Question from Mary A.
I just purchased a beautiful handmade pottery mug online. Unfortunately, It has a strong smell of perfume and also of smoke!.. The artist says she stores her materials in her laundry room …hence the perfume smell, and smokes in the garage where some items are stored. She will take the item as a return, however, I would love to keep it if I can ‘deodorize’ it . Any suggestions? also, even if the odor itself is gone, could the substance still be there for me when I drink hot tea in it ? thanks for your input!
Debra’s Answer
Well, this is the first I’ve heard of this! I would just return the mug and find another one you like.
Synthetic perfume and cigarettes — Yuck! Unglazed ceramics can be porous. If the interior of the mug is rough textured that might make it more porous as well, since the glaze will be of varying thickness. If you don’t want to return it, I’d try immersing the mug in simmering water with dish detergent for 15-30 minutes and see if that cleans it up. (Be sure to ventilate the fumes coming out of the pot.)
Synthetic fragrance materials can be super persistant, especially the dirt cheap ones used in laundry products.
There’s a spray on product I use called “Dead Down Wind” that neutralizes the strongest synthetic perfume odors in 2 days to 3 weeks. It’s sold for hunters to apply to their equipment. I don’t know how safe it is, but I tolerate it well. I am moderately sensitive to toxics in general and wildly sensitive to synth fragrance.