u/pears_htbk

Don't even know whether it's a factice or not but I got married and I got paid so I'm allowed to buy stuff now, so I bought it anyway. Swear to god I can detect a hint of scent when I sniff it real close. Also after freezing for a bit I noticed it left "legs" around the inside of the bottle, indicating some alcohol content, but does factice juice contain alcohol too?

I've tried the warm/freeze/warm method, will be buying some isopropyl alcohol tomorrow to attempt to de-gunk it. Put a good several hours into trying to open her this evening so I'm giving up for now.

My husband chipped the neck of the bottle ever so slightly when trying to lever open the bottle against my advice so I will be filing for divorce tomorrow, but I'll give it another crack after that.

Hello hi we got married over the weekend! We don't have the proper photos back yet obviously but if I don't share some of the guest phone pics with SOME corner of the internet I'm gonna explode. We did not plan an Outlander theme or anything, but between my dress and having a piper play me down the aisle I am not beating the allegations. Fingers crossed this meets the criteria for the sub because PLSSS I need to share!! Thank you for indulging me!!!

Junk shop find! I'm a noob at vintage perfume, been I guess a dilettante for awhile but only recently started getting more into it (honestly partly because this group is so good??). This is my first Coty! Didn't even look it up before I spent a mighty $15AUD on it so had no idea what I was getting into.

Turned out there is not a lot of writing on Masumi, possibly because it is apparently from Coty's flop era?

Hated the opening (sorry Masumi) but it quickly became a not unpleasant rosewoody herby scenario. Then I only got little of the rose but I appreciated the powdery woody business. Dried down pretty nicely, the oakmoss and I think sandalwood is what I'm smelling.

I don't know if this is my neophyte nose or what, but at points it reminded me of a sortof dessicated, fruitless Mitsouko. Is that a sacrilegious thing to say or am I learning? I guess they are both sorta Chypres?

Also some bonus waffle but trigger warning for discussion of death and burial: >!In the north of Bali there is a village called!< >!Trunyan which!< >!practices a burial rite which isn't burial at all. The departed are left in the open air near a fragrant tree which is thought to prevent the bodies from smelling as they decompose. The tree isn't actually sandalwood but it is fragrant. I had the privilege of being taken to one of the graveyards by a local and can confirm there is no putrid smell, just a very dry, subtle, fragrant scent of a wood, similar to sandalwood but not as warm and not as sweet. Masumi reminded me of Trunyan.!<

Thanks if you got this far and would be interested to hear other opinions on this one!

So after doing a wee stockpile after noticing how incredibly cheap the current Arpège EDP is and fearing discontinuation, I got an ebay alert for this little fella. Cheap so I took a punt. Smells fckn awesome. I believe it's a '90s one, so not quite "Vintage Arpège", but it's so good that I fear I will eventually want to drop some decent coin on a big vintage-r bottle. Don't get me wrong, I love the current EDP despite its flop reputation amongst connoisseurs, but honestly I love it, and the current RRP of like, $50AUD for 100mL smells like great value to me lol. But now I need to know how good the OG is. I must know, and I must have a lot of it.

But before I even try: After seeing a flood of posts of vintage Joy parfum here recently, I've found myself becoming a pest on this sub. On almost every post I haven't been able to stop myself chiming in with my tale of woe, so I wanted to just get it off my chest for good and ask the experienced collectors of the sub for advice.

The first time (and the only time because now I'm scared) I spent big girl money on a vintage was on Joy. Only a mini bottle, parfum, sealed, circa about 1970s. I know vintage parfums/extraits are a gamble but gamble I did, and I lost. My vintage Joy smells like vintage Despair: top notes of old vinegar which dries down to a heart of dirty kitchen and then absolutely nothing. My questions are:

-How common is this? Is every sealed old parfum a 50/50 chance of a loss? 1 in 10? 1 in 50? That is to say, was I very unlucky, or only a bit? I have read that Arpège is a bit of a heartbreaker in this regard so would be interested to hear about Joy and Arpège in particular.
-Are sealed bottles more just for collecting to look at? Is the thrill of ownership knowing you've got a Schrödinger's perfume bottle: until you open it, you don't know if it's dead or alive, so you don't open it?
-Are there any real tells that the stuff inside is likely to be good? The bottle I bought was sealed, contents were pale and unevaporated, but the bottle was NOT in a box. Would a sealed bottle in a sealed box be more prudent, due to the box protecting the juice from light?
-Does all this mean I'm better off buying an opened one?

Thank you if you got this far!

I am getting married in a few weeks, which means I am broke and stressed so I can't buy perfume, but I CAN tidy up and procrastinate on reddit. So now the group is back up here's a shelfie. I would love to see yours.

I am a maximalist and I'm clumsy, which means I've had a few close calls. So for the health and safety of my dressing table's veneer, I now have just my usual suspects within reach. If I don't wear it more than occasionally it went into The Drawer and if I don't wear it at all it went to charity.

I actually only got interested in perfume again in 2025ish after a hiatus: I was lucky enough to be fully vaxxed by the time I got COVID, but I still got total anosmia for over a month followed by a few years of my sense of smell being out of whack. Rediscovering perfume has helped my nose recover and given me a new appreciation for her. So hello I am BACK, Fracas smells like Tuberose again instead of wine gums and I will wear it to bed if I want to. I've already got a list of decants I'd like to buy post-wedding (Vol de Nuit, Joyeuse Tubereuse, Vent Vert, Ma griffe) but by all means suggest more!

This has been a long and self-indulgent post so thanks if you've made it this far, but if anyone would like to distract me from seating arrangements and my well-meaning inlaws PLEASE share some shelfies and recommendations for my decant shopping list.