The Journal

Notes on wearing perfume, written for people who buy it rather than collect it.

Last updated 26 September 2026

Short pieces, added as we write them. Nothing here is a product announcement; the shop front does that well enough on its own.

Why your perfume disappears by lunchtime

The usual explanation is that the fragrance is weak. Usually it is not.

The first reason is dry skin. Fragrance oil needs something to hold on to, and dry skin gives it nothing, so the scent evaporates instead of settling. An unscented moisturiser on the same spot, first, changes this more than buying a stronger perfume will.

The second is that you have stopped noticing. The nose stops reporting a constant smell within minutes — the same reason you cannot smell your own house. Ask someone else before deciding a fragrance has gone; more often than not it is still there and only you cannot detect it.

The third is genuine: an eau de toilette really does last two to four hours. If you want all day, the concentration matters more than the brand. There is more on that under Fragrance.

How to read a list of notes

Note lists are marketing as much as chemistry, and they describe an impression rather than an ingredient list. "Ambergris" in almost every modern fragrance is a synthetic that smells like the idea of ambergris. This is not dishonesty; it is how the industry has worked for a century, and the synthetics are often better behaved than the originals.

What a list is genuinely useful for is shape. Read the base notes first. They tell you what the fragrance becomes and what you will actually live with, whereas the top notes tell you only how it introduces itself. A scent whose base is oud and labdanum will be heavy whatever its opening promises.

The worst place in your house to keep perfume

The bathroom. It is where almost everyone keeps it, and it is the one room that cycles between hot and humid several times a day. Heat and light break down the lighter molecules first, which is why an old bottle smells sharp and slightly sour at the top and more or less correct underneath.

A drawer in a cool room, bottle still in its box, is enough. You do not need a refrigerator. You do need to keep it out of a sunny window, which will age a fragrance in months.

How much to wear

Less than you think, and the denser the fragrance the more that holds. Two sprays of an extrait is a normal amount; four is a decision other people in the lift did not get to make.

A good test: if you can still smell it clearly on yourself after an hour, other people are getting considerably more than you are.

Suggest something

If there is something you would like written about, or a fragrance you want to see in the collection, the voting panel is on the shop front, and care@velmorris.com reaches a person.