While helping my 81-year-old mum clear out unwanted clothes from her wardrobe to take to the local Oxfam shop, we came across three half-used bottles of perfume stashed in their boxes since the 1980s and 1990s, when she stopped using them.
Kept in the dark, the trio were still fresh – it is exposure to sunlight and heat that makes perfumes go off. None of the scents was to my taste but, rather than throw them out, we wondered if they might be of use to someone else.
An hour or so searching the internet revealed the existence of a healthy vintage perfume collectables market where enthusiasts are willing to pay good money to get their hands and their noses on old scents that have been discontinued or reformulated. It transpired that my mum's three bottles could be worth around £80.
To find out more about the market, I contacted self-taught perfumer and vintage scent collector Sarah McCartney. Following 14 years as head writer for handmade cosmetics retailer Lush, during which time she read 200 books on essential oils and herbalism and played with the materials her boss gave her to learn what everything smelled like, McCartney gave up her day job to start creating fragrances.
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