Perfume Bottle Longevity Calculator

How perfume dispensers work

A standard perfume atomiser (pump spray) delivers approximately 0.1 ml per spray, though this can vary slightly between 0.08 ml and 0.15 ml depending on the pump design. This calculator uses 0.1 ml per spray as the standard, which is the most common figure used by perfumers and beauty industry analysts.

Perfume concentrations

Perfumes are diluted in alcohol at different concentrations, which affects both longevity on the skin and how many sprays per day most people use:

• Parfum (Extrait): 20–40% fragrance oil. Extremely potent. One or two dabs or sprays is typically sufficient. Lasts 6–8+ hours on skin.
• Eau de Parfum (EDP): 15–20% fragrance oil. Rich and long-lasting. 2–4 sprays usually adequate. Lasts 4–6 hours.
• Eau de Toilette (EDT): 5–15% fragrance oil. Lighter, fresher. 3–5 sprays typical. Lasts 2–4 hours.
• Eau de Cologne (EDC): 2–5% fragrance oil. Very light. 4–6 sprays typical. Lasts 1–2 hours.
• Body Mist / Splash: 1–3% fragrance oil. Used liberally. Lasts under 1 hour.

Common bottle sizes

Perfume bottles commonly come in 30 ml, 50 ml, 75 ml, 100 ml, and 200 ml. At 0.1 ml per spray, a 50 ml bottle contains approximately 500 sprays. At 4 sprays per day that bottle lasts about 125 days, or four months.

Cost per use

Put the bottle price in and the calculator gives you the price per spray, per day and per ml. The last of those is the one worth comparing on, because it is the only figure that is not distorted by how heavily you happen to spray. Larger bottles are almost always cheaper per ml, which is a real saving right up to the point where you cannot finish the bottle in five years and the top notes turn before you get there. That is when a 50 ml at a worse price per ml is genuinely the better buy.

Concentration and spray count

Note that concentration does not change how much liquid leaves the pump. A spray of parfum and a spray of cologne are both about 0.1 ml. What changes is how many sprays you need, and that is the whole reason a small bottle of parfum outlasts a large bottle of cologne.