Budget perfumes or copies ...what are your favourites.

[Dowser]

I’ve bought a couple budget ones in Tenerife as I’ve wanted to try something different yet a lot of the more expensive ones , I’m talking €40 or more , I don’t like. By the time I’ve sniffed 3 or 4 my nose has gone and I don’t want to splurge in case I get it home and am disappointed. Or I buy tried and tested hermes ones like verte orange, caleche etc
So,
I thought I’d try a few cheaper ones.
I tried Springfield love green at €17_99 which seemed quite a nice fresh smell.
I seem to go more for fresh citrusy ones.

I bought some hortensia h cyprum which I rather liked and that was €11 which is a bit heavier but not sweet
Azure de Puig..was about €7
Luz de flor .serena about €6

I’d also like someone to talk to me about these PP perfumes
Is that Perfume Parlour?

I have just bought the Milton Lloyd perfume 'stars' after a recommendation on MN, it's a cheap copy of Thierry Mugler's Alien. Close enough, anyway!

It was around £5 on eBay!

I have about 30 PPs. You can get either oils which are roll ons, or sprays and they come in various sizes. I prefer the sprays and get the 13ml to try. They are a fiver.

Big hits for me are:
Opium (pp version is more like vintage Opium, and I'll never buy 'proper' Opium again)
Prada Infusions d'Iris - have the biggest bottle of this
Rive Gauche - like the Opium it's better than the real thing IMO
Samsara
Sahara Noir
Black Orchid
Paloma Picasso
24 Faubourg

All fabulous.

I have a few Jo Malone dupes too. Wood sage and sea salt is good. Not overly fussed about the others but that's because I'm not that keen on JMs.

Yardley Jade meanwhile is similar to, but nicer than Chanel Cristalle. I love this.

Superdrug 'Bloom' range is also a JM dupe range. The basil lime mandarin is lovely.

Byblos Cielo is a deadringer for Angel.

Just bought Joop edt 75ml for £20 in Superdrug for me.

Got loads of compliments!

If you like citrus try this www.thefragranceshop.co.uk/subbrands/mary-greenwell-lemon-4793.aspx

Just bought a few from perfume parlour so will report back. Wood sage is one of them so pleased that's a good one.

Awww thank you all so much.
I was a bit daunted by the very long perfume thread. I didn’t know where to start.
Can you only get PP online or is there anywhere you can try them.
I also find that a lot of perfume shops out here like fund grube , perfumeria lis etc look like they have exciting offers but when you look online in the uk sometimes you’re only saving one or two pounds.
Hardly worth carting them back for.

Ah, do pop over to the long thread. We all started somewhere and everyone's very nice

You mentioned not wanting to splurge in case a pricey perfume disappoints- have you thought about samples? There are some good sites like Bloom Perfumery and Notino that sell 1-2ml sample vials so you can try something out properly without having to go all in and buy the full bottle.

I think PP is online only but for the price of one "normal" big bottle you can get a good selection of the small sprays to see what you like.

Thank you for some excellent advice tarnished glitter

If anyone is in the north east Boyes stores have Yardley perfumes 2 for a tenner.
Is there a Sephora near you? Their co ordinated own brand range (shower gel, lotion body sprays) are quite nice and fresh.

Are they still the original yardley recipes.
I live near a blues...am away from home at the moment but I’m sure they’ll have some left.
Which are your favourites
I liked yardley lavender.
I can’t remeber the others.

Probably not yardley but my mums favourite soap was French fern
I’ll have to google to see who made that
Id buy some for her every mother’s day as a child with my pocket money, and she would save it till our holiday in May and take it with her.

They were such simple times then...argh ..nostalgia.

Morny...that was it.

L’occitane do some nice perfumes and they are quite cheap. I love their roll on perfume sticks. Very handy.

What I liked about that cyprum perfume I wore yesterday was when the smell disappeared it didn’t leave any nasty smell behind.
I topped it up before we went out in the evening.
Wondering if what you pay for in expensive perfumes is something that makes the smell last longer.
In that case , thinking off the top of my head, if you rubbed a bit of Shea butter into your wrists and then sprayed would that make it last longer...less likely to evaporate quickly...what do you think?

Do the pp perfumes fade away leaving no unpleasant after smell
Genuine question

What I liked about that cyprum perfume I wore yesterday was when the smell disappeared it didn’t leave any nasty smell behind.
I topped it up before we went out in the evening.
Wondering if what you pay for in expensive perfumes is something that makes the smell last longer.
In that case , thinking off the top of my head, if you rubbed a bit of Shea butter into your wrists and then sprayed would that make it last longer...less likely to evaporate quickly...what do you think?

Do the pp perfumes fade away leaving no unpleasant after smell
Genuine question

Perfume Parlour fade is very clean... no nasty after smells. I too have a drawerful, some more successful than others. My favourites are

Verty Boham
Sahara Noire
Noir de Noir
Iris Cedre
Roses 311

I have some lots of others, but the above are the ones I wear most.

I have the next copy of Marc Jacobs daisy and the scent is really similar but I don't think it lasts and end up using loads ...I think you get what you pay for with perfume

Thanks for all your help.
I was wondering about a bit of Shea butter on the wrists to layer the perfume onto and found this

Better still, moisturise with the matching body lotion and literally build up a layer of lighter fragrance on the skin before spritzing on your perfume. “You could also dab a touch of lip balm onto the inside of the wrists or on your neck before applying your perfume – the slightly waxy texture helps the fragrance to hold on longer,” says Kate Evans, daughter of late artisan perfumer Angela Flanders, who runs the Angela Flanders Perfumery in east London.

Are there any good Caleche dupes around?

@Thirtyrock39 what's the name of the next dupe for daisy please?

Flowers is the daisy dupe from next it's fine as an everyday perfume just wears off quickly

You can pick up Morny French Fern from ebay. One of the soaps of my youth was Morny Sandalwood. My mum's favourite. Not a fantastic quality soap compared to todays' soaps, but still lovely for the nostalgia.

Got my pp jo malone dupes. Wood sage and sea salt is lovely, French lime blossom smelt odd initially but is maturing nicely.

The white jasmine one just smells like air freshener. Colleague had a sniff and said it's nothing like her jm version. Tbh it smells a bit off so I might have a rogue bottle. Not worth the hassle of returning for the price.

I did try an orange blossom scent from M&S at the weekend which smelt amazing on my scarf the next day. Can't remember brand but it was about £15 so I'm going back for some.