Buying old or vintage after shaves.questions.worries?

[bigruckus]

I've purchased 8-10 older bottles of after shave lately on the net...Old Spice, English Leather, Jade East, Skin Bracer in the Cooling Blue, Spice, Cooling Spice,..several Aqua Velva beer steins with the plastic insert bottles along with several figural bottles......and others.. Anyways the other day I was thinking.....does the smell fade in time or can it change, some of this stuff is 20 - 30 years old....several bottles just smell different to me.. I also think.....is the real stuff...???....I wonder if people add to the used bottles or just add some of the new stuff to it....or something completely different...if you never used it before you would never know...Maybe I should just display it. I've noticed people buying empty or partial full bottles...makes you wonder if they resell this stuff by adding to it...anyways just a thought..I hope most people are honest...I would hate to put something strange on my face..

 

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Colognes and aftershaves do change and deteriorate over time. the condition of a bottle is going to depend on how well the bottle was sealed, how much evaporation has occurred, and how much oxidation has taken place. If a bottle was well sealed, and in a relatively cool, dark space then minimal evaporation and oxidation is likely to have taken place. Bottles that are full (or nearly so) are likely to be in good shape. Old bottles that are only partially full will be in worse shape as more oxidation and evaporation has taken place. The same thing happens with old vintage bottles of spirits such as whiskies, brandies etc over time.

As to whether someone has poisoned the bottles, or added something dangerous, if this concerns you then I'd advise only buying sealed bottles.

 

[Luc]

I use vintage aftershave when I find it. If it passes the smell test it should be right. That's at your own risks of course. If you do not feel comfortable using that old bottle of aftershave, then don't

 

[Mick]

If you are worried you can always add some alcohol to any old after shave.