Search Forum

How much Bling do you need?

How much Bling do you need? 10 years ago
The bottle enhances the feeling for what is in it. How much does the bottle determine whether you buy the scent?

For instance, Tauer Perfumes are very well crafted but come in very simple bottles, I wish for more glamour, but buy them anyway.
Judith Leiber makes glamorous glitzy handbags, has a few perfumes, I don't know what is in them, never tested.
And now, the magic of the Orient (the grass greener on the other side of the fence) ... Swiss Arabian have very ornate bottles, showing the eastern culture. A few oils I have tried and found satisfactory, but those came in humble 3 ml sample bottles.

All well and good. If the perfume is intended as a gift, I suppose a gorgeous bottle makes the gift even better.
But for personal use? My bottles are stored, out of sight, cool and dark, in drawers. A decant of beauty is filled in a Travalo for the handbag and nobody sees it.

So, BLING is for marketing and a magnet to buy, buy ... actually very little practical value.

Your thoughts ?
10 years ago
How about those Agonist blown-glass bottles? They cost way more than the plain ones.

I do collect Nina Ricci bottles for their looks (and sometimes smell), but at least they are not all that expensive.
10 years ago
M. Micallef has some very nicely decorated bottles. I have not tested the fragrances, as yet. If they are as nice as the bottles, I could get tempted ...
10 years ago
I don't think packaging was ever as a factor in my decision to buy or not to buy a perfume. But I really appreciate the beauty and quality of the bottle if it also happens to contain a scent that I like.

Now, there is one other, very utilitarian reason why bottles matter to me: they serve as "avatars" for the scents I have. I can pick a fragrance on a whim if I have to chose from original bottles sitting on a shelf. Not so from decants in almost identical vials, I would have to read their labels and engage the logical faculty of the brain. Unfortunately, there are too many beautiful scents and there is no way I can have everything in their original bottles.
10 years ago
No, I've never chosen a perfume for its bottle, yet. I may have sampled a perfume in a store from a bottle that intrigued me or caught my eye, tho. There are some very unique bottles out there. This particular one, Opulent S**** Classic No. 77 has really caught my eye, but then again, I like the notes of the perfume, and I also collect knives, etc.

I was reading an article where Andy Tauer talks about decants vs. full bottle and he said that "I do not want to point my finger towards anybody and I understand that in a world of little money and rising expenses for everything full bottles are out of reach for many. So, yes: I understand and am far away from blaming anybody splitting her or his bottle. Yet, from a creator's perspective, it hurts. It hurts because I do not only create a scent that I launch one fine day. As creator, I am constantly building on an universe, a brand universe. I put my scents in a context of values, and esthetics, and experiences. And these I try to communicate through everything that is around the scent. The flacon, the packaging, the hand written note, the way how and where you can get the scent. I wish consumers to experience these values, and I want that they can actually feel the difference, feel at home when they open my boxed scents, feel that I am grateful when they buy my products via a little card saying 'Enjoy'.

Getting a decant in a simple spray bottle is nothing of all that. It is like a stripped down to the bones scent experience. The scent is still the same, but everything else that I wish perfume lovers to experience is gone. I feel it would be better, from time to time, to just get one fragrance, instead of 5 splits." Source: The Perfume Shrine.

But all I have to say is that perfumes are expensive, very expensive. And as much as we enjoy them, we want to experience so many, most of us cannot afford to buy full bottles, so we do buy decants or get samples/miniatures. That's the reality of the situation. As much as I do love a beautiful bottle, I just cannot afford all of them. I can afford simply what I can each month, whatever I decide my budget will take. Bling doesn't factor into my decision at all.
10 years ago
Not a fan of bling. In fact, I'd prefer NOT to have it. I hate the idea of spending 10 times more just for a fancy bottle, when all I really care about is the juice!

I like a pretty bottle as much as the next person, but I sure own some ugly ones and I don't really care as long as they smell good. I'm not into spending loads of money for fancy bottles.
10 years ago
No bling for me, please. I prefer the plain and simple ones (like those from Chanel).
As I am not a bottle collector I guess the looks of the bottle is not that important to me....but I admit the naming of a perfume might get me hooked...occasionally Smile
6 years ago
Sorceress:
Bling doesn't factor into my decision at all.
I second that! At the end of the day the beauty of a flacon, or lack thereof, is not a decisive criteria but the fragrance itself.

However, I appreciate appearance and am receptive to aesthetics that delight me – and there we are, venturing into the subjective realm.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And even though I generally regard excessive bling as tacky, I am well aware that many may differ, especially if accustomed to tastes prevailing in other regions, say the Middle-East or Russia. One man's trash is another man's treasure ..

So, how much bling is needed? None at the practical level. But that's a trivial observation.
I go with as much as I find pleasing to surround myself with instead!
Last edited by MiaTrost on 15.11.2017, 06:43; edited 2 times in total
6 years ago
I love well-done bling! That peacock feather jewel on Qom Chilom is just brilliant, and so are the gold tassels on The Merchant of Venice line. Some ornamentation just looks shambolic, though. Sorry, Pipette, but I can't warm up to those Swiss Arabian bottles.
6 years ago
Cryptic:
That peacock feather jewel on Qom Chilom is just brilliant
Absolutely gorgeous!

Do you remember L'Heure Bleue 100ème Anniversaire? Beautiful bling by Guerlain.
6 years ago
I agree! It's magnificent without being over-the-top, Mia.

Aside from flacon collectors, I think most members of the perfume community buy fragrance for the contents as opposed to the bottle itself. However, the beauty of the flacon, as well as the name of the perfume and other external factors make a difference to me in that they draw my interest to the product and prompt me to test it. There are so many annual releases these days that it's impossible to try everything, and beautiful packaging gives a perfume an advantage in that Sea of Scent, at least for me.
6 years ago
Ultimately the contents of the bottle is what determines a purchase for me. But i do appreciate a nice looking bottle with quality packaging. Roja Parfums gets bashed for being over the top and tacky with the crystal cap but i enjoy it. Unfortunately bottling like that does bring the cost up tremendously. Some of the older style bottle of Xerjoff from the Shooting Stars collection look great as well and come in sturdy boxes that are probably hand-made and not thin, cheap & flimsy.
6 years ago
I do understand Andy Tauer's sentiment about ripping parts from something created as a total concept, could be applied to many other fields as well. I do not know any of his perfumes, but if I really liked one (and had the means), I suppose I would try to purchase a bottle. I do not need 'bling' (glittery and decorative designs aren't always to my taste) nor do I collect bottles, but I enjoy the existence of perfume as a whole, the visual and haptic experience included in the spraying ritual.
So, while I wouldn't pay substantially more just for a 'nicer' bottle, I would prefer to have my fragrances in the 'original vessel' they were intended to be. Of course, it's coming from someone with a humble and small gathering of hobby fragrances anywhere near a real 'collection'.
I do consider the design bearing a message. Therefore, it can unconsciously play a part in my decision which fragrances to test within a limited time if I only had the visuals as information.
Notify about new comments
Display posts from previous:
Forum Overview Perfumes & Brands How much Bling do you need?
Jump to