Perfume Bottles – Functional Art Pieces

Have you ever noticed how fragrances are just as easily identifiable by the designs of the perfume bottles as the actual scents? This is because perfume bottles are not merely containers of the perfume but they are in fact part of the package that makes any brand of fragrance truly unique.

True, there are some perfume bottles that are quite nondescript but most come in designs that are rather special and unique to the particular brand of perfume.

Popular Perfumes with Unique Bottle Designs

Some designer perfumes today can easily be identified simply by the design of their bottle. A perfect example would be Christian Dior’s Poison, with its chunky purple-colored bottle. A later variation of this perfume, called the Tendre Poison, was released a few years later and comes in a similar bottle design in a light green shade. Two more versions — Hypnotic Poison and Pure Poison — also come in the same oval bottle but in different colors.

When it comes to uniqueness in perfume bottles, Jean Paul Gaultier’s summer perfume probably leads the pack. It is packaged in a bottle with the form of a woman’s torso, making it undeniably one of a kind.

Another Gaultier perfume called Fragile comes in a very simple bottle. However, the top more than makes up for the lack of artistic value in the bottle. It is in the form of a snow globe which has the female form within. Certainly, Gaultier does know how to capture his market not just with exquisite fragrances but with delightful perfume bottles as well.

Simple but Elegant

While some perfume bottles stand out because of their elaborate shapes, others can make a statement with their simple elegance, such as the CK One by Calvin Klein.

This bestselling perfume comes in a very simply-designed bottle with a screw-on cap. It looks quite ordinary but that didn’t stop it from becoming one of the most popular perfumes of our time.

A remarkable thing about perfumes is that one can almost instantly identify whether a fragrance is meant for a man or a woman simply by the design of the bottle. Oftentimes, men’s fragrances are contained in simple and functional bottles while women’s fragrances are usually more intricately-designed, with more curves and colors in the bottle.

In unisex fragrances though, the general rule in perfume bottles is usually the simpler the better. Men tend to be put off by elaborate bottles so manufacturers keep it as regular as possible.

Of course, there is no direct correlation between the design of the bottle and the quality of the perfume. However, the different styles do make the fragrances more interesting and may even affect the marketability of a particular fragrance.

Antique Perfume Bottle – Starting Your Collection

Collecting antique perfume bottles is not only a fun hobby but can be a very rewarding one too. Antique items can be beautiful and so to can antique perfume bottles. There are some things to know, that can help you when trying to look for an antique perfume bottle to start your collection or want to add to your collection. If you already have a vintage perfume bottle then you may want to know how to estimate its value, or even decide if this is something you want to pursue.

Rare Colors In Perfume Bottles

When you are looking for rare antique perfume bottles or want to determine if an antique perfume bottle is rare, a good indicator is color. The color of your antique perfume bottle or one you would like to buy will help you determine if its a rare gem or something that nearly everyone has tucked away in their attic.

Opaque bottles are generally quite rare, some of the most rare perfume bottles are opaque blue and red. Another very rare color is ivory, not very commonly seen but very valuable. Brown, turquoise, and teal are also rare colors in the world of antique perfume bottles.

Opaque black is another unusual color, although not the rarest it is still a rare color and worth adding to a collection. It’s also a great starting point of a new collection. Opaque green is another color that you should be on the look out for. It falls in the same category as opaque black and can be much desired by some collectors.

Yellow, purple, and amber are not as rare as the opaque blacks and greens but are still rare colors. These are probably the kind of colors you would imagine an antique perfume bottle to come in. There are plenty of pictures of perfume bottles that come in these colors from old magazines and stills of old movies.

Clear bottles are the most common when it comes to antique bottles. Although clear bottles are not rare there might be other details that might make a clear bottle special or rare. The shape or decorative embellishments might make a clear bottle more valuable than a bottle in a rare color.

Hopefully this will help you in determining what to collect. You can collect bottles of your favorite color if you don’t intend to collect based on their value. Whatever you collect it is usually because you are interested or drawn to a feature or look, so collect the antique perfume bottles that you like if the money side of them does not interest you.

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