32 www.EliteEquestrianMagazine.com EQUINE Lifestyle
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ART& ANTIQUES
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Today’s collectors are considering and
collecting vintage perfumes both nationally
and internationally. While the scents
are alluring, the design of the perfume
bottles are what attracts one to a particular vintage perfume.
When I started my research on vintage perfumes, it
was all about the beauty of the bottles and the bravado of
the brands.
Now, there is much more to the vintage perfume market.
A skilled group of sellers/scientists are trying to blend old
familiar perfume scents with new additions to create some
collectible fragrances.
t is interesting and a bit exciting to learn that an inter-
ested collector can actually find and purchase a favorite
old-school perfume on the market. Would these old
perfumes still smell good? Would they smell the same bringing
back memories with a whiff? The idea of recovering old
perfumes is interesting but it is not without its obstacles. The
science surrounding the art of collecting vintage perfume is
the real story here, along with the setbacks.
Perfumes go bad over time. No matter how lovely or
high quality a bottle is –albeit French Baccarat or Lalique
crystal—perfumes lose their punch. The shelf life for most
high-quality perfumes is about 18 months to 2 years. I was
saddened by this fact since I have decades-old perfumes
that I still use that date back to my high school days. When
I hold those bottles and squirt the atomizer of my vintage
Lauren or Calvin Klein perfume, I am immediately back
in my childhood bedroom standing in front of my dresser
thrilled to be going somewhere fun. Alas, too many years
have passed to save the original smell.
You really can’t go back to Kansas… even if you were, like
me, raised in Connecticut. You see, perfumes can degrade
from exposure to light, heat, and oxygen (air). A perfume’s
top notes go by the wayside first and then the base or core
scent languishes over time. Citrus scents fade very quickly.
The floral scents are stronger but they too will eventually
give in to old age. Like people, some perfume scents age
better than others.
Trying to find a full, unopened bottle of vintage scents like
Juneve by Reval Langlois from the 1920s, Sycomore by
Chanel from the 1930s, or Apres L’Ondee by Guerlain from
the 1950s is next to impossible. Why? Most people don’t
realize that perfume collecting is a real thing. And this
“real thing” is trendy and expensive. These vintage scents
–not just the beautiful bottles-- are worth big bucks to a
new generation of perfume chemists mixing new and old
scents in New York, Milan, and Paris. Don’t forget about the
industrious group of new age perfume entrepreneurs who
are amassing old, half-empty bottles of perfume in thrift
stores and from estate sales that were cast off. These folks
are buying them up and auctioning them off online. They
are reselling these scents by the tiny vial for a very nice
profit on Etsy.com, Ebay.com, etc. So, if you are going all
Marie Kondo and your old perfume is on the $1 and under
table at your estate sale, you are making a big mistake.
The money you lose on that transaction with a savvy estate
sale shopper will certainly not “bring you joy”.
Is there any hope for collectors who want to wear their
favorite vintage scent and have a sniff that recalls a fond
memory? Many vintage perfumes are sold online and are,
with some obvious olfactory differences, ready to wear.
Some collectors are looking for that scent that their late
mother wore and paying big bucks to recapture it in a bottle
or a vial. Others want to share a fragrance promoted
or named by their favorite Hollywood celebrity or Pop star.
Either way, the vintage perfume market is alive and well.
These old perfumes and their bottles are leading the pack
as a valuable, memorable, and somewhat attainable collecting
category.
COLLECTING
Vintage Perfume
By Dr. Lori Verderame
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