Perfume
Why expensive perfume costs more, and when it is worth it
Expensive perfume costs more because of rare materials, higher concentration, small batches and time. Here is what you pay for in a luxury perfume.
In short
Expensive perfume costs more for four reasons: rarer raw materials, a higher concentration of perfume oil, smaller batches that cannot spread their costs over millions of bottles, and the time a perfumer spends on the formula. Price alone does not make a perfume good, but these four things are what a fair luxury price pays for.
Rare raw materials
Some perfume materials are expensive because they are rare. Natural ambergris forms in only a small share of sperm whales and is found by chance on beaches; orris butter comes from iris roots dried for years; real oud comes from infected agarwood trees.
Most perfumes replace these materials with synthetic versions, and many synthetics are excellent. A luxury perfume pays for the choice of material, natural or synthetic, that gives the best result rather than the cheapest one.
Concentration
An eau de parfum holds more perfume oil than an eau de toilette, commonly quoted at around 15 to 20 per cent against 5 to 15 per cent, although there is no official standard. More oil means a richer scent that lasts longer on the skin.
Concentration is the clearest thing a price can buy. A 100 ml eau de parfum simply contains more perfume than a 100 ml eau de toilette.
Small batches
A designer perfume is made in volumes that spread the cost of its development over millions of bottles. A niche perfume made in small batches carries the same work over far fewer bottles, so each one costs more.
Posh Stink takes this to the extreme: each fragrance is made once a year, in a single batch of 300 numbered bottles, at £316 for 100 ml of eau de parfum.
What you are not paying for
A large part of the price of many famous perfumes is advertising: the campaign, the celebrity, the shelf space in airports. That money makes a brand famous; it does not make the scent better.
A fair way to judge an expensive perfume is to ask what is in the bottle: the materials, the concentration, the size of the batch and the story the house is willing to tell about how it was made.
When an expensive perfume is worth it
An expensive perfume is worth it when it gives you something you cannot find for less: a scent that lasts all day, that people do not recognise and that you want to wear for years.
The test is simple. Wear it for a full day before you buy it. If you still want it at night, the price is buying you something real.
Price is not the scent. Ask what is in the bottle.
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