What it attacks

Why the shelf is all glass

All 63 containers on the main fragrance shelf are glass. Alcohol permeates and attacks a range of polymers, and over a year in a bottle that is a product that has thickened, lost strength or changed its character.

Permeation is invisible

A plastic bottle can look perfect while the alcohol has gone through the wall. The symptom is a fragrance that has changed concentration rather than a container that failed, which is exactly why it goes undiagnosed.

Adhesives are the second casualty

A label edge lifting, a facestock gone translucent, ink smeared where a thumb wiped it. In a category where the label is most of the perceived value, that is not a cosmetic problem.

And the fitment is still polymer

Glass removes the bottle from the argument and leaves the sprayer, its dip tube, its gasket and the cap liner. Those are the parts to ask about, naming your alcohol percentage rather than asking whether something is "alcohol resistant".

Essential oils add their own attack

Citrus terpenes and several other common materials are aggressive solvents in their own right, so a natural perfume is working on the fitment from two directions at once.

Test by waiting, with the real formula

Fill, fit, label, then stand one upright and lay one on its side, and look at both at one, three and six months. Every failure here is slow, and none of them shows on the filling day.

Keep a weighed control

A filled, sealed, labeled bottle weighed at intervals tells you whether you are losing alcohol through the closure or the wall. It costs one bottle and it answers a question nothing else will.

References