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?
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.
