So, my friend Jena a couple of day ago was sad and came to visit me with a bad news.

“How could they do this to me!? Since I was 14 years old I’ve always worn the same perfume: ‘Burberry week end’. I love it. I love its strong lasting fragrance. Furthermore, it was not the typical fashion-victim kind of perfume, I’ve never knew anyone that used to wear it. To make a long story short, yesterday I went to my regular perfume store to buy it and the girl at the counter said -Sorry, but Burberry week end has been discontinued- I couldn’t believe it, Burberry week-end is a discontinued perfume? How could they do that?”

She was really sad and upset at the same time, so we called a friend of mine, Tyra, that works in a perfume shop out of town to see if she could find some bottles or if she knew some other store that could have some in stock. Because of my passion for perfumes and for discontinued perfumes in particular I happen to know lots of people that work in the perfume business. Jena was willing to buy as much Burberry week-end bottles as she could find.

We were very surprised by the answer of Tyra:

“AH! Burberry week-end is not discontinued. It is a must and it’s impossible that they discontinued it! You know what some shops owners do? Imagine they don’t want a brand in particular anymore, or they don’t come to an agreement with the brand or they don’t make too much profit with a perfume. Well, they tell their employees  to tell the customers it is a discontinued perfume! Some times they do it also if they temporarily don’t have the perfume you want. Sorry, discontinued. Buy another one. Pretty smart, uh? You buy something else, you don’t go looking for a discontinued perfume in some other store…”. Thanks Tyra, you saved us!

What can we learn fron this story? Never never ever give up on finding a perfume if you’re not 100% sure it’s been discontinued and you can’t find it anywhere.

I think you will find useful what happened to Jena and me.

By the way, two days later Jena bought a bottle of Burberry week-end in a shop 500mt. away form where she “used to buy” perfumes every month. The guy at the counter laughed when we asked him if Burberry week-end was going to be discontinued.

There are many different bottles to select from and serious collectors look for that one of a kind piece. A room can be enhanced with the color and uniqueness of an antique perfume bottle. The most popular place is in the bedroom or bathroom area because perfume is a toiletry and the antique piece still fits best in these rooms for display.

A collection of antique perfume bottles can also be passed on to the next generation of collectors in the family while, depending upon the pieces, increasing in value over time. A reproduction can be an inexpensive way to acquire a piece. There is however, more value to an original piece as the colors are brighter and it provides satisfaction to the collector in knowing that it is an original. An original piece has history. There is information that can be researched that tells a story about where it was made and the past that it was part of.

Another aspect of collecting antique perfume bottles that you might enjoy is meeting other interesting people who share your passion. These people can add to your knowledge of the various pieces as well as provide information on places to hunt for bottles that you might not have considered.

And as with all collectors of antiques, there is the thrill of the hunt for that “just right” piece, or finding a gem among rubble, or just maybe getting a bargain on something worth a lot of money.

- Do not try more than one perfume at a time. The scents will mix and you will not be able to make a proper judgment.

- When you apply the fragrance, do not rub it in your skin. Simply let it sit for about a quarter of an hour, allowing it to react with your skin. Some perfumes might take much more than 15 minutes to develop. This is because perfumes have 3 notes (top note, evaporates first, middle note, takes a bit longer and base, the true fragrance).

Although you may find in numerous publications that determined scents mean a certain aspect of your personality, don’t go with what you’re told. Use the perfume which smell you like the most as that will be the one to truly define you. You may want to ask your department store if they have some free perfume samples that you can take home with you. That way, you can try a few different ones on over the course of a few days to see which ones you truly like.

There are also a few tips on how to chose a perfume that you should keep in the back of your head:

- In the winter, you should pick a perfume with a stronger smell, as the low temperatures might reduce its power.

- Oily skins will not need as much perfume as dry skins.

- For maximum effect, apply a bit of the scent on your wrists.

Here are a few tips on how to wear a perfume even if it gets discontinued:

Have you ever heard about perfumes replica? Companies buy discontinued perfumes formulas and sell it with different names. Most of the time the name resembles the original name, so it’s not difficult to find out the perfume you’re looking for. Also, the price for a bottle is cheaper than the original. The producer say it’s because you pay just for the product, not for the brand, but in fact the scent lasts less than the branded perfumes. It’s a good way to wear a discontinued perfume anyway, consider it.

Some discontinued perfume still exist in the form of oil. In this case people say that oil actually last longer than the perfume. Also oils are cheaper than perfumes. Sometimes you will need to modify a little the fragrance to get exactly the discontinued perfume you want. You can do it mixing the basic oil scent with a smell-alike perfume or with another basic scent. The choice of oils is quite good, you can easily find:

• Chanel’s Allure for women
• Burberry for women
• Abercrombie & Fitch for men
• Calvin Klein’s Eternity for men
• Ralph Lauren’s Safari for men
• Victoria Secret’s Very Sexy for men

And an assortment of non-designer oils just great to fulfill your makeup vanities and make up your own perfume. If you can get nowhere near the discontinued perfume you want, mix up oils and fragrances and have a perfume that is really yours and that won’t be discontinued because YOU have the formula! Send us your creation, we’d love to know from you.

Which is the technique behind a perfume?

There are hundreds of ingredients in a perfume but basically they can be grouped in four groups:

1. Primary scents: It is the main ingredient and the one that identifies the perfume. For example “lavender”. Lavender and rose can be mixed together for a more general “flowers” scent. Normally there’s no more than a few primary scents.
2. Modifiers: They are added to the primary scent to modify it in some ways. For example, adding the modifier fruit ester to a floral primary, fruit flowers is obtained.
3. Blenders: They help mixing the different ingredients of the perfume within each other.
4. Fixatives: The “enforce” and support the primary scent. They’re usually resins or amber bases.

Sometimes to perfumes are added anti-oxidants to increase the shelf-life of the perfumes and colorants for marketing purposes.

Re-create discontinued perfumes is not an easy task, mainly because of the machinery involved in the process. An unknown sample can be identified with a machine called “gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)”. It is normally used for drug detection, explosive investigation, enviromental analysis and so on. It is used by forensic and at airports for security reasons. It is known, though, that cosmetic firms use it to analyze the competition’s fragrances. It is relatively simple to know the formula of a perfume with GC-MS, but obviously cannot be done by anyone. Sometimes it’s harder due to the complexityof the chemical compounds but anyone trained to use GC-MS can come up with the formula in days.

As you can see it’s not really simple but indeed it is possible. If by any chance you know somebody with access to a GC-MS, let us know!

Update: Did you know we came across a manual that will teach you how to make perfumes and even how to sell them online? You can start your own business while creating you own unique perfumes. Or if you prefer, you can sell already manufactured perfumes.

If you want to take a look click here.

Well, it’s time to choose a new perfume but there’s a way you can do it while keeping the essence of the discontinued perfumes with you.

Perfumes are made basically with water, alcohol, flagranced oils and some chemical compounds such as aroma, fixatives and solvents. Since mid 1800 these oils can be chemically synthesized. The aroma is exactly like the natural one but with a much lower cost of production and his availability does not depend  from natural events.

Thanks to the Internet you can now have a list of the ingredients of the most common perfumes, even the discontinued perfumes. All you have to do is find which fragranced oil is in the ingredients of the perfume. Here are the most common types of oils for perfumes:

• Rose
• Lemon Oil
• Citronella
• Lavender
• Jasmine
• Bergamot
• Clove
• Ginger

And many more…

Once you know which oil is content in your discontinued perfume, try perfumes with the same fragranced oils! It’s always fun and enjoyable trying new perfumes. Surely you’ll find a perfume that will make you remember your discontinued fragrance and the sadness for not finding it will soon go away.

The simplest way to find a perfume no longer sold in stores? Ask your relatives! That old aunt of yours that used to be a fashion addict in her youth, your mother or your grandparents will surely have a bottle covered with dust that they just don’t wear anymore. Probably they’ll even be happy to hand it off to you.

Need some other ways?

eBay sellers sell anything… Go and look for discontinued perfumes, you can find pretty cool bargains in auctions and fixed price purchases. The same is for online stores. It seems that the Internet is a gold mine for discontinued perfumes, don’t miss to search Google for your favorite fragrances, you’ll be amazed about what you can find.

Some perfumes last for decades (think of Chanel no.5), some get discontinued soon. Maybe they just came out after a fashion that soon ended or they didn’t sell as expected but with time and experience you will be able to distinguish the truly gems of discontinued perfumes, the ones that should have never been ceased. And it’s always a pleasure finding one of those scents. Like an archaeologist finding a priceless relic.

Any day is a good day to start your own collection of discontinued perfumes, why don’t you start today?

The same occurs with people. I’m sure you remember the perfume worn by your first high school date, the smell of your grandpa after shave, the scent worn by your mother in important events. Unfortunately some of this perfumes are no longer available, they are discontinued perfumes.

Even if you’re not a “good ol’ days were better” person surely you wouldn’t mind to recall back the days spent with your loved ones, the first dates with your actual partner or the time spent with someone who passed by. Wearing their favorite perfumes or just smell it is one of the strongest way to remember them. Chances are the perfumes they used to wear is a discontinued perfume. How would you like to have a bottle of that discontinued perfume? There are some ways to get your hands on one bottle:

Ever thought about eBay? They sell discontinued fragrances for an affordable price. Look for your favorite one, you may surprise yourself to see somebody has just what you’re looking for.

What about you favorite perfumes shop? Have you asked them if they still have discontinued perfumes? Maybe they have in stock a perfume they no longer keep on the shelves and they can even sell it for a cheap price, since their chances to sell it are very little.

Some perfumes gain value with the time, though. Just like a bottle of good wine, time adds value to it and the price could be not that cheap.

Discontinued perfumes make great presents too. Surprise your husband with a bottle of the scent he used to wear when he was younger, your wife with that scent she likes to smell on your skin or a loved person with the perfume she used to wear and no longer can because is now in the list of discontinued perfumes.

Yes, this is the real value of discontinued perfumes. The value to make you remember good time spent with friends and family. Open the bottle and smell the perfume,  joyful sensations of friendship and love will come to your mind.

This is what’s this blog for. You’ll find tips on where to find discontinued perfumes, best priced perfumes, how to recreate that special perfume for you and many more

Welcome to discontinued perfumes info, hope you’ll visit us often.