Why Perfumes for Bedtime Are Taking Off
Once upon a time, putting on perfume was part of your grooming routine before a night out or a big day at the office. Today, things are changing. Instead of wearing it out, we’re wearing it in. Many celebrities and TikTok influencers now have nighttime scent collections they only use before bed. Soon, everyday people took to the trend, and perfumes for bedtime were born.
Scents That Relax You and Help You Sleep
When you think about it, wearing perfume to bed is not that outlandish. Having a calming scent near your nose at night is like using aromatherapy to sleep better. Perfumes contain essential oils and aromatics that come from plants. These natural compounds react with your olfactory system and stimulate a psychological response.
- Lavender: The fragrant purple flowers and woody blue-green leaves have been in herbal medicine for ages. Many studies have found that lavender promotes relaxation and reduces stress—it is even an insomnia treatment to this day.
- Bergamot: A citrus and sweet floral scent. A study1 from 2023 found that sniffing bergamot-scented candles or perfumes before bedtime can improve sleep quality. It’s a light top note that often comes part and parcel with a lavender-based perfume.
- Jasmine: The white jasmine flower’s characteristic sweet scent is an instant stress reliever for many. It’s also something commonly smelled at night since many jasmine variations are evening bloomers. This further associates its fragrance with winding down before bed.
Fragrance Can Also Make You Feel Cozy and Warm
Another reason people might enjoy wearing perfume to bed is the coziness factor. Bedtime is all about feeling comfortable, calm, and ready to drift off to dreamland. As you might know, you can’t get there if you’re feeling too anxious or excited. The power of fragrance to alter your mood is undeniable.
- Cardamom: A warm and spicy scent to wear to bed. It’s one of the potent aromatics of chai tea, so you can imagine it smells like a cozy autumn evening curled up with a book.
- Vanilla: Sweet and floral with a hint of spiciness. There’s so much to explore with vanilla, which can smell different depending on its country of origin.
- Sandalwood: Another scent that promotes relaxation and reduces stress. Sandalwood has a rich, earthy aroma that feels warm and romantic. It can be a very comforting fragrance in a bedtime perfume.
Perfume as Self Care
When you wear perfume during the day or in social situations, it becomes something for others to enjoy. When you wear it alone at night, it’s something for you. As the affinity for self-care and self-love continues to grow, wearing perfume to bed starts making more sense.
It can be an expression of adoration and respect for the self or form part of an extensive night-time pampering routine. Choosing different perfumes for bedtime than what you would typically wear during the day also creates room for experimentation and self-discovery.
Building Strong Scent Profiles for Bedtime Perfumes
Designing perfumes for bedtime means explicitly considering how people will experience them before and after sleep. Your perfume ingredients must be long-lasting, or the fragrance is likely to fade from wrist and memory by morning.
How you layer the aromatics is also essential. Lighter scents that act as top notes tend to fade faster, revealing stronger fragrances below. These are the notes that the sleeper will smell as soon as they open their eyes, so they cannot be overpowering. This delicate balance is what sets an excellent nighttime perfume apart.
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1 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229923000638