Expert: Profile Closed - 12/21/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello! I was contacting you today because I was curious to know what happens to a fragrance when you clean a restroom with harsh chemicals such as bleach, ammonia, etc, and you have fragrances stored in there? Does it affect the fragrance at all? Is the scent damaged a bit because of the heavy clorox or other chemicals? I cleaned my restroom today with a new cleaner that happened to be very strong and harsh and I keep all my fragrances stored in there. I'm just wondering if I did anything negative to my colognes. Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi there, and thanks for your question!

The short answer is that it's unlikely that you will do much damage to most fragrances with just the odors from a cleaner. There are several reasons for this:

1) Most fragrances are composed of an alcohol base with an organic molecule or molecule as the scent - the alcohol itself is, chemically speaking, quite reactive, so if the fragrance can survive this, it will not be affected by chance passing odors.

2) Fragrances are designed to evaporate on the skin, generating a pleasant odor. To avoid them evaporating too early, in storage, they are usually stored in glass bottles with closed lids, and if the fragrance can't get out, it's unlikely other odors will get in.

3) Whilst the chemicals in cleaning products are themselves harsh, in normal use they will not give off large quantities of noxious fumes, and the fumes that are present have, by law, to be relatively safe if accidentally inhaled.

So unless you're storing something like rose-water in an open container, it's unlikely that the fumes from cleaning products will affect your fragrances; if you are concerned, storing fragrances in a cupboard or cabinet should eliminate any possibility of contamination.

The only possible problem would be if you mixed cleaners, either accidentally or deliberately, during use. This can produce extremely toxic and reactive gasses. Generally, it would be of greater concern as a safety hazard to people, but if only minor quantities are involved, the produced gases could cause damage to other products in the bathroom #e.g. mixing toilet descaler and bleach produces highly reactive chlorine, and mixing bleach and ammonia produces a whole host of dangerous and reactive gases). For both your own safety and the continued stability of your fragrances, use only small amounts of any cleaning product, and thoroughly rinse surfaces or containers after they've been cleaned.

I hope this is of use to you, let me know if I can be of further help, and best wishes for a very happy Christmas 2009!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi! Thank you for answering my question so amazingly thorough!!! That's quite possibly the best answer I've ever received from this site!!! I'm still a bit confused on the last paragraph however. So, harmful gases could possibly be created if one mixes these chemicals such as the ones described? Are these gases visible? Even if minor quantities are involved, are these gases visible?

I used this cleaner called Sanivac concentrated, Scrub free Oxy, Clorox clean up with bleach, and Comet. The Sanivac was the new cleaner and it actually reads on the bottle, DANGER: IRRITANT TO EYES AND MUCOUS MEMBRANES. It asks to not mix with bleach or other houslhold products but I think I may have accidently mixed a bit. I mean, no gases came out but I'm no expert. The product contains phosphoric acid, sulfamic acid, as well as other chemicals. Do you think my fragrances are affected for sure now?

ANSWER: Hi There,

You're very welcome! And sorry, the last paragraph was almost added as an afterthought.

Mixing any cleaners with bleach is unwise as bleach contains chlorine as part of its chemical make-up, and acids will liberate this as a gas. You won't normally see or hear anything, but there will be a strong smell of "swimming pool", more so than with just bleach by itself, and you may feel irritation in the lungs and / or eyes. A similar reaction releases gases like Hydrazine if ammonia is involved.

It is unlikely that the small amounts generated by accidental mixing will have had any effect on your fragrances, for the first two reasons I mentioned before. Additionally, if you didn't notice anything yourself when the mixing happened, the amount generated must have been very small indeed. I only mentioned it because if this mixing happens every time you do the cleaning, over a long period of time, there's a possibility of an unwelcome effect on your fragrances. So no, your fragrances won't be ruined, just take care in day-to-day cleaning to avoid mixing cleaners, to prevent any possible future, long-term effect.

Another point is that the job of a fragrance is - obviously- to smell nice, and your own nose is worth more than any analysis that a chemist could do for you - if they smell ok, they probably are. Again, as I said before, as long as they're in closed bottles, there's not much that will affect the quality of your fragrances in storage.

Hope that helps, but again, follow-ups are very welcome. Thanks again for your question.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi! Thanks for the great thorough reply! I went back and spayed a couple of them on my skin and they smell a bit off. One smelled like pure nail polish remover! I can definitely smell the alcohol more pronounced in te others! I'm not sure but is it possible that the cleaner may have temporarily damaged my sense of smell and taste? Is that why they're smelling kind off to me? Thanks!

Answer
Thank you for the follow-up;

I'm sorry to hear that the fragrances don't smell too good any more. As I said in the above answer, I think that any change in smell is not likely to be due to direct contamination, because of the storage conditions, and so must be due to something else.

I can assure you though that the effect of chlorine or similar would have been to totally remove your sense of taste and smell, and then only if you had inhaled large quantities. It is very unlikely indeed that the small amount you inhaled would have caused any damage at all; I am regularly exposed to higher amounts during emergency response conditions, with no lasting health-effects.

I would guess that there are two possible explanations for the observed change in fragrance smell:

1# Lingering background odors, including from the cleaners - this is likely to occur at this time of year in the Northern hemisphere, because with the weather so cold, we don't open doors and windows anything like as frequently as we do in summer.

2# The fact you were testing them: by this I mean that all scents use large quantities of ethanol as a base, and even in the best fragrances, smelling soon after it has been put on your skin would lead to a noticeable alcohol smell. Likewise, the smell of nail varnish remover is not unexpected, as many compounds used as fragrances are esters, which are chemically quite close to Acetone #the ketone that is used to make Nail polish Remover). The concentrated scent, smelt moments after application, would again lead to unpleasantly high levels of this compound being smelled.

A fairer test might be to very lightly scent some screwed up tissues, and leave then in a warmish room for a couple of hours before smelling. Then, when the time comes to test them, don't sniff directly at the tissues #that, after all, is not how scents are smelled when people wear them!), instead, hold the tissue flat in front of you, and use your other hand to gently waft the scent towards you, in the same way that scent might drift towards you as someone walks past. Then you will be testing the effect of applied and settled scent, rather than the concentrated vapors and alcohol-base. If this test still leads to the same concentrated unpleasant smells then further investigation might be needed, but I think you will find that the difference between direct smelling on application and delayed smelling after a bit will be noticeable; I experimented at home with some aftershave before composing this reply, and that's what I found.

In summary, I think that both yourselves and your fragrances should be ok, and the weird smells you reported were because you sampled the scent straight on application, rather than after a delay; scents are designed to be smelled in small amounts over a period of hours, and a concentrated dose will very probably smell unpleasant.

Do let me know how things go! I should also say that, if you experience any symptoms like a tight chest, rasping cough or difficulty breathing, contact a doctor at once. I am certain that you have not been affected by the gas, but as a point of reference, if you do have any concerns, talk to a doctor without delay. There, that's the legal disclaimer done! Thanks very much again for a really interesting question; that's why I love this job, you learn so much whilst doing it!

Best wishes.