Decanting Experiment

[TriggerMan]

I have read several posts from members that have decanted their AS (mainly Pinaud products) from the original plastic bottle into a glass container. They claim that the smell of the aftershave gets better once it's been in a glass container for a while. It's not that I don't believe them... but I am from "The Show Me State".
So, I have decided to do a little experiment to find out the answer for myself.
I received a bottle of Clubman Vanilla yesterday. I decanted most of it into a glass AS bottle that I found at an antique mall for $1. The remainder is still in the plastic Pinaud bottle. I marked the plastic bottle with today's date.
I will sniff each of them, both in the bottle and on the skin, once every week for what is now, an undetermined amount of weeks.
Will the glass bottle help make the AS smell better?
Only time will tell.

 

[DCRIII]

Subscribed.

 

[Glengoyne]

I vote that it won't make a difference in the immediate future. I believe the issue is all time related. The problem occurs when bottles of aftershave contained in plastic bottles are left to sit for years, perhaps decades on end without use. At that point I believe it is likely that the plastic degassing corrupts the purity of the aftershave resulting in the typical skunkiness reported by some. Additionally most plastic aftershave bottles are clear which easily allow UV radiation to penetrate into the solution which degrades the quality of essential oils and other ingredients contained within an aftershave. This photodegradation coupled with degassing plastic can be avoided by using glass.

Now I think the biggest problem is the time span in which most aftershaves are consumed. In my case, I don't typically have aftershave sitting around in a bottle long enough for it to fall victim to either of the two aforementioned effects. Simply put, most people will exhaust their aftershave supply before it has a chance to go bad.

This leaves me to conclude that "decanting" aftershave into glass is merely a preferential action based in aesthetics and confirmation bias.

 

[TheVez2]

First of all, I love a thread with "Experiment" in the title!

Secondly, In my experience, it does make a difference. But I'm not sure if you'll notice a week-to-week difference. Maybe month-to-month would be better. But who knows, maybe it will. I'm curious as to your results, regarless.

Lastly, I'm almost positive that is an old Aqua Velva bottle. It was one of their sports trophies. I'm guessing the old top was lost, and a replacement was added to it. (If not, it's very similar to those bottles)

 

[TriggerMan]

As far as I can tell, it is a Roman Brio bottle. It is missing the original cap by the looks of it.
I did find an old AV bottle the other day, but it was in the ground (so it's dirty) and is missing the cap. As far as I can tell, it's from the 60's?

 

[TheVez2]

Ah, got me, I think you're right.

 

[BSAGuy]

Indubitably!

 

[TriggerMan]

Here is what I think is an old AV bottle I found in an old trash pile. The previous owner of the property used to dump his trash a few hundred yards from the house. He died in 1971. Nobody has dumped trash on the property since then.

 

[TheVez2]

Looks like one to me!

 

[Dave in the basement]

I voted yes based on my probably-tinfoil-hat-similar-booze-theory.

 

[cvargo]

This should be a great thread!

I noticed a difference between my decanted and not undecanted ( is that a word) I would say roughly six months after doing so. And that was because I was curious.

The plastic smells plastic, and has almost a gasoline smell. Where as the glass just smells like perfect clubman

 

[August West]

I found decanting deskunks Clubman Original.

 

[Ice-Man]

I decanted my clubman from its plastic to that bottle I got not so long back and I can already smell the difference the glass bottle has a better smell where the plastic bottle you can smell the plastic in it

 

[Lmarkow]

I decanted some vanilla to glass a couple of weeks ago. The fragrance may have gotten a bit more mellow, but not much. Decanting de-skunked Special Reserve and absolutely de-cat pee'd the Veg.

 

[Bhugo]

I vote that it won't make a difference in the immediate future. I believe the issue is all time related. The problem occurs when bottles of aftershave contained in plastic bottles are left to sit for years, perhaps decades on end without use. At that point I believe it is likely that the plastic degassing corrupts the purity of the aftershave resulting in the typical skunkiness reported by some. Additionally most plastic aftershave bottles are clear which easily allow UV radiation to penetrate into the solution which degrades the quality of essential oils and other ingredients contained within an aftershave. This photodegradation coupled with degassing plastic can be avoided by using glass.

Yes! +1

I think the degassing is also temperature dependent. Maybe more so.

 

[majorrich]

watching

 

[docjude]

I found decanting deskunks Clubman Original.

This is absolutely true.
I decanted a big bottle of Clubman into a few new hot sauce bottles that I picked up from Amazon and left them sitting in the dark for a week. The scent changed drastically.

 

[ackvil]

I decanted my clubman from its plastic to that bottle I got not so long back and I can already smell the difference the glass bottle has a better smell where the plastic bottle you can smell the plastic in it

+1. The only problem is that the Clubman seems to disappear faster. Perhaps because I use it a lot more!

 

[TheVez2]

I'm going to join you on this journey. I have some clubman original in a plastic bottle. I have a vintage glass bottle of vintage clubman, so I never bothered to decant the stuff I have out of my plastic bottle. But The more I use it, the more I dislike it. The powdery smell is overpowering. Maybe, if I decant it, it will change. We'll see!

 

[jcs266]

This will be interesting to follow. But I'm also in the camp that suspects TIME to be the main factor. If it sits in glass it will probably retain it's original character much longer than in plastic. The manufacturer will tell you it's meant to be used daily, not sit for a decade on a shelf. In reality most will require at least a couple years or more to use up a bottle. Some would take many years. This is where the issue of degradation of it's properties/scent appear.

In a plastic bottle I'd guess you'd not notice much if any change in the first year, but beyond that is where I would expect it to degrade.