my collection though! I didn't notice any difference in how the ME fragrances smelt over time for me, but I don't doubt that others perceive differences if they say they do. Really I think I'd like to see some mass spec data to see what's actually happening as fragrances age. I'm sure some fragrance manufacturer somewhere must have done that research... 🧐 Thanks for watching 🥰
Thank you Claire. You say that you can not compare the smell before and after the "maturation". Because you don't know what changed - the perfume or your perception. You are right that the scent memory is a question. I think there is one more thing. Often when you smell the fragrance for the first time, you detect different notes? impressions? than the second, third... time. Even if you don't smell it, your brain is "working" on it. It is like with learning to drive a car - your brain is training even when you don't drive, in your dreams f.ex. May be sometimes it is a "maturation" of your sense of smell?
This is spot on! This is something that I get this all the time! I try fragrances at least three times, the first time I just wear it, the second time I make blind notes, the third time I look at the listed notes and smell again and look at what I've written. Usually between wear one and wear two is where the biggest differences occur for me. I do think that I often have changed perceptions of fragrances and that varies massively depending upon which fragrance it is... Thanks for watching 🥰
Hi Claire, you did a great job of explaining maceration. I enjoyed it. This is my 2nd time watching as I got distracted last time by a phone call… a couple of days ago. I love learning so I appreciate these types of videos. Happy Sunday, Claire. 💐 Mona
I believe what youtubers are referencing with fragrances is oxidized maturarion. This exposes the newly created fragrance mixture to oxygen and helps mix/evaporate the perfumers alcohol. This will allow the fragrance to reflect the smell and performance originally designed. It can improve some more than others based on the quality and volume of additives. The issues typically occur much more often in UAE fragrances where they are rushed to market vs. sitting for a longer period before distribution. This is reflected in price along with quality of ingredients.
I wonder what proportion of the alcohol in the fragrance evaporates within a closed bottle, even after it's been sprayed a few times and there is slightly more air space I would think the proportion would be negligible. Surely the vapour pressure is established pretty quickly and no more alcohol evaporates into the air within the bottle until the next spray replaced more of the space in the bottle with an equivalent volume of air (especially in the small empty space of a nearly full bottle?). There is also already air in the bottle after manufacture, so a certain amount of oxidation can occur from the get go without any need to spray the fragrance. I understand that maceration is the formation of Schiff bases, but why do people report this requiring additional oxygen from spraying for Middle Eastern fragrances? Surely the time from manufacture to shipping and retail is going to be at least 1-2 months and therefore quite a lot of time for this to occur? There are lots of unanswered questions, requiring input from the fragrance houses themselves and perhaps some actual analysis of the fragrances coming out of atomisers over a period of time by a research study. I am quite sure that large fragrance manufacturers, e.g. Givaudan, IFF, Firmeniche will have done this research... We need it sharing. Thanks for watching 🥰
The video I never knew I needed! 🙌 I'd never really thought about this topic at all, beyond that my own fragrances change over time based on what profile they are and how long I've had them. As you know I'm not especially fond of the middle eastern perfumery styles and so it has never been something I have had to think of. Thanks for the deep dive Claire ❤
Well yes, I don't really expect to have to wait to wear something but whenever I don't love a fragrance that I've bought, I will wait several months before decluttering it and actually with affordable Middle Eastern fragrances, I waited for over a year to make sure. I think when I buy a fragrance, I'm excited to wear it, waiting to enjoy it for a few months would be a bit annoying! 🥰
Congratulations on 10k subscribers Claire🥂🎇🥳 Another excellent, well thought out video. How are you going with your perfume tray? I’ve started one too😃🇦🇺
Thank you! ❤️ I have filmed an update but I've been on holiday in France so I've not been around to edit it 😂 I was strict with myself in August and stuck to it. I am trying for another month with some tweaks. How's your tray going? 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume it’s a good idea, although I have deviated from it a couple of times. Weather here has been cold, then a few days of 25C even though it’s winter, so tried a couple of lighter ones. I’m having fun selecting a week’s worth on a Sunday, and it’s making me try ones that might otherwise sit at the back of the cupboard. France, lovely. I look forward to you showing us anything you collected on your travels😃🇦🇺
@@oscardog6719 all I did was visit chateaux and drink wine 🍷 and go canoeing! I'm happy the trays are working out for you and that you've seen some sunshine, even in winter. 🥰
I experienced aging significantly with my bottle of Alien Goddess Intense. I couldn't understand how people were getting vanilla from it compared to my bottle. I actually nearly declutteted it, but tried it again and finally got the vanilla, coconut along with the jasmine! I was quite shocked how much it changed, thankfully for the better.
Thank you Claire. I have never seen your reviews before but you appeared on my feed. Your compelling, objective and detailed work was wonderful to watch. Ultimately perfume is such a subjective medium; the time, the place, the body temperature, your mood all contribute to your perceptions in general and regarding perfumes in particular. “Ageing” seems a better term and I must say that I’ve never experienced this “maceration” other reviewers talk about. Thank you for your work!
Thank you ❤️ I try to take my research skills to answer questions about fragrance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't 😂 I agree with you, I've owned affordable Middle Eastern fragrances even and not experienced any changes that I noticed in how they smelt from the first spray to the one to three years later that I owned them. I don't doubt that others perceive differences though, whatever their causes might be. Thanks for watching 🥰
This reminded me of my bottle of Lalique Solell,when I first got it ,had no recognizable smell to me ,and I almost decluttered it 🤦♀️now I love the smell and use it all the time 🤷♀️ This video was absolutely amazing and there are so many factors of why it does smell different on our skin ? Have a wonderful weekend ❤️
Thank you! I'm happy that Lalique Soleil improved for you. I remember you not being keen on it and then loving it. It would have been a shame to have decluttered it. Thanks for watching Frances 🥰
Great video! Amouage shares the maturation and maceration times of their exceptional extraits fragnances as well. Since the extraits are pretty concentrated and heavy those times are pretty long as well. For example: Interlude 53 - 16 weeks maceration, 8 weeks maturation(aging of the perfume oil without the alcohol added) Reflection 45 - 6 weeks maceration, 10 weeks maturation Jubilation 40 - 8 weeks maceration, 3 weeks maturation
Thank you! ❤️ And thank you for the great info! 😊 It makes you wonder how many different combinations they choose from when deciding doesn't it? It does go some way to explain the pricing too! 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
I’m so glad you made this video. It makes me crazy when I hear UA-camrs saying their perfumes need to “macerate.” It ALSO makes me crazy when they describe some perfumes as “molecular” perfumes because ALL perfumes are molecular. 🤦♀️ Apparently they just parrot what they hear and don’t realize what they are saying. 😂 Great topic as always, Claire! ❤️
I think what they mean is that those "molecular fragrances" are based around ambrox or other fragrance aromachemicals not based on naturally occuring chemicals... So iso E super etc. it's not accurate but very much how those are termed isn't it? I think maceration might be a thing if the fragrance was made very very recently, but if it's been bottled and shipped etc the time in the bottle should already be several weeks to a few months old already, which should have allowed enough time for the fragrance to be ready, even if the fragrance company itself didn't bother to do any kind of incubation of the fragrance. It makes you wonder why these companies don't produce a guide of how to use their fragrances if this is truly a thing... Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume Since many types of perfumes are made of aroma-chemicals, the “molecular” description is just another UA-camr/social media spun term. I think it probably started from people referring to perfumes similar to the brand “Escentric Molecules.” Molecule 01 & 02 were popular and unique, then later when others came out in that style, it turned into “molecular” perfumes. 😂
Hi Claire! I always remember hearing the term maceration back in my 20’s when I watched cooking shows in my every spare moment 😅 ..and how sugar stirred together with fruit causes it to “macerate” or release its juices. And then of course I hear it now all the time on perfume videos! I heard a great explanation of this topic on Tiktok as well! I feel like vanillas get more “vanilla-y” over time as the juice gets darker if that makes sense.. and I’m sure Terracotta changed a lot over the 2 or 3 years I had it, the florals came out ever so much stronger over time and became more indolic (although I didn’t buy a new bottle to compare) 😅
Hi Tammy! Maceration is a term that gets used for lots of things isn't it? I've had a few of my fragrances change colour with time. I think very few of my fragrances are new when I obtain them, so perhaps I've not experienced much change with them? My brand new ME fragrances sadly didn't change from what I could tell from my own perceptions over the 1-3 years that I owned them though. I feel I want to do an experiment and sort out this whole debate 🤣
Hey Claire. What a great topic. Words have meanings and quite often we use words without giving enough thought to how they are used. It would be great if you would be able to interview someone from a fragrance house to get their thoughts.
Thank you ❤️ I have my indie sources but I tend to keep them anonymous, I always feel like I ask them things that they might not want to discuss in public 🤣 but maybe I'm wrong? 🤔 I feel like a fragrance house representative would be so interesting to talk to to discuss their processes! I would love that! 🥰
This probably isn’t a helpful comment, but a fragrance can smell totally different on me, literally, from one day to the next! That’s when I usually think.. I’ve worn this too much … and I put it away for a few weeks and wear something else. Thank you for the video, Claire .., It was informative. I’ve always beeen aware that perfumes ‘age’ but not at all convinced with the YT perception of Maceration 🤔
Yes! This is definitely a thing for me too! Things can smell very different depending upon the weather, what clothes I'm wearing, my mood etc etc. I need to try things several times to be able to get an overall average impression. Thanks for watching 🥰
Thank you for doing this video. I’m a fellow scientist and I’ve always been confused when people say “macerate “ perfumes when I think they mean lightly oxidizing or stabilizing period?!
As someone who has been a wearer and collector of perfumes for 40 plus years I can say I had never heard the term "maceration" or found fragrances to need it until youtube. Yes, the term should be "ageing" I agree, but there definitely seems to be something to it with regard to some, not all, Middle Eastern brands. My experience has been that I purchased a few perfumes that had strange holes in the structure that I could literally not smell and it formed a visual in my mind. I found that changed over time and it was very strange. I also had to send one back for exchange because there was no smell at all and I confirmed with my daughters. The new one was super weak but now I can smell the cap and detect the perfume, and it's strong so it's quite odd. Aroma chemicals used nowadays do strange things to my nose perhaps? One thing I disagree about, is that a persons nose can't recall if a perfume has changed unless they have another to compare to. The human sense of smell is able to detect the tiniest changes in scent and it is very clear when a person smells a reformulated version of a perfume they have worn literally for decades. A good nose can for sure tell a difference when ingredients have been messed with or swapped for others or just changed. I am so glad you have talked about this!
The way you describe it as the holes in the structure and not having much smell initially is exactly how I perceive it (when it's really wonky) , but it will eventually fill in and beef up! I have like 11 ME fragrances at this point, and part of the fun is smelling them daily to see how they change.
@@beaver6d9 Oh, I am glad that you understood what I meant and have had the same experience! I think I only have five Middle Eastern perfumes and some DUA and Alexandria clones as well, but the only perfumes I have ever had these "ageing" or "maturation" issues with have been ME perfumes and only a few at that. Honesty, I prefer my perfumes to arrive ready to go from the first spray, lol :o). I get so excited for a new purchase and it's a major bummer to then have to put it away for weeks.
Thank you ❤️ Ooh! Which brands have you experienced this with? I'm happy that you can now smell all and fully enjoy the fragrances that you have purchased! I think a lot of people have similar experiences from the comments here. For sure, if you really know a fragrance, you will detect changes but I think it's perhaps only really easy to do that if you have a strong memory of how it previously smelt, so having a signature fragrance for many years and then suddenly trying a reformulation is a great example of this. I'm not sure this is always the case when people buy a new fragrance, try it once or twice and put it away for a few weeks and come back to it. I spend a lot of time trying fragrances and I have to try them many, many times to get an overall impression of how I think they smell before I can describe them as to me they can smell different depending upon my mood, how recently I washed, even which clothes I'm wearing and where I spray the fragrance and many, many other factors that I detailed in the video that I linked in this one. Also fragrance perception is to some degree genetic, so it might be that you and your daughters have some similar olfactory genetics and express a similar set of olfactory receptors, meaning that you perhaps have more similar perceptions of fragrances to them than someone unrelated to you. Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume Hi Claire! It's a fascinating topic isn't it? Yes, we all have differing scent perceptions based on our lifes experience, for sure. As an example, I honed my nose in the direction of chypre perfumes as my first perfumes were (a few examples.) Charlie, Halston, Mitsouko, original Miss Dior and a few ambers such as Shalimar. So my baseline is going to be different from a younger perfume enthusiast that started with sweet fruity florals, I love dense animalics and vintage perfumes are my first loves. Now, the whole idea of perfumes changing through deliberate aging is very new to me. I have old perfumes with missing or degraded top notes but for the most part they are intact and lovely still. The M.E. perfume that I smelled empty areas in was Rasasi Quasamat Ebhar. I eventually sold it as it never smelled right to me though it "filled in" over time or my nose adjusted to the new to me aroma chemicals. I immediately shipped back Shaghaf Oud Tonka as it was a terrible chemical mess. I couldn't smell Maison fragrance World Barakkat Gentle Gold at all but the exchanged bottle was super faint and I let it sit and now it's a powerhouse. I also have a Rasasi that I bought a new bottle because it was almost empty I love it so much; Rumz al Rasasi zebra pour elle with the zebra bottle. That new bottle is much better and woodier than the first so that means the first has degraded in the short year I owned it, as it was woodier but to your point, maybe it was never as woody as the second bottle. I went through it in a year. My conclusion is that these less expensive M.E. fragrances do not last as long in the bottle as vintage because of all the aroma chemicals they use perhaps? There are differences in my many vintage versions of my all time love, Mitsouko, but that is to be expected. They are slight. I think everyone is correct. I feel perfumes absolutely do change over time in slight ways but a reformulation is not hard to pick up smell wise if you are familiar with it. Oh, one more comparison. I bought a new 1 oz version of Donna Karan Cashmere Mist and it was so lovely I then picked up a larger vintage bottle and the notes smell different for sure. The dry down is the same but there is either moss in the older one or some note I have smelled in older perfumes. Degraded? I also notice it fades more quickly on a paper strip. Sorry for the length! oxJulia
@@dr.claire.perfume Oh, one more thing. I own about 10 DUAs and as many or more Alexandrias and non of those had to "macerate", which is funny because those are brands the fragrance community insists need to sit and will get better with time. Not my experience but maybe due to the fragrance category I like. I have chypres and a few florals and ones with lots of iris.
Hi. Since I come from a country where people distill alcohol at home (fruit schnapps), I think that's where it comes from. Everyone there knows how the result (taste and smell) changes over time. The same with wine. Some get better as they age, others unfortunately don't.
😂 yep, the home made stuff can be hit and miss. I remember my step mum making lavender sparkling wine and the corks all popping out one day, it was like a shooting gallery 😂 thanks for watching 🥰
As usual, you make so many excellent points! I have quite a big ME collection now, and I have no problem spraying them and letting them sit. Especially when I am paying $30USD for them. Agree - can’t always know for sure if they actually change. And of course there are some flat-out blind buy fails in there too. (Actually, very few! 🙂) Now….if I paid 10 times that for a high-end niche bottle (never gonna happen 😜), I would probably feel differently. Thank you; this is a timely topic for sure Claire 🥰
It's not a biggie is it? Ageing is going to be something that will happen with time... Whether anyone intends it or not 😂 I think you're right that their affordability means that people are happy to wait. ☺️ Hope you have a good week! 🥰
Claire your skin looks amazing. I’m not an expert on maceration which is why I really appreciate this video. It’s quite confusing. I’m going to watch this video again because it’s very informative. I love when you do these videos. Thank you 😊
Thank you ❤️ Yes, I found it very confusing, I've been thinking about this topic for ages and I did ask a few questions to perfumers to be able to sort out the information out there... The thing that puzzles me is how people report changes only a few days after spraying the fragrances the first time when the bottles have been packed and transported to stores and been made 2-3 months before sale. I don't doubt people's perceptions of how things smell to them, but I want to know what's going on! 😂
Claire! This is the second video on your channel that I've watched and this somehow sold me to subscribe you! Your explanation is very technical and I love how you hypothesize at 15:40 as it does make sense! Thankyou for bringing up the fragrance myths topic to the public-I'm looking forward to watch more of you, cheers! :)
Thank you and welcome! ❤️ I think my biggest problem with the "it needs to macerate" argument is what has it been doing since it was bottled? If it's been shipped and then sold retail, even online, it's likely to be at minimum 1-2 months old already. I agree that fragrances age 100% but over slower time periods that a few days to a few weeks after first spraying them as some people report. Thanks for watching 🥰
Great video Claire, thoroughly loved it💯👌✨ it made my mind wander, and I explored thoughts on how the Ancient people would of made an developed their perfumes. To go back in time and see that. 🙂👏
Thank you ❤️ Absolutely! The processes of getting fragrance out of natural substances go from simple to really quite complex, I remember as a child putting lavender and rose petals in oil to use in the bath 😂 I had no idea that was basic perfumery at the time! 🥰
I bought Eclaire from Lattafa. I could barely smell it. I did spray it 5 or 6 times, then just put it on a shelf in a darker room. I checked it weekly. It was getting a bit stronger. Took about 6 weeks until I felt it had enough scent. I didn’t know about shaking it 🤷♀️
I think it's totally up to you! Shaking is something that will, to a small degree, accelerate any changes that might be occurring, as shaking one of the things along with light exposure, heating and introducing oxygen that speeds up degradation of fragrances too.
Absolutely fascinating topic, so informative, TY! I don’t let my perfumes macerate, but I noticed my Kayali Van28 is much darker in color now that it’s almost gone, don’t know that I detect a difference from first sniff to now, I think it’s a gorgeous vanilla either way. ❤
Mostly "influencers" have no idea about anything beside gifted bottle :D maceration never happen after perfume is bottled up. aging/oxidation it's completly different thing, also defferent take when perfume consist more% natural oil than synth and opposite.
Thanks for the video. So after watching I went to test Afnan 9pm that i purchased 2 months ago. When i got the bottle, opened and sprayed it, It smelled almost like nothing, i promise. My kids and wife also tried their best and could hardly smell it. I just sprayed it once and its strong to a point that i wish i didnt spray it as its 3 hours before bed lol I can confirm, for sure, my Afnan 9pm went from smelling like almost nothing, to a strong and projecting perfume
Thanks for sharing your experience! Do you know when the fragrance was manufactured Vs when you purchased it? Do you think the addition of extra air when spraying it for the first time made a difference or do you believe it to simply be the time it's been left sitting? Thanks for watching 🥰
Thank you! And yes, I apologise, it perhaps should be a game 😂 it's hard to make a video about it without using the word as nothing really equates unfortunately 🙈
@@dr.claire.perfume It was used in context so no problem at all Claire💛. You make so many good points ie UA-camrs relying on scent memory alone instead of comparing side by side. I guess that's what makes perfumes such an interesting hobby
I often refer to it as “letting it stew”. I’m not skilled in being able to pick-out and identify many different notes, but I am good at knowing if a bottle that’s been sitting smells better after awhile. I can think of two, right away, that seemed to come to life only after “stewing”. Both are dupes: Better Peach (Al Haramain maybe, but a dupe of Bitter Peach) and it took about 9 months for me to even smell the peach. The other was Miss Independent (Juliana’s Perfume’s dupe of Princess), which took a few months. But some absolutely change with a bit of time, others don’t. But then again - maybe my nose is wonky 🤷♀
Wow! Months to smell the peach?! With a dupe of Bitter Peach... that indeed sounds like a problem! Happy that it worked out after a while 🙂 I think that's it's really hard to tell sometimes, I have no idea what's perception and what's real and to some extent with fragrance, does it matter? As long as we enjoy it, it's all good 😊
@@dr.claire.perfume I definitely think it matters when it comes to “influencers”, but there’s a lot of subjectiveness too. And yes - with the Better Peach it took that many months, yet with a sample of Julianna’s Perfume’s dupe of Bitter Peach I could smell it right away. Again - maybe it’s my nose.
@@katiejon17 yes I guess if people are basing purchasing decisions on shared opinions then it does matter. Fragrance is ultimately so subjective isn't it? Btw I absolutely love the name Better Peach 🍑 😂 for some reason!
Great video!! All the talk about maceration has been so confusing to me because at the end of the day it just means that the product is sold without being stabile enough to offer consistency! I feel like the current maceration trend really boosts perfume hoarding and for people not to dismiss a fragrance at initial sniffs but instead keep disappointing scents in their stash in the hope of it magically transforming into something better one day...
Well yes! I find it perplexing as to how it can be a consistent product for the consumer? And to your second point, if you say you don't like an affordable Middle Eastern fragrance on YT and say you are decluttering it, people still say let it macerate after you've already had it 1-3 years as I had mine 🤣 personally I didn't have the experience of any of them changing to a noticeable degree, but I don't doubt what others perceive, whatever the reason that might be. I agree with you, a mediocre or disliked fragrance seems unlikely to become wonderful to you. Thanks for watching 🥰
Yes, what people describe as maceration is actually maturation. I think it does make a bit of difference, especially when there is vanilla in a fragrance. However what I think is more impactful is the initial 2-3 weeks after you first get a fragrance and letting it sit still and untouched after spraying it out a few times. There are some aroma chemicals that impact the smell of a fragrance after it's come from being shipped or purchased, the box has been moved and shaken a lot during transit so it just won't smell right when you first spray it after this. It will always smell better a few days later when everything has 'settled' and I find this is especially true when there is white musk in a fragrance as the musk takes over when it hasn't settled. My first experience with this was with Lancome La Nuit Tresor Musk Diamante and I first sprayed it and the musk was so over powering and I couldn't smell any hint of the La Nuit Tresor that people described was in there. I was disgusted. I let it sit maybe 2 months and dared to try it again and it smelled very different and it was now a beautiful mix of the musk and the original. So yes, allowing it to sit really does help a fragrance.
I've often wondered about the maceration videos I've watched. The term "priming" has also been used. A fragrance wouldn't be bottled and sold, especially from a high-end house, if it weren't ready to be worn as soon as it is unpackaged, at least that is what I thought. Knowing, too, that oxygen ages perfume, causes it to oxidize which changes the smell (and maybe color), "macerating" would only shorten a fragrance's life. Some perfumes contain an antioxidant to help deter oxidization from general use of the bottle when oxygen can get in it. This is a great video. Thank you.
Loved your video and appreciate the way you articulated your thoughts & research findings…I believe most people intend to say ageing but end up using the word maceration..to answer your question I have bought quite a few Middle Eastern perfumes which are inspired by designers and niche houses and can say that the process of ageing definitely helps as usually due to the pressure created in the bottle as a result of transportation perfumes smell different initially & improve both in terms of smell & performance after allowing it to age..and allowing the oxidation of the juice…another problem I believe is due to the high demand a lot of Middle Eastern houses do skip this process…Cheers….
Thank you! ❤️ Do you mean there are pressure increases in the fragrances as a result of air freight? I would doubt that air freight is used for fragrances but cargo holds are also pressurised on aircraft since the temperature there would drop to -40oC if not. Maybe do you mean as a result of the shaking of the fragrance? Would that change the pressure? I think perhaps it would mix the fragrance and speed up any reactions that were going on, e.g. oxidation with the air already in the bottle, but I don't imagine a pressure change, unless there are chemical reactions going on within the bottle that generate additional pressure, is that what you mean? I can imagine that most ME houses do cut maceration to the bear minimum to simply dissolving the oils in the alcohol, but simply the length of time until bottling, packing, transport and sale and receipt by the customer is still likely to be 1-2 months at minimum. I would think that would be enough time for the fragrance to be stable and done generating Schiff bases etc in maceration. So why do we need to oxidise the fragrance further when we are all told that oxidation is harmful to fragrances' lifetimes and also there is oxygen already in the remaining air space volume of the bottle, so why do a few sprays make a difference? There are many unanswered questions here and this debate needs some more perfumers to step in ☺️ (a few have already commented here much to my delight). Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume appreciate your response..I have observed for almost all my ME perfumes that this is the case…for instance Armaf Club De Nuit Intense smells like citrus, birch and musk for the first few sprays then for a couple of months smells like citrus and chalk (actually like chalk used for writing on a black board) and after at least 3-6 months of storing in a dark place it changes and starts smelling like the actual intended smell…I have an old bottle that smells how it is supposed to and a new one about a month old which smells like citrus and chalk…have also noticed that the performance improves over a period of time…performance is a very big factor for us living in India as we mostly experience extremely hot & humid weather conditions and hence designer fragrance generally don’t last unless one is in an temperature controlled environment…the phenomenon I mentioned holds true for a number of fragrances I own made by these Middle Eastern houses like Armaf, Afnan, Ahmed Al Maghribi, Lattafa etc…I second your point, experienced perfumers need to intervene & help us solve our doubts…Cheers…
CDNI is a huge success story isn't it? I'm happy it evolves into something you love over time. I really liked the female marketed version of CDNI when I sampled it, I love Noir de Noir, and I know it's a little different but it's still a very nice fragrance!
What a brilliant video! (Like all of yours!) I have been into perfume for decades and this term/concept was totally new for me, as was the term "travel shock". I did notice that some heavy based perfumes, as you mentioned, do smell better with age (to me). Well, perhaps the term "richer" might better apply. I fell down the Dua rabbit hole for discontinued and overly expensive perfumes. This company's fan base swear by maceration, but almost all my selections were quite nice out of thr gate.
Thank you ❤️ Yes! I've seen Dua mentioned a lot with maceration! I think it's a big thing for their customers in general. I don't really understand why maceration is something that needs to happen again after spraying, fragrances sit in bottles for significant periods of time prior to sale, along with oxygen from the air, and are shaken up by transportation... I find the concept perplexing 🙃 thanks for watching 🥰
Great video Claire. With regard to getting some air in the bottle and then letting the fragrance sit for a period of time for it to improve and get stronger, isn’t due to maceration, but instead, is due to alcohol evaporation? That might be a better term to use?
Thank you ❤️ personally I don't believe there will be significant alcohol evaporation as the vapour pressure will be established in the air within the bottle quickly and at that point, no more alcohol will evaporate within the bottle, nor escape in significant amounts until the fragrance is sprayed. Thanks for watching 🥰
I think people generally put way more value on their personal experiences than they should. Of course, the main thing that should matter to you is your personal experience and improving it, but unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. People often take it upon themselves to then disseminate their views as factual or gospel. You’re right in that what most people call “maceration” at home is simply oxidation/aging. And like you said, I think it sometimes can have a noticeable effect. Don’t forget that sometimes people buy duplicate bottles, maybe even from the same batch, and therefore can semi-scientifically compare an oxidized vs non-oxidized bottle. I myself have done that and noticed differences between them. However, as for it being “better” or “longer lasting” the lines are a bit blurrier. I think oxidation can change the ratio of the note pyramid, which has the illusion of changing the longevity and scent profile. For actual longevity, that would require significant evaporation to change the alcohol concentration. That only happens towards the end of a bottles’s volume, and is certainly not happening after 10 sprays, a swish, and 4 weeks in the cupboard. I think there’s a great deal of misinformation, indoctrination, placebo, and overvalued unscientific personal experience. And like you said I don’t think what’s done at home is maceration/maturing… it’s definitely just aging/oxidation/intentional expiration 😂
Thank you ❤️ For me, short term change (over days, weeks, a few months) is something I've not experienced. I do however think that fragrance can change as it ages over the years that it can take to use up a bottle, however the change is so gradual, that I'm not sure I'd notice it without some kind of side by side comparison. I agree with you that people take their personal experiences to be the absolute truth, and on YT, that's dangerous because if that person is persuasive, whatever they say spreads. Thanks for watching 🥰
I really appreciate an honest informative and scientific breakdown to cut through so much of the consumerism bs. The influencer and TikTok ignorant stuff drives me bonkers. I do know though that I did NOT care for Bianco Latte at all when I got my sample decant, it was plasticy and synthetic smelling and eh, same for Borabora. Months later I came back to Bianco Latte and it was a different beast entirely. I love it now. It still has that element from before but way subdued. I decided to give Borabora another try after that shocker, I mean it did smell better but not something I love. I think that house for me will have that plasticy synthetic feel and thats okay, I do enjoy Celeste, just got that. The longevity on BL and BB both improved too, and at the time (about 6 months ago) I was dubious of all this maceration lark and thought maybe it was this house, maybe it was a rush job idk. But I super appreciate this video thank you ❤
Yes! I agree with Giardini Di Toscana, but I only tried Bianco Latte, it smelt more on the synthetic side (what I mean is that it didn't smell very natural, but of course very few fragrances are actually natural, but still can smell natural). Maybe it's a real effect? Maybe they'd rushed the fragrance to market and not let it sit at all? Maybe It was so popular that they skipped something? It makes me wonder how little fragrance companies care if so, but it could be... What I really doubt is large change over small time periods, even days after first spraying the fragrance as some people report. That to me seems unlikely.. Thanks for watching 🥰
Claire, if you haven't tried any fragrances by Maison Alhambra, you've got to!! Their dupes are excellent and they've only just released a dupe for Burberry Goddess. It's called Athena and it's wonderful. (My favorite from the house is Delilah. Dupe of Delina.) 💜
I think Maison Alhambra is a Lattafa offshoot isn't it? I can't say Lattafa has been for me with the 3 I've owned and others I've sampled, but I've not tried any from the Maison Alhambra subsidiary. I won't blind buy, but if they are available at my local fragrance stall (I most recently tried Swiss Arabian Shaghaf Oud Tonka) I will give some a spritz. 🥰
Yes I’ve done the maceration process with my Middle Eastern fragrances with the same exception of putting them back in the box. Yara and Nebras both smelled better to me and stronger with time. The same for Kayali Yum Pistachio. Maybe aging is the better term.
Yes, it's just ageing isn't it? If you have a larger collection, simple rotations of what you choose to wear each day give the fragrances time to sit. I'm happy that they smelt better to you over time, thanks for sharing which fragrances improved for you with ageing. 🥰
I wouldn't call it maceration myself but I do and have let some of my fragrances sit and they have improved longevity and scent profile with time. I think fragrances that are more base heavy with heavier ingredients like, Vanilla, Orris, Oud, patchouli etc... are more likely to improve rather than something with fresher ingredients like your citruses imo
Yes! Base heavy fragrances for sure are the ones I would expect to not just go off with ageing, unlike citrus. I think letting them age over a longer time period will eventually change how they smell, but I haven't personally experienced any dramatic changes in the short term with any fragrance that I've owned. I know that's not everyone's experience though. I would someone to do some proper research on this! 🥰
Years ago, before this was a thing I noticed this with a middle-eastern fragrance I got - Lattafa Raghba On the box, there was a production date, which at that time was only 3-4 months ago... When I opened it and sprayed it, it smelled like an airy vanilla with a musky undertone (kinda like cat urine)... It was nothing like the sample I got prior to me buying this scent - which was a dark-chocolate-vanilla-boozy-smoky fragrance.. I was disappointed and left it on the shelf, not thinking about it for months as I had a few other fragrances to wear back then... A few months later, the cat urine smelled almost disappeared entirely and it got a bit of that chocolate-boozy-smoky aspect from the sample I got... That's when I got the idea of leaving a fragrance to sit after spraying it... This was in 2014-2015 if I recall correctly.. I KNOW ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID REGARDING FRAGRANCE MEMORY and that the human brain is not that reliable , but when the difference is that big, you will clearly notice it... Fast-forward to nowadays, I have it and it smells wonderful - same bottle (about 20ml less - that's how much I was able to wear of it with a growing collection) I wanted to give this example because Lattafa Raghba kept me from buying SDV by Guerlain.. I have 2 2ml samples of the Guerlain fragrance and, even though it is clearly better when you compare them side-by-side, for me , as a wearing experience, it is the same (and the Lattafa performs better for me) Hope this helped! Take care!
That's really interesting! Yes, a cat pee smell is something you are going to notice and also notice when it is no longer there! 😂 I recently tried a sample of something that gave me horrendous cat pee vibes, maybe I should go back to it in a few months and try it again? I wonder what it was in Raghba that made it smell like that?! Well that likely saved you a few £100. Raghba was one of the very early successes wasn't it? I remember the hype was still about when I started to make videos. I almost bought it too! Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume Yes, it has that same vibe as SDV as I mentioned (NOW at least)... That cat pee smell I think is the musk... You can even find it in some designer fragrances - the ones that sell well and that producers rush to the market... Here's the thing - we discuss this as fragrance enthusiasts, but your average person will take a wiff and say "this is crap" and won't come back to it like we do...
I have had this experience with ’maceration’ . I bought Lattafa’s TERIAQ. When I first initially smelt it, it was very weak and I wasn’t getting any of the notes mentioned. Especially the sweet ones. My daughter seemed to be able to pick up the notes. So I did what you were talking about….I shook it up, emptied the spray straw and let it sit for a week. Suddenly, I could smell what everybody else was talking about on UA-cam reviews.
@@dr.claire.perfume Yes… but I’m not entirely convinced that it changed. I find that fragrances will smell different to me in the morning than they do in the afternoon or evening. Hey ! Maybe that would be a topic for you, unless you’ve already done that and I missed it…. Do our scent receptors work differently throughout the day? Hmmm 🤔
Yes, I think our sense of smell will be better when the air is damper, so at dusk it is likely to be better (at least in the summer in the UK, like now) or any other time when there is high humidity. 🥰
I do think my Miss Dior that I’ve had for like 15 years smells much better than the new one. I only have a few drops left but I can’t throw it out. I have the new one that just came out and it’s just not the same at all. My old bottle the juice is dark the new is pink. Maybe the new one will age?
Miss Dior was reformulated to a completely different fragrance in 2012, 2017 and then again in 2021, so if the fragrances are from between different periods within those years, the ingredients will be quite different. The old 2012 (which I have, is a more rose based Coco mademoiselle style fragrance). I hope that helps! 🥰
Hi Claire,
thank you for this very detailed explanation. To me as a chemist and artesanal perfumer there is, once the perfume is bottled, absolutely NO maceration any more. Only maturation and degradation. Maceration refers, as you described, to the process when raw materials are mixed to a perfume oil (which usually is shipped into the destination country) and maybe, when dissolved into ethanol (which often happens in the destination country), before filtering. After the filtering process, there can't be any further maceration, as there are no solids anymore you could "extract" substances from. To my understanding, maceration is a purely physical process.
Maturation therefore is a chemical process. Chemically unstable substances like Aldehydes, Ketones, Amines etc. are changing their chemical structure, especially when Ethanol and Water al solvents are involved. This kickstarts maturation. The perfume changes its scents profile within hours to months until a chemical equilibrium, depending on the formula, is reached. Maturation is a purely chemical process to my understanding.
Also, as you said, degradation starts, accelerated with the introduction of oxygen, heat, humidity and UV-Light (some people just misshandle a perfume and miss-call it "maceration" after, pretending it's something good they did). Usually the top notes disappear first and some of the materials might become an off smell. For example Hedione, a material used very often and in huge quantities in perfumers, can evolve some notes that remember you of expired milk. Also degradation is a chemical process.
On the other hand, materials like Sandalwood (real sandalwood, not sandalwood aroma chemicals), Patchouli or Vetiver just are getting better with aging. So, a perfume with a lot of those materials might smell richer after "overaging", but most certainly other components are evaporated or decomposed until then and certainly the perfume won't reproduce the artistic idea anymore, it was made for. But hey, when it still smells good or even better to one's nose? One thing certain, that has nothing to du with actual maceration.
Thanks for the informative video! And I am very impressed, as you have hundreds of comments and so far I see, replied to all of them! Chapeau!
Thank you so much for your comment! It's very interesting to read. I am particularly interested by your comments on hedione; are there any other aromachemicals which you think really don't benefit from over-ageing? E.g. are chemicals such as ambrox, cashmeran and iso E super extremely stable? Also, what about the synthetic oud accords and saffron used in many affordable Middle Eastern fragrances? Thanks for watching 🥰
Hi! It's very interesting, thanks🎉. This summer is very hot in my country (France) and I tested a perfume at sephora. Few moment later, a strange yellow color appeared exactly where I sprayed. A yellow oily thing. Is this because of the heat? Or a problem with the tester, overused or something?
You are taking perfume love to whole different level. I so appreciate your educational efforts on the perfume industry.❤️
Thank you! ❤️ I try, but sadly sometimes information is somewhat lacking still! Some things we just don't know. 🥰
Whether it’s maturation or maderation vanilla perfumes really get better and richer with age. I don’t think that’s a myth perpetuated by people on social media. I’ve experienced it myself.
They for sure get darker and I think lots of people perceive vanilla as being a note in fragrance that improves over the long term. Thanks for watching 🥰
vanillin darkens as it oxidizes, but i’m unsure if it actually affects the smell of it and it’s perfume.
It’s absolutely massive. I’ve found, and it just means leaving it alone for 3 or 4 months - at least. With cheapies you can’t rely on it being ready to wear, especially mid easterns. The difference can be absolutely black and white. I mess around with making perfume also - and it absolutely needs maceration. Freshly mixed oils usually smells confused. I usually chuck a bit in a sprayer to test it, but am aware that it’s going to improve greatly over time. Don’t underestimate maceration. It’s a must.
Ooh what type of fragrance do you normally make? Do you stop at mixing oils or do you dilute with alcohol? Thanks for sharing your experiences. 🥰
This has always been a big bugbear of mine and it is becoming increasingly annoying. 😂 but people like to sound like they “know what they are talking about”, and what better way than to adopt a bit of jargon. Great video Claire.
Thank you! This was actually pretty hard to find much valid information on, especially for the third definition. Someone needs to mass spec some different time point sprays from a bottle and see if there is a difference and how big it is. Hope you are well. 🥰
Thanks Claire! Very interesting. Jax beautiful you explained something similar. Basically that when reviewers use the term maceration they really mean oxidation. And I definitely prefer your term of just "aging". I only own 1 ME fragrance and it didn't change in my opinion. What I do like is that some reviewers just receive the ME fragrance, spray it, let it sit & then review it. Giving it time to age before ever telling us their opinion. Thanks for the all the detailed information you provided!
Thank you ❤️ My 4 didn't change either (from what I can judge and remember, which might not be that accurate as it's not a direct comparison) and I kept them between well over a year and three years.
I think giving an opinion after a few months with any fragrance is always going to be a much better review. That's not ever going to be the case with new releases though, everyone wants to be first for views. It's good when people do circle back though. 🥰
I remember first hearing the word macerate regarding perfume. I looked it up and it didn’t seem to be a match to what they were saying. I thought marinate was a better word. That still isn’t exactly the word. You’re right in saying the aging process. I bought an 8 ml decant of the now discontinued Bottega Veneta edp. So many influencers raved about it some years back. I was disgusted. It smelled like furniture polish. I would continue to go smell it again as it made yet another influencer’s top perfume list. Around 2 years later it smelled exquisite, expensive and downright regal. That was the first scent I experienced that with, but not the last.👃
I have Bottega Veneta EDP too! I bought a partially used bottle (actually two) so I can't compare my experience with yours as it wasn't new when I bought it. I think it's a beautiful fragrance too!
Thanks for watching and sharing your experience 🥰
Wow that is so awesome to hear, I would love to know what other perfumes you might of experienced this with
@@user-uv9fd9dq5g I have never had a fragrance significantly evolve from time of purchase other than one that went off towards the end of the bottle... I sped up my usage of it as the top notes weren't quite right. It was DKNY Be Delicious. I do buy a lot of my fragrance (apart from Middle Eastern fragrances because they are so affordable) secondhand though.
It would be interesting to “macerate” a perfume, buy the same perfume and compare. there would be factors such as batch differences that might affect the smell but if the “maceration” process truly works, a significant difference should be detectable. Time to experiment Dr. Claire! ❤
Yes, I would think batch variation might be quite a big factor. What I don't understand is that there is oxygen in the bottles at the time of packaging anyway 🤔 you'd think it would age whether it had been sprayed or not? I guess this is the unanswerable debate 😂
@@dr.claire.perfume I don't understand that spraying at the beginning before letting it age. I have a fragrance I bought maybe 20 years ago that is refillable. So, I opened it and soon afterwards the scent changed, I didn't like it. Therefore, most fragrance bottles now almost impossible to open.
@@wicker1234 yes for me, oxidation ruins fragrances because it degraded them, you definitely wouldn't want an open bottle of fragrance, if that's what you mean? I would never deliberately shake my fragrances (apart from for this video) or leave them in sunlight either. It's just not how I would treat fragrances if I want them to be in the best condition for the longest time. 🥰
A lot of points to cover, and I want to start out by going to some comments you made towards the end of your video, regarding the "not have another to compare with" this is not always true, some people will use up a bottle and when it dries they buy another of the same, and often get comments that they believe their favorite fragrance has been reformulated or watered down, but after some time it returns smelling and performing like the one they had previously.
We also have people that are familiar with the fragrance because of a decant they bought, and then they order the same fragrance and think they have been scammed by a fake, only later after time the bottle after "maturation" improves.
If the main cause of these perceptions was due to psychological perceptions, why does it only happen with some brands and lines? I will give an example, Honor and Glory by Lattafa, has a much much higher incidence of people reporting that it was almost unbearable when they first got it, but after a few weeks, it was beautiful, on the other hand, another perfume by the same brand hardly ever has these reports and is generally always good right out of the box.
I have enough perfumes in my collection, and have experienced enough of this effect (in some of the bottles) If I had a emotional / psychological expectation affecting my perception, I would have much more incidences of maturation improving my scents. fact is, about 80% of my middle eastern frags never changed from the first day I got them, but the rest have had anything from minor improvements, to drastic improvements, Khamarah - Lattafa, given the initial hype last year, this one sold out, Lattafa quickly made new batches and released them, I was able to buy one of these new batches, when my box arrived, the bottling date was only 5 weeks or so. I sprayed and it smelled nothing like anyone described, all I was getting was boozy, resin chemical mess, and it only lasted about 4 hours, I kept re trying it over the weeks that passed and noticed it was becoming sweeter and some of the other notes are detectable. today over a year later, this is totally another fragrance, smooth sweet , with those resins, and gourmand notes all detectable, and performance on skin is 12 hours plus.
I cannot say what is going on, I am not a perfume chemist, obviously the introduction of air helps improve (SOME) perfumes. all I know is for a fact that something IS happening. and psychology , expectations etc cannot explain away what people are experiencing, people that have had the same perfume, or have a decant, and only affecting some perfumes and not others even from the same brand, kind of rule out the psychological aspect of it all.
Fab thoughts! Thank you! ❤️
I think the problem with samples or another bottle might be that those might be from another batch. I've smelt huge differences with different batches (sample Vs testers in store / used bottles purchased secondhand), but then once you start to wear the new one, you begin to doubt that there was actually any difference. 😂 Of course this could also be the effect of incomplete "maceration", we don't know...
I don't doubt that people perceive differences at all, so, somany people talk about fragrances improving, I just think there needs to be some science to show the effects, for example, a mass spec trace over time from spraying the same fragrance would be a fab experiment to see results from and would prove that there were changes, these could then be recapitulated and tested on a control group to see whether people detected differences between the original spray and the later spray.
With regard to different fragrances and brands, it could be simply social media, people tend to be persuaded, that's really why advertising is so effective. But of course, also there could be some kind of familiarisation with particular notes or fragrances that make them more palatable over time. We just don't know, but there could be a real effect of "maceration" there too, we just need an effective and controlled experiment. I really hope that someone does one, because I'm super curious to know! 😂
Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume I do agree that all the things you mentioned do come into play, of course there are differences in batches, I would also suspect that in some cases, environmental conditions in shipping may also come into play, what if a bottle has gone through extreme temperatures on shipping? also people themselves learn and become better at smelling nuances in their fragrances, over time their noses become trained. in food, some tastes can affect the taste of things you eat afterword's, making some flavors more pronounced others less noticeable, I take all these things into account, and in some cases it is these things that are being experienced. but there are still many instances, and the statistics of it only being true for some perfumes and not others, that lends credence to the maturation effect being true. anyway I appreciate your scientific approach to this phenomena.
Yes, I do think this whole subject warrants further investigation! This is far from solved or clear! Thank you 🥰
Excellent video! I see the words maceration and maturation used interchangeably a lot in the fragrance community. This is an interesting topic and you covered so many points within like what the process might look like from inside the perfume house, and the effects of social media.
I have never put away fragrance with the intention of maturation, but can think of several in my collection that have gotten darker, sweeter, or more rich with age. Hypnotic Poison and Addict from Dior, Un Bois Vanille and Ambre Sultan from Serge Lutens are all maturing quite nicely just by me taking my sweet time using them up. 😊
Thank you! I found this really hard to find any information on at all actually, there are a few people trying to explain maceration but no one really says what it is... Talking to perfumers was useful, but ultimately unhelpful when it came to the YT version of maceration. And I think you've hit the nail on the head, there's no need to specifically "do" anything, I think a fragrance will age in your possession without input from the owner.
I have some older fragrances, but I don't think I've had anything long enough to smell it noticeably change, I've had my oldest ones between 5-10 years, but I only have a handful that are that old. I've definitely had fragrances with vanilla change colour though, e.g. Aura darkened. And I have older formulations of particular fragrances, e.g Alien and Angel that I treasure, but I didn't have those when they were fresh and young sadly. Thanks for watching 🥰
Where I live, there are small shops that will build you the perfume infront of you (usually really poor quality), and you are instructed to keep the perfume stored in the dark, perhaps in the fridge for no less than 2 weeks, now this is real maceration.
Another different situation, since I live in a hot country, if you open and smell the perfume immediately after delivery, and you can feel the bottle is hot, the perfume always smells weird and harsh, in my experience you have to allow it a week or so to rest, and it's a lot smoother and back to resembling what I experienced when I tested it at a store.
I guess fragrance is something that you learn what works for you and you stick with it. I think the debate over how to keep and treat fragrances is something that will continue! Thanks for sharing your experiences and for watching 🥰
I live in Calgary and ordered Gris Dior in December, the day it was delivered to the community mail box we were at a temperature of-45 degrees.
By the time I picked it from the mail box it had frozen. I let it defrost 😂 but the colour was weird, the smell was off, such a waste of money.
@@RaeRoseM gosh! Did you keep it and see whether it improved or just toss it?
Thank you! Another timely video, at least it is for me. To be very frank, when I first heard someone say "you need to let a perfume macerate before you judge it," it was about 12 years ago. I was skeptical. I thought it was an excuse, something a perfume seller said to avoid getting a bad review. I have since learned there's more to it than that, but I haven't always been entirely clear what that was.
I'm not sure this video entirely clears it up either sadly 😂 we need an actual experiment with some mass spec traces from sprays from a new bottle at various ageing points to be able to know for sure what is or what isn't going on for definition three. I feel like this is an incredibly divisive topic where there is currently no adequate answer! 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
Claire!!!! I just recorded a video on my conflicting thoughts on macerating a fragrance! Of course not on an educational level more on my complaints 😂😂😂
Yay! I look forward to hearing your views! I always enjoy seeing your experiences. I think you are very, very good at articulating your feelings on fragrances and your reactions to what you've been influenced to buy, and always in such a polite and eloquent way. You need to make more videos Sunny! 🥰
This is a topic near and dear to me as I realized quickly the term we use is not accurate, and I am an ME Frag fan, so it comes up a lot. The first time I heard the term, I thought of chewing or stomping on grapes for wine making... And yet people kept saying get air into the bottle, which sounded like a chemically different process to me than just letting scents marry together with time. After all, it's usually months before you get to a bottle from a manufacturer, which should be plenty of time for fragrances to marry and balance out.
I was super skeptical about the idea of "maceration" but every ME fragrance I have had a substantial change for the better. Usually two days makes some weird stuff wearable, two weeks gets you most of the way there, and two months you're getting very diminishing returns in terms of improvement and it's pretty stable scent wise.
Because getting air into the bottle was the key, I actually just said oxidation instead of maceration, albeit not to a point of degradation. Is what officially what is happening here?
In another life I worked in the vapor industry and eliquid uses flavors from the same houses/companies that do fragrance and also require maturation of the flavors for them to balance out.
It's rather uncanny how fresh ME frags are wonky in the same ways as fresh eliquid is. Just way out of balance and weird. (seriously, lemon flavor that hasn't melded yet is exactly the same as the floor cleaner lemon people say Club de Nuit Edt has... It never bothered me one bit likely due to all of the freshly mixed lemon flavored liquid I've vaped over the years)
We use the term steeping. There's a variation called 'streathing' which is steeping + breathing, I. E. Letting it marinate with the cap off, and squeezing the bottle to exchange the air periodically, which obviously added another chemical process to the, well, process.
Tricks used to quickly steep flavors together for eliquid might seem familiar.... A popular way is to use a shallow panned ultrasonic cleaner with warm water to get those molecules moving and mixing it up.
You touched on this in the video - storing and maintaining the aging fragrances is very costly and is a major factor in price differences. That is partially what you pay for with designer! (working on two cases at work involving lawsuits about warehousing of finished goods... It adds a substantial cost to running the business to maintain, staff, and secure a warehouse, and there are tax implications in the US on that as well in terms of inventory. Even if you pay someone else to warehouse it, you're at their mercy and is more costly long term than doing it yourself. )
Stray thoughts - it bugs me when reviewers don't factor in this process when reviewing ME fragrances. I don't have a ton of them, but I guess I have enough to know that evaluation of a fresh bottle alone is kind of dumb knowing it's going to develop a lot in just a couple of weeks. I mean entire notes will be revealed over time and the potency will often level up as well, so why only talk about it when it's in the worse shape it'll ever be? Ideally, we'll talk about it over time to get an idea of where it'll end up.
I generally do not wait to wear them, but my rotation is such that enough time will pass before I wear it again to appreciate the improvement.
My bottle of Aventus has absolutely 'aged' a little bit since spraying, although that seems apropos for the brand and their reputation. "Fuck it, let's charge $500 usd retail and NOT have it fully ready."
That's really interesting ✨ thank you!
I just looked up what solvent is used in e-liquids, apparently it is propylene glycol and glycerol. I bet that does indeed take quite a lot of mixing to get a homogeneous mixture. That industry relies very heavily on flavour and so it must be so important for brands to get that right. Knowledge of these things is going to be critical to a successful product.
I agree that storing fragrance prior to and post bottling is going to add large costs too.
I have seen people talk about "clearing out atomisers" but I never really understood what they meant with a new fragrance as the atomiser is clear when you first get a fragrance 🙃, I assumed they were referring to introducing oxygen by spraying or perhaps suggesting that the atomiser tubes had some kind of plastic moulding solvent residue left on them? I find the whole lack of explanation in the area really perplexing!
I have only ever had 4 new bottles of ME fragrances and I didn't notice any difference in how any smelt after any time period, but maybe I just didn't pay enough attention or the difference wasn't significant enough for me to recognise it as something. You sound like you have a lot of ME fragrances so you probably have more experience in this area.
I try never to review a fragrance straight away, I don't think anyone can accurately talk about any fragrance within only a few days and personally, I want to wear it a number of times and get an overall average impression of it. Reviews straight out of the box are just a big no for me.
Have a lovely week! 🥰 Thank you for watching!
Wow. Your viewpoint was phenomenal.
Your detailed and accurate description of fragrances and process of making them are truly an enhancement to understanding and enjoying my fragrances in a very personalized and special way. Thank you for making my love and passion for fragrances more of a mature enjoyable experience. 👏👏👏👏🏆🥇
Thank you ❤️ it's lovely to read that you are enjoying my videos, it makes them worth making. 🥰
The fragrance that I had to seriously attempt to macerate and convinced me that maceration should always be done was Armaf Intense Man Limited Edition because upon opening and spraying it for the 1st time, it literally made me smell like a cigarette Astray. I let it macerate for an entire month and it was a night and day experience. I could easily tell that the smoky nuances blended with the other notes which made it an overall pleasant more harmonious scent. I did extensive testing to ascertain performance, longevity, and smell to be as thorough as possible before I attempted maceration as well as after. Anyone who isn't an advocate of macerating their fragrances is selling themselves short 100%.
Well if leaving it for a month worked for you, then it worked and that's all that matters. Whether it's perception or reality is neither here nor there. What matters is that it's good for you now and that you are enjoying it. I think if people want to spray and leave a fragrance for a month, it's not exactly a lot of effort is it? And if people think it does do something, then they should keep doing it. It's entirely personal choice. Thanks for watching 🥰
Thanks, Claire! I feel a little smarter after watching this 🙂↕️😊
Always love learning something new!
Not sure what to reply to the first bit or whether that is meant for me or not, but thank you, I'm happy that you enjoyed the video. I hope I cleared this topic up a bit for everyone. 🥰
Oh I’ve definitely experienced maturation of a few fragrances; mainly Middle Eastern. Nebras really stands out to me because I remember being super let down when I first got it. Nothing like all the descriptions I’d heard. It had barely any presence. Fast forward about six months and it’s a beast. Many ME fragrances are sent straight from production to consumers, and being they are typically lower priced, many people don’t mind the aging process usually.
Funny enough, Eilish was very similar to Nebras in both scent and need for maturation in my experience. Eilish now performs quite well.
Another one that I adore is Ajmal’s Sacrifice For Her, it too was SO weak at first and now a year later it’s amazing.
On the opposite side, I found Blanche Bete SUPER strong when I first received it, but after many months it’s now mellowed nicely..seems smoother and way less beastly.
Definitely an interesting topic! I’ve experienced it for sure.
Thank you for your examples! I've only tried Eilish from this list. I think a lot of people have experienced perceiving changes in their fragrances over time if the comments on this video are anything to go by. I feel quite left out in never having experienced this 🤣 thanks for watching 🥰
I also love Ajmal Sacrifice and agree that this beautiful perfume has become so much stronger, it lasts longer, mine is around 10 months old.
@@dr.claire.perfumeI also agree about Ajmal Sacrifice as it is ( to my nose ) stronger after 10 months and also lasts so much longer now.
I have found quite a few of the vanilla Middle Eastern perfumes and as you mentioned amber perfumes that have improved with time ( again to my nose). Warm regards from Tasmania ❤
Thank you for doing this topic.
I don’t care for the current use of “maceration”… I simply just age my middle eastern fragrances.
No worries! ❤️ Happy that you enjoyed it. Have a lovely weekend. Thanks for watching 🥰
Again a classic Clair video! Well researched and presented! Fantastic and unique (fragrance) content on YT! Thank you
Thank you ❤️ that's lovely of you to say! 🥰
I've had one fragrance, cocktail intense. It's an angels share clone. I really disliked it when I tried it the first 5 times. Threw it in a closet for about 4 months. The next time I tried it, the "chemical smell" was gone and I really liked it. So, whatever it did in that closet, I approve.😂
🤣 I love that! Well you know what to do next time when you don't like something 👍 happy you enjoy your purchase now! Thanks for watching 🥰
Before I heard perfume social media refer to macerate, my example would have been sugar on berries left to macerate
Absolutely! I think that's probably what a few people would think of! 😋
This was interesting to me. I find your explanations clear and cogent. I have unintentionally macerated fragrances - ha ha! I bought Kayali samples and noticed the darkening of Vanilla 28 but TBH still thought it smelled a bit like plastic.
Vanilla does for sure darken and yep, I think we've all unintentionally macerated fragrances from simply having a few too many 🤣 thanks for watching 🥰
I haven't watched the video yet, but I will say, I have been a fragrance lover for several decades and these things never were an issue: maceration, wearing fragrance in certain seasons, polarizing fragrances. Everything used to smell good, all the time and to everyone... 😂
Haha, yes! It seems social media has made fragrance much more complicated 😂 I absolutely never thought about seasonal fragrance nor whether my fragrance was polarising before YT! 🥰
I definitely did because I naturally don't want to wear certain fragrances during certain times of year
to be fair 30 years ago y'all had to compete with cigarette and diesel smells 😆
@@animekohey
Great video. Looking forward to watching and learning more of your videos
Thank you 🥰
Hi Claire!!!Excellent video!! So informative and defining!!! You explained everything in detail,so clearly for everyone of us to understand what maceration is! It was like attending a masterclass in perfumery!!!Thank you so much!!!
Thank you ❤️ I really am not sure that definition 3 has enough information. It was a struggle to find any science behind the idea but equally there are arguments the other way too... It's a tricky topic! Thanks for watching 🥰
I believe your presentation was excellent,at least for me ,it didn't leave any questions unanswered! Thank you again!
@@kellypourika9406 thank you! Have a lovely week 🌹
I do find the current talk of 'maceration' a bit amusing. I think there's a few things at play when people discuss this:
1. Aging. I have a few that have definitely become deeper and longer lasting after a few weeks. I think this also applies to designer/niche when people buy a new bottle of a fragrance they already have and insist that it must be reformulated and now doesn't smell as strong, totally disregarding they've had their last bottle for a couple of years.
2. It's not a fragrance dna they are familiar with and it may not be to their taste initially but, their nose adjusts to it after a few exposures.
3. They try it at a different time of year than it best suits and it's more weather appropriate the next time they test it.
4. It mostly seems to be women who are in the age bracket of having monthly cycles who don't take into account their olfactory senses can change at different times of their cycle.
Yes! I think reformulation is the automatic assumption isn't it? People should probably wait before judging, I guess batch to batch variation might also be significant in some cases.
I agree with you that people do need time to familiarise themselves with most things in life to enjoy them, e.g. listening to music is more enjoyable when you know the words, there are probably similar effects with familiarity with fragrance
I agree that seasons and hormones also affect our perceptions. I would love to know more about the perceived differences and what they are, real or not! I don't care which the answer is, but I am fascinated 🥰
Congrats on 10K! I've experienced this one two almost three different occasions. The sample smells great, you purchase a full bottle, and then you almost feel scammed when it arrives. A few months later and this weak, watered down, fragrance is 20x stronger. I don't get it.
🤣 it's some kind of unexplainable! I need someone to do a proper study on this!!! I'm desperate to see a mass spec trace to see whether what's in each spray is actually changing! This is some kind of strong belief if it's not actually partially reality... I wish we had more scientific info to explain it, but it's just not out there... I looked! Thanks for watching 🥰
I absolutely loved your video. I knew the terms were incorrect but we know what folks are talking about and the vast majority of us aren’t scientists and perfumery is science or chemistry mixed with art 🧑🎨 I appreciate how you presented this as an essay with your question, then your hypothesis and in the end gave evidence and explanation that your hypothesis that the term aging is actually the correct term! 🎉
Thank you! ❤️ This video was a minefield to make 🤣 Yes I can see if people understand what people mean it's not an issue at all. I guess for me maceration was probably even more definition one than definition two or three 😂
Hiiiii! Great topic. Thank you. ❤
I was super curious! Thank you 🥰
What an amazingly interesting video!! I have only just discovered you...I don't know how you got into my suggestions, but it's been very didactic. Thank you ❤
Thank you! I'm happy that you found and enjoyed it! 🥰
Our YT fragcomm reference to it, altho I understood what was meant by it (as you so definitively explain here, I.e. aging) has never really sat right with me. Such a great, ‘clean-the-air’ on the subject episode, Claire❤
Thank you ❤️ it's such a complicated topic and it feels like a minefield, I found sources that absolutely deny it's an effect at all as in definition 3 but then others that seem to completely disagree! I don't think this is a debate being solved any time soon! 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
First time I heard “macerate,” all I could think about was putting sugar on strawberries before making strawberry shortcake in the springtime with my mom lol
Mmm! Yes! Love that! I had strawberries for lunch today with a little sugar actually 😋 I don't normally add sugar... But it's quite nostalgic! 🥰
Thank you for the definition and interesting video. I have few oud oils and some Rasasi cheapies that have improved greatly after being left alone and forgotten about. Yet my more expensive fragrances never improve (not that they need too) just get weaker over time. 🤔
Thank you ❤️ well if it works for you then keep on doing it! Thanks for watching 🥰
Yup it is done before the final product, like simply letting it settle and mature
Thanks for watching 🥰
My experience is this: I bought a perfume called Coco alla Vaniglia from a small indie house called Kyse perfumes. At the beginning I remember that the smell was very true to its given name, coco and vanilla. A full on gourmand but not overly sweet and I remembered watching someone said that she was very surprised with this perfume because its lack of sweetness, even though the vanilla note was very prominent to her nose. On the other hand, Cris from the Perfume nest, mentioned that this perfume might only appeal to those with a very very sweet teeth, because she got a comment from someone told her “oh you smell so sweet” but in bad way. At the time, I went to sniff my bottle and it was the perfect amount of sweetness. Months later after letting it sit, I sprayed it and OMG it was an extremely sweet, SYRUPY mess and I despised that level of sweetness. In my case the change in the scent was for the worse.
🤣 haha, yes, wow! That sounds like quite a difference! I guess we can't separate perception here, but it's interesting and would make a good scientific study to try to detect differences in what is in each spray over time.
I've not ever tried Kyse, but their fragrances always sound very very sweet from people's descriptions of them. 🍰 🍬 🍭 And how delicious they sound always intrigued me. 🥰
Do you think the scent would be good for a 16yr old my daughter loves sweet scents I'm looking for something youthful
Let you fragrance sit in the right environment in its original box and reduce the air available and it won’t macerate . It’s overly hype because fragrance companies won’t make a dime if you are not worried about maceration
@@Bestmepossible I've not tried Kyse but from what I know of them, I would bet yes 🤣 I'll let others answer though!
@@sarwarkhan1185 a fragrance will age whatever we do sadly. The time is ticking to expiry from the day it is produced 😢 But yes, reducing UV, humidity and excessive heat will help to maintain it for longer.
This is the first time I've heard of fragrance aging. I had an old bottle of Amber Romance that I bought on eBay. I really like the scent and decided to buy my mom a new one. The new one smelled more synthetic and plastic when I first sprayed it, but a year later I sprayed it again and I noticed that plastic smell was gone. I assumed that my nose had just changed but it didn't occur to me that fragrance aging could be the reason.
Who knows? This is the thing isn't it, in isolation it's hard to tell what's changed. There are a few possibilities here, but either way, I'm happy that you now enjoy the fragrance ☺️ thanks for watching 🥰
Maceration was a new concept to me prior to YT❣️ Awesome video as always ❤
Thank you 🥰
I can definitely tell you that a new bottle of Roja Scandal Parfum Cologne didn't smell the same as the previous bottle because I opened it before I finished the old one. After a week or so it was the same.
That's interesting! Was the difference huge initially or was it quite close?
I've experienced reasonably big differences, but I think mine were mainly due to batch variation rather than ageing, as Dior use natural sources for some of their florals and they were obtained in different harvests, but as soon as I finish the old bottle I forget how that old batch smelt and readjust quickly to the new batch, like with my Gris Dior sample and bottle of Gris Dior, the sample smelt much more rosy. I guess we'll never know 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
Thank you for another very informative video.
Thank you 🥰
Thank you for another excellent video!
Some of my vintage fragrances could be used as chemical mace/pepper-spray;so,I know they have gone through some type of chemical degradation. I have an old bottle of Youth Dew(dark as a cola drink) that could be used as bear-repellant. Also,a small bottle of White Linen that smells strangely ominous.
Claire,in addition to your scientist/chemist accomplishments,I think you are also an alchemist. You can take a fairly boring subject and turn it into something fascinating.
Thank you ❤️ and yes! I've had some bad experiences buying vintage fragrances that really haven't been in the best condition. I've managed to get refunds thankfully, but I did just keep a bottle of Marc Jacobs Lola, which I had been searching for as I wore it in my 20s. The top notes aren't the best, but after the first 10 mins it's perfect, so I am tolerant 😂 I remember one bottle of Davidoff Cool Water Woman that I bought in a bundle many years ago, I made the mistake of spraying that inside the house... Wow 😳 it was horrendously off.
Great coverage on the perfumery side of chemically producing a product vs. Colloquial-speak on UA-cam about maceration.
Certainly, my older designer and niche perfumes have changed somewhat after a number of years with more and more oxygen introduced into the bottles as I use them up, but not significantly enough to claim it’s better or worse than when I freshly opened them up new. Some are definitely richer and deeper, like my L’Interdit EDP, L’Interdit Rouge, and Guerlain Terracotta, but not necessarily my Carnal Flower that’s been sitting out in the open on my dresser since 2022 (not in direct light).
I own 4 ME perfumes and after about a year, don’t detect a significant enough change to claim any benefits of aging at this point. Maybe my nose is deficient 😂, or perhaps my olfactory memory is fleeting and just can’t remember well enough to compare.
Thank you! ❤️
Yes, I can't say my fragrances have changed other than in colour from the ones that I've had from new, some are 5-10 years old now. Those are a relatively small percentage of my collection though! I didn't notice any difference in how the ME fragrances smelt over time for me, but I don't doubt that others perceive differences if they say they do. Really I think I'd like to see some mass spec data to see what's actually happening as fragrances age. I'm sure some fragrance manufacturer somewhere must have done that research... 🧐 Thanks for watching 🥰
Thank you Claire.
You say that you can not compare the smell before and after the "maturation". Because you don't know what changed - the perfume or your perception.
You are right that the scent memory is a question.
I think there is one more thing. Often when you smell the fragrance for the first time, you detect different notes? impressions? than the second, third... time. Even if you don't smell it, your brain is "working" on it. It is like with learning to drive a car - your brain is training even when you don't drive, in your dreams f.ex.
May be sometimes it is a "maturation" of your sense of smell?
This is spot on! This is something that I get this all the time! I try fragrances at least three times, the first time I just wear it, the second time I make blind notes, the third time I look at the listed notes and smell again and look at what I've written. Usually between wear one and wear two is where the biggest differences occur for me. I do think that I often have changed perceptions of fragrances and that varies massively depending upon which fragrance it is... Thanks for watching 🥰
Hi Claire, you did a great job of explaining maceration. I enjoyed it. This is my 2nd time watching as I got distracted last time by a phone call… a couple of days ago. I love learning so I appreciate these types of videos. Happy Sunday, Claire. 💐 Mona
Thanks Mona! Hope you had a lovely weekend 🥰
I believe what youtubers are referencing with fragrances is oxidized maturarion. This exposes the newly created fragrance mixture to oxygen and helps mix/evaporate the perfumers alcohol. This will allow the fragrance to reflect the smell and performance originally designed. It can improve some more than others based on the quality and volume of additives. The issues typically occur much more often in UAE fragrances where they are rushed to market vs. sitting for a longer period before distribution. This is reflected in price along with quality of ingredients.
I wonder what proportion of the alcohol in the fragrance evaporates within a closed bottle, even after it's been sprayed a few times and there is slightly more air space I would think the proportion would be negligible. Surely the vapour pressure is established pretty quickly and no more alcohol evaporates into the air within the bottle until the next spray replaced more of the space in the bottle with an equivalent volume of air (especially in the small empty space of a nearly full bottle?). There is also already air in the bottle after manufacture, so a certain amount of oxidation can occur from the get go without any need to spray the fragrance.
I understand that maceration is the formation of Schiff bases, but why do people report this requiring additional oxygen from spraying for Middle Eastern fragrances? Surely the time from manufacture to shipping and retail is going to be at least 1-2 months and therefore quite a lot of time for this to occur?
There are lots of unanswered questions, requiring input from the fragrance houses themselves and perhaps some actual analysis of the fragrances coming out of atomisers over a period of time by a research study. I am quite sure that large fragrance manufacturers, e.g. Givaudan, IFF, Firmeniche will have done this research... We need it sharing. Thanks for watching 🥰
The video I never knew I needed! 🙌 I'd never really thought about this topic at all, beyond that my own fragrances change over time based on what profile they are and how long I've had them. As you know I'm not especially fond of the middle eastern perfumery styles and so it has never been something I have had to think of.
Thanks for the deep dive Claire ❤
@@ems_h.eartnotes this is why ur nose still works 😉 😂
@@scentedsnowdrops haha perhaps 😆 It can be a little on the sensitive side but my tolerance is growing 🤗
Well yes, I don't really expect to have to wait to wear something but whenever I don't love a fragrance that I've bought, I will wait several months before decluttering it and actually with affordable Middle Eastern fragrances, I waited for over a year to make sure. I think when I buy a fragrance, I'm excited to wear it, waiting to enjoy it for a few months would be a bit annoying! 🥰
Lol Em, those Amouages surprised me! Especially Imitation! That is STRONG! 💪
@@dr.claire.perfume Amouage is a style in its own right to me 🤗
Congratulations on 10k subscribers Claire🥂🎇🥳 Another excellent, well thought out video. How are you going with your perfume tray? I’ve started one too😃🇦🇺
Thank you! ❤️ I have filmed an update but I've been on holiday in France so I've not been around to edit it 😂 I was strict with myself in August and stuck to it. I am trying for another month with some tweaks. How's your tray going? 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume it’s a good idea, although I have deviated from it a couple of times. Weather here has been cold, then a few days of 25C even though it’s winter, so tried a couple of lighter ones. I’m having fun selecting a week’s worth on a Sunday, and it’s making me try ones that might otherwise sit at the back of the cupboard. France, lovely. I look forward to you showing us anything you collected on your travels😃🇦🇺
@@oscardog6719 all I did was visit chateaux and drink wine 🍷 and go canoeing! I'm happy the trays are working out for you and that you've seen some sunshine, even in winter. 🥰
I experienced aging significantly with my bottle of Alien Goddess Intense. I couldn't understand how people were getting vanilla from it compared to my bottle. I actually nearly declutteted it, but tried it again and finally got the vanilla, coconut along with the jasmine! I was quite shocked how much it changed, thankfully for the better.
I think fragrances do change as they get older, at least over longer time periods (years). I'm happy that you enjoy Alien Goddess Intense now! 🥰
Thank you Claire. I have never seen your reviews before but you appeared on my feed. Your compelling, objective and detailed work was wonderful to watch. Ultimately perfume is such a subjective medium; the time, the place, the body temperature, your mood all contribute to your perceptions in general and regarding perfumes in particular. “Ageing” seems a better term and I must say that I’ve never experienced this “maceration” other reviewers talk about. Thank you for your work!
Thank you ❤️ I try to take my research skills to answer questions about fragrance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't 😂
I agree with you, I've owned affordable Middle Eastern fragrances even and not experienced any changes that I noticed in how they smelt from the first spray to the one to three years later that I owned them. I don't doubt that others perceive differences though, whatever their causes might be. Thanks for watching 🥰
This reminded me of my bottle of Lalique Solell,when I first got it ,had no recognizable smell to me ,and I almost decluttered it 🤦♀️now I love the smell and use it all the time 🤷♀️
This video was absolutely amazing and there are so many factors of why it does smell different on our skin ?
Have a wonderful weekend ❤️
Thank you! I'm happy that Lalique Soleil improved for you. I remember you not being keen on it and then loving it. It would have been a shame to have decluttered it. Thanks for watching Frances 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume I agree and the bottle alone is a work of art
It's gorgeous 😍, I loved the jangly bottle charm too! That was lovely! 🥰
Great video! Amouage shares the maturation and maceration times of their exceptional extraits fragnances as well. Since the extraits are pretty concentrated and heavy those times are pretty long as well. For example:
Interlude 53 - 16 weeks maceration, 8 weeks maturation(aging of the perfume oil without the alcohol added)
Reflection 45 - 6 weeks maceration, 10 weeks maturation
Jubilation 40 - 8 weeks maceration, 3 weeks maturation
Thank you! ❤️ And thank you for the great info! 😊 It makes you wonder how many different combinations they choose from when deciding doesn't it? It does go some way to explain the pricing too! 😂 Thanks for watching 🥰
I’m so glad you made this video. It makes me crazy when I hear UA-camrs saying their perfumes need to “macerate.” It ALSO makes me crazy when they describe some perfumes as “molecular” perfumes because ALL perfumes are molecular. 🤦♀️
Apparently they just parrot what they hear and don’t realize what they are saying. 😂
Great topic as always, Claire! ❤️
I think what they mean is that those "molecular fragrances" are based around ambrox or other fragrance aromachemicals not based on naturally occuring chemicals... So iso E super etc. it's not accurate but very much how those are termed isn't it?
I think maceration might be a thing if the fragrance was made very very recently, but if it's been bottled and shipped etc the time in the bottle should already be several weeks to a few months old already, which should have allowed enough time for the fragrance to be ready, even if the fragrance company itself didn't bother to do any kind of incubation of the fragrance. It makes you wonder why these companies don't produce a guide of how to use their fragrances if this is truly a thing...
Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume Since many types of perfumes are made of aroma-chemicals, the “molecular” description is just another UA-camr/social media spun term. I think it probably started from people referring to perfumes similar to the brand “Escentric Molecules.” Molecule 01 & 02 were popular and unique, then later when others came out in that style, it turned into “molecular” perfumes. 😂
Hi Claire! I always remember hearing the term maceration back in my 20’s when I watched cooking shows in my every spare moment 😅 ..and how sugar stirred together with fruit causes it to “macerate” or release its juices.
And then of course I hear it now all the time on perfume videos! I heard a great explanation of this topic on Tiktok as well!
I feel like vanillas get more “vanilla-y” over time as the juice gets darker if that makes sense.. and I’m sure Terracotta changed a lot over the 2 or 3 years I had it, the florals came out ever so much stronger over time and became more indolic (although I didn’t buy a new bottle to compare) 😅
Hi Tammy! Maceration is a term that gets used for lots of things isn't it?
I've had a few of my fragrances change colour with time. I think very few of my fragrances are new when I obtain them, so perhaps I've not experienced much change with them? My brand new ME fragrances sadly didn't change from what I could tell from my own perceptions over the 1-3 years that I owned them though. I feel I want to do an experiment and sort out this whole debate 🤣
Brilliant! 👏👏👏 Thank you!
Thank you 🥰
Hey Claire. What a great topic. Words have meanings and quite often we use words without giving enough thought to how they are used. It would be great if you would be able to interview someone from a fragrance house to get their thoughts.
Thank you ❤️ I have my indie sources but I tend to keep them anonymous, I always feel like I ask them things that they might not want to discuss in public 🤣 but maybe I'm wrong? 🤔 I feel like a fragrance house representative would be so interesting to talk to to discuss their processes! I would love that! 🥰
Here to learn. Did not know too much about this😊
Hi Maude 👋 hope you are well 🥰
This probably isn’t a helpful comment, but a fragrance can smell totally different on me, literally, from one day to the next! That’s when I usually think.. I’ve worn this too much … and I put it away for a few weeks and wear something else.
Thank you for the video, Claire .., It was informative. I’ve always beeen aware that perfumes ‘age’ but not at all convinced with the YT perception of Maceration 🤔
Yes! This is definitely a thing for me too! Things can smell very different depending upon the weather, what clothes I'm wearing, my mood etc etc. I need to try things several times to be able to get an overall average impression. Thanks for watching 🥰
Thanks so much for this!
Thank you! 🥰
Thank you for this! Excellent video ❤
Thank you 🥰
Thank you for doing this video. I’m a fellow scientist and I’ve always been confused when people say “macerate “ perfumes when I think they mean lightly oxidizing or stabilizing period?!
Absolutely! These were exactly my thoughts! Thanks for watching 🥰
As someone who has been a wearer and collector of perfumes for 40 plus years I can say I had never heard the term "maceration" or found fragrances to need it until youtube. Yes, the term should be "ageing" I agree, but there definitely seems to be something to it with regard to some, not all, Middle Eastern brands. My experience has been that I purchased a few perfumes that had strange holes in the structure that I could literally not smell and it formed a visual in my mind. I found that changed over time and it was very strange. I also had to send one back for exchange because there was no smell at all and I confirmed with my daughters. The new one was super weak but now I can smell the cap and detect the perfume, and it's strong so it's quite odd. Aroma chemicals used nowadays do strange things to my nose perhaps? One thing I disagree about, is that a persons nose can't recall if a perfume has changed unless they have another to compare to. The human sense of smell is able to detect the tiniest changes in scent and it is very clear when a person smells a reformulated version of a perfume they have worn literally for decades. A good nose can for sure tell a difference when ingredients have been messed with or swapped for others or just changed. I am so glad you have talked about this!
The way you describe it as the holes in the structure and not having much smell initially is exactly how I perceive it (when it's really wonky) , but it will eventually fill in and beef up! I have like 11 ME fragrances at this point, and part of the fun is smelling them daily to see how they change.
@@beaver6d9 Oh, I am glad that you understood what I meant and have had the same experience! I think I only have five Middle Eastern perfumes and some DUA and Alexandria clones as well, but the only perfumes I have ever had these "ageing" or "maturation" issues with have been ME perfumes and only a few at that. Honesty, I prefer my perfumes to arrive ready to go from the first spray, lol :o). I get so excited for a new purchase and it's a major bummer to then have to put it away for weeks.
Thank you ❤️ Ooh! Which brands have you experienced this with? I'm happy that you can now smell all and fully enjoy the fragrances that you have purchased! I think a lot of people have similar experiences from the comments here.
For sure, if you really know a fragrance, you will detect changes but I think it's perhaps only really easy to do that if you have a strong memory of how it previously smelt, so having a signature fragrance for many years and then suddenly trying a reformulation is a great example of this. I'm not sure this is always the case when people buy a new fragrance, try it once or twice and put it away for a few weeks and come back to it. I spend a lot of time trying fragrances and I have to try them many, many times to get an overall impression of how I think they smell before I can describe them as to me they can smell different depending upon my mood, how recently I washed, even which clothes I'm wearing and where I spray the fragrance and many, many other factors that I detailed in the video that I linked in this one.
Also fragrance perception is to some degree genetic, so it might be that you and your daughters have some similar olfactory genetics and express a similar set of olfactory receptors, meaning that you perhaps have more similar perceptions of fragrances to them than someone unrelated to you. Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume Hi Claire! It's a fascinating topic isn't it? Yes, we all have differing scent perceptions based on our lifes experience, for sure. As an example, I honed my nose in the direction of chypre perfumes as my first perfumes were (a few examples.) Charlie, Halston, Mitsouko, original Miss Dior and a few ambers such as Shalimar. So my baseline is going to be different from a younger perfume enthusiast that started with sweet fruity florals, I love dense animalics and vintage perfumes are my first loves. Now, the whole idea of perfumes changing through deliberate aging is very new to me. I have old perfumes with missing or degraded top notes but for the most part they are intact and lovely still. The M.E. perfume that I smelled empty areas in was Rasasi Quasamat Ebhar. I eventually sold it as it never smelled right to me though it "filled in" over time or my nose adjusted to the new to me aroma chemicals. I immediately shipped back Shaghaf Oud Tonka as it was a terrible chemical mess. I couldn't smell Maison fragrance World Barakkat Gentle Gold at all but the exchanged bottle was super faint and I let it sit and now it's a powerhouse. I also have a Rasasi that I bought a new bottle because it was almost empty I love it so much; Rumz al Rasasi zebra pour elle with the zebra bottle. That new bottle is much better and woodier than the first so that means the first has degraded in the short year I owned it, as it was woodier but to your point, maybe it was never as woody as the second bottle. I went through it in a year. My conclusion is that these less expensive M.E. fragrances do not last as long in the bottle as vintage because of all the aroma chemicals they use perhaps? There are differences in my many vintage versions of my all time love, Mitsouko, but that is to be expected. They are slight. I think everyone is correct. I feel perfumes absolutely do change over time in slight ways but a reformulation is not hard to pick up smell wise if you are familiar with it. Oh, one more comparison. I bought a new 1 oz version of Donna Karan Cashmere Mist and it was so lovely I then picked up a larger vintage bottle and the notes smell different for sure. The dry down is the same but there is either moss in the older one or some note I have smelled in older perfumes. Degraded? I also notice it fades more quickly on a paper strip. Sorry for the length! oxJulia
@@dr.claire.perfume Oh, one more thing. I own about 10 DUAs and as many or more Alexandrias and non of those had to "macerate", which is funny because those are brands the fragrance community insists need to sit and will get better with time. Not my experience but maybe due to the fragrance category I like. I have chypres and a few florals and ones with lots of iris.
Hi. Since I come from a country where people distill alcohol at home (fruit schnapps), I think that's where it comes from. Everyone there knows how the result (taste and smell) changes over time. The same with wine. Some get better as they age, others unfortunately don't.
😂 yep, the home made stuff can be hit and miss. I remember my step mum making lavender sparkling wine and the corks all popping out one day, it was like a shooting gallery 😂 thanks for watching 🥰
Totally true and especially with the Middle Eastern clones.
Thanks for watching 🥰
As usual, you make so many excellent points! I have quite a big ME collection now, and I have no problem spraying them and letting them sit. Especially when I am paying $30USD for them. Agree - can’t always know for sure if they actually change. And of course there are some flat-out blind buy fails in there too. (Actually, very few! 🙂) Now….if I paid 10 times that for a high-end niche bottle (never gonna happen 😜), I would probably feel differently. Thank you; this is a timely topic for sure Claire 🥰
It's not a biggie is it? Ageing is going to be something that will happen with time... Whether anyone intends it or not 😂 I think you're right that their affordability means that people are happy to wait. ☺️ Hope you have a good week! 🥰
Hi Claire! Here to learn 😅❤
Hello! 🥰
Thank you Dr. Claire we needed that ! I😊
😂 I got stuck in a rabbit hole🐰 and needed to make a video to get out 😂
Claire your skin looks amazing. I’m not an expert on maceration which is why I really appreciate this video. It’s quite confusing. I’m going to watch this video again because it’s very informative. I love when you do these videos. Thank you 😊
Thank you ❤️ Yes, I found it very confusing, I've been thinking about this topic for ages and I did ask a few questions to perfumers to be able to sort out the information out there... The thing that puzzles me is how people report changes only a few days after spraying the fragrances the first time when the bottles have been packed and transported to stores and been made 2-3 months before sale. I don't doubt people's perceptions of how things smell to them, but I want to know what's going on! 😂
@@dr.claire.perfume knowledge is power 💜
@@Naturallyliz41 💯
Claire! This is the second video on your channel that I've watched and this somehow sold me to subscribe you! Your explanation is very technical and I love how you hypothesize at 15:40 as it does make sense! Thankyou for bringing up the fragrance myths topic to the public-I'm looking forward to watch more of you, cheers! :)
Thank you and welcome! ❤️ I think my biggest problem with the "it needs to macerate" argument is what has it been doing since it was bottled? If it's been shipped and then sold retail, even online, it's likely to be at minimum 1-2 months old already. I agree that fragrances age 100% but over slower time periods that a few days to a few weeks after first spraying them as some people report. Thanks for watching 🥰
Excellent explanation about Maceration thank you
Thank you 🥰
Great video Claire, thoroughly loved it💯👌✨ it made my mind wander, and I explored thoughts on how the Ancient people would of made an developed their perfumes. To go back in time and see that. 🙂👏
Thank you ❤️ Absolutely! The processes of getting fragrance out of natural substances go from simple to really quite complex, I remember as a child putting lavender and rose petals in oil to use in the bath 😂 I had no idea that was basic perfumery at the time! 🥰
Thank you for such a detailed & informative post. I will continue to watch your content.
You are also beautiful beyond comprehension.
Thank you ❤️ have a lovely weekend 🥰
I bought Eclaire from Lattafa. I could barely smell it. I did spray it 5 or 6 times, then just put it on a shelf in a darker room. I checked it weekly. It was getting a bit stronger. Took about 6 weeks until I felt it had enough scent. I didn’t know about shaking it 🤷♀️
I think it's totally up to you! Shaking is something that will, to a small degree, accelerate any changes that might be occurring, as shaking one of the things along with light exposure, heating and introducing oxygen that speeds up degradation of fragrances too.
Absolutely fascinating topic, so informative, TY! I don’t let my perfumes macerate, but I noticed my Kayali Van28 is much darker in color now that it’s almost gone, don’t know that I detect a difference from first sniff to now, I think it’s a gorgeous vanilla either way. ❤
Thank you! ❤️ Yes, the vanilla in mine also darkened a bit too! Thanks for watching 🥰
The best explanation of the terms on youtube
Thank you 🥰
Mostly "influencers" have no idea about anything beside gifted bottle :D maceration never happen after perfume is bottled up. aging/oxidation it's completly different thing, also defferent take when perfume consist more% natural oil than synth and opposite.
I agree that people on UA-cam tend to just repeat what other people on UA-cam say without much thought a lot of the time! Thanks for watching 🥰
Thanks for the video. So after watching I went to test Afnan 9pm that i purchased 2 months ago. When i got the bottle, opened and sprayed it, It smelled almost like nothing, i promise. My kids and wife also tried their best and could hardly smell it. I just sprayed it once and its strong to a point that i wish i didnt spray it as its 3 hours before bed lol I can confirm, for sure, my Afnan 9pm went from smelling like almost nothing, to a strong and projecting perfume
Thanks for sharing your experience! Do you know when the fragrance was manufactured Vs when you purchased it? Do you think the addition of extra air when spraying it for the first time made a difference or do you believe it to simply be the time it's been left sitting? Thanks for watching 🥰
Appreciate the video. Thank you!
Thank you 🥰
Once again, a stellar 🤩 video. So interesting and informative. ✏️📚🎓I feel smarter 😁
Thank you ❤️ I did do a lot of reading! 😂
Thanks for the information. Wonderful video. Also you’re so pretty. 😍
Thank you 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume 😌💐
Hello Claire dear 🎉
Congratulations on 10k subbies ... 👏👏👏
Hello to you too! 👋 Thank you so much ❤️
Interesting, I’ve not heard much about it much before. 🌸
Oh it's a whole rabbit hole 😂 hope you are well 💓
Thanks for another great masterclass 👌. I admit I became frustrated with hearing the m..... word so frequently
Thank you! And yes, I apologise, it perhaps should be a game 😂 it's hard to make a video about it without using the word as nothing really equates unfortunately 🙈
@@dr.claire.perfume It was used in context so no problem at all Claire💛. You make so many good points ie UA-camrs relying on scent memory alone instead of comparing side by side. I guess that's what makes perfumes such an interesting hobby
Indeed! Fragrance is a huge subject! Much bigger than most people realise I think! 🥰
I often refer to it as “letting it stew”. I’m not skilled in being able to pick-out and identify many different notes, but I am good at knowing if a bottle that’s been sitting smells better after awhile. I can think of two, right away, that seemed to come to life only after “stewing”. Both are dupes: Better Peach (Al Haramain maybe, but a dupe of Bitter Peach) and it took about 9 months for me to even smell the peach. The other was Miss Independent (Juliana’s Perfume’s dupe of Princess), which took a few months. But some absolutely change with a bit of time, others don’t. But then again - maybe my nose is wonky 🤷♀
Wow! Months to smell the peach?! With a dupe of Bitter Peach... that indeed sounds like a problem! Happy that it worked out after a while 🙂
I think that's it's really hard to tell sometimes, I have no idea what's perception and what's real and to some extent with fragrance, does it matter? As long as we enjoy it, it's all good 😊
@@dr.claire.perfume I definitely think it matters when it comes to “influencers”, but there’s a lot of subjectiveness too. And yes - with the Better Peach it took that many months, yet with a sample of Julianna’s Perfume’s dupe of Bitter Peach I could smell it right away. Again - maybe it’s my nose.
@@katiejon17 yes I guess if people are basing purchasing decisions on shared opinions then it does matter. Fragrance is ultimately so subjective isn't it? Btw I absolutely love the name Better Peach 🍑 😂 for some reason!
Great video!! All the talk about maceration has been so confusing to me because at the end of the day it just means that the product is sold without being stabile enough to offer consistency! I feel like the current maceration trend really boosts perfume hoarding and for people not to dismiss a fragrance at initial sniffs but instead keep disappointing scents in their stash in the hope of it magically transforming into something better one day...
Well yes! I find it perplexing as to how it can be a consistent product for the consumer?
And to your second point, if you say you don't like an affordable Middle Eastern fragrance on YT and say you are decluttering it, people still say let it macerate after you've already had it 1-3 years as I had mine 🤣 personally I didn't have the experience of any of them changing to a noticeable degree, but I don't doubt what others perceive, whatever the reason that might be. I agree with you, a mediocre or disliked fragrance seems unlikely to become wonderful to you. Thanks for watching 🥰
Thank you for this
Thank you ❤️
Yes, what people describe as maceration is actually maturation.
I think it does make a bit of difference, especially when there is vanilla in a fragrance. However what I think is more impactful is the initial 2-3 weeks after you first get a fragrance and letting it sit still and untouched after spraying it out a few times. There are some aroma chemicals that impact the smell of a fragrance after it's come from being shipped or purchased, the box has been moved and shaken a lot during transit so it just won't smell right when you first spray it after this. It will always smell better a few days later when everything has 'settled' and I find this is especially true when there is white musk in a fragrance as the musk takes over when it hasn't settled. My first experience with this was with Lancome La Nuit Tresor Musk Diamante and I first sprayed it and the musk was so over powering and I couldn't smell any hint of the La Nuit Tresor that people described was in there. I was disgusted. I let it sit maybe 2 months and dared to try it again and it smelled very different and it was now a beautiful mix of the musk and the original. So yes, allowing it to sit really does help a fragrance.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I absolutely loved La Nuit Tresor Musc Diamant! Such a beauty 😍
Well done
Thank you 🥰
I've often wondered about the maceration videos I've watched. The term "priming" has also been used. A fragrance wouldn't be bottled and sold, especially from a high-end house, if it weren't ready to be worn as soon as it is unpackaged, at least that is what I thought. Knowing, too, that oxygen ages perfume, causes it to oxidize which changes the smell (and maybe color), "macerating" would only shorten a fragrance's life. Some perfumes contain an antioxidant to help deter oxidization from general use of the bottle when oxygen can get in it. This is a great video. Thank you.
Yes they do! You are right! And some bottles have a UV protective coating even to protect the fragrance from sunlight to some degree. 🥰
Loved your video and appreciate the way you articulated your thoughts & research findings…I believe most people intend to say ageing but end up using the word maceration..to answer your question I have bought quite a few Middle Eastern perfumes which are inspired by designers and niche houses and can say that the process of ageing definitely helps as usually due to the pressure created in the bottle as a result of transportation perfumes smell different initially & improve both in terms of smell & performance after allowing it to age..and allowing the oxidation of the juice…another problem I believe is due to the high demand a lot of Middle Eastern houses do skip this process…Cheers….
Thank you! ❤️ Do you mean there are pressure increases in the fragrances as a result of air freight? I would doubt that air freight is used for fragrances but cargo holds are also pressurised on aircraft since the temperature there would drop to -40oC if not. Maybe do you mean as a result of the shaking of the fragrance? Would that change the pressure? I think perhaps it would mix the fragrance and speed up any reactions that were going on, e.g. oxidation with the air already in the bottle, but I don't imagine a pressure change, unless there are chemical reactions going on within the bottle that generate additional pressure, is that what you mean?
I can imagine that most ME houses do cut maceration to the bear minimum to simply dissolving the oils in the alcohol, but simply the length of time until bottling, packing, transport and sale and receipt by the customer is still likely to be 1-2 months at minimum. I would think that would be enough time for the fragrance to be stable and done generating Schiff bases etc in maceration. So why do we need to oxidise the fragrance further when we are all told that oxidation is harmful to fragrances' lifetimes and also there is oxygen already in the remaining air space volume of the bottle, so why do a few sprays make a difference? There are many unanswered questions here and this debate needs some more perfumers to step in ☺️ (a few have already commented here much to my delight). Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume appreciate your response..I have observed for almost all my ME perfumes that this is the case…for instance Armaf Club De Nuit Intense smells like citrus, birch and musk for the first few sprays then for a couple of months smells like citrus and chalk (actually like chalk used for writing on a black board) and after at least 3-6 months of storing in a dark place it changes and starts smelling like the actual intended smell…I have an old bottle that smells how it is supposed to and a new one about a month old which smells like citrus and chalk…have also noticed that the performance improves over a period of time…performance is a very big factor for us living in India as we mostly experience extremely hot & humid weather conditions and hence designer fragrance generally don’t last unless one is in an temperature controlled environment…the phenomenon I mentioned holds true for a number of fragrances I own made by these Middle Eastern houses like Armaf, Afnan, Ahmed Al Maghribi, Lattafa etc…I second your point, experienced perfumers need to intervene & help us solve our doubts…Cheers…
CDNI is a huge success story isn't it? I'm happy it evolves into something you love over time.
I really liked the female marketed version of CDNI when I sampled it, I love Noir de Noir, and I know it's a little different but it's still a very nice fragrance!
What a brilliant video! (Like all of yours!) I have been into perfume for decades and this term/concept was totally new for me, as was the term "travel shock". I did notice that some heavy based perfumes, as you mentioned, do smell better with age (to me). Well, perhaps the term "richer" might better apply. I fell down the Dua rabbit hole for discontinued and overly expensive perfumes. This company's fan base swear by maceration, but almost all my selections were quite nice out of thr gate.
Thank you ❤️ Yes! I've seen Dua mentioned a lot with maceration! I think it's a big thing for their customers in general. I don't really understand why maceration is something that needs to happen again after spraying, fragrances sit in bottles for significant periods of time prior to sale, along with oxygen from the air, and are shaken up by transportation... I find the concept perplexing 🙃 thanks for watching 🥰
Great video Claire. With regard to getting some air in the bottle and then letting the fragrance sit for a period of time for it to improve and get stronger, isn’t due to maceration, but instead, is due to alcohol evaporation? That might be a better term to use?
Thank you ❤️ personally I don't believe there will be significant alcohol evaporation as the vapour pressure will be established in the air within the bottle quickly and at that point, no more alcohol will evaporate within the bottle, nor escape in significant amounts until the fragrance is sprayed. Thanks for watching 🥰
I think people generally put way more value on their personal experiences than they should. Of course, the main thing that should matter to you is your personal experience and improving it, but unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. People often take it upon themselves to then disseminate their views as factual or gospel. You’re right in that what most people call “maceration” at home is simply oxidation/aging. And like you said, I think it sometimes can have a noticeable effect. Don’t forget that sometimes people buy duplicate bottles, maybe even from the same batch, and therefore can semi-scientifically compare an oxidized vs non-oxidized bottle. I myself have done that and noticed differences between them. However, as for it being “better” or “longer lasting” the lines are a bit blurrier. I think oxidation can change the ratio of the note pyramid, which has the illusion of changing the longevity and scent profile. For actual longevity, that would require significant evaporation to change the alcohol concentration. That only happens towards the end of a bottles’s volume, and is certainly not happening after 10 sprays, a swish, and 4 weeks in the cupboard. I think there’s a great deal of misinformation, indoctrination, placebo, and overvalued unscientific personal experience. And like you said I don’t think what’s done at home is maceration/maturing… it’s definitely just aging/oxidation/intentional expiration 😂
Thank you ❤️ For me, short term change (over days, weeks, a few months) is something I've not experienced. I do however think that fragrance can change as it ages over the years that it can take to use up a bottle, however the change is so gradual, that I'm not sure I'd notice it without some kind of side by side comparison. I agree with you that people take their personal experiences to be the absolute truth, and on YT, that's dangerous because if that person is persuasive, whatever they say spreads. Thanks for watching 🥰
I really appreciate an honest informative and scientific breakdown to cut through so much of the consumerism bs. The influencer and TikTok ignorant stuff drives me bonkers.
I do know though that I did NOT care for Bianco Latte at all when I got my sample decant, it was plasticy and synthetic smelling and eh, same for Borabora. Months later I came back to Bianco Latte and it was a different beast entirely. I love it now. It still has that element from before but way subdued.
I decided to give Borabora another try after that shocker, I mean it did smell better but not something I love. I think that house for me will have that plasticy synthetic feel and thats okay, I do enjoy Celeste, just got that.
The longevity on BL and BB both improved too, and at the time (about 6 months ago) I was dubious of all this maceration lark and thought maybe it was this house, maybe it was a rush job idk. But I super appreciate this video thank you ❤
Yes! I agree with Giardini Di Toscana, but I only tried Bianco Latte, it smelt more on the synthetic side (what I mean is that it didn't smell very natural, but of course very few fragrances are actually natural, but still can smell natural).
Maybe it's a real effect? Maybe they'd rushed the fragrance to market and not let it sit at all? Maybe It was so popular that they skipped something? It makes me wonder how little fragrance companies care if so, but it could be... What I really doubt is large change over small time periods, even days after first spraying the fragrance as some people report. That to me seems unlikely..
Thanks for watching 🥰
Claire, if you haven't tried any fragrances by Maison Alhambra, you've got to!! Their dupes are excellent and they've only just released a dupe for Burberry Goddess. It's called Athena and it's wonderful. (My favorite from the house is Delilah. Dupe of Delina.) 💜
I think Maison Alhambra is a Lattafa offshoot isn't it? I can't say Lattafa has been for me with the 3 I've owned and others I've sampled, but I've not tried any from the Maison Alhambra subsidiary. I won't blind buy, but if they are available at my local fragrance stall (I most recently tried Swiss Arabian Shaghaf Oud Tonka) I will give some a spritz. 🥰
Yes I’ve done the maceration process with my Middle Eastern fragrances with the same exception of putting them back in the box. Yara and Nebras both smelled better to me and stronger with time. The same for Kayali Yum Pistachio. Maybe aging is the better term.
Yes, it's just ageing isn't it? If you have a larger collection, simple rotations of what you choose to wear each day give the fragrances time to sit. I'm happy that they smelt better to you over time, thanks for sharing which fragrances improved for you with ageing. 🥰
great information!
Thank you 🥰
I wouldn't call it maceration myself but I do and have let some of my fragrances sit and they have improved longevity and scent profile with time. I think fragrances that are more base heavy with heavier ingredients like, Vanilla, Orris, Oud, patchouli etc... are more likely to improve rather than something with fresher ingredients like your citruses imo
Yes! Base heavy fragrances for sure are the ones I would expect to not just go off with ageing, unlike citrus. I think letting them age over a longer time period will eventually change how they smell, but I haven't personally experienced any dramatic changes in the short term with any fragrance that I've owned. I know that's not everyone's experience though. I would someone to do some proper research on this! 🥰
Years ago, before this was a thing I noticed this with a middle-eastern fragrance I got - Lattafa Raghba
On the box, there was a production date, which at that time was only 3-4 months ago... When I opened it and sprayed it, it smelled like an airy vanilla with a musky undertone (kinda like cat urine)... It was nothing like the sample I got prior to me buying this scent - which was a dark-chocolate-vanilla-boozy-smoky fragrance..
I was disappointed and left it on the shelf, not thinking about it for months as I had a few other fragrances to wear back then...
A few months later, the cat urine smelled almost disappeared entirely and it got a bit of that chocolate-boozy-smoky aspect from the sample I got... That's when I got the idea of leaving a fragrance to sit after spraying it... This was in 2014-2015 if I recall correctly.. I KNOW ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID REGARDING FRAGRANCE MEMORY and that the human brain is not that reliable , but when the difference is that big, you will clearly notice it...
Fast-forward to nowadays, I have it and it smells wonderful - same bottle (about 20ml less - that's how much I was able to wear of it with a growing collection)
I wanted to give this example because Lattafa Raghba kept me from buying SDV by Guerlain.. I have 2 2ml samples of the Guerlain fragrance and, even though it is clearly better when you compare them side-by-side, for me , as a wearing experience, it is the same (and the Lattafa performs better for me)
Hope this helped!
Take care!
That's really interesting! Yes, a cat pee smell is something you are going to notice and also notice when it is no longer there! 😂 I recently tried a sample of something that gave me horrendous cat pee vibes, maybe I should go back to it in a few months and try it again? I wonder what it was in Raghba that made it smell like that?!
Well that likely saved you a few £100. Raghba was one of the very early successes wasn't it? I remember the hype was still about when I started to make videos. I almost bought it too!
Thanks for watching 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume Yes, it has that same vibe as SDV as I mentioned (NOW at least)... That cat pee smell I think is the musk... You can even find it in some designer fragrances - the ones that sell well and that producers rush to the market...
Here's the thing - we discuss this as fragrance enthusiasts, but your average person will take a wiff and say "this is crap" and won't come back to it like we do...
Yes, one smell of something they're not loving and the general public won't bother to try it again later for sure. 🥰
I have had this experience with ’maceration’ . I bought Lattafa’s TERIAQ. When I first initially smelt it, it was very weak and I wasn’t getting any of the notes mentioned. Especially the sweet ones.
My daughter seemed to be able to pick up the notes. So I did what you were talking about….I shook it up, emptied the spray straw and let it sit for a week. Suddenly, I could smell what everybody else was talking about on UA-cam reviews.
Teriaq must have done very well for Lattafa... I would love to see their sales data 👀. I'm happy it smells better to you now! Enjoy it! 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume Yes… but I’m not entirely convinced that it changed. I find that fragrances will smell different to me in the morning than they do in the afternoon or evening.
Hey ! Maybe that would be a topic for you, unless you’ve already done that and I missed it….
Do our scent receptors work differently throughout the day? Hmmm 🤔
Yes, I think our sense of smell will be better when the air is damper, so at dusk it is likely to be better (at least in the summer in the UK, like now) or any other time when there is high humidity. 🥰
I do think my Miss Dior that I’ve had for like 15 years smells much better than the new one. I only have a few drops left but I can’t throw it out. I have the new one that just came out and it’s just not the same at all. My old bottle the juice is dark the new is pink. Maybe the new one will age?
Miss Dior was reformulated to a completely different fragrance in 2012, 2017 and then again in 2021, so if the fragrances are from between different periods within those years, the ingredients will be quite different. The old 2012 (which I have, is a more rose based Coco mademoiselle style fragrance). I hope that helps! 🥰
@@dr.claire.perfume thanks so much! Well that explains it. Maybe I will grow to like the new version.
I think Dior reformulate it to keep it "current" but it's a bit annoying and confusing really to still call it Miss Dior. 😂