So, I know perfume can go bad. But how long does it take to go bad? And also, will it go bad if the bottle hasn’t ever been opened?
Yes, it can go bad just as wine can go bad, even unopened.
The alcohol slows the process, but does not stop it.
Like wine, the organic chemicals in perfume are affected by light and heat.
So the length of time varies a lot.
The only sure way is to try it.
Yep, had a bottle of Poison go bad on me. I had that thing sitting on my bathroom counter for several years though, getting hit by the sunlight from the window for at least a few hours a day. I don’t wear much perfume, and it can take me a long time to go through a single bottle. I remember spraying it on, and noticing that it was much stronger and sweeter than I had remembered it–it gave off almost a “cooked-fruit” kind of scent (almost like a bad bottle of Zinfandel).
You don’t have to be as careful as you do for a bottle of fine wine, but perfume does oxidize with exposure to light and heat. Best to keep it in a cool spot that doesn’t get hit with any sunlight–like a dresser drawer. If you’re the type that likes to put the pretty perfume bottles on the windowsill, first use them, then display them.
It’s possible to get a bad bottle, but highly unlikely. Most perfumes are boxed, and are usually held & sold in malls/shops/etc, where they are under air-conditioned circumstances. Now, if you bought it from some guy selling the bottles straight out of the trunk of his car in August… well, I’d check it out first.