Expert: Profile Closed - 1/5/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hello again! Sorry to trouble you once more but I was hoping you could assist me with this question. I had one more question about fragrance care. I own about 25 or so bottles of cologne and I store them in my bathroom in a box in a cabinet under my sink. It's cool and dark and I usually maintain it to be around 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit. However, since I do store it in a box, do you think that can have a negative affect on any of my fragrances because of the fluctuating temperatures in a bathroom? I mean, would any heat somehow become trapped in the box and ultimately ruin my fragrances? Would the fact that they're all stored compressed together neatly play a factor in making them retain heat because there are so many in just one box, thus trapping any heat?  That's my main concern, especially in the summer time when it gets very hot. If not, then what about the heat from the shower, such as fog or steam that may get into the cabinet through the cracks or crevices and somehow become trapped in the box. Is that possible and if it is, would that in turn damage the juice inside the bottles? Thanks again and take care!

ANSWER: Hi there, Happy New Year, and no need to apologize, that's what I'm here for :-)

Storing fragrances in a box is far better than storing them in the open, so you can be assured that you have taken the best route to protecting them.

Under normal conditions, there is no way you could reach the decomposition temperature of a fragrance in normal household storage; so in other words it can't get hot enough to make the perfumes break down. The main problem would be if the fragrances were stored with loose caps, in which case the heat would cause some of the fragrance to evaporate.

It's incredibly difficult to trap heat anywhere (think of trying to keep a house warm in winter) so unless your cabinet is right against a water boiler, I don't think storage in a box will be any warmer than in the cabinet itself; as the cabinet and the box (unless they are metal) are not good at conducting heat, it won't be that easy for heat from the room to pass in to the box anyway.

Storing them together is again unlikely to affect them; technically, the bulk containers would have a higher heat capacity that individual bottles, but the difference will be minute on an everyday temperature scale.

By the time moisture hits the low level of the cabinet, it will have condensed and cooled anyway, so there is little danger of heat from this source; the cabinet and the box will exclude moisture anyway.

The best thing you can do to ensure that your fragrances remain ok is to keep their lids packed tightly closed, so that individual fragrances that become warm do not evaporate and mix with any other fragrances. If the label specifies a particular keep-below temperature, make sure the cabinet does not get hotter than this in summer; if it does then move them.

Any particularly expensive or valuable fragrances would be better stored individually in a more stable environment (e.g. bedroom cabinet) to fully ensure their stability.

In conclusion, the bottles themselves are designed to protect and store the fragrances, so provided you use them correctly (e.g. keeping the cap tight), you should be OK. Storing fragrances in a box and cabinet will further serve to insulate them from extreme changes in temperature. However, the instructions on each bottle should be checked for special storage instructions, and any fragrances that are particularly important should be stored separately to guard against any accidental cross-contamination.

Hope that helps, again, please do let me know if there's anything I haven't explained clearly, or if there are further points you'd like to discuss.

Best wishes, thanks again, George



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

QUESTION: Hello! Thanks for the fast reply! It makes great sense now but I still had a question about one thing in particular. The line about storing them with their caps closed tightly to avoid cross contamination. I store them all in their own original boxes that I bought them in. Then I neatly pack them together in a box. When I use them, I just take the box out and pick the one I'm going to use that day, apply it, then put it back into the box under the sink. Would this be effective in preventing the cross contamination you speak of? Also, none of my fragrances say anything about storing temp so I assume they all need to be kept in a cool dark place.
In terms of keeping the bottles closed tightly to avoid evaporation, I mean, they're all spritzers so I really can't tell if they are closed tightly. I tried twisting the spritzers to close more tightly and most of them are very tightly closed while a few others just keep twisting and twisting but I guess that's how they are because I've had some like this in the past without any issues.
Also, did you mean that in the case of my home reaching a certain hot temp, and my fragrances were not closed tightly, they'd evaporate and/or cross contaminate or is this true for them always, even in the conditions I keep them in now. Thanks again!

ANSWER: Hi, and thank you for the follow-up!

As long as your fragrances are kept in their original bottles, you should be ok, as the bottles are designed to keep the fragrance in. In the case of spritzer-type dispensers, the valve to the sprayer seals the bottle anyway, so as long as the neck is tight, it'll be effectively contained.

Cross-contamination requires two things to happen; firstly for vapor and / or liquid from one fragrance to be spilled and secondly, for this vapor to contact another fragrance.

The first stage is unavoidable; using fragrances means moving them and spraying them, and there will always be some residue. But provided the bottles are securely sealed, there is no way this contamination could contact another fragrance, so the second stage (and cross-contamination as a process) can't occur. To reassure myself on this point, I took a glass spritzer bottle of aftershave from a cheap store, and dunked it in a bath of water. You can immediately see if water mixes with alcohol as the clear liquid becomes cloudy as the two mix; however even after being pushed to the bottom of a sink-full of water, the alcohol in my cheap spritzer bottle remained clear, suggesting that the contents of spritzer bottles are well-sealed against escape of their contents. Obviously you won't be treating your fragrances in such a harsh manner, but my experiment indicates the generally good level of protection that spritzer-type bottles provide.

The only reason I mentioned temperature was that higher temperatures increase evaporation rates, so any spilled fragrance (on the side of the bottle after use, for instance) will evaporate more easily at higher temperatures.

Again, the key point is that fragrances have to be fairly stable molecules to survive the harsh conditions in which they are stored (strong ethanol); as long as you keep the bottles in a cool, dark place (As you mentioned you did), they should be fine.

Hope this helps; as ever, though, follow-ups are very welcome.

Best wishes,
George

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

QUESTION: Interesting!!! I wish I had your knowledge!!! I thank you for taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly and carefully!!! It really helps someone like me who is always thinking and wondering!!!
I do have one more question though. For the most part, everything was answered but when I was twisting the spritzer to my fragrances to see if they were tightly closed, one of the bottom of the spritzers actually came off. The spritzer itself is still intact and secured very well but it's just that metal cap part that goes over the sprizter that came off. I held the bottle upside down and shook it around but nothing leaks or comes out of it so I know it's pretty secure. However, the scent is now more pronounced when I smell the spritzer without the metal cap over the spritzer as opposed to it with it on. I can still put it on but when I put the cap over it and take the cap off, it comes off with the cap. Will this have any affect on my fragrance at all in terms of everything we've discussed such as evaporation, cross contamination, contamination through an odor in the restroom such as cleaning supplies or human secretions, or a much lower shelf life because of oxygen coming into it more? Thanks again and be careful!!!  

Answer
Hi there, and you're very welcome for any assistance I can give you.

From what you've said, you may have dislodged a securing ring or a cosmetic part of the cover; as long as the spritzer keeps functioning as normal, you shouldn't have a problem.

Any slight break in the seal which may have occurred (and which may be responsible for the increased odor you are smelling) will not affect any other perfumes for the reasons mentioned before; the others will be sealed and secured in their own containers.

From what you've said about the lack of a leak, I think that it's unlikely that there is a significant breach in the seal; oxygen coming on to contact with the fragrance won't do it any damage at all (again, remember how stable those fragrances have to be to survive their storage in alcohol). Your only problem, if there is a leak, would be that the perfume might evaporate slightly from the bottle. This is not likely to be a major problem because even if the seal is now leaking, it must obviously be a very small leak. If you are concerned, it may be worth storing the suspect bottle in its own small snap-lok (Tupperware-type) container alongside the rest of of your fragrances; the Tupperware will reduce the speed with which any fragrance might escape.

Hope that is of help to you; the key to this question is that fragrances are very stable alcohol-based solutions, and it's difficult to get them to degrade under normal conditions; storing them in a cool, dark cupboard as you do should ensure their integrity - at least as far as I as a chemist can tell :-)

Best wishes, George