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 !

@blueskies any good dupes of chanel no5? Thanks in advance

Zara perfumes are great, especially Gardenia which is extremely similar to YSL Black Opium.

I also got Lidl's dupe for J'adore when they were out around Valentine's Day. Smells just like it and lasts pretty well too.

Can't justify the crazy prices for the designer ones at the moment.

Totally agree, OP. I went to replace my bottle of Ormonde Jayne Frangipani, and nearly keeled over at the price.

Decided I can live without it.

My eldest wanted to buy his gf the one where the ad goes "Daisy, Daisy, Daisy Daisy" and the price made me stress-laugh.

Do I get the tiniest miniature bottle possible or try to replicate the smell? Or is it all about the name brand and the bottle?

I collect perfumes and am prepared to pay a lot if it's something I've been looking for (I collect vintage more than anything)
That said my Yardley Jade at £7.99 is just as much a favourite as the ones I paid much much more for.

The high end perfume houses are known to spend millions on advertising and I read that a bottle of EDT will cost about 5p out of the massive budget each perfume is allocated.

Others bung an 80% water cologne into fancy black and white boxes and stick a three figure price tag onto something Superdrug replicates identically for £4.99 (hint: put these 3 words into any order and you'll find every perfume maker in existence does a version, you can choose your price point- lime, basil, mandarin.)

@IEatSoap

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

Perfume parlour dupe of Opium is more like the original 1980s version than the modern reformulations. I have both and the "real" thing is ever so slightly sweeter.

@LakieLady

This is going to make me sound really snooty, but I'm convinced that they use an ingredient in cheaper perfumes that smells awful on me.

Whenever I've tried a dupe or cheaper alternative, they start to smell sort of chemical and slightly acrid, and some start to smell even worse, like a tomcat's just pissed on me.

I've also had to abandon some of my old favourites because they've changed the formulation and they smell fake on me (Vent Vert, for example, smells nothing like it used to on me).

Some perfumes have always smelt weird on me (when Rive Gauche was all the rage, I was gutted I couldn't wear it because I loved it on other people, but on me it smelt remarkably like a milder version of the chemical smell emitted by the dyeworks near where I grew up).

So I'll be sticking with my Mitsouko, Dioressence and Amarige, and just use it less often.

Vent Vert has been reformulated beyond recognition. My best ever eBay find was a sealed and still in cellophane bottle from the 1970s before all the silly velvet bows and dotty bottles came in. it's sublime.

Dioressence was also reformed but hasn't changed totally. It's still recognisably itself, but the oskmoss legislation affected it big time. Diorella may as well be a completely different perfume on the other hand.

@formerbabe

I'd love to know the mark up on perfume...it must be huge. I used to have nice perfumes pre dc but I cannot justify those prices anymore. Next, Zara and M&S all do really nice perfumes. Lidl this week has lots of perfumes for about a fiver...some were quite nice.

The mark up is about 95% for the big sellers. The "niche" houses - product costs the same but they don't wazz as much on advertising.

@PrincessNutNuts this is the cheapest I can find it, free gift box and if you go via Quidco it's 3% cash back
https://www.boots.com/marc-jacobs-daisy-30ml-10275500?cmmmc=bmm-buk-google-ppcPLAs(GB:Whoop!)+Marc+Jacobs--(GB:Whoop!)+Boots+Shopping+-+Category+-+Fragrance+-+Mobile&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2-GcI7G7QIVp-jtCh1qcAxEAUYASABEgKHmfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I only use good perfume and know the brands I like (Frederic Malle, Killian, etc.). So what I do is get some samples off ebay, try them, choose the one(s) I want to buy and then buy the full size on ebay too. I spent £90 and £105 in the past year on two 100 ml bottles. They would cost between £190-220 each if bought in the proper shop.

@MandalaYogaTapestry have you tried the perfume society discovery boxes?

As PP have pointed out, the weakness of sterling against the Euro has caused some of the price increases.

Not all, though. Some of it is the big perfume houses being chancers. No flipping way am I paying £112 in a department store for 100 ml of Dior Addict when it’s been reformulated several times and smells nowhere near as nice as it did twelve years ago.

@BlueSkies2020, no never heard of them! What are they like, do you use them?

[quote Fortunefavours1]@blueskies any good dupes of chanel no5? Thanks in advance[/quote]
A fake Canel could never ever smell like the real thing.
I don't understand people wanting fake anything.
I'd rather go without.
But each to their own.

I adore perfumes and seem to favour the really pricey ones!
I save for them or ask for them as birthday gifts from dh. I am really not keen on dupes and they always smell wrong to me.

I wear perfume every day and it is really important to me, I have zero interest in designer bags / clothes etc but I do love a good, well made perfume.

I currently have Tom Ford x 3, Creed, Acqua di Parma, Santa Maria Noevlla and Le Labo in my collection and I alternate them depending on mood and occasion.

I will keep on buying them I reckon....I love nothing more than an afternoon somewhere like Liberty researching all the gorgeous perfumes.

Yardley let Green Jade is a dupe of Chanel Cristalle.

Frangrantica website can give you a steer on dupes, just look up a review of the one you like and others in the same vein get a mention.

Good value perfumes - Floral Street, Shay and Blue, and Zara.

I heard once that the testers in the shops had a stronger version of the stuff the customer bought in the bottle, and it was why it often smells different or doesn't last as long as the spritz in the shop.

I like body oil as a perfume.

It’s cheaper and lasts all day and keeps skin silky smooth. I use Elemis Frangipani monoi.

@Melange99

Yardley let Green Jade is a dupe of Chanel Cristalle.

Frangrantica website can give you a steer on dupes, just look up a review of the one you like and others in the same vein get a mention.

Good value perfumes - Floral Street, Shay and Blue, and Zara.

I heard once that the testers in the shops had a stronger version of the stuff the customer bought in the bottle, and it was why it often smells different or doesn't last as long as the spritz in the shop.

Jade is indeed a brilliant dupe of Cristalle. One of dd's faves, which I always say "oh, what is that?" is a Zara one.

Perfume is very personal, and to diss someone else's tastes by saying that only the perfume you like is a good one is nonsensical. There's no such thing as a "good" perfume compared to a "bad" one. Unless you're equating "good" with "expensive". Which would be silly. The dupes cost less because they don't pay actresses squillions to walk through water muttering in French or have Johnny Depp digging things up in the desert. That's all.

Coty L'Aimant is very similar to vintage Chanel 5. Both were developed around the same time and argument in perfumista circles abounds as to which, if either, is the copy.

Oh wow thanks! Will check that out

[quote QueenPaws]@PrincessNutNuts this is the cheapest I can find it, free gift box and if you go via Quidco it's 3% cash back
https://www.boots.com/marc-jacobs-daisy-30ml-10275500?cmmmc=bmm-buk-google-ppcPLAs(GB:Whoop!)+Marc+Jacobs--(GB:Whoop!)+Boots+Shopping+-+Category+-+Fragrance+-+Mobile&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2-GcI7G7QIVp-jtCh1qcAxEAUYASABEgKHmfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds[/quote]
That's very kind of you lovely. Thank you ever so much.

@caperplips

I adore perfumes and seem to favour the really pricey ones! I save for them or ask for them as birthday gifts from dh. I am really not keen on dupes and they always smell wrong to me.

I wear perfume every day and it is really important to me, I have zero interest in designer bags / clothes etc but I do love a good, well made perfume.

I currently have Tom Ford x 3, Creed, Acqua di Parma, Santa Maria Noevlla and Le Labo in my collection and I alternate them depending on mood and occasion.

I will keep on buying them I reckon....I love nothing more than an afternoon somewhere like Liberty researching all the gorgeous perfumes.

Which Acqua di Parma do you have? In these times of not being able to test perfume, it's good to have some recmendaruins!

some recommendations

Perfume is very personal, and to diss someone else's tastes by saying that only the perfume you like is a good one is nonsensical.

It certainly is. I love some high end perfumes but some of them are awful, I was nearly sick on my shoes when I smelt Bandit, which costs £££. One of my favourites is Cabochard which is as cheap as chips.

@TheSilentStars ooh my DM wears Coty Lamaint and it does smell similarly to Chanel No. 5

'Designer' perfume is a total con these days, I don't know why anyone would fork out the ridiculous prices when you can get such good dupes now. Just Pink from Next smells exactly like Ralph Lauren Romance and is a fraction of the price. And Perfume Parlour dupes are excellent as well.

As an aside, I have never really liked the fragrances from 'proper' perfume places. I got some 4160 Tuesdays samples and a couple of them were nice, but a lot of them just really weren't for me, they were too 'niche'. Same with Frédéric Malle etc I always wanted to be a perfume connoisseur and be really into proper sophisticated perfume but it's not meant to be for me.

Give me Marc Jacobs Oh Lola any day!