Perfume has become Ridiculously Expensive

[likeamillpond]

A few years ago 30ml bottles were around the £35 - 40 mark and people expected to pay £60 - 70 for a 50ml bottle ,
But now it's difficult to find anything of quality for under £80
And that's for the smallest size.
Now I realise that there's inflation, but surely not this big a jump.
It's pure greed and I won't be buying any mote perfume for myself or presents for family for a long time. I cant afford to any more and i speak as a perfume lover.
Usually I've bought lots from Boots and HoF by now.

They're taking the piss surely?
Are people really willing to fork out over a 100 quid on a small bottle of, lets face it, chemicals
and we can't even test before we buy !

Horrendous. Everything I like is around £150 - I've given up buying any, sadly.

I only wear Opium. You cannot beat a good quality perfume. The cheaper ones just do not last. I managed to get a 100ml bottle of eau de parfum for £80 reduced from £120, that is the best price that I can get it for

Amazon have Calvin Klein Euphoria half price at the moment. £34.95 for 100ml

I like Arabian perfumes. They tend to be quite reasonable and last for ages. Swiss Arabian and Ajmal are my recommendations for brands.

I purchased a 100ml bottle of Tommy Girl in Debenham's for £37 back in August. Haven't worn it for years but still like it. Will certainly do for everyday. My local chemist usually have good offers on good perfumes which may not be my favourites but again ok for everyday. I am currently nearly finished a bottle of Michael Kors Very Hollywood and next in line is a 100ml bottle of Burberry Weekend Eau de Parfum. Purchased both for just over the 20 quid mark. I usually have a more expensive one which I keep for going out somewhere but that might be a thing of the past. Like my current one My Burberry blush and doubt I will be wearing Naughty Alice anytime soon by Vivienne Westwood

@Housewife2010

Sign up to www.escentual.com. They regularly have 20 or 25% off codes. Also Cult Beauty has started selling a limited stock of Frederick Malle so it's worth buying it from there or Liberty when they have free goody bags with a minimum spend.

Thank you for the Cult Beauty tip. They don’t have my favourite but they do have Portrait of a Lady which I also love. I had no idea they stocked Frederic Malle.

VinylDetective
If you spend £160 on Cult Beauty at the moment and use the code 20LUXEGIFT there's a free goody bag. They've just emailed me.

I buy a bunch of makeup online and they send testers for perfume. Free samples definitely are great! They last ages too

I love perfume but I dislike most mainstream perfumes as they are often too sweet and even the classics are pale comparisons to the original versions.

I'd rather buy a cheap perfume or buy some samples of more expensive perfumes e.g. at Les Senteurs.

I love TF perfumes but am out-priced for most of them.

DD found an online perfume place, Essence I think it's called. They make their own perfumes based on the notes of popular expensive fragrances. they have one with the same smell as Black Orchid and I swear you can't tell the difference. It's £20 for 50ML. Plus it lasts all day. Great to shove in your handbag. You can buy samples before you buy the full size. I think it was £18 for 5 and they lasted about a month.

Thanks @Housewife2010, I used to love the Liberty September goodie bags but I ended up with so much Eyko mascara and innumerable Nars lip crayons I got a bit disillusioned!

Excellent

Fewer people covering themselves in chemicals that cause anaphylaxis for innocent bystanders.

Try the Perfume Society discovery boxes. A steal at £20-25 and contain lots of samples of different- usually expensive- perfumes.

I don’t buy full bottles anymore. I love wearing a different sample each day to suit my mood/ activity/ the weather.

Haven’t read the whole thread but has anyone pointed out that a lot of perfume is imported and Sterling has plunged in value in recent years? That plus inflation is the main reason. Prices are going up because the value of the U.K. currency is going down. Simple.

Re perfume prices, you need to understand the ingredients before judging if the price represents good value.

For the Chanel back catalogue I would say they are definitely worth it. They also cannot be easily replicated.

The Jo Malone perfumes are a joke. They have maybe £2 of ingredients in each bottle. So they are mugging their customers off.

There’s a world of difference between a cologne (JM) and perfume extrait.

Some ingredients such as orris and ambergris (whale vomit) which are in high end perfumes and smell beautiful, are incredibly expensive and so the price they charge is justified.

Jo from Jo Malone has sold up and started another business, JoLoves. So if you liked Jo Malone and then went off them, you might want to try her new company. I had a sample of her new fragrance White Roses & Lemon Leaves and it’s gorgeous (and lasts!).

Whether or not a perfume lasts (longevity) or has what is called good sillage (or throw) depends on the perfume family and ingredients. It’s not necessarily a sign of good quality.

A citrus family fragrance with a lot of top notes tends to have poorer longevity than a woody or musky fragrance, for example. An example would be Eau d’Hadrien by Annick Goutal (citrus, doesn’t last too long costs £80) versus Next Cashmere (lasts ages and only costs about £5). But the Goutal is more interesting and complex, the price is justified. Whereas the Next perfume is lovely but very simple and not very interesting. So you’re paying for the skill of the parfumer in that example, not longevity or sillage

I have another thought on why the price has gone up so much: throughout the world in 2020 there have been very few people travelling internationally or domestically whether for business, holidays for to visit family and friends.

Who hasn’t purchased a fragrance at a Duty Free shop, or purchased a new one for an event such as for a wedding, a concert/sporting/arts event, to maybe dab on for a date or (just a little) at an interview or to give as a gift at a significant birthday party?

So many things have been cancelled or curtailed in 2020 and I guess fragrance sales have plummeted. Perhaps the retailers or manufacturers are trying to recoup some of the income they’ve lost from sales by increasing the prices for their ‘luxury’ products?

I found a really good website for perfumes called Scentsational. Cheap and they turned up quick

My lovely DH started weirdly complimenting my deodorant for a few weeks, until I broke and asked him what was going on. Turns out he saw me putting a few splashes of Coco Mademoiselle on before bed, and remembered how much he paid for it

It seems much more expensive in the UK than in the Middle East though, I only do a little Next haul when we visit. With so many dupes and decent fakes flooding the market, I hope the prices slow down soon.

Can definitely recommend the FM dupes, I have quite a few and they are lovely and very long lasting. Also like avons perfume, favourites at the minute are the eve ones and today

Does anyone know the average ml of a single squirt?

@TheWeightOfWords I would say 1/10 of 1ml per squirt. That is based on a 1ml vial lasting me about 3 days. 2ml lasting a good week.

It does depend on the spray and how generous it is. All the parfum content.

If it’s Jo Malone a lot less! If Chanel extrait a small sample lasts a few weeks as you just need a smidgeon. But it’s incredibly expensive and a dabbed not spray.

*also the parfum content that should say

I prefer Perfume Parlour over FM.

Cheaper and a better range of niche perfumes at PP. The names can be difficult to decipher... the Chanel dupes are super randomly named