Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Female Fragrance Discussion › How do you display/store your fragrances? And what about those samples?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

How do you display/store your fragrances? And what about those samples?

post #1 of 47
5/15/10 at 6:40am
Thread Starter 
I don't mean to ask about the correct way to store fragrances, but rather I'm wondering if anyone displays them, has a special nook or cabinet, or...? Do you rotate them quite regularly?

I've got 2 display areas on dressers, and depending on my mood of course, I try to rotate the use of my stash. That way it's easy to see what I have, as I tend to forget/lose things! If I get tired of a fragrance and I'm pretty sure I won't want to use it anymore, I either pass it along to someone who wants it, or it goes to charity. Mine aren't really expensive or anything, and I often pass on a bottle with a third or a quarter left if I've tired of it. I figure I've certainly had enough use from it. That doesn't mean that I don't want to add to my 'collection'. I definitely want to add a few more!

Last night I rounded up all my samples in a decorative tin to end hunting for them, also to be sure I actually test them. I hope to keep track of them now, as recently I found a few strays I didn't know that I had. Anyone else have that happen?
Reply
Reply

Features on Basenotes

Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
post #2 of 47
5/15/10 at 7:21am
I have two closets to keep my fragrances out of the light, but leave my current favorites on the dresser. I carelessly leave my samples in handbags and in drawers all over the house. Can rarely find them when I want to.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 47
5/15/10 at 7:42am
We store samples in ammunition boxes like this, or in small metal boxes for bringing with us.

All our fragrances are stored in a IKEA bestå bookshelf with doors in our "living room". They are boxless so we have full overview when we open the doors.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 47
5/15/10 at 7:42am
I also stash my samples in decorative tins. How I wish I could bottle the resulting scent!
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 47
5/15/10 at 10:24am
I have all my frags standing on display in an antique'ish shelf-thingie.
I love looking at all my babies, but when summer finally set in, I do
plan on storing them in one of my kitchen cabinets, which is like an
old school refrigiator; always cool, a constant 10 degrees celcius..!

All my samples and decants I have in a Mugler bag which came with
my Ice*men EdT and showergel box set!
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 47
5/15/10 at 10:30am
I just leave them lying around, but in their boxes. My bedroom is a complete mess -it's like a bomb went off at a perfume factory. I like to leave a bottle of Jicky parfum unboxed beside my bed -the smell wafting from the bottle is glorious, although I know I'll regret this if the bottle goes bad.

I don't like central heating, and it never gets hot where I live, so my bedroom is a good place to store perfumes.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 47
5/15/10 at 2:03pm
I have four refrigerators that I keep at approximately 53 degrees F. in which I store my fragrances. I keep a computer inventory which features, for each fragrance a trigger quantity at which, when reached, I reorder. This analytical approach works well for me.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 47
5/17/10 at 10:17am
I've never had a frag go bad, and I have several bottles from the early '80s that sat on dressers in un-air-conditioned apartments for years, spent a few months in a storage unit (in summer!), etc. So I don't worry too much about proper storage.

My frags sit on the dresser, and the samples in heavy rotation are in a little milk-glass swan that used to belong to my grandma. The ones I didn't really like, plus the ones in labeled plastic bags, are in a closed silk-covered Indian box. I'm rapidly running out of both dresser and swan room, and will have to find an overflow solution!
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 47
5/18/10 at 5:01am
I keep my perfumes in my air conditioned walk in closet, where I had a wall of shelves built in for that purpose. I store in the boxes, and keep minis on pretty perfume trays there and samples in small organizer trays.

Reine
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 47
5/22/10 at 10:33pm
I store most boxed in a large low boy dresser. Samples and decants in an alphabetized-by-house drawer caddy thing in my dressing room. Carded samples that don;t fit in the caddy go alphabetically in a rustic Chinese chest with many drawers, which was once an herbalists cabinet. (Minis are in there, too.)

One dresser top in the dressing room is opaque-crowded with rotating faves. And 'ultimate' faves (whatever I am digging on most) get showed off on rotation in a wall-mounted Chinoiserie, mirrored statuette shelf, which hangs in full light near my desk area.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 47
5/22/10 at 10:55pm
I keep my fragrances in a (soon to be nothing but fragrance) linen closet that is dark and cool and dry.

It looks like a fragrance version of an unmade bed!
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 47
5/23/10 at 2:19am
Alphabetized by house (you also seem to have an inner librarian, Hillaire ), the FBs and minis are in their boxes on shelves in my dressing room, while the samples and decants are in a huge old jewelry chest. Three or four current faves and those my husband has snatched (lol) are in their boxes on a shelf in the bathroom, and I always keep a bottle of vintage Mitsouko next to my bed. BUT...

I am soon to get a Tibetan chest, where I plan to put it ALL.

Well, maybe not the ones DH and I "share"...
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 47
5/23/10 at 2:48am
In cardboard boxes however they fit in there best. I keep them in there tight so they don't fall over and I can find them easily. They're mostly all in their original boxes.

I always have a few out that I'm wearing with any consistency. I was tired of any displays long ago (it's such a feminine gesture). My gf keeps most all of her's out in different places. For me it's almost all about the juice, but I do like looking at some of the bottles - usually the ones that contain fragrances I like enough to be wearing much.

I have boxes full of decants and samples. I just do my best to not break them. I rummage through them when I want to find one. If I can't find it then I dump the box out onto the bed.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 47
5/23/10 at 6:25am
Is there a collection photo thread here in the ladies section ? I love seeing pictures of peoples collections .... come on gals get snapping
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 47
5/23/10 at 9:09am
I love this thread. I keep my samples in a collection of wooden cigar boxes strewn around various bookshelves in my bedroom and study. The bottles, ranging from mini to large, are kept in my new cabinet. I made it out of a 1950s television cabinet. I posted a link to photos on the "Just Starting Out" forum. Here is a link to the photo album: http://tinyurl.com/24k77cs

The link to my post on JSO: http://www.basenotes.net/threads/251...erfume-Cabinet
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 47
5/23/10 at 2:50pm
I posted this "hot mess" on the men's... one of these days when I have properly-functioning arms (long story) I'll redo that cabinet, paint the inside a dark color and install low heat LEDs, and pull up the silly contact paper that makes it look like a blast from the 70's, and move my linens elsewhere, and organize the boxes and bottles more logically. They're where I can reach them or where they ended up at the moment. The samples & minis are at the far left and right sides. The three boxes are coffrets of Guerlain Vetiver EDP and all over shampoo, which I don't think I could live without! <exaggeration maybe>

Reply
Reply
post #17 of 47
5/23/10 at 3:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by actiasluna View Post

[snipped] The three boxes are coffrets of Guerlain Vetiver EDP and all over shampoo, which I don't think I could live without! <exaggeration maybe>

Vetiver comes in EdP?!
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 47
5/23/10 at 3:29pm
I don't have any worry about them. i don't store them. most of the time i just have 5-8 bottles. when i finished one of them, i will buy something else.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 47
5/23/10 at 3:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emlynevermore View Post

Vetiver comes in EdP?!

Aha! You were paying attention, while my fingers most certainly weren't! No, it's edT... you know how close that T and P are on the keyboard. (well, they're on the same row, albeit different hands typing em. Sheepish me. Wishful thinking?)

Oh, and Hamid... THAT is restraint my friend!
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 47
5/23/10 at 10:20pm
I mean i don't have any worry for maintaining them from light, heat,... they will finish soon. And display! i forgot. I keep them near where i am usually. beside my pc!
Reply
Reply
post #21 of 47
5/24/10 at 6:29am
Mine were in a real mess, in boxes all over the place, and I finally bought a cabinet in which to store them. I found a Heywood-Wakefield "server" at an astounding sale price at an antique store. It has two generous cabinet spaces on either end, and drawers in the middle. I store bottles in it, decants in a smaller dressertop cabinet, and samples I haven't tried yet in a cigar box on my nightstand. Opaque bottles go on top of the cabinet, on a silver tray which I need to polish about now. I use the rest of that space for a collection of pretty objects I've found over the years, and a vase of (silk) cherry blossoms. I'd use real flowers but my cats try to eat them, with predictable results.

I wish I could display the bottles -- some are so beautiful. But my older fragrances, from a time before I knew about light ruining perfume, have that "old" smell, except those that were in opaque or dark bottles.
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 47
5/26/10 at 9:32am
Interesting the various solutions...

My bottles are stored in my walk in closet which has shelves on either side of a vanity. I place them according to pleasing visual aesthetics, rather than by season or other logical system. The room is air conditioned and has just dim light from one small window. (But I'm going to put a curtain or shade over the shelves so they get NO light most of the time.)

But I was so annoyed with my spray samples falling over -- and didn't want to lay them down flat lest they leak -- so I made several custom boxes for them, (I cut an existing box lid in half, then covered with decorative paper). What makes these work is a cardboard insert in the bottom: I scored then folded into a zig zag (zig, short, for foot of vial to rest on; zag, long, for sides to rest on) so the bottles incline. Then I store these on the shallow shelves in my closet. I'm so happy with this solution that I'm going to remake these, with nicer paper/craftsmanship, and with the box sides built taller, so I can stack them if desired. And maybe make some scaled for the 1ml samples as well.

Reply
Reply
post #23 of 47
5/26/10 at 9:39am
Wow, CRose - I love those! I have yet to come up with a satisfactory way to store my samples, and your little box displays really appeal to the persnickety obsessive compulsive in me. I love that you can see what they are at a glance, and that you can organize them by size and category. Good job!
Reply
Reply
post #24 of 47
5/26/10 at 10:05am
C Rose that's such a great idea! And made with low cost materials most people have lying around anyway. It looks lovely, and makes it so easy to find what you're looking for.

Samples we don't have ammo-box space for, we store in small zip lock bags, sorted after house.
Reply
Reply
post #25 of 47
5/26/10 at 11:30am
Thread Starter 
Fabulous idea, C Rose! Even I, who will usually run away screaming from any crafts, might be motivated & able to make those.

Would love to see more pics from everyone!
Reply
Reply
post #26 of 47
3/21/11 at 8:33pm
[QUOTE=Nausicaä;1835341]We store samples in ammunition boxes like this, or in small metal boxes for bringing with us.

Thanks for the photo. These boxes fit pretty well. I have also been looking for "vial storage boxes" on amazon.com, but not sure they fit perfectly. I'm also thinking of drilling holes into wood and seeing how that turns out.
Reply
Reply
post #27 of 47
3/21/11 at 9:01pm


I can't seem to add the image, so here is the URL:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferrycommuter/5548654415

This is how I am displaying about 20 sample vials. I'm looking for better displays.
Reply
Reply
post #28 of 47
3/22/11 at 4:38am
I have a black wooden box on my dresser (the red cardboard box from a Borghese cosmetics giveaway in the 1980s finally gave out) and inside are my few full bottles (unboxed) and samples, not exactly organized, but collected into little boxes with no tops - I used jewelry boxes, jewelry box lids, boxes from eye cream or night cream.

Really really like CRose's spray-bottle-sample-boxes, that is a very good solution for the spray samples.

The kids love when I bring the box down onto the bed, or one of the little boxes with samples, and let them smell and choose something to wear. And the smell of the box itself is wonderful when opened.

then there are a very few bottles still in boxes who sit in the top shelf of the closet, backups or things I'm not really wearing much but not wanting to part with yet.
Reply
Reply
post #29 of 47
3/22/11 at 5:28am
I have a wooden box I keep on the top shelf of my wardrobe for the bottles, and a vanity case for the samples. However, we have just ordered a dressing table so I can fulfil a lifelong dream and cover it with my perfumes and makeup!
Reply
Reply
post #30 of 47
3/22/11 at 5:58am
I keep all my perfumes in a cupboard in my bedroom, which is pretty cool, And as I travel so much I have most of them in purse sprayers, and I now tend to use those and leave the bottles where they are.

My samples are in a nice gift box, but after seeing C Rose's craft project I will have to make something like it. I think it's brilliant!
Reply
Reply
post #31 of 47
3/22/11 at 2:58pm
CRose - great idea with those boxes and very inventive. I might steal your idea and make one for myself
Reply
Reply
post #32 of 47
3/22/11 at 6:36pm
Bottles and sets in a Heywood-Wakefield cabinet I found at an antique store and got a great deal on (and collection is rapidly outgrowing) -- samples in cigar boxes, a gourd, nightstand drawers, other little boxes, my purse, my car, in old ashtrays -- wherever they land.
Reply
Reply
post #33 of 47
3/23/11 at 1:22am
I display mine behind glass, in a cabinet. Back-ups are kept in their boxes, as well as a few precious vintage bottles with pretty cases, but I wear most of my fragrances, if infrequently in some cases, and I like being able to see them.

Samples are kept in a couple of bowls in the same cabinet, but I'll have to think of something better sooner or later.

Reply
Reply
post #34 of 47
3/23/11 at 5:51am
I have bookcases to display my fragrances. For houses from which I have a lot of fragrances they'll get their own shelf. For the last few months I've been out of display space and most new purchases have unfortunately been piling up in their boxes, waiting for me to get another bookcase. I keep the room dark with black-out curtains and cool with a/c in the summer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by N_Tesla

I have four refrigerators that I keep at approximately 53 degrees F. in which I store my fragrances. I keep a computer inventory which features, for each fragrance a trigger quantity at which, when reached, I reorder. This analytical approach works well for me.

::slowly takes a few steps backwards::
Reply
Reply
post #35 of 47
3/23/11 at 7:37am
Used to be a bookcase in a dark corner of the study, now the bottles are in dresser drawers where no one can see them.

Samples and minis are all in big crafty boxes by the computer, not really organized.

You guys should see how Quarry stores her samples "tied up" ("attached"?). C'mon Quarry, do it again! Pretty please?
Reply
Reply
post #36 of 47
10/25/12 at 7:56am
I used a 16" 2x4, sanded it down and drilled holes with a 15/32" bit on a drill press. That fits the most common sample bottles used by Sephora, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. It gave me 64 holes (4 wide, 16 deep) to fill. I can make another board when this one fills up

check it out here
Reply
Reply
post #37 of 47
10/26/12 at 1:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BriGuy View Post

I used a 16" 2x4, sanded it down and drilled holes with a 15/32" bit on a drill press. That fits the most common sample bottles used by Sephora, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. It gave me 64 holes (4 wide, 16 deep) to fill. I can make another board when this one fills up

check it out here

Looks great, BriGuy! It also brings back some bittersweet memories - my grandfather made me a stand almost exactly like yours for my birthday a looong time ago to store my thin test-tubes in. I do miss him...

Getting back on topic:
I have four open shelves occupied by my perfumes.
The upper shelf is full of my decants, organised in rows by scent type/mood.
The shelf below contains all my niche bottles.
On the next shelf my designer scents and classics are displayed.
The lowest shelf is dedicated to storing my considerable sample stash in decorative boxes, organised in ziploc bags by house and the few scented candles I have.

I only keep my reserve bottles in their boxes in a dark cabinet. I know it's not the best for the fragrances, but I do love to look at my collection (I have a view at my bottles from my bed - isn't that just perfect? ). They do not get direct sunlight though and it never gets overly warm in the room.
Reply
Reply
post #38 of 47
10/26/12 at 6:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bonsai View Post

I have a view at my bottles from my bed - isn't that just perfect?

Now THAT's the way to start the day!
(Perfection is underrated.)
Reply
Reply
post #39 of 47
10/26/12 at 7:23am
Attachment 17243

I store nearly all of my bottles in box & place them in a dark glass cabinet.
(here almost one third of my wardrobe...)

- - - Updated - - -

Attachment 17243

I store nearly all of my bottles in box & place them in a dark glass cabinet.
(here almost one third of my wardrobe...)
LL
Reply
Reply
post #40 of 47
10/26/12 at 7:34am
Hardly any display in my case, unless the cabinets in which I store them have glass panes. Aside from that, storage conditions are pretty much identical to the ones for storing frags in other cabinets- cool, but not freezing temperatures, shade, good ventilation, all fragrances stored, if possible, in their original boxes etc.

As for the samples, since they are scarce and of no significant value, being 80-90% generic mainstream releases, they simply lie around the cabinets where I also keep my full bottles of fragrance, no other organizing, storage, conserving, archiving, coding, separating etc. of my sample vials being (yet) necessary for me.
Reply
Reply
post #41 of 47
10/26/12 at 12:00pm
I have an antique apprentice piece, which is a miniature chest of drawers, for keeping my samples - the drawers are alphabetised. I keep my vintage fragrances in the wine cooler and my other fragrance bottles in the fragrance wardrobe. It is what it is - a wardrobe just for storing fragrance. Gawwwd, I sound such a geek!
Reply
Reply
post #42 of 47
10/26/12 at 12:42pm
I keep all samples and decants in two drawers. For my bottles I've got a decorative textile box which I bought in art deco shop around 2 years ago. It plays it's role perfectly as it protects the perfume from sunlight and temperature changes + it looks gorgeous sitting on the shelf of my bookshelf.
Reply
Reply
post #43 of 47
10/27/12 at 3:40am
Most of my bottles of fragrance are stored in two bathroom cabinets
with no light. My precious ones stay there all the time, maturing like
fine wines and only being used occasionally.

I have around six bottles out on the dressing table in rotation so my
current favourites are to hand. Currently there are:-
Omnia, Mandarine Basilic, Hot Couture, Ferre de Ferre,
Rive Gauche and Heliotrope Blanc.

Most of my samples and decants are in three pretty, cardboard boxes but I keep
the odd few in my handbag/vanity tray/downstairs loo so I always have
something to hand. The ones out at the moment are:- Daim Blond,
Theorema, Alien and Donna Karan Gold.
Reply
Reply
post #44 of 47
10/27/12 at 4:26am
I just throw mine under the sink, next to the Draino. Just kidding, lol. Mine are kept in a drawer.
Reply
Reply
post #45 of 47
10/27/12 at 5:29am
I use an IKEA cabinet as well. I use this one:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/pr...055/#/10119206

For my 3 fragrances I use in rotation (usually changed once a month), I keep those on my dresser.
Reply
Reply
post #46 of 47
10/27/12 at 5:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kalli View Post

I just throw mine under the sink, next to the Draino...

Oh, you're such a hoot!
Reply
Reply
post #47 of 47
10/27/12 at 7:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nausicaä View Post

We store samples in ammunition boxes like this, or in small metal boxes for bringing with us.

Brilliant.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Female Fragrance Discussion

Features on Basenotes

Petals Falling From The Sky - A Report From The Cote d'Azur's Bataille De Fleurs
Basenotes Reader Awards 2013 - Finalists Announced.
Greatest Hits: Annick Menardo
Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Female Fragrance Discussion › How do you display/store your fragrances? And what about those samples?