Why you should think twice before spraying perfume on your favorite clothes

It might smell good, but experts warn it could damage your fave staples...

a glass perfume bottle, on a pastel gradient background/ in a template with a silk fabric ripple effect
(Image credit: Getty Images/ Ekaterina Zaitseva)

While the temptation to spray perfume on your clothes is real, here's why experts say you should think twice before dousing all your fave capsule wardrobe pieces in your best perfumes...

When it comes to all our favorite vanilla perfumes and oud scents, we just want to be enveloped, from head to toe in all of their dreamy and tantalizing perfume notes. Hence why spraying our hair and clothes with our signature scents seems like such a no-brainer for boosting our heavenly aroma. 

In fact, there's nothing better than picking up a sweater and getting a hint of the perfume you wore the night before locked in the fibers along with all the memories. But the experts warn our application habits could spell disaster for some of our favorite, t-shirts and sheer dresses...

Why you should avoid spraying perfume on clothes

While it's usually okay to mist your perfume onto your outfit (though it won't actually help your fragrance last longer!) before heading out of the door—there's one thing you need to be aware of, particularly if your perfumes have a tinted formula and you're a lover of classic white t-shirts...

Vicken Arslanian, Re-Founder of perfume brand Commodity reassures us that spraying clothes with perfume isn't 'necessarily a bad thing' (phew!), but it needs to be done correctly to avoid fashion heartbreak...

Arslanian advises: "First, be mindful of your clothing fabric, as certain materials can get stained. Also check the fragrance’s juice color, as tinted juices can leave stains." So steer clear of tinted fragrances, especially if they're rich orange or even red formulas.

Holly Hutchinson, founder of Memoize London also adds that even your old faithful—that has never stained your pieces before—can eventually have a staining effect, explaining: "Perfumes can change color over time," before adding that "it's best to avoid the disappointment of stained clothes."

While the drawback is that perfume can sometimes stain clothes, if you're a habitual clothes sprayer, Arslanian says: "If you want to scent your clothes, I’d recommend spraying your fragrance in the air then walking through it. This added misting (versus a direct spray) will help to avoid staining."

Well guess we're misting from now on then!

Naomi Jamieson
Lifestyle News Writer

Naomi is a Lifestyle News Writer with the Women's Lifestyle team, where she covers everything from entertainment to fashion and beauty, as well as TikTok trends for Woman&Home, after previously writing for My Imperfect Life and GoodTo. Interestingly though, Naomi actually has a background in design, having studied illustration at Plymouth University but lept into the media world in 2020, after always having a passion for writing and earned her Gold Standard diploma in Journalism with the NCTJ.


Before working for Future Publishing’s Lifestyle News team, she worked in the Ad production team. Here she wrote and designed adverts on all sorts of things, which then went into print magazines across all genres. Now, when she isn’t writing articles on celebs, fashion trends, or the newest shows on Netflix, you can find her drinking copious cups of coffee, drawing and probably online shopping.