What to do with empty perfume bottles?

An empty fragrance symbolizes the end of adventure with your perfume, and throwing it away can be heartbreaking. How can you give these bottles a second life? 

Link to soyan

A perfume bottle can be a real piece of art, it would be a shame to throw it away. Moreover, it is not an ecological disaster, but almost.

Here are some of my tips.

Large empty perfume bottles

• If your empty perfume bottles are rare, old or from an iconic brand, you can sell them to discerning collectors.

  
  
  

• Some major retailers offer to return your bottles in exchange for a discount on the purchase of a new perfume.

  
  
  

• If you have empty 250ml, 500ml or 1l bottles, I suggest you use them as decanters for your favourite alcohol, such as whisky. The amber colour is reminiscent of a beautiful perfume.

  
  
  

• You can fill empty fragrance bottles with dishwashing liquid to decorate your bathroom or a shelf, the effect will be perfect. Dishwashing liquid usually has a pretty colour and it doesn&#;t fade with time, it will create an illusion that the perfume is still full.

  
  
  

• I once discovered a chandelier created by an artist who had used about twenty identical perfume bottles to create it. To achieve a beautiful result, you need to have a creative mind and be very good at DIY. I also saw lamps at Guerlain made with the iconic Eau de Cologne du Coq or Impériale, the transparent bottles. A light bulb was inserted in each perfume bottle. These beautiful bottles were lit and aligned to create a stunning effect.

  
  
  

• Another idea is to transform your perfume bottle into a bedside lamp and add a lampshade. You can also dress them up with subtle graffiti in the JonOne&#;s style, a famous graffiti artist.

Medium and small empty perfume bottles 

• I have seen some beautiful creations, consisting of gluing together various perfume bottles filled with dummy. Choose pretty bottles, varied in shape and assemble them to create a sculpture or totem. Put a fairly solid and wide base of bottles, the more the edifice rises, the more the bottles will be placed in an aerial way, a single bottle will stand like a balancing act on top of this sculpture.

  
  
  

• Recycle your fragrance bottles into vases or scented stick holders. You can use a suitable tool to saw off the top of the bottle to widen it at the top to give you more room to place the small bouquet of flowers. For example: a rose in one bottle, three or four sprigs of lavender in another, etc.

  
  
  

• You can use gold or silver spray to paint the bottles, and why not glue real adhesive lace, rhinestones, pearls, feathers or jewellery on top. Anything is possible. Or simply paint your bottles in black to give them some mystery.

  
  
  

• Use them as decorative elements, painted in gold, silver or red. You can decorate your Christmas tree for example.

  
  
  

• You can fill your empty perfume bottles with a home fragrance and leave them in a cupboard, a lingerie drawer or in your toilet. Leave them open to benefit from their scent.

  
  
  

• Fill them with different coloured beads, blue for example, with a ribbon tied around the neck, or fill them with glitter.

  
  
  

• If you are good at drawing or have a good sense of colour, you can paint your bottle in the Baye Gallo&#;s style. Have a look at the 130th anniversary bottle of Jicky by Guerlain. You can also use a gold leaf like Hakuichi and Suitou Nakatsuka did for Mitsouko's 100th birthday.

  
  
  

• Decorate your perfume bottle with pink fabric flowers in cherry blossom style and fill it with pink shampoo for example.

Conclusion on how to use empty perfume bottles

Whatever you do, always clean your perfume bottle with white vinegar beforehand. A new fashion is developing, it is recycling and also DIY, do it yourself. A rainy afternoon does not have to mean macramé or patchwork. Let your creativity express itself, and don't throw away your precious empty perfume bottles.

Sylvaine Delacourte fragrances

Discover Sylvaine Delacourte's brand with her Orange Blossom, Musk and Vanilla Collections. You can try them thanks to the Discovery Boxes (5 Eaux de Parfum x 2 ml) and rediscover these raw materials as you have never smelled them before.

Are you interested in learning more about empty perfume bottles 100ml exporter? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

Make money with empty perfume bottles

Teresa Etheredge 15th Feb

Reading Time:

3

minutes

Packaging is often thrown away, but empty perfume bottles are too pretty to be chucked in the bin. Wash with soap and water or rinse with alcohol, and upcycle into gorgeous products you would be proud to sell at a craft stall.

Make your own perfume

Perfume is easier to make than many realise! In your fancy old bottles, your concoctions will look as good as they smell. Many recipes, tips and tricks can be found on the internet along with training courses and teach-yourself videos.

A perfume scent is made up of chords, and each chord has three parts:

• The top or head note is what you notice when you go in for a sniff; it catches your attention, but evaporates much quicker than the rest due to its lighter composition. Common head notes might include orange, lemon, lavender, grapefruit or berry scents.
• The middle or heart note combines with both the head and base notes, and is often floral, fruity or spicy with fragrances like geranium, rose, coriander, nutmeg or jasmine.
• The base note is rich and full, lingering on the skin long after the head notes have faded; it might include vanilla, patchouli, musk, sandlewood or oakmoss.

Ingredients:

• Essential oils &#; choosing which scents to include is the creative part. You can add anything from cinnamon or lavender to frankincense or myrrh. Remember to keep a notepad handy to jot down the amount of drops you&#;re adding to your recipe.
• Alternatively, you can use fragrance oils which are less natural (as they are often combined with synthetics) but are less likely to irritate the skin.
• Carrier oil &#; this is important to dilute the essential oil, which can damage your skin in its pure form. The most popular types include jojoba, avocado kernel, coconut, avocado and almond oils.
• Vodka or pure grain alcohol, to transform the perfume oil into eau de perfume.

So&#; what do you do?

You use this great guide from the Sweet Pea Apothecary, also known as Immortal Perfumes, to help you out. (It explains the whole process far better than we ever could.)

When making perfume yourself, you can customise it to exactly how you like it. For example, many find that the more affordable scents sold in perfumeries and pharmacies are too overpowering for their personal tastes. You can sell this at craft stalls, or maybe even set up your own perfumery!

Find out more about how to sell homemade perfume here. 

Sell antique or collectable perfume bottles

Many people have started collections of the prettiest glass bottles, and some rare or vintage perfume bottles have been known to sell at quite handsome prices. Have a look at sites like:

• eBay
• CraigsList
• Gumtree
• Preloved
• Etsy

Although this won&#;t make you rich, it will be nice pocket money. Common selling prices lie between £2 and £8, but the more extravagant pieces can sell for hundreds of pounds!

Create home décor pieces

Rather than selling them just as they are, try transforming empty perfume bottles into beautiful decorations and ornaments.

Paperweights

Fill the tiny bottles with broken jewellery, odd beads, coloured sand or shells.

Snow globes

Fill the large round bottles with flakes of paper or sprinkles of glitter.

Reed diffusers

These last longer than scented candles and are much less demanding to make. Take a look at this quick method here.

Vase

Easy, simple, and looks great, especially for buds or small fake flowers.

Oil lamps

Bring out your inner Aladdin following these genie-us tutorials, here or here. Just swap the mason jars or root beer bottles for your empty perfume bottles instead.

Candle holder

This Lovely Greens tutorial shows you how to make candles inside old wine bottles but, once again, this should work equally well with empty perfume bottles.

Suncatcher

This link here contains one method of making a suncatcher, but you can also string bottles along a length of wood as has been done here. Suncatchers are definitely for the more creative among us &#; maybe you could use the glass-cutting skills you learnt when making candle-holders, and string smaller pieces of glass alongside shells, beads, or broken jewellery.

Find out more about upcycling here. You can even make money selling your old toilet rolls!

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