I procured two, one liter bottles of "Acetone" from two different chemical companies in preparation for my Salvia extractions. Upon opening the bottles I could have sworn they sent me Isopropyl Alcohol under the guise of Acetone. I was wondering if anyone experienced with Acetone could tell me if Acetone smells similar to Iso. Or did I get screwed.

So both companies made the mistake of sending you isopropanol instead of acetone? Wouldn't that be weird? IPA and acetone both have distinct smells and can be told apart just by whiffing, but in any case, I would try to to apply your suspect acetone/IPA to some plastic that can be harmed by acetone but not IPA.

I remember that acetone readily damages styrofoam (you can even find videos on the internet, whereas IPA does so less readily. Acetone will also readily dissolve cellulose acetate (cigarette filters) whereas IPA may not dissolve it as quickly or it may not dissolve it at all.

Smelling acetone up close is like getting punched in the nose. Any nail varnish remover around? It should smell the same.

I thought the same thing but I figured I'd ask someone with experience.


Great advice. The cig filter turned into a pool in a matter of seconds. Guess it is acetone.

Unfortunately my wife just switched to acetone free nail polish remover.

There you have it, good luck with the extraction