Way late to the party here but I keep mine in a dark drawer in my wardrobe that gets no sunlight. I feel like that is doing a great job at preserving my frags but I guess I may not know for another 5-10 years
Some of my fragrances are over 20 years old and smell just as good as when I bought them. Unless your house is exposed to extreme temperatures, there's no need for this. However, I do like to keep my wines in a fragrance cooler!
The difference between TEC coolers and refrigerant based coolers would be the humidity inside of the cooler, not the temp. Unfortunately, I don’t know what humidity difference would be between the two but I think you would want a less humid environment if possible.
From my measurements, the humidity inside of my TEC cooler was around 45-50 percent relative humidity.
The difference between TEC coolers and refrigerant based coolers would be the humidity inside of the cooler, not the temp. Unfortunately, I don’t know what humidity difference would be between the two but I think you would want a less humid environment if possible.
From my measurements, the humidity inside of my TEC cooler was around 45-50 percent relative humidity.
I see, i also think that less humidity is the best for perfumes too. So i will now figure out what humidity level a compressor wine cooler has, and then compare, and then decide what to buy. Thank you so much for helping out.
I have around 90 bottles all niche on a cabinet in my bedroom but it gets warm in the summer and I was shopping for something. I was gonna go more with a beverage frig just because the shelves were flat and I could get more in than the wine coolers with the rounded shelves. Any thoughts? I’d like to preserve my collection putting them all in my basement isn’t user friendly.
I posted in this thread back in Sept, 2018. Since then, I’ve expanded to 5 wine coolers as my collection grew. Three are compressor types which can hold 53F when my room temp gets up to 80F—it gets hot in Texas and the AC can’t easily cool the master bedroom at 4 pm when it’s 115 outside. One thermoelectric cooler quit on me, probably due to stress cracking the thermopile. I was afraid the condenser types would have too much of a temp swing but it’s usually 0.8F.
The graph shows I opened it at about noon and shifted the temp/humidity sensor location.
I read somewhere about the relative myth of keeping very cool. Iirc it was someone with an actual science background. Something to do with molecules, alcohol, binding, behaviour changing at cool ( as in way below our normal room level) temps.
Makes sense really, about molecules changing properties at different temperatures. The takeaway was, its probably detrimental to frags! Hopefully I'll have time to root it out and provide a source rather than I read or I heard!!!
I have a degree in Physics. I teach material science classes. I had a materials characterization lab reporting to me for a time. We had a GC Mass Spectrometer, TGA, TMA, DMA, DSC, FTIR Microscopy, IR Microscopy, SEM with EDX & EBSD, TEM, TOFSIMS, Instron, 2D & 3D CT X-rays, access to the Synchrotron at Lawrence Livermore National Labs.
Chemical reaction rates increase exponentially with temperature. In any liquid, some molecules will have high energies and some low. Temperature is an average measurement of the molecular energy of the liquid or solid. The goal of cooling a liquid is to reduce the number of high energy molecules that could collide with one another thereby reducing the chance that molecular bonds are broken. Oxidation reactions are also driven by temperature. Getters in well constructed perfumes should preferentially bind to O2 molecules, limiting oxidation of the aromatic oils. (I think oxidation of some of the perfume components produces terpenes which sweeten and deepen the fragrances, so I always wait two or three wearing after some air gets into the bottle before making final judgement on a scent.)
Long molecular chain polymers can entangle at low temperatures, solidifying or “freezing.” The alcohol solvent in perfumes works to prevent this. Still, I think 12C is a happy medium between thermal decomposition of the scent and freezing of the long chain molecules which will reduce their vapor pressure in air, making the scent less intense but longer lasting. (Maceration provides time for long chain molecules to fully untangle and dissolve in the alcohol.)
Moisture will diffuse through the thermoplastic atomizer seals, though this should be at a low rate. If the formula states it has acqua in it, it already contains water so what difference does humidity make? The alcohol could also diffuse through the thermoplastics often used in the sprayers, but ethanol’s higher molecular weight vs water reduces this diffusion rate. Additionally, diffusion is dependent on temperature. The diffusivity of two materials decreases with decreasing temperatures, so again, keeping bottles cool is beneficial.
Temperature swings will cause the alcohol in the perfume to expand and contract. With poorly constructed or sealed sprayers, this can cause the perfume to pump out to be replaced by air. That is deleterious to the scent. However, if no pumping is occurring, the temperature cycling does nothing to the composition that holding the solutions at the various temperatures wouldn’t also do.
Many organic molecular chains can be broken by light. UV and blue light have higher energy and are more likely to damage the scents. However, depending on the absorption spectrum of the materials and the fragility of their bonds, longer wavelength/ lower frequency light can also cause troubles. Keep your perfumes in the dark.
