Can your perfume cause skin darkening?

Summers mean an increased usage of perfumes to keep the body odour away and to smell fresher. With the advent of the monsoons, perfumes seem to lift moods during gloomy, grey, and dull, drab days. They also relieve the smell of mucky water that may have splashed on you. 

However, they do, unfortunately, come with a side effect - there is a possibility that your perfume could be causing hyperpigmentation, which means skin darkening.

Perfumes are a concoction of perfume oils, distilled water, and alcohol. The most commonly used perfumes by most people tend to have a higher concentration of alcohol in them.

Dr Manasi Shirolikar, Consultant Dermatologist and Founder of Online Consulting Brand drmanasiskin.com, shared with our writer, "The alcohol in the perfume that has been directly applied to the skin, dries the skin, and could impact the skin's barrier, especially around the neck, and behind the ears. In many cases, it can cause an inflammatory response of the skin, which leads to redness and itching." 

Due to this, melanocytes, i.e. the cells in the skin that produce skin's pigment, aka melanin, go into overdrive. This then shows up on the skin as hyperpigmentation which we often see as dark spots.

According to Dr Manasi, when the essential oils in perfume-exposed skin get some unprotected UV ray exposure, it can cause phototoxic photosensitivity in the skin. This means a sunburn-like reaction on the skin will develop into a superficial pigmentation that can take months to go away. 

One of the main culprits of this is oils like bergamot or citrus oils. These oils contain furanocoumarin, which is a compound known to increase photosensitivity. 

In extreme cases, Bergamot oil is notorious for causing breloque dermatitis, an extreme phototoxic reaction that happens when sweat and bergamot oil mix and are exposed to UVA rays. This is seen on the skin as blisters and reddish or dark spots. 

However, this does not mean you completely throw out all the perfume bottles you own or stop using scented products completely. Here are some ways to prevent the darkening of the skin or any hyperpigmentation due to perfumes:

1. Avoid applying perfume directly to the skin, especially skin exposed to the Sun. Instead, apply perfume to your clothes.

2. If you are applying perfume to your skin directly, use an unscented sunscreen over it a few minutes after applying it to protect your skin from UV rays.

3. Avoid rubbing the perfume into your skin, as this can trigger irritation of the skin and cause inflammation. Plus, rubbing perfume into your skin can disrupt the fragrance molecule and alter your perfume's scent.

4. Choose a perfume with longer projection powers and a lower concentration of alcohol.

5. Try to read the ingredients label, and choose a perfume that may have been formulated without musk and citrus or bergamot oils.

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