Why does it matter where you apply your perfume?

It doesn't! If you don't care about the performance of your perfume at all and do not care if you and people around you will be able to smell it on your skin or not.

If you care even a bit about your perfume's performance, we recommend you to read this post very carefully!

Skin or clothes?

If you are interested in finding out if it is better to apply your perfume on your skin or your clothes, we got you covered.

We have a post dedicated to the battle if you should apply your perfume to your skin or clothes. It is called "How to apply perfume properly? Skin or clothes?". In it, we have covered as many differences between these two approaches as we possibly could. That way, you will be able to make decisions based on your situation at any time.

Back to the main story

If you intend to apply perfume on your clothes, we have a post related to the application process and everything you need to know about it in a post called "Best ways to apply fragrance on your clothes". But this post is dedicated to applying perfumes to our skin, so have that in mind.

So, where should you apply perfume?

To get the most out of it, apply perfume on your pulse points that are well protected and hydrated at all times!

But what are pulse points?

Pulse points are places where blood vessels are the closest to the top of our skin's surface. That means that the skin will emit the most heat over time from those areas.

Why is heat necessary for our perfume's optimal performance?

You can read all about this topic in our posts discussing topics "Why do perfumes contain alcohol?" and "How to apply perfume properly? Skin or clothes?".

You will see in these posts that heat is an essential part of the perfume's journey into the air around us because the alcohol from the perfume needs heat to evaporate. And when the alcohol from your perfume evaporates, it releases the scented mix into the air, enabling us to enjoy it fully!

When applying perfume, another thing to remember is to make sure that your skin is not damaged in the area where you intend to apply the perfume. This is imperative because you call for skin irritation to present itself if you apply it in those areas.

Finally, we can start talking about some great body parts where the perfume application should benefit you the most.

We are going to start out with a few of the commonly known places where people tend to apply perfume in most cases

1. Inner wrists - everyone knows about this application spot. And it is for a good reason because it provides many of the required traits for our perfume to perform perfectly. We can discuss the points that make a perfect location for our perfume. The first one is the warm environment. The wrist area certainly passes this test because the skin is very thin in this area with many blood vessels under it, making it a perfect heat emitter. The second is protection, and this is where this location might not be the best pick because it is very exposed. And the third one is related to dryness. This area might be dry due to the exposed nature of this location, but not too often.
   
   
   Before we finalize this application point, one essential thing must be addressed: never rub the perfume in when you apply it in this area. This is where people tend to make a mistake when applying perfume to this area. Check out our post explaining why you should not rub the perfume in. It is called "How to apply perfume properly? Skin or clothes?". To sum it up, wrists are a great location for the perfume application for sure, but due to its exposed nature and potential dryness, we give it a solid 8/10.
2. Sides on the neck - are another commonly accepted location to apply perfume, and again, with a good reason. This location is also very warm. It is a bit less exposed usually than wrists and tends to be dry a bit less often than your wrists might be. Also, it will emit the scent into the air very nicely, enabling you to enjoy it due to its small distance from the nose. Also, as you walk, the scent trail will be left behind you from your neck because the wind will brush off some scent from your neck, sharing it with people behind you.
   
   The only downside might be that the area is less exposed than our wrists but still not very tucked in, making it hard for our perfume to stick around for too long. We have to give this location a solid 9.5/10 due to the lack of real significant downsides, the only one being a bit exposed nature of it.
3. Chest - is another relatively common location for the application of perfumes. It is certainly warm, even though it has a lot fewer blood vessels present than the previous two locations. The fact that it is usually covered with clothes to some extent makes it warm for sure. Again, it is a bit less exposed than the previous two locations because of the clothes usually covering this area.
   
   And finally, it is rarely dry. This area's cozy and warm nature makes it almost impossible to be very dry. But the real downside to this area is its tucked-in nature, which prevents scents from lingering in the air as easily as they would in the previous two cases. The scent will be present, but the sillage will certainly be less prominent from this body part. We can give this location an 8/10 only because of its lacking sillage potential.

Now we can start discussing some of the less common locations that might be a good choice for you to try out

1. Hair - is an amazing option for women. If you apply perfume to your hair, it will stick to it and begin to bind with your hair's fibers, thus extending the lifespan of the perfume (similarly to the case with applying perfume to our clothes). Lack of blood vessels in our hair does not mean cold. Hair will emit the heat from our head and keep it locked in, enough for the perfume to act. The perfume will certainly not be exposed very much. Only a topmost layer of hair is exposed at any time, so that way, you will extend the perfume's longevity for sure. And the performance is going to be nothing less than excellent when it comes to sillage and projection, which is to be expected when you consider the location where the perfume is applied.
   
   But there is a downside to this approach. That is because alcohol tends to dry off anything that is being sprayed with it, and our hair does not appreciate this feature. People recommend that we apply perfume by not applying it directly to our hair but onto our comb or a brush and then applying it to hair. That only lowers the drying feature a bit, not fixing the issue. The overall score we have for hair is 8/10 because it is amazing when it comes to performance. You should not utilize this often. Your hair's health is more important.
2. Behind ear lobes - is a hidden gem when it comes to perfume application locations. This is where we can check all three of our basic points from the checklist because it is very warm behind our ears, it is not exposed, and it is never dry. When you combine these facts with the fact that it is very easy to spread the sillage of the perfume while we are walking, you can conclude that this location is great. Just imagine the situation when you reach out to kiss someone's cheek, and they get greeted by your perfume. The only thing that is not amazing is projection, even more so when hair covers this area. Overall, our easy recommendations to try out this location, we give it a 9.5/10 with ease.

3. Inner elbows - is another gem for sure. Again, this area checks all of our basic points because it is warm, moist, and not exposed. It is also effortless to spread the scent as you move your hands, which makes this a great overall idea to try. The only downside is that this is a joint area, which means that there will be friction created by you moving your hands, thus making your upper and lower arm areas rub against each other. This can certainly pose a problem if you are moving your arms constantly because you will get the same bad effects that we discussed in our post called "How to apply perfume properly? Skin or clothes?". To sum it up, we have to give this location a bit lower grade but have in mind that that is only because of the concern for this rubbing issue. We give it a solid 7.5/10. If you are not going to move your arms too much in a fashion to rub your skin, this would be a solid 9.5/10.

4. Behind knees - is a location that is being talked about as a good idea, and technically it is because it is warm, moist, and not too exposed. But there is a huge rubbing issue because you are walking, and this area will be under a lot of heat for sure. Also, it is too low on our body, so it might be hard for the perfume to reach high enough for us to actually enjoy it (depending on the potency of the perfume you are wearing). If you are sitting down in an office environment, your walking is limited, and you spend a lot of time sitting down, this is a great location, hands down. But in most situations, there are better alternatives. We give it 6/10 because of the reasons we mentioned.

5. Ankles - while we are talking about our legs, we might as well discuss this location. This area is ok, but the same way as with knees, only in specific situations. If you walk a lot, the perfume will be washed off by the air constantly breezing over it very quickly because this area is very exposed. On the other hand, if you wear clothes that cover this area, the perfume will not reach anyone and anything. Again, if you are sitting and not moving too much, it might be an amazing idea because you will spread the perfume into the air as you move your legs. Overall, we give it 4/10 due to its even more limited nature than the previous scenario.



6. Belly button - we stumbled upon a few posts about this area, and we get why it might be considered a good idea. It is warm. It's not dry, and it is exposed a bit more than it should be (if you are wearing a top, which you probably are if you are applying perfume in this area). But this area will not be your go-to location if you wish to get the most out of your perfume. It is not that high up on our body, so you have better alternatives to spread the scent a bit more. It might be a great addition to your perfume application routine for sure, but as the main location, we are not fans. This is why we give this location a 6/10.

7. Hips - share most of the traits with belly button talk we just had, but with a few differences. It is much easier for the perfume to linger around you when applied to these areas. It will be able to create a much stronger sillage for sure because it is on the point where air naturally passes when you walk. It is exposed similarly to the belly button, but it is less warm. When we add all of these facts, we give this location a bit higher 7/10 due to its sillage-related advantages.

8. The back of the neck - is a terrific all-around location to apply your perfume. It is not a great option if you wish to use it as one of your main perfume application locations, but it can be a fantastic addition to the main locations. Why is it not great as the primary location? Because it is on the back of our body, the projection will suffer a bit due to that fact. But on the other hand, the sillage will be amazing. Of course, if you have longer hair, it will decrease the potential of this location for sure, so this one is a good idea for people with shorter hair. We give it a solid 7/10.

And we are done. We have covered 11 great locations where you can apply your perfume. Not a single one of the locations covered is bad. You just need to be aware of their benefits and downsides and use them to your advantage. After reading this post, that should be no problem for you at all.

The best way to get a great understanding and familiarize yourself with all of these locations is to play around with them. Test each location and see if you enjoy them or not. This all boils down to our personal preferences.

We hope you have found this post useful and that you enjoyed reading it.