Yes, slowly. Heat and light are what age it, so a bathroom windowsill is the worst place in the house for a bottle and a drawer is the best. A fragrance that has turned smells sharper and more alcoholic at the opening than you remember.

Is it true that perfume smells different on different people?

Yes, and skin oil is most of the reason. The same eau de parfum reads sweeter on oilier skin and sharper on dry skin, which is why a scent you loved on somebody else can disappoint on you. It is worth wearing a sample for a full day before buying rather than judging it on paper.

Should I layer two fragrances to make it last?

It does not extend anything, and it usually muddies both. If you want more from a scent you already like, the higher concentration of the same fragrance does what layering is trying to do.

The answer

Why does my perfume not last?

Your nose adapts to a constant smell within about fifteen minutes, so the scent you cannot detect on yourself at eleven is often still perfectly obvious to the person sitting opposite you. Before changing anything, ask somebody. After that the two real levers are concentration and what you spray onto. Eau de parfum carries more perfume oil than eau de toilette and lasts hours longer for it, and every bottle on this shelf is eau de parfum rather than toilette -- that was a buying decision, not a coincidence. Dry skin holds scent worst because there is nothing for the oils to sit in, so an unscented moisturiser first changes more than spraying more does. Spray, then leave it alone: rubbing your wrists together warms the perfume and pushes the opening through faster.

What answers it

PradaParadoxe Intense Eau de ParfumHere as the warning rather than the answer. Intense reads like a concentration and is not one -- this is jasmine over ambrofix and moss where the original is neroli over amber and white musk. Two scents under one name. The word on the label to trust is eau de parfum.Buy on Amazon
Jimmy ChooSignature Eau de ParfumThe best-evidenced fragrance here at 11,135 ratings, and a dry amber rather than a sweet one -- worth knowing because sweetness reads as strength for the first hour and then leaves, which is what makes a gourmand feel like it disappeared.Buy on Amazon
PradaParadoxe Eau de ParfumFor the opposite problem. If perfume gives you a headache by lunchtime it is usually not lasting too long, it is sitting too close -- an eau de parfum sprayed once, at a distance, solves more of that than a lighter concentration does.Buy on Amazon
MoroccanoilL'Originale Eau de ParfumAn eau de parfum for skin like the others, and here for a different reason: it is the smell of the hair oil this house is known for. If you already know that scent and want it without oiling your hair, this is the house selling it as a fragrance -- not something to spray on hair.Buy on Amazon

Prices live on Amazon, where they change hourly — so we never quote one. Every product here is a brand we would name out loud.

The first thing to rule out is your own nose

Olfactory adaptation is fast and it is specific: you stop registering the scent you are wearing while still smelling everything else normally. That is why the bottle seems to have stopped working after a week and why spraying more makes no difference to you and a great deal of difference to everyone else. The test costs nothing -- ask somebody at three in the afternoon whether they can smell anything.

Concentration is the one thing on the label that matters here

Eau de parfum, eau de toilette and eau de cologne are the same idea at falling strengths of perfume oil. The gap between an eau de parfum and an eau de toilette of the same scent is usually several hours, and it is the reason a bottle that smells identical in the shop behaves completely differently by evening. Every fragrance on this site is eau de parfum. If a scent you already own fades, look for whether the house makes it in a higher concentration before you replace it -- but read which words you are being sold. Eau de parfum and eau de toilette describe strength. Intense, Elixir and Extrait often describe a different composition under the same name, and Prada's own two Paradoxes are exactly that: the original is neroli over amber and white musk, the Intense is jasmine over ambrofix and moss. Buying the second because the first faded gets you a different perfume, not a longer one.

Dry skin is a bad surface and moisturiser is the fix

Perfume oils need something to hold on to, and dry skin gives them nothing -- the scent flashes off in the first hour. An unscented moisturiser on the same spot first is the change with the least effort behind it, and it works better than spraying more. Scented body lotion is worse than useless here because it fights the perfume.

Where you spray changes how long it reads

Pulse points are warm, and warmth is what pushes a fragrance out into the room -- which makes it obvious early and gone sooner. Somewhere cooler and more covered, the inside of an elbow or the base of the throat under a collar, gives a quieter opening and a much longer tail. Fabric holds scent longest of all, which is why a coat collar still smells of yesterday -- but perfume marks silk and pale fabric, so a scarf is safer than a dress. Hair holds it well too and is the reason a scented hair oil reads all day, though eau de parfum is mostly alcohol and hair does not enjoy it.

What not to do

Do not rub your wrists together. It is not that friction breaks the molecules -- that is a myth -- but the warmth speeds the opening notes through and you lose the part of the scent you probably bought it for. Spray, and let it dry on its own.

Questions

Does perfume go off?: Yes, slowly. Heat and light are what age it, so a bathroom windowsill is the worst place in the house for a bottle and a drawer is the best. A fragrance that has turned smells sharper and more alcoholic at the opening than you remember.
Is it true that perfume smells different on different people?: Yes, and skin oil is most of the reason. The same eau de parfum reads sweeter on oilier skin and sharper on dry skin, which is why a scent you loved on somebody else can disappoint on you. It is worth wearing a sample for a full day before buying rather than judging it on paper.
Should I layer two fragrances to make it last?: It does not extend anything, and it usually muddies both. If you want more from a scent you already like, the higher concentration of the same fragrance does what layering is trying to do.

Your turn

What should we dress next?

An occasion you cannot find anything for, or a product you want us to look at properly.