Make money with empty perfume bottles

Teresa Etheredge 15th Feb 2020

Reading Time:

3

minutes

Packaging is often thrown away, but empty perfume bottles are too pretty to be chucked in the bin. Wash with soap and water or rinse with alcohol, and upcycle into gorgeous products you would be proud to sell at a craft stall.

Make your own perfume

Perfume is easier to make than many realise! In your fancy old bottles, your concoctions will look as good as they smell. Many recipes, tips and tricks can be found on the internet along with training courses and teach-yourself videos.

A perfume scent is made up of chords, and each chord has three parts:

• The top or head note is what you notice when you go in for a sniff; it catches your attention, but evaporates much quicker than the rest due to its lighter composition. Common head notes might include orange, lemon, lavender, grapefruit or berry scents.
• The middle or heart note combines with both the head and base notes, and is often floral, fruity or spicy with fragrances like geranium, rose, coriander, nutmeg or jasmine.
• The base note is rich and full, lingering on the skin long after the head notes have faded; it might include vanilla, patchouli, musk, sandlewood or oakmoss.

Ingredients:

• Essential oils – choosing which scents to include is the creative part. You can add anything from cinnamon or lavender to frankincense or myrrh. Remember to keep a notepad handy to jot down the amount of drops you’re adding to your recipe.
• Alternatively, you can use fragrance oils which are less natural (as they are often combined with synthetics) but are less likely to irritate the skin.
• Carrier oil – this is important to dilute the essential oil, which can damage your skin in its pure form. The most popular types include jojoba, avocado kernel, coconut, avocado and almond oils.
• Vodka or pure grain alcohol, to transform the perfume oil into eau de perfume.

So… what do you do?

You use this great guide from the Sweet Pea Apothecary, also known as Immortal Perfumes, to help you out. (It explains the whole process far better than we ever could.)

When making perfume yourself, you can customise it to exactly how you like it. For example, many find that the more affordable scents sold in perfumeries and pharmacies are too overpowering for their personal tastes. You can sell this at craft stalls, or maybe even set up your own perfumery!

Find out more about how to sell homemade perfume here. 

Sell antique or collectable perfume bottles

Many people have started collections of the prettiest glass bottles, and some rare or vintage perfume bottles have been known to sell at quite handsome prices. Have a look at sites like:

• eBay
• CraigsList
• Gumtree
• Preloved
• Etsy

Although this won’t make you rich, it will be nice pocket money. Common selling prices lie between £2 and £8, but the more extravagant pieces can sell for hundreds of pounds!

Create home décor pieces

Rather than selling them just as they are, try transforming empty perfume bottles into beautiful decorations and ornaments.

Paperweights

Fill the tiny bottles with broken jewellery, odd beads, coloured sand or shells.

Snow globes

Fill the large round bottles with flakes of paper or sprinkles of glitter.

Reed diffusers

These last longer than scented candles and are much less demanding to make. Take a look at this quick method here.

Vase

Easy, simple, and looks great, especially for buds or small fake flowers.

Oil lamps

Bring out your inner Aladdin following these genie-us tutorials, here or here. Just swap the mason jars or root beer bottles for your empty perfume bottles instead.

Candle holder

This Lovely Greens tutorial shows you how to make candles inside old wine bottles but, once again, this should work equally well with empty perfume bottles.

Suncatcher

This link here contains one method of making a suncatcher, but you can also string bottles along a length of wood as has been done here. Suncatchers are definitely for the more creative among us – maybe you could use the glass-cutting skills you learnt when making candle-holders, and string smaller pieces of glass alongside shells, beads, or broken jewellery.

Find out more about upcycling here. You can even make money selling your old toilet rolls!

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Have you got empty perfume bottles littering your bathroom? Yes, then maybe you should try these 11 brilliant ways to reuse empty perfume bottles.

1. Turn them into a Flower Vase

Empty perfume bottles make lovely flower vases – and nope, they're not just bud vases, either! Fill them with fresh flowers or create a permanent arrangement with quality silk blossoms.

For a super quick and easy guide, check out the DIY Decorator

2. Turn them into a gorgeous Perfume Display

You paid for these perfume bottles with your hard earned money, so fill them up with some coloured water and display them, loud and proud.

3. Turn them into an Oil Burner

DIY all the way, so you can save money, upcycle your old bottles, and make your house smell amazing!

4. Turn them into Art

Embrace your creative streak and turn your old perfume bottle into a piece of art. This reminds me of using papier-mâché art class at school and I love it.

5. Turn them into Candle Holders

This is a fantastic idea if you have a collection of antique or vintage perfume bottles. I love this as a centerpiece idea!

6. Turn them into Wedding Party Favours

Adorable! It's also a perfect DIY idea so you can save some money on your wedding décor!

7. Turn them into a Glitter Globe

Bored of snow globes, then try a glitter globe. We have loads of empty bottles that would look amazing after some glitter treatment.

8. Turn it into a Reed Diffuser

Another awesome way to save money, reuse your bottles, and make your space smell wonderful!

9. Turn them into cute little Mini Planters

Grow your favorite herbs in your favorite perfume bottles! Perfect – and pretty!

10. Turn them into a Light Feature

Turn your empty perfume bottles into a gorgeous light feature. Try a bottle string light, you can get one here

11. Turn them into New Perfumes

Why not make your own fragrance? Just mix a few of your favourite notes together and see what you can come up with.

For a complete guide visit Simple Living Creative Learning.

This would make a fantastic and thoughtful present, plus saves the planet. So win win.

Got any better ideas? We would love to hear them, just add them in the comments.