As an experiment to see if partly full bottles of aftershave and cologne can be extended using scentless alcohol without diluting the fragrance, I added vodka to three undesirable, part full bottles I have laying around. Topping off the three went like this: A late '60s woman's Avon cologne clouded up and became totally opaque; it's remained just that way for hours now and probably will be so permanently. A '50s era a/s got a little cloudy, but just barely...it's negligible. A more recent item (Dollar General O.S. ripoff, decanted into a clear bottle) showed no change at all. The good news/important thing is the fragrance of each was not altered nor, to my nose, noticeably reduced or watered down at all. So all in all, it's a success. My question: I know vodka isn't exactly SD alcohol and I'm assuming the water content in the vodka is the culprit in turning one of them cloudy. What I don't get is why that one would cloud up at all and others not, as (again, I'm assuming here) the essential content of each is the same; i.e., alcohol with at least some degree of water to begin with. Any hypotheses? PS Next time: Everclear, if I can find it.
I am not a chemistry dweeb but... Vodka has tons of sugar and possibly other flavorins. Matters upon which ones etc. Also the different type of alcohol. I don't know why it would go cloudy though... Just some thoughts probably wrong but never know
Interesting idea...I don't drink (well, beer, but not even I would mix that with a/s) so I dunno. It occurs to me that perhaps the alcohol interacted with some fragrance component in the woman's cologne that is absent from the other two...hmm...
I'm not a chemistry expert either but I would have to agree with this simply because if you mix sugar and water into absinthe (another drinking liqueur) the same thing happens the drink becomes cloudy and the color changes slightly. That's just my 0.0000000000000000002 cents
It's got nothing to do with sugar. Vodka is 40/60 alcohol in water (approximately), and the old avon stuff is probably 100% alcohol and oil. Oil doesn't dissolve in water, so what you've really done is you've reduced the potential of the solution to "hold" the essential oils, perfumes, and carrier oils. The oily bits that the alcohol mixture no longer has the capacity to hold come out of solution and float around as microscopic bubbles, making the solution seem cloudy. Absinthe gets cloudy just from adding water.
np. If i am right for once with chemistry it will be good. I changed out of it in highschool to physics. Anyways hope that solves your issue. I don't get how it would lower the carrying levels of the oils though... To me it makes sense that the container has 1 liter of alcohol and 1 liter of oil (this is horribly off) and you add in 1 more liter of alcohol and 1 liter of water... I dont see how that would make the solubility levels drop. That is why I think it is either a reaction with the sugars or additives in the alcohol. or just the addition of a diffrent type of alcohol. I am just saying what I am thinking i could be backwards though. :ashamed001
I'm a Chemical Engineer in my day job and think I know what's going on. The scents all start with different amounts of oils dissolved in water. When you add vodka, you change the composition of the solution into which the oils are dissolved such that you can have lower solubility (the solution holds less oil). Depending on how much oil was in the solution to start and how soluble those oils are in the starting and final solutes, you may see some oil drop out of solution. Since you likely gave the bottles a shake to mix them, you added agitation to the equation and formed an oil in water emulsion in the two that became cloudy. While it's too complex to say with 100% certainty, the way aberneth described it is the most likely case.
You and you fancy chemistry vocabulary :angry019 When I have to etch an STM tip in the lab, I put the tungsten wire in the glass thingy and add that white powder and that stuff in the bottle that say "D I" and flip the switch on the variac. No wonder the chemistry department hates us.
