Do Vintage Perfumes Ever Go Bad?

There is always something alluring about finding your favorite vintage perfumes for sale. But if you’ve ever looked at the bottom of some perfume bottles, you might notice that they have an expiration date printed on them. This can lead to a wide variety of questions, like: Do perfumes really go bad? How can you tell if a perfume you love has gone bad? How do perfume expire? What happens if I wear or buy expired perfume? The list goes on. 

Read through our blog post to learn more about what the expiration date means and whether you can keep enjoying your favorite perfume long after they’ve been made. There are certain things you can do to keep both your new and vintage perfumes safe and help their scent last even longer. 

If you’re looking for vintage perfumes for sale, Fragrance Original has carefully crafted a wide selection of discontinued and vintage perfumes. Make sure you shop our wide selection to find an old favorite or an exciting scent that’s new to you!

How Long Do Vintage Perfumes Last? 

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. The closest we can get is an ambiguous “it depends.” 

What we can say is that the expiration dates on perfumes and vintage perfumes do not work the same way as dates on food. Yes, some perfume bottles are marked with expiration dates. But that doesn’t mean that the perfume stops smelling the way it should on that expiry date.

Instead, there are a variety of factors that play into the longevity of older and vintage perfumes. For example, the chemical compound and makeup of a certain individual perfume plays a key role in how long the scent lasts. 

Chemical Makeup 

When some perfumes have expired — according to the date on the bottle — they can still smell the same for years and years. But, as time goes on, you might notice that those perfumes start to lose certain aspects of their scent, changing the overall smell of the perfume. But how long that chemical makeup lasts also depends on how you store that bottle of perfume. 

Storage Temperatures 

The temperature where you keep your perfume can also play a role in how long that scent lasts. Heat is one of the top destroyers of perfume because it can break down the chemical structure. In addition, if your perfume is kept in a plastic bottle, the heat can melt the plastic or cause it to warp. When this happens, the heat can cause plastic to leach into the perfume, both changing the chemistry of that perfume and its smell.

But that also doesn’t mean you should keep your vintage perfumes in the fridge or something extremely cold. In fact, new and vintage perfumes need a consistent temperature. So keeping it in the fridge and removing it every time you want to wear it can be just as damaging as heat. Instead, opt for a space that is not too cold and not too hot.

No Air Exposure

A large part of perfumes — and the allure of finding vintage perfumes for sale — is the bottle that they come in. But sometimes they come in bottles that aren’t as attractive, or you might have a decorative container you want to move your perfume into. 

If you’re trying to make your perfumes (and vintage perfumes) last longer, then you want to avoid exposing that liquid to air. Even in the time it takes to transfer that perfume to a new container, the air can break down the composition of the perfume, increasing the evaporation of any alcohol that is in the liquid. Furthermore, you also risk exposing your perfume to bacteria when you take the lid off. Both of these things can cause your perfume to expire faster and smell different. 

So How Do You Keep Your Vintage Perfume Safe and Fresh?  

You don’t want to expose your perfume to anything that can evaporate or destroy the chemical makeup — like heat, cold, or air. But then how can you keep your vintage perfume safe? Make sure you store any perfume you have in a cool or dark place. 

Furthermore, while certain brands of perfume might have an expiration date on them, we’ve already mentioned that the date doesn’t work the same as for food products. That date only lets you know that some of the chemical makeup of that perfume might have shifted so your perfume might smell a little weaker or different. 

But some of your favorite perfumes can keep their unique smell for 10 years or more! There is also a large market of vintage perfumes for sale, either to experience or re-experience classic scents or to enjoy the aesthetic of those older perfume bottles.

Whether you have a scent you love to wear or a precious bottle you don’t want to lose, just make sure you take the proper precautions to help you get the most out of your perfume for years to come. 

Vintage Perfumes For Sale at Fragrance Original 

We hope that now you better understand how the scents of your perfume last over time. There are different ways you can ensure that you keep your perfume from being exposed to harmful conditions so you can keep enjoying the scents you love. 

If you have a discontinued or vintage perfume you love, make sure you shop our vintage perfumes for sale from Fragrance Original. We have a wide selection of both men’s and women’s discontinued and vintage perfumes for sale.