got it :-) Lucy

Thanks for the tips mate, it seemly simple to remove a bottle label for now.

Best way I've found is oxiclean - add a scoop or two to really hot water in a bowl, add bottles, and let set. I usually forget about it and wind up leaving for a day or two, but the labels usually float to the surface at some point. If not, they always peel off nicely. If there's any residue, it scrubs off easily. Just don't let the bottles dry before removing labels, or you're back in the same spot you were originally... As a bonus, I had burned something in a stainless steel bowl and the resulting soot or whatever wasn't scrubbing off, and figuring the bowl was already ugly, I used it for the first oxyclean-label-removing experiment and it cleaned the bowl too! Also, the solution seems to be more-or-less reusable; if you have a bunch of bottles, you can put a few in the bowl, remove labels, and put a few more into the same bowl and solution.

My technique is to boil water and pour into the bottles (I originally thought I would need to soak in boiling water but surprisingly the "just pour in" technique works). Then wait like 1/2 hour to cool down, just long enough so you can touch it. If you're lucky the labels will peel off. If not, you might have to then use some kind of combination of googone and scraping with a razor blade. But I've had pretty good luck peeling on the pretty blue bottles.