Sometimes, a perfume might just not be doing it for you.
Maybe you sprayed on way too much right before an important meeting or a hot date. Maybe it’s too long-lasting and you just want it off of skin and out of mind. Or maybe the fragrance you just applied smells downright awful and you need an emergency deep clean.
What do you do to get the smell of perfume off your skin?
There are a number of methods for removing the smell of perfume from your skin. Taking a shower is, of course, the easiest way. However, if a shower isn’t an option, using rubbing alcohol, vinegar, vodka, olive oil, or baking soda to clean your skin are effective methods.
Let’s take a closer look at what you can do to get rid of the perfume smell from your skin.
Scrub With Soap and Water
If you are in a pinch and don’t have time to take a shower, one of the best ways of removing the smell of perfume from your skin is to scrub the perfumed area with soap in the sink.
With hot water, rinse the area of skin where you applied your perfume. Then scrub vigorously with soap (hand soap or bar soap are fine) until you have achieved your desired result.
This is an easy method of removing the smell of perfume from your skin. It can also work if you don’t necessarily want to totally remove the smell of perfume from your skin, but rather just reduce its intensity. Best of all, you can do it almost anywhere.
However, if you applied your perfume on your neck or under your clothes, this probably won’t work for you.
Take a Shower
One of the best and easiest ways to remove the smell of perfume from your skin is, of course, to take a nice, hot shower.
Simply hop in the shower and perform your usual shower routine. Take extra time to scrub the area of skin where you applied your perfume with lots of soap.
Most conventional, mainstream perfumes are not tough enough to withstand a hot shower and a good, soapy scrub. However, some perfumes can be surprisingly resilient, and might survive a shower.
If your perfume is still projecting off of your skin even after a shower, it’s time to bring in the big guns.
Rubbing Alcohol
Rubbing alcohol is an effective weapon of anti-perfume warfare, and also happens to be something that most people have lying around the house.
If you’re dealing with a particularly stubborn scent, try breaking out the rubbing alcohol.
First, rinse the skin with warm water. Then, moisten a cloth or cotton ball with rubbing alcohol and gently scrub on the perfumed area of skin. Let the alcohol sit on your skin for 5-10 minutes, then rinse with water.
Rubbing alcohol is a great method for getting rid of the smell of perfume, but it’s hardly the only option available to you.
Vodka
Yes, vodka is quite effective at taking care of tenacious perfumes. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise – after all, vodka is not too far away from being as strong as rubbing alcohol.
If you’ve got some unflavored vodka on hand (don’t use the birthday cake or mango flavored stuff for this job), you can use it in the exact same way as you’d use rubbing alcohol for removing the smell of perfume from your skin.
Rinse the perfumed area of skin. Then, soak a cloth or cotton balls in unflavored vodka and dab onto skin. Let the vodka sit on your skin for 5-10 minutes, then wash off with water.
Baking Soda Paste
Baking soda has to be one of the most versatile of all household cleaning products. Just one of the many weapons in its arsenal is its powerful odor-fighting abilities.
While you might know that sprinkling baking soda around the house is a great way of deodorizing, you might not know that you can also use baking soda on your skin to neutralize odors.
How, you might ask? By making a baking soda paste.
First, rinse the perfumed skin with water. Then, combine equal parts baking soda and warm or lukewarm water until a thick paste is formed. Apply the paste to the affected area of skin and let sit for 5-10 minutes, then rinse with water.
Vinegar
Another jack-of-all-trades of household cleaning, it should come as no surprise that white vinegar is an effective perfume-removing tool.
First, rinse your skin with water. Then, soak a cloth or some cotton balls in white vinegar. Rub the vinegar onto the perfumed area of skin. Let the vinegar remain on skin for 5-10 minutes, then rinse with water.
Vinegar is a lot more fragrant than rubbing alcohol, vodka, or baking soda, so you might want to take a shower after using this method, or rub down your skin with soap or body wash to remove the vinegar smell.
Olive Oil
Finally, olive oil is a surprisingly effective means of removing perfume from your skin.
That’s because perfume consists of alcohol and oil. If you apply another kind of oil to the affected area, that oil will naturally attract and absorb the perfume oils from your skin.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be olive oil, but olive oil’s relatively high viscosity helps it adhere to the skin.
First, rinse the perfumed skin with water. Then, soak a cloth or cotton ball (preferably a cotton ball) in olive oil, or simply rub about a tablespoon of olive oil onto the skin. Let the oil sit on your skin for 5-10 minutes, then wash off with water.
Using olive oil might seem strange, but it’s quite an efficient method for removing perfumes with high oil content or attars from the skin.
The Final Word
If you’re into perfumes, or even just a casual user, you’re bound to put on too much perfume or try out a fragrance you can’t stand at some point. It’s the nature of the beast. I’ve lost count of how many times it’s happened to me.
Luckily, there are several easy ways to remove perfume from your skin.
The best way to remove perfume from the skin is by taking a shower, but in more serious cases, applying rubbing alcohol, vodka, baking soda paste, vinegar, or olive oil to the perfumed area can get rid of even the most tenacious perfumes in a pinch.
