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Where to buy vintage perfume
Marjorie Gilbert
Perfumes was used since ancient Mesopotamia. The first perfume was actually incense which was made from fragrant resins and woods. Sometimes, the Mesopotamians soaked incense in water, then rubbed the resulting scent on themselves. Perfume use continued throughout the rest of the world, and added the distillations from flowers, an invention of the Arabs, which also spread . The use of aldehydes began in the 1920s with Chanel No. 5, and the development of man-made scents began. This article details out where to buy vintage perfume.
Shops
Most of the shops that offer vintage or discontinued perfumes appear to be online. This allows them to have lower overhead as well as the ability, as one shop claims on its website, to "ship galaxy wide'', which is perhaps an exaggeration. At these shops, vintage perfumes are sold and include names such as C'est la Fete by Christian Dior, Ma Liberté by Jean Patou, and Zen by Shisiedo. The shops which are specialised in these vintage scents and others are Galaxy Perfume, Scentsuality, and Vintage Perfume. Vintage Perfume also sells vintage perfume bottles as well as boxed sets of vintage bottled perfume.
Auctions
Online auctions, such as eBay, are another source for vintage perfumes. However, some caution must be taken when buying perfume online. The Perfume Posse investigated one seller, PSA, which was selling empty perfume bottles for the same price as full ones (the buyers do not realise that the bottle is empty until it is received). Reputable sellers will have a wide range of vintage perfume and often hard to come by bottles. Examples of bottles listed are vintage perfume ads, such as an 1940 Elizabeth Arden Blue Grass Perfume ad, empty vintage Elizabeth Arden perfume bottle (properly described as such), and a full Elizabeth Arden vintage perfume bottle. Other brands are also available.
Shops: ScentMatchers
If you cannot find the vintage perfume you are looking for, some shops are specialised in recreating the vintage perfume which you loved. Bring in a sample which doesn't have to be large to the shops, and they will match the scent by recreating it. Shops like ScentMatchers claim that they have recently matched scents such as "Ultima II Sheer Scent, Mystere De Rochas, Hollister August, MAC Turquatic, Fendi, and Givenchy Indecence."
