Model minces about holding case of perfume (8)
I believe the answer is:
specimen
'model' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'minces about holding case of perfume' is the wordplay.
'about' is an anagram indicator.
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'case of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (outsides of).
'perfume' with its centre removed is 'pe'.
'minces' is an anagram of 'scimen'.
'scimen' placed around 'pe' is 'SPECIMEN'.
(Other definitions for specimen that I've seen before include "Part taken as example of whole or class" , "Sample to be studied" , "blood sample" , "Typical example - sample" , "Person critically" .)