Expensive vinted mistake

[Mamma272]

I bought a secondhand jacket for £150. It arrived and smells of perfume which I hate! I’ve washed it and it still smells.

I’ve been through this once before - I bought a charity shop jacket and found it reeked when I got home I couldn’t tolerate the smell of it. I tried so many remedies including gallons of white vinegar and even vodka! I also stored with activated charcoal and that didn’t work. I ended up spending more than the cost of the jacket and eventually returned it.

This is by far the most I’ve ever spent on clothes on vinted - I usually buy bundles of baby things that are always clean!

Do I have ground to return it? Give a 1* review? I don’t know if I have the energy to try all the remedies again and as it’s cold it’s going to take longer to dry and limit how often I can have a go.

OP has washed the coat so can't return it, as it isn't in the condition that it was when she got it. She'll just have to suck it up.

Is the smell Febreze or somesuch? It is really pungent, makes me feel sick and nothing gets rid of the smell. I believe in caveat emptor, but if is aggravating if a seller trumpets that it’s only been worn once yada yada, and then when you open the parcel it’s darned obvious it’s come from a charity shop.

I now examine the vendor’s other items to make sure they’re all the same size/type, otherwise I suspect they’re re-selling charity shop items which are likely to stink.

If you could post a description of the coat and its construction / features, as well as the info on the care label, then we can probably offer some advice. Better still if you're happy to post a photo of it.

In the meantime as it is an outdoor coat I would hang it somewhere outdoors for several days at minimum. Fresh air and UV light (even through cloud) are the best sanitisers and deodorisers.

Weird reply, smells don’t always wash out! Perfume can fix into clothes. Sunlight, chemicals can help to break it down but not always. There’s an ocean of remedies available to buy because laundry detergent don’t always work.

So rude as well. Why did you bother posting.

I haven’t any practical advice, but I wonder if you’re particularly sensitive to smells. If someone wearing perfume hugs me, I can smell the perfume for hours afterwards on my clothes. And it makes me feel nauseous. There are very few perfumes I can stand, but I especially hate the ones that I have no choice in, ie transferred by unsolicited hugs😅 I think the problem with a used jacket is that whoever owned it probably only washed it once in a blue moon (as you do with jackets) and the smell of perfume would be continuously transferred onto it every time the person wore it. If the smell didn’t come out, I’m afraid it would be £150 down the drain for me as I couldn’t live with it.

How on earth can it still smell after you've washed it?!

Oh it can definitely still smell after being washed. I've had a couple of things I bought from Vinted that smelled of cigarette smoke. Fortunately not expensive items. After washing them they initially smelt ok but when I ironed them the smell came back. Presume the heat from the iron releases it. I had to wash them another couple of times to get rid of it properly.

Isn’t febreeze a fresher smell? I would have been fooled into thinking it was laundry detergent if it was. I’m sure this is perfume. It’s not the kind of jacket you would find at a charity shop.

So no British designer uses polyester?
What a ridiculous comment

I think it is lovely to go secondhand rather than supporting a waste fashion culture.

I once had some super smelly clothing that did not respond to the things we usually try. I was able to hang it outside under the porch, where it was protected from the sun and rain and it took ages to clear. but it did.

If it’s polyester you can soak it. Wait til the spring, soak it overnight in cold water with biological liquid if the label allows, and then hang it out for a couple of days in fresh air.

My sympathies OP. I am also very sensitive to perfume smells (although I wear it myself) and have had some humdingers with Vinted purchases! HG make an odour eliminator spray that you can buy on Vinted and I have had some success with that. It is true though that some fabrics seem to absorb perfume and the smell never truly comes out. I find though that it tends to be cotton or natural fibres and things that are worn close to the body so hopefully a polyester coat will have fewer odour retention properties!

Yes I think it’s having to wear unsolicited smells - I quite like smelling perfume on other people. But I hate it when it clings to me. When I learned to drive the instructor had the strongest after shave, it clung to my clothes. I could tolerate it in the car but I didn’t want to smell it otherwise, I had to wash my clothes after every lesson. 🙄

I once bought a kids rainproof all in one from Vinted and when it arrived it absolutely stank of fish, it was revolting. I washed it and it made little difference. I stuck it on the washing line and left it there for a week. Eventually it stopped smelling, but it took a while.

Getting fragrance out of clothes | Mumsnet

£150 for a secondhand polyester coat with "special features"...? What on earth are the special features??

I buy most of my clothes secondhand - almost exclusively charity shops - and they have a distinctive smell. But it's nothing that a run through the machine on a 60C wash won't fix.

I'd say that if you're really that sensitive to smells, then probably secondhand shopping probably isn't for you.

TBH, perfume smells don't last forever. Do you have a garage or shed you could hang it in for a couple of days? Or a spare room where you could close the doors and open the windows?

Sympathies OP, as a wheelchair user with dystonia my little boy is getting to the age where high street coats and jackets no longer work for us and adapted coats are eye-wateringly expensive even secondhand. If all else fails spraying with vodka then washing might work might work.

I think smells can really cling to polyester.

If you cannot get it out, could you resell it and recoup your £?

Did you try ammonia on the previous coat, OP? Obviously check it's ok to use first but I think it would be fine on polyester. There's good advice on the laundry reddit (r/laundry) about getting smells out of clothes and you can order ammonia on amazon for about £6. The instructions normally say to pour a small amount onto the clothes once they are in the machine, obviously it stinks but just close the door and get the lid back on the bottle quickly! Appreciate it's very annoying to spend extra money on trying to sort the problem though. There's also a method called spa day which is more intensive but I would make sure neither of these would be a problem for any waterproofing or the other specialist features you mention first.

I have tried loads of laundry remedies and advice from here over the years and also prefer to be eco conscious but it wasn't until I started using techniques from kismaiaesthetics on that laundry reddit that I ever had any success, now I've saved loads of things. I don't like using things like ammonia but I do if it saves things from the bin because I think the chemicals and other environmental effects of producing something new outweigh it.

It’s part of buying things secondhand I’m afraid, sometimes they smell strongly of the previous wearer or their home. Kind of just a risk you take.

Oh yes, I tried ammonia too! Think I used up the bottle but I could get another. Thanks. I think I used that Mn thread last time but I’ll revisit.

Just resell it if you can’t get the smell out. You paid £150, someone else might do as well! Don’t despair!

OP has explained it's an outdoor coat - they can have all kinds of special features if you are prepared to spend the money - and they are usually made of non-natural fabrics so they are more waterproof, don't get heavy when they are wet and dry quickly. Things like triple layers, taped seams, multiple pockets, double hoods, hand warmers - coats designed for hiking, climbing etc. - decent ones are £££ and very different from a £60 one you'd find in Mountain Warehouse.

That happened to me and way I solved it is haging the item out on open air (garden) for like a week. Once i put it back inside the closet all weird smells were gone and it smelled nice and fresh. Make sure item is placed in a windy spot. Obvs I did this during the summer.

Is it definitely 100% polyester as plastic fibres doesn't absorb smells?

Can you post a picture of the washing label?