Fabric perfumes and sprays are increasingly popular these days, with several brands releasing luxury fabric sprays, pillow sprays, and scented sachets.
But what exactly are fabric perfumes? And how do you use them?
As the name implies, fabric perfumes are perfumes designed to be used on fabrics, such as clothes, linens, shoes, towels, and car upholstery, rather than on skin like conventional perfumes.
There are a variety of different fabric perfumes on the market, each with different uses.
Let’s take a closer look.
What Are Fabric Perfumes?
As I mentioned previously, fabric perfumes, usually called fabric sprays, are perfumes designed to be sprayed on fabric rather than on skin.
Of course, you can spray any perfume on fabric, if you like (though if your perfume has a dark colored liquid and you’re spraying on light colored fabric, watch out).
However, most perfumes are designed to be worn on skin, and interact with the skin. Namely, the alcohol in conventional perfumes evaporates over time due to the wearer’s body heat, in addition to the ambient temperature and humidity.
Because of this, a conventional perfume often changes considerably over the wearing, and usually is gone within a handful of hours. But if you spray any perfume on fabric, you will find that the scent lasts a lot longer than it does on skin.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times that I’ve gone back and smelled a shirt that I wore a week before that still smelled like perfume, and I still have a jacket that smells like Dior Homme Parfum.
Thus, fabric perfumes tend to last longer, and are also made with fabric in mind, not skin.
What Are Fabric Perfumes Used For?
The primary purpose of fabric perfumes is keeping fabrics smelling fresh and clean between washes.
Sometimes, despite your best housekeeping efforts, the fabrics around your home can start to smell a bit off if you haven’t used or washed them for a while. Curtains can absorb the smell of cooking; carpets can get moldy; towels and spare bed sheets can get musty in the linens cupboard; and we’ve all been victims of the dreaded “mothball” smell in the closet.
That’s where fabric perfumes come in.
Sometimes you don’t necessarily want to go through the effort of washing and drying something, especially if there’s the possibility that it might shrink. Fabric sprays can freshen up your linens, carpets, curtains, and clothes and have them smelling nice, clean, and even alluring with a few quick spritzes.
But are you using the right fabric perfumes? Let’s take a quick look at the different varieties of fabric perfumes available.
Pillow Mists
Pillow mists (or pillow sprays) are wonderful fabric perfumes that have special properties.
Pillow mists are intended for spraying on your pillows and bed sheets before bed. They’re usually lighter in concentration than other fabric perfumes, and are meant to naturally induce or aid sleep, rather than force it like a sleeping pill.
Pillow mists usually contain essential oils like lavender and chamomile, which are known to help the brain produce melatonin, the body’s sleep hormone. Most pillow mists also contain ingredients which help to keep your pillow cases smelling fresh and clean.
Want a great pillow mist? Try the Deep Sleep Pillow Spray by This Works, containing calming blend of lavender, chamomile, and vetiver, or the Aromachologie Relaxing Pillow Mist by L’Occitane en Provence, a luxurious mix of lavender, bergamot, mandarin, sweet orange, and geranium.
Simply spray your pillow a few times before bed, and you’ll have a deeper and more restful sleep. You’ll also wake up feeling more relaxed and ready to seize the day.
Scented Sachets
Scented sachets are another kind of fabric perfume, but unlike pillow mists or fabric sprays, they aren’t sprayed on.
Scented sachets are placed or hung in closets, drawers, cabinets, cupboards, and even suitcases to release their scent and keep your clothes, linens, and towels deodorized and fresh. Simply shake the sachet a few times to activate the scent inside, then hang it up with your clothes in your closet or place it in your t-shirt or underwear drawer, linen cabinet, or even in your shoes.
The scent from the sachet will slowly diffuse, keeping things smelling nice and clean for months on end.
Looking for a good scented sachet? Try L’Occitane’s lavender and rose scented sachets. I use them myself, and find that the scent is natural and long lasting.
Linen/Fabric Sprays
Finally, the most common and conventional fabric perfume is, of course, the humble linen or fabric spray.
Linen sprays are most in line with what you’d expect from a fabric perfume. They’re designed to be sprayed on a wide variety of different fabrics, including your linens, towels, curtains, carpets, outerwear, underwear, shirts, and everything in between.
Just like other fabric perfumes, linen sprays are meant to have a fresh, clean, uplifting scent that will deodorize your fabrics. Many have are lavender-scented, like pillow sprays, or even evoke the scent of freshly washed linen laundry.
To use a fabric spray, simply spritz on your fabric of choice until you have achieved your desired level of scent. As fabric sprays tend to last longer on fabrics than conventional perfumes, a little goes a long way.
Looking for a great linen spray? Try FREY’s Nomad Fabric Freshener Spray. With a calming, woody scent, FREY’s linen spray is made with natural ingredients, completely biodegradable, and cruelty free.
The Final Word
In short, fabric perfumes are a great way to freshen up your clothes, linens, towels, carpets, car upholstery, and really any fabric that you could think of.
Fabric perfumes are designed to be sprayed on fabrics, not on skin like conventional perfumes. They’re chock-full of ingredients that help to keep fabrics smell fresh, clean, and deodorized. They also tend to double as room sprays, so they will keep your home smelling fresh and clean, too.
From linen sprays, to scented sachets, to pillow mists, there’s sure to be a fabric perfume out there for you.
