The first thing I did after installing NV was pasting the Project Beauty Textures(and erm... the ArchiveInvalidation.bsa) to the New Vegas folder. Worked as a charm.

I tried it before but it didn't work then, so I assumed there was something different in New Vegas. Like how I can't get Skykappa's http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/images/12978-3-1275916868.jpg to work. In that case the textures were replaced, but the mesh wasn't unless I created a plugin.
But I guess it was the archive invalidation thing. I'm going to try the water bottles again now too...
Edit: Nope, still doesn't work. Too bad.