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Adding alcohol/water to revive a vintage scent...advisable?

post #1 of 9
9/3/10 at 8:56am
Thread Starter 
I recently bought a 0.5 oz 'empty' bottle of vintage Mitsouko off eBay for about $20, whose insides are covered with the dried-up remnants of the fragrance. I'm tempted to add a bit of alcohol/water to dissolve the dregs so that it can be 'revived' so to speak.


Anyone tried this before? Is it advisable to do this?
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post #2 of 9
9/3/10 at 9:34am
I did this with a few old bottles with nice results. As for advisable, I guess that depends on the alternatives and if you might find the bottle more valuable with the remnants alone. I used perfumers alcohol, not water.
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post #3 of 9
9/3/10 at 9:53am
Thread Starter 
I'm afraid perfumers alcohol is nowhere to be found in my part of the world, so I guess I'll have to be content with sniffing the dregs from the lip of the bottle.
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post #4 of 9
9/3/10 at 10:30am
If you can't find perfumer's alcohol, how about vodka or other high alcohol content spirit? That should work. Oil would work, too, preferably fractionated coconut oil or jojoba - something that won't go rancid before you can use the perfume.
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post #5 of 9
9/3/10 at 4:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Elly View Post

If you can't find perfumer's alcohol, how about vodka or other high alcohol content spirit? That should work. Oil would work, too, preferably fractionated coconut oil or jojoba - something that won't go rancid before you can use the perfume.

But won't the vodka alter the original scent?
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post #6 of 9
9/3/10 at 5:00pm
Ever Clear alcohol is more or less scentless. I used that early on.
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post #7 of 9
9/3/10 at 5:05pm
Thread Starter 
Even Everclear is unavailable here.

(oo, it rhymes!)

I'll probably have to order that off eBay as well!
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post #8 of 9
9/4/10 at 10:07am
There may be some equivalent of everclear available where you are (wherever that is) - high % ethanol under a different name. In any case, most of the top notes will probably be gone from the sediment in the bottle so it wouldn't smell like the original even if you used pure ethanol.
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post #9 of 9
9/4/10 at 10:12am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Elly View Post

There may be some equivalent of everclear available where you are (wherever that is) - high % ethanol under a different name. In any case, most of the top notes will probably be gone from the sediment in the bottle so it wouldn't smell like the original even if you used pure ethanol.

Good point.

The alternative(chasing down the vintage scent for a reasonable price) is HARD!

So I settled for a 30ml EDT from the 90s.

Better than nothing I guess.
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