Vintage perfumes are often those scents that you could catch in a crowd and immediately be reminded of your grandmother, or a special day, or some bit of nostalgia. Scent is one of the most powerful senses and one of the most powerful memory triggers, so it stands to reason that perfume plays such a powerful part in that.

Vintage perfumes aren't always discontinued elsewhere. You can still buy Charlie, for instance, but it's vintage to me. A quick sniff of Charlie reminds me of summertime picnics at my aunt's, because she always doused herself in the scent and it only got stronger in the mid-July heat.

Windsong, Emeraude, Shalimar and even Old Spice aftershave come with their share of specific memories. I don't personally want to wear any of these scents, but I do enjoy the trips down memory lane that they usually cause.

If you're looking for specific vintage perfumes, one that's probably going to be more than a few years old, you have some options. But you should be aware that you won't always get what you're hoping for. Old perfume turns and often smells differently than you remembered. Before it reaches the point of complete change it usually grows much weaker.

And every now and then when you purchase vintage perfumes, you'll barely get a whiff because it's all evaporated. One of the best ways to avoid this is to purchase a sealed package. And if you can find the fragrance in a splash bottle as opposed to a spray, there's less of a change that it's evaporated. Atomizers simply allow for evaporation much more than a stoppered bottle.

Even though perfume does tend to turn with age, you could be surprised to find that once it's on your skin for a little while that familiar scent returns. Good perfume is produced in layers, with top notes, middle notes and base notes. The first parts of a perfume to turn are the top notes, or the first scents you'll catch. Once these dissipate, the middle and base notes could be intact, and these are the scents that make up the heart of the perfume.

If you're looking online, especially at a place like eBay, for vintage perfumes, read the descriptions carefully. There are many avid collectors who are only interested in shaped vintage bottles, and not the perfume inside. Some sellers put colored water in the bottles just for appearance, because they're selling point is the bottle, not the fragrance. You don't want to miss that part of the description and end up with a pretty bottle and some food coloring.

Estate sales are good places to look for vintage perfumes. You'll really want to consider the possible age of these scents, because usually the bottles are opened and partially used. But because perfumes rarely sell for top dollar in estate auctions, it could be worth the small investment to try to find your favorite vintage perfumes intact and how you remember them.

Photo Credits: Leepak

Originally posted 2009-09-09 06:58:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Vintage Perfume

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crowd, evaporation, fragrance, grandmother, heart, memories, memory lane, nostalgia, old perfume, old spice, picnics, scents, senses, shalimar, summertime, vintage perfumes, whiff