Yuk! My lovley new perfume bought yesterday has GONE OFF help!

[Katiekitty]

Whatever can I do?

I treated myself to a bottle of my favourite perfume from John lewis yesterday, sprayed it on this morning and it smells absolutely rank!

How can this be? It's a scent I've loved for about five years, so I know how it should smell - of roses and lovely things - however, I'm now sat here at work smelling like a musty shed.

As soon as I sprayed it, I thought, hello: something's wrong...

Where would I stand on returning it? Will they say there's nothing they can do? How can a brand new bottle smell so bad? How can it have gone off?

How can I get the smell off me?!

Help!

Are you pregnant?
Both times, one of the first signs was that my perfume suddenly smelt disgusting to me

Absolutely return it. I can't imagine you'll have any trouble at all getting an exchange or refund from JL.

My perfume smelt awful to me when I was pregnant - is anyone else giving you strange looks or is it just you who thinks it smells strange?

I once took a mascara back to John Lewis and it wasn't even slightly a problem.

Thank you all for your speedy replies!

Yep, still got the receipt!

So far, it's just me that thinks it's smelling bad but I am avoiding getting up close to anyone as I smell like wet dog...

And - absolutely no chance in the world that I'm pregnant (sadly!) I didn't know that could be a symptom though!

How can it be that a brand new bottle of perfume can have gone off though?

If I return it and exchange it for another bottle of the same - will they be from the same batch? What if there's a dodgy batch of it all?

If it has got very warm it could have gone off or it could just be a batch that their quality control has not spotted is up to scratch?

What perfume is it out of interest as I am off to JL in an hour or so to buy perfume?!!

It's Agent Provocateur - the one in the pink bottle. Which perfume are you after Neena?

YOu could just open it at the time of purchase and have a sniff I suppose. Maybe barcode or batch number on the box or label may be different to denote different batches?

Try lots of soap and water on you wrists and neck in the loo but if you have sprayed your clothes you may just have to smell weird for the day!! Not a lot of help that!

And yes everything smelt weird to me when I was pregnant. My taste for food, smells and interior decorating became very odd!

New prada orange one. Have been debating it for ages as I ought to save the money but I adore the Iris one and wear it everyday and the orange one is similarily beautiful to me and is also limited edition so I think i am going to take the plunge! I have put aside some money to treat myself as have been feeling really crap and have debated a massage or item of clothing etc. I figure though clothes are only worn a few times a week and a massage while lovely is over in an hour. But perfume I can enjoy everyday for ages.

My friend wears the agent perfume too and it is lovely on her.

Ooh - I've been thinking about the prada orange one. I need to get a good sniff of it though. They've got a candle too....

OP - take it back. I once bought cleansing milk that turned out to be curdled! It was disgusting. they took it back and exchanged it quite happily - bear in mind that if there's a problem with the product I don't think JL will be reimbursing you, I think they send it back to the factory and it becomes their problem.

I think there is an offer at the mo that you either get a little sample of the iris perfume or a little (tiny) iris candle if you but any prada perfume. So am hoping that increases the pleasure!

The perfume is now warming into a musty woolly jumper on a radiator aroma on me! Yikes! I'm thinking that I'll take it back to JL, get them to smell it too - as it's almost unrecognisable from how it should smell - and see what they say.

I'll go for an exchange and put it to the test - if that bottle is rank too, then I don't know what I'll do! Gah!

Thank you all for advice

I've cunningly invented an opportunity for myself to nip home at lunchtime (I live about 15 mins from work) so the plan is for me to pop home, get the offending brew, then take it back to John Lewis later on. I've got the sort of job that lets me do this sort of faffing about...

Will also show willing by taking the gift with purchase back too, just in case something goes wrong.

Will report back my findings

Can I hijack? My perfume has gone all alcohol-y, but think it has happened slowly over time as it seems to smell of alcohol for longer and longer when put on, to the point where it hasn't worn off today-is it a gonner? I'm only half way through the bottle, and it's really good stuff, gah! Am worried I've been really stinky for ages and not realised!

Paws - how have you been storing your perfume? And how long have you had it?

And, just being nosey - which one is it?

I have it in it's box on my dresser (which is on the shady side of the house, so no direct sunlight, but it may still be getting a bit of light, so am thinking it needs to be in a drawer from now on, or the new one will anyway!). Have had it 8 months, and it is a Lanvin one, so wasn't cheap-think I paid about £65 for it! Grr to my stupidity of leaving it on the dresser!

Update!

Just nipped home, got the perfume, then headed back into town and to John Lewis...

Mixed blessings occured, I'm quie surprised actually.

I found the person who took the sale yesterday and explained that I'd put some of the perfume on and immediately noticed it smelled 'off'. I explained that I've been wearing this perfume for several years on and off and that yesterday, I had some on from my purse spray, so I knew how it should smell on me.

She sprayed some on a tester strip and compared it with the shop sample bottle. Her verdict was that there was no difference. She got a colleague to sample the two but they didn't really say either way if they could smell any difference.

So, she goes on the phone to their customer service department at head office and goes behind the scenes for a while... she emerges and says I have to 'parcel up' my bottle and post it down to head office in London and if they think it's 'off' they'll send me a new bottle. I'm a little disappointed at this because it's going to cost me a bit of money to post it off etc.

She reminds me that she can't detect anything wrong with it. I feel like a big phoney at this point! Even though I can still smell it on me all musty and bad!

I ask if she can exchange it in store and begrudgingly she agrees to. Surprisingly she adds that it's a fragrance that 'doesn't smell very nice anyway'! I am not making that up! She said it!

SO, she exchanged it for me, unavoidably, it's from from the same delivery batch, so I really hope it's ok. Good grief!

How should we store perfume then? Mine is usually on the kitchen work top ready for a quick squirt before i run out the door, its not in direct sunlight, but i don't keep it in the box either. I bought a cheap next one a couple of months ago, at the time i thought it was lovely for a cheapie, but the last few days i thought it had changed, i've binned it now, i think quite a few of my perfumes must go off, the same happened to my chanel allure one, but the other day i got given a sample and thought it was lovely.

If i just keep it in the box on the side, will that make it last longer?