To all male frag experts? is there something to worry about?

I'm sorry to hear about your tragedy. It is possible for heat to damage the chemical composition of a fragrance as some molecules may be susceptible. In most cases, unfortunately, the damage may not be visible but only detectable to the nose. On the other hand, for the heat to be severe enough to cause damage, one would expect to see significant harm to the packaging as well: melting of the plastic wrapping, singed cardboard of the boxes, etc. If the outer packaging is not at all affected, there is a good chance the fragrance within may have survived undamaged. I don't know any completely reliable way to know for sure other than opening some and sniffing them, and I can understand wanting to avoid sacrificing more merchandise. Good luck.

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I'm sorry to hear about your tragedy. It is possible for heat to damage the chemical composition of a fragrance as some molecules may be susceptible. In most cases, unfortunately, the damage may not be visible but only detectable to the nose. On the other hand, for the heat to be severe enough to cause damage, one would expect to see significant harm to the packaging as well: melting of the plastic wrapping, singed cardboard of the boxes, etc. If the outer packaging is not at all affected, there is a good chance the fragrance within may have survived undamaged. I don't know any completely reliable way to know for sure other than opening some and sniffing them, and I can understand wanting to avoid sacrificing more merchandise. Good luck.

Wow, that's an awful thing to have happened, thank God nobody was injured!
I really hope you will be able to salvage most of your stock.

I believe those frags may have survived better than you think. Before they hit the store shelves frags can be subjected to more heat than people would like to believe... traveling in hot tractor trailer trucks in the dead of summer, storage in hot warehouses and stockrooms, etc., etc. I can guarantee that in some of the tropical and subtropical places in the world, alot of frags are subjected to some pretty extreme conditions before they are eventually sold. Much of the world does not have air conditioning as commonly as we in the west do.
I would take a couple different ones that you think may have been subjected to some of the worst heat, open 'em up, and compare the scent to a couple identical frags (maybe something you or a friend/relative owns) that has been stored normally.
I suspect your stock may be OK, or at least reasonably OK. And I hope for that. Sorry about the fire, dude.

Looks like someone removed their post. Anyway I thought they were right when they mentioned that if the sellophane on the boxes had not been affected then the scents may well be fine.
Impossible for someone to say really though.
Hope it turns out OK for you..

I would think that the ones that were untouched should be OK

My post disappeared too...

Mine disappeared also. This site seems prone to all sorts of problems.. incredibly slow speeds, double postings, not loading, reviews not being published, etc.

You are quite welcome, bro. Best wishes to you!

You're bound to get enough online responses to your question revolving around this unfortunate event, however, perhaps you should contact the manufacturer(s).

I have no knowledge of business practices, etc. in Ghana... I only know about my surrounds, and even then, I do not know local law, regulations re such an issue had it been local to me. As a consumer, however, I'd expect whatever is being marketed to be fit for its intended use, as the manufacturer intended. There is a morality issue here.

Consider a scenario: I visit Ghana in the future and go into your newly re-furbished store; I buy one of the fragrances that survived; I think it is 'off' and am not happy; I revisit your store and am told about the fire, etc.; I ask why you thought the colognes were still good and you say because "you asked around, including online fragrance forums". I would want my money back and, once in hand, would leave your store immediately. Maybe I'd chalk it up to the local culture etc., but by my standards I'd say that I'd escaped a dishonest transaction. Having neither disclosed the possible fire/smoke damage nor happy with the level of diligence in determining whether the product was still fit, I'd be upset and would never consider doing business in your shop again.

Perhaps you might want to take the high road. If it's worth it to you, contact the manufacturer(s). Unless there is some type of Consumer Reports / United Labs type of outfit that does heat/light tests on fragrances of which I'm not aware, the manufacturers would be in the best position to speak as to its specific product durability. Perhaps you consider selling the fragrances at a discount, a real fire sale if you will, with full disclosure and sold 'as-is'? Insurance would cover damages, no? If you were not adequately insured, then either you or your customers will pay for the loss. A morality play indeed.

Your fragrances are fine.

What docluv45 said is the most sensible response in this thread. If the heat had been severe enough to chemically alter the juice inside of the bottles it would have certainly melted the thin plastic wrapping on the outside of the box--that stuff melts quickly and easily.

Just to be safe, test a few that you think received the most exposure to heat and compare them to the same fragrance from a department store. But I think you'll discover that they're fine.

Sorry about the fire!

Sorry for the lost man.

I agree with this. Frags are often exposed to high temperatures, FOR MUCH LONGER PERIODS OF TIME, in shipping etc. You know how hot it gets inside a car in the summer in the sun? Same thing happens in a shipping truck. Most aren't refrigerated, and don't A/C the cargo hold, as far as I'm aware.

If they were exposed to enough heat to damage them in that short period of time, that flimsy fragile plastic would most certainly be melted. It does NOT take much (to illustrate this point: I used to regularly melt plastic gloves to my hands reaching into the toaster oven when I worked at Subway. It terrified my customers, but it did not once injure me. It took a very short amount of time at a not terribly unreasonable temperature to melt the thin plastic of those gloves.)

As a compromise you COULD separate the ones that were exposed to the heat of the fire and sell them at a discount with full disclosure. I'm guessing a lot of people would buy them. I would (after looking carefully at the packaging and seeing that thin plastic undamaged ).

It sucks to hear about the loss of your merchandise...I hope you get things straightened out and are back in business soon!

The ones untouched by the fire should be fine.

Just to supply some testimonial. From one particular online company that I regularly receive fragrance orders from in summer the bottles and packaging usually arrive hot to the touch. The bottles especially so. However to my knowledge this has never caused a problem.

Most perfume collectors generally store perfumes in a coolish,stable temperature, and away from sunlight. My understanding of perfume is that light or heat can cause an undesireable change to the fragrance. I extend my best wishes to you, and hope that your stock is unaffected.

+1000

None, zero, of my reviews have been posted, and this site crashes on me ALL the time! No, others do!

Your posts did not disappear. The original poster double-posted, and your and Thematt202's earlier replies are in the other duplicated thread (http://www.basenotes.net/threads/319...to-worry-about).

Thanks for figuring this out, bro. But I do stand by my other comments about problems with this site. The things I mentioned have all happened to me *multiple* times, including another double-posting today which I had to edit to fix. And I can't bother writing reviews anymore because they don't seem to get published.
But don't get me wrong... I still love this site.

It's not just me then.
I could have sworn I posted a reply to a thread which hasn't appeared today, and my last post appeared as an edit in my previous post.
C'est la vie..