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Figuring out some amazing fragrance layering combinations has been one of the best things I did last year to brighten my day. I love the smell of a good hair product or body wash in the shower, but I wanted to figure out how to smell amazing after I’ve stepped out, beyond just spraying perfume.
It can be confusing if you have some body products you love to know which ones will go well together. Maybe you’ve tried layering a body lotion with a body mist and felt the scent was sour or too intense or just discordant overall.
Along the way I learned some tips and hacks to make your scent go further, and importantly, how to figure out which scents go together well. It’s not as difficult as it may seem to put together different scents for a result that smells complex and beautiful.
And if you’re looking for a shortcut, I’ve made a quick cheat sheet of my current five favorite scent combinations you can wear out of the shower!
Layering scents has two main benefits: it will make your scents last longer and it creates a more complex scent. Layering a body wash, lotion, and perfume of the same scent can help make your favorite scent last longer, but layering different scents will also make your fragrance go further while also creating a unique scent you can’t find anywhere else. You can create your own customized scent by mixing products you already have!
Unless you’re layering a body wash, body lotion, and perfume or mist all in the same scent, it’s best to start with a heavier fragrance, deeper fragrance and leave lighter scents last. This will keep the mist or perfume you applied last from overpowering the others.
The scent of a body wash doesn’t tend to last long after the shower even if it smells incredibly fragrant, so layering with a body lotion in the same scent is a great way to extend it. Using a deeply fragrant body wash works great as a base for layering.
Next, apply a body lotion. Body lotion is a great way to make your perfumes and body mists last longer. This isn’t just because you’ve applied more fragrance, but scent sticks longer to moisturized skin because it attaches to the oils in the lotion.
If you’re apply a body oil as well, apply it after the body lotion as you’ll want to layer lightweight products before heavier ones.
Hair and Body Mists don’t tend to last as long as an eau de toilette or an eau de perfume, but capping off a layering routine with a body mist will make it last longer and give it a twist.
Wrists and the neck are popular places to spray scent, but spraying it in hair is a great way to give your scent long life and intensity.
To figure out if two or more scents go together, take a look at the notes of each scent. Is there overlap or are there similarities in the notes? If so, those scents may go well together.
Scents in the same family tend to go well together, like a citrus with a citrus scent, or a floral with a floral. However there are also some good guidelines for mixing different families together to create more complexity and more interesting scents.
A good ground rule is to not mix two perfumes with very heavy or intense scent profiles. The scents will compete with each other instead of complimenting one another.
Personally I think a great way to create a good combination is to experiment. I like to put together notes and smells with a similar vibe, or a scents that often smell good together, like vanilla and woody scents or floral with aquatics.
This is an amazing layering combo if you love vanilla and fruity scents. The body wash has vanilla and plum, the lotion has a delicious vanilla bean scent, and the perfume mist has vanilla and passionfruit nectar to go along with the fruity scent of the body wash.
The body wash also has amber and musk which gives it a very sensual and cozy vibes, and the perfume mist complements that with the spiciness. The similarities of these three give them good potential as a combination, but having layered them I love the fruity sweetness and vanilla muskiness I get from them all together.
I’ve become obsessed with finding some great fragrance layering combinations because there is truly nothing better to boost your mood than to smell amazing. I love to experiment with different body washes, lotions, and mists to create a different vibe depending on my mood that day.
This free digital download has 5 combinations of body washes, lotions, and mists from brands like Saltair, Good Chemistry, and Sol de Janeiro. If you want a cheat sheet to smell amazing out of the shower, this will help you out!
The 5 combinations are:
In addition to layering body wash, lotion, oils and perfume, layering two perfumes or body mists is one of my favorite ways to great an intoxicating scent. You can spray them in the same place, like for example spraying them both own your right wrist.
I prefer to spray them in alternating parts of my body, so one on my left wrist and then other on my right, and then switch them for the left and right sides of my neck. This way the scent molecules don’t overlap so directly but instead overlap softly in the air and create a different aroma depending on which way I move.
Another great hack is to make your own scented body lotion by mixing your favorite perfume with an unscented body lotion. Start with a small batch to test, about 1/3 of a cup. Next, spray your perfume. Start with four sprays of your perfume into the lotion and mix. Add more perfume if you want to increase the intensity of the scent.
Creating great fragrance layering combinations is easy and really fun. I keep a lot of notes when trying new products to see what other scents they might go with. Being able to create a new scent makes showering exciting and always boosts my mood afterwards.
