Can You Spray Perfume on Leather? [Here’s What to Know!]

You love your leather jacket but just like with great power comes great responsibility, with a great sweater comes more sweat. Perfume-showering your leather products can seem like an easy shortcut, especially when jackets, purses, and couches can all absorb sweat.

You should not spray perfume on leather because the alcohol and other chemicals in your perfume can fade the leather. You can keep fragrant items near leather for a pleasant scent, like carrying a scented handkerchief in your leather jacket’s pocket, making sure the perfume doesn’t touch the leather.

In this article, you will learn more about perfume and leather, including how to get rid of perfume if you’ve sprayed it on leather and how to make your leather smell good without spraying it with perfume.

Should You Spray Perfume on Leather?

The motivation to use perfume on leather is mostly driven by two main reasons –

1. You want to get rid of foul smell on leather
2. You want to smell nice while wearing a leather accessory (like a jacket)

Sometimes, the purpose can even be a combination of the two factors mentioned above.

You should not spray perfume on leather but instead, use white vinegar and water to get any odors out of your leather. Most “leather smell” is a result of sweat or odor-causing bacteria. If you can get those out, your leather products should smell fine without having to endure corrosive fragrance.

If you want to know how to use perfume correctly around a leather purse or a jacket, I’ve got some tips for you later in the article. So, keep reading!

Effects of Perfume on Leather

You might get away with applying perfume oil like these Premium Grade Fragrance Oils to leather, but if the item is made of fine leather, it is advisable not to use any perfume on it because such scents can linger.

Here are some of the other effects of perfumes on leather.

• Discoloration – The alcohol in most spray perfumes can interact with dyed leather to release the color, leaving a discolored product in its wake.
   
• Fading – This is the consequence of a similar reaction to discoloration except on polished leather as opposed to dyed leather.
   
• Material weakening – Depending on the number of corrosive substances in your perfume, the leather material might start to chafe.
   
• Lopsided note release – Finally, leather traps heat and causes an unsequenced note release, with the top and heart notes getting vaporized together. This makes even the most expensive perfumes smell cheap. The bottom notes can linger in the leather forever and even get mixed with sweat with the leather product that comes in contact with your body.

Tips to Wear Perfume with Leather Jacket

Wearing perfume with leather is a game of applying your fragrance where it doesn’t directly come in contact with the leather yet is close enough to a heat source to get vaporized. Here are some tips to achieve this.

• Apply perfume to an article like a necklace, necktie, or handkerchief and keep it on your person. But, don’t use perfume on or around expensive jewelry (check out my other aricle on affects of perfume on jewelry)
  
• Apply organic perfume oil to the inside of your leather jacket’s cuffs. When you’re washing it off, you’ll only need to dip the cuff in water.
  
• Clean your jacket regularly, so it doesn’t absorb sweat or body odor.

How to Get Rid of Perfume From Leather?

To get rid of perfume from leather, you should spray the leather with a solution like diluted white vinegar or soap water that loosens the perfume clinging to the leather, then use a heat source to vaporize the fragrance. And finally, you should wipe it with an absorbent cloth.

This is also the same formula that removes bad odors from leather, so make sure to use it if your jacket gets sweaty or you end up sitting on your couch after a workout.

How to Get Perfume Smell out of Leather Products?

Contact transfer of perfume is a big issue when you sit on a leather sofa, have a leather purse against your body for long periods, or simply wear a leather jacket. As long as you’ve not directly sprayed your perfume onto these objects, you can easily get the scent out by gently rubbing the fragrant surface with a clean cotton rag. 

This cannot be a mixed-cotton rag as it must be 100% cotton to have maximum moisture absorption. Make sure to rub gently and in a circular motion to get the moisture out. 

But if you have directly sprayed perfume onto the sofa, it is unlikely for a cotton rag to absorb the required moisture. To neutralize perfume in such cases, you need to follow the Wipe, Vaporize, and Absorb formula. Here’s how.

How to Get Perfume Smell Out of Your Leather Purse or Bag?

Getting rid of perfume smell from a purse is easier than it is for larger items. You should start by emptying out your purse and isolating it.

Step 1 – Wipe

Add liquid soap to water and thoroughly mix the solution before using an absorbent cloth to wet the leather surface where you suspect the perfume to be the most concentrated. If you’re unsure, cover the whole surface. Use a dry cloth or tissue paper to wipe the purse dry both on the inside and out. 

Step 2 – Vaporize

Let the purse sit at room temperature so the remaining perfume can evaporate. At this stage, your purse may be practically neutral with the fragrance gone entirely.

Step 3 – Absorb

If it still smells of fragrance, use an empty fine salt shaker like these Mesh Shakers to dust the purse with baking soda. Let the covered purse sit in a ziplock bag for two hours. This will absorb the moisture alongside the remaining perfume smell.

How to Get Perfume Smell Out of Your Jacket?

Jackets are slightly larger and therefore require a bucket and a clothesline. If you don’t have a clothesline, you better have a blow dryer. Provided you have these, here are the steps.

Step 1 – Wipe

Dunk your jacket in about half a bucket of water with half a cup of liquid soap for every 15 cups of water. Make sure the solution is thoroughly shaken and mixed before you drop the jacket in, so you don’t have soap deposits to worry about.

Pull the jacket out almost immediately. Unlike fabrics, you don’t need the clothing item to sit in water for too long. Wipe the jacket and clean it with an absorbent rag.

Remember, don’t use too much water or keep the jacket in water for a long time as leather is usually porous and tends to absorb water quickly. Make sure you wipe it properly in order to avoid water stains.

Step 2 – Vaporize

The jacket will have milder hints of the perfume as the rest would have been washed away. You’re likely to detect bottom notes only by now. It is time to hang your jacket and let the atmosphere’s heat vaporize the remainder. 

However, hanging the jacket in direct sunlight might cause fading, so you can opt for a half-shade or use a blowdryer to vaporize the water. There’s little chance that you’ll need to proceed to the next step, but if you can still smell the scent, you’ll need baking soda.

Step 3 – Absorb

If you can still smell your perfume on your jacket, chances are its moisture got absorbed in the leather, and the surface wiping and vaporizing has clearly not been enough.

Lightly coat your jacket with baking soda and let it sit isolated indoors for over two hours. After this, you can repeat steps one and two to get the smell of your perfume out of the jacket.

How to Get Perfume Smell Out of Your Leather Sofa?

Sofas and other leather furniture are the trickiest when it comes to getting perfume out because it is too big to give a feasible treatment that works for a purse or a jacket. However, the wipe, vaporize and absorb formula still works, albeit through a different delivery.

Step 1 – Wipe

Fill a spray bottle like this Continuous Water Mister with water and white vinegar and shake it well. Once the solution is well-mixed, spray it on the sofa and let it sit for 15 minutes. Wipe the surface with a dry brush and proceed to the next step.

Step 2 – Vaporize

Take a blow dryer and turn it to medium heat before covering the sofa’s surface, one area at a time. The perfume molecules loosened from the surface by white vinegar will likely vaporize. 

Step 3 – Absorb

Use a clean cotton cloth to absorb the leftover moisture. You can also repeat the first step, but this time with soap and water, then skip vaporizing (since no perfume remains) and use another cotton rag to absorb the soap water to get a truly neutral-smelling sofa.

More Related Articles

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2. Does Perfume Stain Your Clothes? [With Tips to Avoid the Stains!]
3. Should You Shake Perfume Before Use? The Truth Revealed!
4. Can a Woman Wear Men’s Perfume? Here’s What You Should Know!
5. Should Perfume be Sprayed on Skin or Clothes? A Definitive Guide!
6. Can You Use Deodorant on Your Feet?