Parts of a Perfume Bottle – Cap, Actuator, Dip Tube

All 9 parts on the diagram

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A spray bottle 3

Cap The cover that fits over the spray button.
Actuator The button pressed to work the pump; the mist leaves its side.
Dip tube The tube the pump draws perfume up from the bottom.

Older bottles 6

Stopper The plug that closes the neck, with a knob to hold.
Dauber The rod under the stopper, used for applying the perfume.
Neck The narrow part of the bottle that the stopper fits into.
Shoulder The slope between the body of the bottle and its neck.
Atomizer The spray fitting on top; air blown through carries the perfume out.
Bulb A rubber ball; squeezing it blows air through the atomizer.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two independent sources use it. (1) Wikipedia, text only: Spray bottle (the rubber bulb of older spray bottles, the pump and its tube, the perfume atomizer) and Perfume, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_bottle. (2) A United States Environmental Protection Agency report of 1989, Aerosol Industry Success in Reducing CFC Propellant Usage, which describes the finger pump used on colognes and perfumes (actuator, dip tube, overcap, the rubber bulb sprayer), https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41159420_0354. (3) A packaging trade magazine, issues of 1959 and 1961, on spray cologne and perfume packages (actuator, overcap), https://archive.org/details/sim_aerosol-age_1961-11_6_11 and https://archive.org/details/sim_aerosol-age_1959-03_4_3. (4) Collectors' books and price lists read as full-text search passages on the Internet Archive: Czechoslovakian Perfume Bottles and Boudoir Accessories (1999) (stopper, dauber, atomizer), https://archive.org/details/czechoslovakianp0000nort; Perfume and Scent Bottle Collecting (1989) (stopper, dauber), https://archive.org/details/perfumescentbott0000sloa; a bottle price list (1975) (neck, shoulder, stopper), https://archive.org/details/kovelsofficialbo0000kove; Warman's Glass (1999) (neck, shoulder, atomizer), https://archive.org/details/warmansglass0000schr; an antiques price list (1978) (atomizer, bulb), https://archive.org/details/kovelscompletean00ralp. Hints and detail lines are in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's product, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A spray perfume bottle is a glass bottle with a small pump fixed in its neck. This drawing names three parts of one, then six more on two older kinds of bottle.

Read the full guide

A spray bottle, then two older ones

Pressing the actuator works a pump, which draws perfume up the dip tube and forces it out as a mist. A cap covers the actuator. A stoppered bottle is closed by a stopper in its neck; the dauber under the stopper is for applying the perfume. On a bulb atomizer, squeezing the bulb blows air through the fitting on top, and the moving air draws the perfume up and out.

Two sprays: a pump worked by a button, or air from a bulb.
The dip tube and the dauber both reach down into the perfume: one is a hollow tube, the other a solid rod.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a perfume bottle called?

On a spray bottle: the cap, the actuator that is pressed, and the dip tube inside the glass. On a stoppered bottle: the stopper, often with a dauber under it, and the neck and shoulder of the glass.

What is the spray part of a perfume bottle called?

The button is the actuator. It sits on a small pump, which draws perfume up the dip tube from the bottle's bottom and forces it out through a small hole as a mist.

What is the tube inside a perfume bottle called?

The dip tube. It runs from the pump down to the bottom of the bottle, so that the pump can draw the perfume up.

What is the glass rod on a perfume stopper called?

A dauber. It is the rod under the stopper, reaching down into the bottle, and it is used for applying the perfume.

How does a perfume atomizer with a bulb work?

Squeezing the rubber bulb sends air through the fitting on top of the bottle. The fast-moving air draws perfume up from the bottle and carries it out as a spray.