You can open a perfume bottle with pliers, a travel perfume bottle, and scissors. Alternatively, you can open it with an oyster knife only.
It was when I dropped my discontinued Dior Homme Parfum bottle that I started to worry I had no clue how to remove the atomizer and save the juice from the cracked bottle.
I quickly when to the garage where I grabbed what proved to be the tool for the job. An oyster knife what was helped me remove the atomizer.
This is how to open a perfume bottle with an oyster knife
My old oyster knife proved the best tool for the job. It has a short thick blade and a large handle which takes a lot of pressure. Since the top of the Dior perfume bottle is square, I started pushing the type of knife under the cape while also pressing the bottom of the blade on the edge of the bottle.
I continued doing this movement while rotating the bottle. It’s how I managed to remove the atomized completely and to pour the perfume into another travel-friendly perfume bottle I had at home.
While I don’t have any pictures of the process, the following video sums up my efforts as it seems others have used similar tools (albeit it looks more of a hybrid than an oyster knife for the job).
This is how you open a perfume bottle with pliers and scissors
Since then, I began researching other techniques that could have proven better, to avoid such situations in the future. It turns out virtually nobody was using my method and most people choose the pliers alternative. This is how you can use this method as well.
Remove the nozzle
After removing the cap, you simply pull the nozzle out of the atomizer. You can do this by holding the bottle with your left hand while pulling the nozzle with the right hand.
Loosen and cut the plastic on the bottleneck
You can use scissors or a small knife to remove the plastic protecting the bottleneck. Be careful not to cut yourself here. Those looking how to open a bottle of perfume are usually stuck at this stage, but the job is halfway done.
Loosen the metal on the bottleneck
You’ll need to remove the plastic encasing on the bottle next. This can be done with thin scissors or any thin-blade knife. You would start with one section around the bottleneck moving around 360-degrees around the bottle to loosen the plastic encasing which often seems thermally-molded.
You need to continue slowly inserting the metal blade of the scissors under the metal bottleneck to loosen it and remove it completely.
Remove the metal on the bottleneck with pliers
Standard pliers or lineman pliers can be used to remove the metal piece on the neck of the bottle gently. Please make sure not to put too much pressure on the pliers. Most of my friends cracked the bottleneck with pliers when trying this method.
This is the main reason I recommend the first method using the oyster knife first, as the risk of damaging the bottle is reduced. If you struggle to open it with such a small knife, you can proceed to the method with scissors and pliers.
Saving my Dior Homme Parfum
Now that you know how to open a perfume bottle, you can learn how I saved the precious discontinued juice. Those who want to know how to open a perfume spray bottle might not need to open it at all if they invest in such a bottle.
First, you remove the nozzle. Then, you align the bottom of the travel bottle with the nozzle and you start pressing down as you’d spray the perfume on your skin. You continue doing this until the perfume from the bottle is completely transferred to the travel bottle.
I’d recommend owning at least one travel perfume bottle as a fragrance collector to avoid having to run for scissors in case you drop your bottle as I did.
Conclusion
Nobody teaches you how to open a perfume bottle when you spend hundreds of dollars on the juice. They just assume you won’t drop it. But in my case, I always get excited when putting my hands on Homme Parfum and as a result, I might knock it over in the future as well.
As a result, an oyster knife and a perfume travel bottle are always close to my perfumes.
Note: a regular travel bottle perfume on Notino or Amazon is about 5 to 15ml. You may need more bottles to save the whole juice.