Greetings, Love Scent fans!

It’s been a very hot summer for many of us! We hope that those of you dealing with historically high temperatures are finding ways to stay cool. Stay hydrated, keep to the shade when you can, and save any tasks requiring intense physical activity for cooler days!

Whether very high heat is unusual for your part of the world, or just your average summer weather, you may have been wondering lately whether those high temps pose a risk to your pheromones. Questions about heat’s impact on pheromones are some of the most common questions we get during the summer months, from concerns about how hot weather impacts the pheromones worn on the skin to worries about whether pheromones will be damaged while they sit on delivery trucks and in mailboxes on sweltering summer days.

Today, we’re going to look at the risks hot weather pose to pheromones in the bottle–that is, the pheromones sitting in mailboxes or on shelves, or that were forgotten in cars, that are being toted around in a handbag at an outdoor fair or festival, and so on. (For more information about wearing pheromones in hot weather, look here.)

To summarize the risks quickly: heat doesn’t pose much of a risk to the pheromones themselves, but can pose a risk to the overall product. The pheromone molecules would not be impacted by a heat wave, but the carrier liquids and fragrances can be. The impact to the carriers and fragrances can be just as damaging, though, so you’ll want to be careful to avoid them if possible.

Let’s take a closer look at the details!

 

EVAPORATION LOSS

One of the biggest risks that hot weather poses to pheromone products is evaporation loss. This is mainly a problem for products with a large amount of alcohol or water in their carrier liquids, such as Liquid Trust or a pheromone-free cover fragrance; DPG, the cosmetics oil that we use in our oil-based products, does not evaporate, so a product with a pure DPG carrier (like Alpha-7 or NPA) won’t be at risk of evaporation loss–though you may notice the product getting thinner and runnier in very hot temperatures. Products with an alcohol-oil blend as their carrier, such as Chikara or the Love Scent Pheromone Oils, aren’t 100% immune to evaporation loss but have a significantly lower risk.

The type of bottle is another factor: bottles with screw-cap lids have a lower risk of evaporation loss than bottles with clamp-on lids because screw-cap lids have a better seal. You can check the type of lid on your bottle simply by examining it. If the cap twists off easily, it’s a screw-cap lid. If it’s clamped to the neck of the bottle, you’ll need want to be extra careful of evaporation loss.

So what exactly is evaporation loss? Just what it sounds like: the loss of part or all of the carrier liquid due to evaporation. This type of leakage is more common during hot weather, especially if the product sits for a long time in a mailbox in high temperatures, or when the product is left to sit in direct sunlight or on a shelf in a hot room. It can even happen to improperly-closed bottles left at room temperature for a long time. If you notice condensation on the inside of the bottle, or have noticed that your product is disappearing even when you aren’t using it, you’re probably losing some to evaporation loss.

As we said above, only some of the product’s ingredients are lost during evaporation. DPG, essential oils, fragrance, and pheromones do not evaporate and are left behind. If you lose a lot of the carrier to evaporation loss, you’ll notice the product changing. You may notice the pheromones start to re-crystallize as the tiny molecules clump together and form larger crystals; re-crystallized pheromones will look like flecks of ice or powder in the bottle. If the product contains DPG or oil-based fragrances, it will also become thicker over time.

Now, just because only part of the product is disappearing due to evaporation loss doesn’t mean that the overall product doesn’t fundamentally change. When part of the carrier disappears, the product’s pheromone concentration increases–there is a higher amount of pheromones per milliliter of remaining carrier liquid–which can make it a lot harder for you to judge how much you need. Once the pheromones re-crystallize, they become even harder to work with because every drop or spray of product could contain a completely different amount of pheromones.

Luckily, evaporation loss in many products is a relatively simple fix, even if pheromones have begun to re-crystallize. Just get yourself some fragrance-grade alcohol, such as perfumer’s alcohol from a specialty store or a strong clear spirit from your local liquor store (DIY perfumers recommend Everclear), and replace the lost amount. If the pheromones have begun to re-crystallize, shake the bottle vigorously until they are once again completely dissolved.

Overall, the best solution to evaporation loss is to prevent it from happening to begin with (more on that later), but in most cases there are ways to address it after the fact. A harder problem to fix is the next problem caused by high temperatures: damage to fragrances.

 

FRAGRANCE DAMAGE

If your pheromone product contains a cover fragrance, or you have ordered a pheromone-free perfume or cologne to pair with your favorite unscented pheromones, evaporation loss is not the only heat-related problem you have to worry about. Fragrances can start to break down in high temperatures, changing the way they smell and how long they last once applied.

Now, heat damage to fragrances does not happen as quickly as evaporation loss, but extended exposure to high temperatures and direct sunlight can degrade the chemical bonds that give colognes and perfumes their scent. This can change the fragrance notes in the product and eventually change or take away its scent entirely. Heat can also speed up oxidation, which can cause fragrances to change, including natural fragrances such as essential oils.

So, what happens if you leave a bottle of perfume in a hot car for a day? Well, chances are good that the perfume won’t be exposed to high heat or direct sunlight long enough for it to break down and experience much a change in its fragrance, but you may lose some of the product to evaporation loss.

But what happens if you leave that bottle of perfume in the car for weeks, or in a hot room in your house (like a room that isn’t climate controlled or a bathroom with frequent temperature fluctuations)? In that case, you might notice a difference in the way the perfume smells or in its staying power once applied. Make sure to give it a good sniff and do a few test sprays to make sure it’s still the scent you remember–after you have let the product come back to room temperature. Different fragrance components can have different weights, especially in natural perfumes; heat can make some of those components evaporate faster than the others, creating an entirely different fragrance. So let the fragrance cool off before testing!

Unfortunately, unlike evaporation loss, there isn’t really a fix for damaged and degraded fragrances. They must simply be replaced once they have lost their original qualities. The best solution to fragrance degradation is to prevent it, so let’s take a look at how you can do that!

 

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Prevention of any problem is always the best way to cure it, and heat damage to pheromone products is no exception. We can’t control the weather, but there are steps we can take to keep pheromone products safe from intense summer temperatures. Those are:

1. Proper storage: store all your pheromones and pheromone-related supplies–pheromone perfumes and colognes, unscented pheromones, pure pheromone concentrates, pheromone-free cover fragrances, essential oils, and so on–tightly closed and standing upright in cool, dark places out of direct sunlight. A drawer or cupboard in a temperature-stable room (such as a bedroom, not bathroom or kitchen) works best. This will prevent both evaporation loss and damage to fragrances.
2. Plan ahead: if you know you’re going to be out of town for a few weeks, make sure to order your pheromones well in advance of your departure date. This is not only good practice for security purposes (you don’t want your order stolen); it also ensures that pheromones and/or cover fragrances won’t be sitting in a hot mailbox for weeks, where they are vulnerable to evaporation loss or fragrance damage.
3. Consider the carrier: as we said, some products are more prone to heat-related issues than others due to their carrier liquid. If you’re worried about evaporation loss, sticking to oil-based products in hot months will help you avoid problems from the start. (Related: oil-based products tend to last longer when worn in hot weather anyway!)
4. Change your shipping destination: if you need pheromones for a vacation but aren’t sure they’ll arrive before you leave, or you live in an area with such extreme temperatures that you don’t want your pheromones sitting in a mailbox for even one sweltering afternoon, you can have the products delivered somewhere other than your home or billing address–a hotel, a family member’s home, even your workplace. Packaging is very discreet (a plain manila or flat rate envelope with only “LS Products” on the return label), so you don’t have to worry about your privacy, and getting them delivered directly to you will help to keep them safe from extreme weather.

Keep these details in mind when ordering, shipping, and storing pheromones in hot weather, and you should not run into many problems.

 

There you have it, Love Scent fans! We hope this has given you the knowledge you need to take good care of your pheromones, no matter how high the temperatures are outside!

 

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with your questions, comments, and concerns, or leave them in the comments below! And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear about blog posts, new products, exclusive promotions, and more!

 

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.