As extensive as some of our collections are, Osmothèque Museum they are not, so I don’t expect that any of my readers (or at lest those who usually comment on my posts) maintain 12C/53F temperature where our perfumes are stored. But do you ever do that?
Saturday Question #83:
Do You Ever Put Perfumes in a Fridge?
Maybe not for the permanent storage but for using on hot summer days? Or as a temporary solution for especially hot days? Or for the most precious or volatile perfumes in your collection? Or maybe for the transportation?
My Answer
I remember being impressed by Vanessa’s (Bonkers About Perfume) two wine fridges that she used to store her perfumes at some point of her fragrance j****y. And when we were getting a large wine fridge for my vSO’s wine collection (OK, it’s “ours,” but I tend to attribute it to him), I had some ideas that I would claim one shelf for storing my perfumes. But it proved to be completely impractical: I wouldn’t want to go downstairs every time I want to use one of the perfumes stored there; it’s not the healthiest way for the wine fridge to be opened once a day to get out perfume I wanted to wear that day; all of my perfumes would not fit on that one shelf anyway, and, finally, my vSO’s wine collection outgrew already the whole cabinet, so there is no extra space in it even for wine.
But I do use a regular refrigerator from tie to time. It started with me bringing my bottle of Estee Launder Bronze Goddess with me on my Hawaii vacation. It was a tradition, so unlike all other perfumes, for which I would make a decant for traveling, Bronze Goddess was coming with me for the last 10 years. I would be worried that my perfume would get too warm during the day when we were away, and an A/C was out, so I started putting it into the fridge. And then I discovered that I enjoyed spraying it cold. So, since then, on unpacking in a new vacation spot, a bottle of perfume would immediately go into the cold/
Over time, I found a couple more perfumes that I enjoyed sprayed cold from the refrigerator in summer. As an example, I could offer Jo Loves No. 42 The Flower Shop.
Recently, I bought one more perfume refrigerator-friendly perfume. I brought it with me to my Hawaii vacation, and I enjoy it immensely: a year after I told you how much Moroccanoil‘s Dry Body Oil and Hand Cream’s scent is associated for me with Hawaiian vacation, the brand came up with a Hair & Body Fragrance Mist with that scent. Of course, I had to get it and bring it with me to Big Island. Now my Bronze Goddess isn’t all lonely and intimidated by those large wine bottles.
In case you were wondering about the scent of that Hair & Body Fragrance Mist, it is very close and recognizable compared to the body and hair products, but I think that this is the case where in the oil-based form it both smells slightly better and lives longer. But I wouldn’t be able to spritz those oil products cool from the refrigerator. So, al-in-all, it was a good find for my vacation. And it combines perfectly with the body oil.
Undina's Looking Glass 
In short, no. I did consider the wine fridge, though, but for lack of space I didn’t pursue it. I also remember that Vanessa mentioned labels coming off…
anyway, I freeze my glas stopper bottles to get the stopper out without running the risk of it breaking off, but since that’s a max of 10 minutes, I don’t think it counts 😉
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I think that it’s a regular refrigerator that threatens labels. In a wine fridge not only temperature but also humidity is controlled – otherwise, wine labels would have suffered as well.
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I did for about forty years. Then stopped. All our bottles live in the dark cool basement now. They are currently out of boxes and available for my entire family to go “shopping”.
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It’s so interesting that you were so far ahead of us with different aspects of this perfume hobby.
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I thought about getting a fridge since I am living in the tropics, but then read some pros and cons and just decided to chuck it. I’m sure my perfumes take a beating as it sometimes will get hot in the bedroom but I’m not really worried about it since none have ever gone bad and if they did, I would just buy more!
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What?! You are not building a climate-controlled perfume room/walk-in wardrobe? ;)
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LOL. I thought about it, but my collection is rather measly unlike some of these that you see in some of the FB groups. Only 1 shelf here :)
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I don’t, but I’m intrigued by your putting No. 42 The Flower Shop in the fridge, as that’s a favorite of mine and of course it’s meant to evoke the fridge where the flowers are kept. Might have to try that!
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I think it’s perfect when applied from the fridge – exactly because of what it is supposed to be. Try it!
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I haven’t put perfumes in the fridge, although I’ve thought about it since reading about your Hawaiian vacation and Bronze Goddess, but I don’t know yet which one(s) I’d choose for spraying cold. I do store my citrus essential oils in the fridge to help them stay good longer.
Why is “journey” a taboo word here?
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It was more of a joke: Vanessa uses it like that on her blog, and she even explained recently to me why this word is disguised that way, but I can’t either remember the exact explanation or find that exchange. If she comes by, we should ask her again :)
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I have Mandragore and Nuit Etoilee in the fridge.They are my summer spritzers and the past two summers have used them a lot, since I’ve worked five steps away from my fridge.
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Nuit Etoile is a good candidate for fridge perfume! I should try it next summer.
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I thought about buying a wine fridge for some of my perfumes but don’t have enough space for it at the moment. Still considering it though as I just had a perfume go off I was rather fond off.
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I’m sure I’ll revisit that idea once I say goodbye to one of my favorites ;)
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No, I also briefly considered using the wine fridge, but I decided not to. My home is air conditioned and the cabinets where my perfume resides are right next to the AC vents so they stay plenty cool that way.
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I’m monitoring the temperature on the perfume shelves to turn on the A/C once it gets warmer (though it doesn’t happen too often). Rusty doesn’t approve the A/C though: he prefers when it’s hot.
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Hey Undina,
I had a small wine fridge for a while but the damn thing was frost free so it was sucking the perfumes out of their bottles. I had a major freak out and then put it on the sidewalk for council clean up.
Having said that, in summer I keep a bottle of Paris Hilton Fairy Dust in the fridge for ice cold spritzes. It’s so cheap that I don’t care if the fridge steals some. Plus it smells good in the fridge all summer long. When that runs out (on my second and probably last bottle) I think I’ll put one of the 4711 Remix colognes in there.
Portia xx
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I never thought about an extra evaporation in the wine fridge. For me it was counterintuitive: wine doesn’t do that. But if to think about it, wine might be closed much better with the cork that doesn’t have a hole for spritzing :)
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The short answer is no, I don’t. We have very few days with temperatures over 25C, so I don’t worry too much about heat . I also don’t own any eau fraîche type of cologne or 4711, so no scented products I would absolutely love to splash or spray on cold.
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25C is my favorite summer weather!
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I did for a while but abandoned it as I figure if it goes bad, it goes bad and I can buy something else. But I do keep scented lotions in there and it preserves them many years past when they would normally go bad.
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With scented lotions it makes perfect sense, but then I won’t use it at all: my bathroom is on another floor :)
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I keep all of my vintage perfumes in the fridge. My friends, who know about my passion for perfumes, call these perfumes “the elders in cryotherapy” :-D
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:) Is it a real fridge or a wine cooler? Do you keep them in boxes? Do boxes/labels suffer from the moisture?
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A part of a shelf in a real fridge is dedicated to my perfumes. Some are in boxes, some are not. I have never detected any sign of moisture on any of the bottles/boxes.
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Not on a permanent basis. But I’m impressed with those who do. I’m tempted to try your occasional thing, though, especially with citrus scents.
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Do it! You’ll like it. Besides, it might be a good shot when you take it from the fridge and it is covered by a dew :)
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Haha, thanks for the reminder of my higher standards of perfume conservation! When I moved to my current house, I didn’t like the look – or sound – of the fridges in my bedrooms. One I rehomed to friends in Blackpool, where it is used for beer, and one is in my garage used for overflow Christmas fare. Nowadays the only perfume in my fridge is a “back up” tin of Citron Boboli from Le Jardin Retrouve. I only put it there because the makers specifically told me to. ;) Everything else takes its chance in various wardrobes.
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I remember being extremely impressed by your fridges use :)
If you see this comment, can you explain once again about the asterisks in the “journey” (Nose Prose was wondering above in the comment and I couldn’t remember the exact explanation and didn’t want to improvise on what I did remember).
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