Search Forum

Ultra-Expensive Perfumes

Ultra-Expensive Perfumes 11 years ago
I'm talking about the JARs, Amouage attars, some of the Xerjoffs...you get the picture. What's your view of testing these costly buggers? I'm afraid to even sniff them lest I fall madly in love. Any other cowards out there?
11 years ago
What I have tested, I didn't love. That in itself was disappointing.
11 years ago
But that's lucky, isn't it? I'm so intrigued by Shalini and Bolt of Lightning but I just don't dare...
11 years ago
I have a simple rule. I don't pay more than what Guerlain asks for their best and most expensive perfumes.

I do not pay twice as much for a sophisticated Amouage fragrance, because it will not be twice as good as something from Guerlain. It will be half as good!

So, I own no Bond No.9's, no Clive Christian's, no Xerjoff, none of the more expensive Boadicea the Victorious', and only one Amouage for which I got a rebate of 50 €.

I do test perfumes with very high prize tag, but with rather low expectations.
Re: Ultra-Expensive Perfumes 11 years ago
Cryptic:
I'm talking about the JARs, Amouage attars, some of the Xerjoffs...you get the picture. What's your view of testing these costly buggers? I'm afraid to even sniff them lest I fall madly in love. Any other cowards out there?

Laughing Coward, yes, or perhaps just practical? I eventually let my curiosity get the best of me and ordered some high end samples and decants, however, I won't give anything over $200 the time of day, not going to sample, don't care, it's outside my comfort zone.

I don't know about other perfume categories, but in the sweet woody vanillic oriental category I have yet to find anything in expensive niche that surpasses what I already have. Wearing Samsara yesterday, I thought to myself, "Why in hell are you still exploring other perfumes?" Sometimes it feels like I've married the love of my life but still have an active account on Match.com!

Also, I feel strongly that many of these high price tags are nothing more than marketing: "if we say it's worth $300, they'll believe it is." Never underestimate the allure of perceived status.
11 years ago
Apicius:
I have a simple rule. I don't pay more than what Guerlain asks for their best and most expensive perfumes.

So, I own no Boadicea the Victorious.

Thank goodness, Apicius. Boadicea the Victorious is awful.
11 years ago
Cryptic:
But that's lucky, isn't it? I'm so intrigued by Shalini and Bolt of Lightning but I just don't dare...

I prefer to sample, sample and sample again. Sometimes your opinion changes but at least sampling, even expensive perfume, gives you the opportunity to make a good decision and commit.
11 years ago
Flaconneur:
Thank goodness, Apicius. Boadicea the Victorious is awful.
Why?
11 years ago
I think that the price of the perfumes of some of the überexpensive lines--I'm thinking of XerJoff and Clive Christian--is a part of the whole luxuriousness involved in throwing wads of cash around for items which most people simply cannot afford to buy. For big spenders--consumers who wear Rolex watches and the like--even those perfumes are not very expensive at all! Are the people who buy them usually discerning perfumistas? I rather doubt it. They probably shop by price, assuming that higher means better.

I believe that many niche perfume houses cultivate an image with the aim of attracting such consumers. A few years ago, Michele Obama bought some Boadicea and Creeds when she was in London. What does she know about perfume? Not a lot, I'd venture to guess. Same story for the people who buy the 17,000 Swarovski crystal-encrusted amphoras from Bond no 9. Who are they? Probably the wives of oil magnates in Texas and Saudi Arabia. lol

Ultimately whether something is a rip-off is going to be relative to one's income... Very wealthy people would not find the distinction in price between Guerlain and Amouage to be significant at all. It's all just a pittance to them.

For ordinary, middle class perfumistas, of course, the difference can matter a lot, but I have run into very few houses whose wares cannot be found somewhere for considerably less than MSRP. Last week some of my facebook friends in Holland were talking about a place that was selling the perfumes of The Different Company for something like 50 euros each, which would seem definitively to demonstrate that the bulk of the price is the mark-up for profit.

The houses whose wares are never heavily discounted are probably Clive Christian and Xerjoff and others at that echelon, of which I've tested only one perfume to date--which as a matter of fact I rather liked: "Dhajala". I have other samples from those houses and will review them at some point, but it's more out of a desire to satisfy my curiosity than to add any of them to my collection. Would it be worth it to me to pay the necessary price? At this point in time, no, probably not. I have "other priorities," as they say... And I'm not really a believer in the hype, to be perfectly frank. I believe that Clive Christian was running The Crown Perfumery before he started his new venture. What accounts for the difference in price of the perfumes in the two cases? In a word: hype.

We are fortunate that because of the strange resilience of the idea that perfume is but a lowly toiletry, most designers continue to ask very little money for their perfumes--again, relatively speaking.
Wink
11 years ago
Cryptic:
But that's lucky, isn't it? I'm so intrigued by Shalini and Bolt of Lightning but I just don't dare...

My guess is if you sample you'll be relieved to learn you can live without them, and on the off chance you fall in love, you can buy a decant. Smile Given the number of different perfumes we wear, who needs a full bottle of anything anyway? Laughing
11 years ago
Apicius:
Flaconneur:
Thank goodness, Apicius. Boadicea the Victorious is awful.
Why?

I just found nothing redeeming about anything offered in the Boadicea the Victorious' collection. Their fragrances reminded me of bathroom cleaners to rank air fresheners. Sorry.
11 years ago
Yes! Thank the goddess for decants, Dulce.

Shera, you really should sniff a few Clive Christians the next time you're at Nordstrom's. I think you'll be amazed, and not in a good way.

I keep telling myself that Shalini has to be good because Roucel created it with a big budget at his disposal. I think I might need to order a sample just so that I can move on with my tuberose-obsessed life.

Apicius, it's great that you're able to draw a line at a certain price and adhere to your own rule. The problem comes when one keeps moving the goal posts, which I find myself tempted to do.
Re: Ultra-Expensive Perfumes 11 years ago
Cryptic:
I'm talking about the JARs, Amouage attars, some of the Xerjoffs...you get the picture. What's your view of testing these costly buggers? I'm afraid to even sniff them lest I fall madly in love. Any other cowards out there?

I have a hard price limit of $200, so that keeps me out of those leagues. I have no problems with samples and decants, though; If I ever made an exception, it would be for Amouge's Memoir Man, simply because there is no other scent that does what it does.

Lots of other good points, though -- especially about using Guerlain's prices as a way to differentiate quality from hype, and Michelle Obama's sudden interest in BTV.
11 years ago
I enjoy sampling everything, including uber-niche. As for their price-points, most are ridiculous and don't warrant the cost, however money doesn't mean the same thing to wealthy folks as it does to me.

Touching on BTV, I reviewed one a few years ago and still remember it being the worst rendition of Rose I've ever come across. If I desire to be mugged, I'll go back to my old neighborhood in Philly rather than be violated by a niche house.
11 years ago
AromiErotici:
... As for their price-points, most are ridiculous and don't warrant the cost ....
If I desire to be mugged, I'll go back to my old neighborhood in Philly rather than be violated by a niche house.

LOL. Laughing

Yeah, the whole "it's worth $240 because we say it is" premise is pretty thin. Now that I've sampled lots of niche I realize it's all hit and miss, whether it's niche, designer or drugstore.
11 years ago
Dulcemio:
Cryptic:
But that's lucky, isn't it? I'm so intrigued by Shalini and Bolt of Lightning but I just don't dare...

My guess is if you sample you'll be relieved to learn you can live without them, and on the off chance you fall in love, you can buy a decant. Smile Given the number of different perfumes we wear, who needs a full bottle of anything anyway? Laughing

What a thing to say, Candy! You know I always need a full bottle!

Although my price brackets don't expand beyond $100 per bottle....and thanks to Ebay they don't have to so far Laughing
11 years ago
Olga1780:
Dulcemio:
Cryptic:
But that's lucky, isn't it? I'm so intrigued by Shalini and Bolt of Lightning but I just don't dare...

My guess is if you sample you'll be relieved to learn you can live without them, and on the off chance you fall in love, you can buy a decant. Smile Given the number of different perfumes we wear, who needs a full bottle of anything anyway? Laughing

What a thing to say, Candy! You know I always need a full bottle!

Although my price brackets don't expand beyond $100 per bottle....and thanks to Ebay they don't have to so far Laughing

Laughing Olga, I know, I'm a blasphemer, arent't I? Laughing It won't happen again. Embarassed
11 years ago
For me if it has notes that interest me any scent is fair game whether it be relatively expensive or inexpensive. I would have never found some of my favorites if I excluded über-niche houses.

That said, even though I have sniffed many scents that cost what most would consider insane money, it is rare that I find one I would be willing to part with mine. Clive Christian is a good example of a house that just is skimming profits off customers with high disposable incomes big time, IMO... I love and bought a bottle of X for Men, but I was unimpressed with the rest of their line and find every one of them (X for Men included) to be way over priced, giving the illusion of using more expensive materials with no real artisanal feel, limited release or customer collaboration.

At least with some very small artisanal houses like O'driù you are paying similar sums, but they are for scents that have limited runs of 1 to 200 pieces, while getting to deal with a very small house that actually listens to your feedback and uses it to cater and tweak its future releases, etc. That's the kind of a house that I don't mind supporting and happily do.
11 years ago
I have come across a few and mostly was disappointed.

Clive Christian's "X woman" smelled like cheap hairspray to me. Gruesome.

Amouage's "Gold woman" did not appeal to me either.

I bought the XerJoff OudStar discovery set but found that none of them is any good for me. Now I sell them all....well, what's to be learnt from these experiences ? Smile

I decided to mainly stick to the brands (expensive, yes, but not overly so or mainstream-priced) I have known and cherished so far and maybe explore another if very interesting by the notes of a certain perfume but letting oneself deceive by the pricetag or the prestige only is nonsense. Just my five scents....
6 years ago
Cryptic:
I'm afraid to even sniff them lest I fall madly in love. (…)
[Yet, t]he problem comes when one keeps moving the goal posts, which I find myself tempted to do.

You speak my mind, Cryptic! I tried, really I did, to stick to a limit and avoided sampling any of these costly buggers (nice one!) categorically. Just once I had violated that stance and sampled Vero Kern's extraits. And I instantly knew I was going to break that rule sooner or later – and so I did. Vero broke me in, to borrow the equestrian term. Meanwhile I have even succumbed to Roja, whom I always abhorred for his obscene pricing, ending up much along the lines of Drseid.

Drseid:
For me if it has notes that interest me any scent is fair game whether it be relatively expensive or inexpensive. I would have never found some of my favorites if I excluded über-niche houses.
That said, even though I have sniffed many scents that cost what most would consider insane money, it is rare that I find one I would be willing to part with mine.

I second that. And here I am, casting an eye at those JARs, Henry Jacques, Abdul Samad Al Qurashis and Nabeel's The Spirit of Dubai collection .. hoping to find something sublimely beautiful.
6 years ago
On the fifth anniversary of this topic I find that I have less guilt over spending $$$ on what I view as olfactory art, but I do get angsty about adding to a collection that is already crazy big by non-parfumista standards. I could purge dozens of bottles to make room for more, but so many have memories associated with them, even the ones I've outgrown aesthetically . So, I guess that makes me a hoarder of sorts. Wink
6 years ago
Great topic!

I believe there is a danger in trying fragrances that comprise the finer materials of this industry. The danger lies in growing accustomed to better quality, which is inevitably priced astronomically higher than run-of-the-mills fragrances, and then shying away from those lower priced scents which previously seemed expensive.

I remember back in the day when i thought $90 for a bottle of Chanel was pushing things and would have laughed at the thought of purchasing a 4oz bottle of Creed at around $400. Nowadays (and many purchases later) i'm crazy enough to splurge on a 1.7oz bottle of Roja Rarfums at $400+ and don't think anything of a price tag at around $90 for other fragrances.

Unfortunately my nose is now accustomed to the finer fragrances and the standard Chanel's, Diors, etc that i see at regular department stores just won't do anymore. So i may have fallen into a trap. But then - no one having driven a Rolls Royce for a year would want to go back to driving a Nissan or Toyota.
6 years ago
Does a high price tag necessarily guarantee a great perfume, though? I've tested pricey artisanal stuff that claimed to be composed of natural, rare and fabulous ingredients yet smelled absolutely hideous. So much depends on the skill of the perfumer, IMHO.
6 years ago
This was originally part of my review of ~Lily~ by Roja Dove. I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Roja Dove 'fumes, but the trend has been towards my mellowing greatly anent them.

===============
Wearing a perfume epitomises the principle of °simply doing° without °seeking result° expounded in the ~Bhagavad Gita~ & practised in Zen Buddhism. The best way to wear a perfume is to just put the thing on & then immediately forget it, and to just let it come to you in its own time. This is particularly true of 'fumes like these Roja Dove ones. At the risk of seeming a bit stuck up & elitist - but, simply, they ^are^ advanced perfume wearers' perfumes! I recently read about someone who financially self-evisceratingly bought ~Haute Luxe~ (a ^far^ more costly Roja Dove 'fume than this one), went about angling for compliments, and was ^absolutely devastated^ when someone said "it's alright, I suppose". The perception of a perfume is so very delicate & fickle a process that even the perception that someone ^wants^ or ^expects^ you to like it can radically change what you perceive. If only he could have restrained himself: at some point in time some little tentacle of 'fume would have extended itself unto someone, caught them at unawares, and perhaps they would have said "whence that ^awsome divine^ aroma!? Heaven, perchance?".

I resolutely ^never^ angle for compliments, or in ^any way^ prompt anyone to perceive my perfume. Sometimes I get them, and they are invariably weighty ones. Sometimes I can even see in advance that they have just caught an unexpected whiff of something that greatly pleases them. On a molecular level, perfume is ^colossaly^ profligate - an obvious parallel is, well, it's fairly obvious really - I'm talking about insemination. Or any kind of semination, for that matter. What proportion of perfume molecules actually reach their mark?

Last night I ^did^ get ^a^ compliment. It's not surprising really, coz I was veritably honking of the stuff. It's seriously powerful stuff, if you can just ^let^ it be! And one might bear in mind that the spray mechanism tends to be ^particularly^ well-made on Roja Dove perfume bottles, and doesn't dispense a large amount per spritz.

I'm wondering what to put on now, coz I'm going to the Sunday afternoon concert at the Whitworth Art Gallery; and, you know, I think I'd better use it again, as I'm still honking of it. What a remarkable transformation! I've gone from being cross at it for seeming to be rather a damp squib to being cross at it for not letting me try a different 'fume the folliwing day by virtue of its being too puissant!

Even before I'd begun to °get° these Roja Dove 'fumes, I always did perceive that there is a certain °solidity° to, & stamp of quality on, them. It's a bit like, say, you're traversing some swampy land, & the creeks have foot-bridges across them: and one creaks a little as you walk across; the next maybe sways a little; and then you come to one that walking across is like walking on solid ground - it doesn't creak or sway or anything. Many people say that when they try them, they simply are not ^awsome^ as a 'fume in that price-backett °ought° to be; and I agree that's true in a sense: but imagine you have heard Beethovens violin concerto, and you are totally °blown away° by the sheer sublimity of the melody & lyricism of it, as well you might be; and then someone tells you that Beethoven's late string quartets are the consummation of his genius, as indeed they are. If you go to them expecting what the violin concerto delivers, but yet more so, you will be profoundly disappointed! The late quartets evolve music into a different direction: melody and lyricism are consummated in the violin concerto, and there is nowhere further for them to go; but the late quartets are explorations of the uttermost potential in melody & harmony, unconstrained by preconceptions of patent beauty or, what is °gorgeous°. And I think Roja Dove's perfumes are parallel to that, in that they do not ~seek after~ being ~yet more gorgeous~, but rather explore uttermost potential in ^olfactory^ melody & harmony in a way similar to that in which Beethoven's late string quartets explore that in ^musical^ melody & harmony.

And I think that is why people are often bitterly
disappointed when they try a Roja Dove perfume (& they often are, as a trawling of reviews will reveal). They expect a yet sweeter & more mellifluous olfactory °singing° than that they had thitherto heard - but that is just not the direction in which these perfumes take it.
===============

I try not to be stuck-up about the price of a perfume. Some people say a good perfume is worth every penny. I do not concur - it feels far to much like playing into the hands of the perfume manufacturers to say that. I say, rather, they know what good thing they are onto with their economies of scale, and their vast webs of connections with suppliers of raw materials (if you go to Laos, or wherever, & say "I'm A. Tad-Brisk, & I'd like to buy some oud oil please" you'll more likely than not get a bucket of tar with maybe a few drops of oud oil in if the dealer feels a little pity for you; but if you go saying you're an executive of Prada or Yves Saint Laurent ... (but even then ... !)), and their lavishly equipped research facilities at which they can explore the 'tree' of blends in an orderly way, and extend its ramifications almost indefinitely without it tumbling into a chaos of unwashed vessels (just try doing _that_ in your kitchen!) -- and strike a VERY _VERY_ hard bargain!! Still, when I am exploring the purse-friendlier offerings I think "there's no boot in those high-end ones, really ..."; but when I then go over and try something like Eclix, by Tiziana Terenzi, I then think " ... oh! but yes there is!". The upshot is that I do have a certain number of high end perfumes; and I would _not_ swap them for their equivalent in medium price-range ones! No way, José!! 

But are the one's I've mentioned, apart fræ ~Haute Luxe~, which I don't have & probably never will (I think if I were ever spending minlet on 'fume that kind of profligately I would probably get ~Nebulous~ by Boadicea the Victorious, or some of Ensar Oud's Japanese Zen Temple sinking-grade oud incense), actually what uw mean by ^ultra^ expensive? I think not! but that the ones just-mentioned in parenthesis are. And if they aren't, then what is?!?
6 years ago
Apicius:
I have a simple rule. I don't pay more than what Guerlain asks for their best and most expensive perfumes.

I do not pay twice as much for a sophisticated Amouage fragrance, because it will not be twice as good as something from Guerlain. It will be half as good!

So, I own no Bond No.9's, no Clive Christian's, no Xerjoff, none of the more expensive Boadicea the Victorious', and only one Amouage for which I got a rebate of 50 €.

I do test perfumes with very high prize tag, but with rather low expectations.

THIS, I feel like it's 100% the best approach. I, too, am often very under-whelmed by those over-priced fragrances and always wonder who on earth they think they're kidding with a mediocre product at a stellar price.
Notify about new comments
Display posts from previous:
Forum Overview Perfumes & Brands Ultra-Expensive Perfumes
Jump to