How to Buy Pre-Owned Perfume Safely

A pre-loved bottle can save you a lot of money and opens the door to discontinued and older formulas. It also asks for a little checking that you would skip at a department store. These are the steps we suggest for every purchase on Feelings of Scent.

Check the fill level

Every listing shows a fill level as a percentage. Look for a photo of the bottle held against a plain, light background so you can see the liquid line, and compare it with the stated percentage. For opaque or dark bottles, ask the seller how they estimated the level, or ask for the weight of the bottle. A fair price for a half-full bottle is very different from a fair price for one at 95%.

Understand batch codes

Most perfume bottles carry a batch code printed or etched on the bottom, and boxed bottles have one on the box too. Sites such as CheckFresh can decode many of these into an approximate production date. That tells you roughly how old a bottle is and which version of a formula it may contain. It does not tell you the bottle is genuine, because counterfeiters copy real codes. What you can check is whether the code on the bottle matches the code on the box, and whether it is cleanly printed.

Photos to ask for

• The full bottle, front and back, in natural light.
• The bottom of the bottle showing the batch code.
• The box and its batch code, if the seller still has it.
• The sprayer and collar, up close.
• The cap, both on and off the bottle.
• The liquid against a light background, to show color and fill level.

Photos the seller took of their own bottle are far more useful than stock images. If a listing only shows marketing pictures, ask for real ones before you buy.

Signs of a counterfeit

Fakes have improved, but common signs still show up. Watch for a price far below what genuine bottles of the same size sell for, misspellings or blurry text on the label or box, a missing or mismatched batch code, a cap that fits loosely or feels light, uneven glass, a thick or overly long dip tube, and a liquid color that looks off compared with other photos of the same fragrance. Loose or messy cellophane on a box sold as new is another warning. If you are unsure, compare the listing with photos of a bottle bought from the brand's own store.

Ask about storage history

Heat and light age perfume faster than time alone. Ask where the bottle has been kept, whether it stayed in its box, and how long it has been open. A bottle kept in a dresser drawer is a safer bet than one that sat on a sunny bathroom windowsill. Fresh citrus and green top notes are usually the first to suffer, so storage matters most for those styles.

Do the price per milliliter math

Divide the price by the milliliters left in the bottle. A 100 ml bottle at 60% full holds about 60 ml. If it is listed at $78, that is $1.30 per ml. Compare that with the current retail price per ml for the same size and with other listings on the site. The math also makes it easy to compare a full 50 ml bottle with a partly used 100 ml one.

Make an offer

Many sellers accept offers. A reasonable offer based on fill level and condition is normal, and it is more likely to be accepted than a lowball. Feelings of Scent charges buyers no buyer fee, so no extra fee is added on top of the price you agree. Orders ship by ground within the US, since alcohol-based perfume is flammable and restricted on air routes.

Use FoS Verified for extra peace of mind

For expensive bottles, or fragrances that are often faked, choose a listing with FoS Verified. With this option the bottle is inspected at a Feelings of Scent hub before it ships to you. The FoS Verified page explains what the inspection covers, and the Authenticity page has more on spotting fakes.