How to Stop Your Breath Smelling Like Alcohol

If you’ve ever had a few drinks, you know how it feels to smell like a bottle of booze. It’s a nasty odor that lingers in your mouth and can be unpleasant for several hours after drinking. If you’re going to be spending a long time drinking, it’s best to make sure you do some things to keep your breath and body smelling clean.

Drink Water Between Alcoholic Beverages

When you drink, your body is working to metabolize the alcohol. Your liver and your stomach are trying to break down the ethanol so that it can be removed through sweat, urine and breath. Some of it stays in your bloodstream, however.

This isn’t good for your breath because it can linger in your lungs and your breath, and it can also cause a headache the next day. You want to drink plenty of water between drinks so that the ethanol doesn’t build up in your bloodstream.

Avoid Sugar In Your Drinks

Another reason your breath might smell like a bottle of booze is that you’re consuming a lot of sugar in your drink. This is because the bacteria that lives in your mouth love sugar and will multiply quickly when you consume a lot of it. So if you’re planning on having a few drinks, try to limit yourself to just one drink at a time.

Use a French Technique to Find the Right Distance between Your Nose and the Glass

The most important thing when smelling something is getting a good sense of it, and the distance between your nose and the glass can really help. To do this, hold the glass at a slightly lower height than your stomach, then do lots of little sniffs with your nose. Then slowly bring the glass up to your face, aiming for a somewhat-awkward, but not too far distance between your nose and the glass. If you’re able to get the ideal distance, your breath will start to smell more natural and you won’t be smelling like a bottle of booze.

It’s a good idea to practice this skill regularly so that you can develop a good olfactory memory. This is especially helpful if you’re going to a wine tasting, where you’ll be tasting different types of wines all night.

If you have trouble focusing when drinking, try doing something else for a few minutes. It’ll help calm your nerves and allow you to get a better sense of the wine.

When your mind gets too distracted, the olfactory stimuli aren’t as strong and the impressions that your brain makes won’t be as accurate or useful. For instance, you might think that a wine smells like a rose, but in reality it may smell like fruit or berries.

Don’t Sweat After You Shower

The main cause of this is that the alcohol odor that your body creates from drinking is absorbed through your pores and skin. So even if you use a lot of soap and lotion in the shower, it won’t remove the odour from your skin or breath until all of the alcohol has been metabolised out of your system.