Perfume dupes - spritz without breaking the bank
Niche and designer fragrances
Niche and designer perfumes do not come cheap, so you’d be forgiven for thinking you need to spend a fortune to buy a luxurious and exciting fragrance, that smells beautiful and lasts all day.
Launching and promoting a perfume is big business, so it should come as no surprise that up to 90% of the cost of a perfume is the packaging and marketing.
Of course, there is nothing quite like investing in an irresistible designer scent to spritz on special occasions but it may be difficult to look past an affordable scent that smells so similar, and won’t hurt your pocket.
The world is full of perfume snobs who look down on people who smell of cheap perfume, but the joke maybe on them, as many dupe perfumes are indeed cheap, yet almost indistinguishable from the designer brands they imitate.
Designer brands need to keep their formulations top secret because although their name, logo and package design can be trademarked, the scent itself is not a commodity that can be copyrighted.
What is a perfume dupe?
Perfume dupes are copies of, or close matches to, another perfume.
Reproducing a scent exactly is not a simple matter but GCMC (Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) technology allows the perfume makers to
separate, identify and quantify the aromatic compounds within a sample.
The lab’s chromatograph produces an intricate chart with many peaks that each represents a particular ingredient and its amount.
This analytical method combined with the artistry and experience of the perfumer, can imitate a fragrance that is close to the original tester perfumes.
High Street Dupe Perfumes
Inspired perfumes of many designer brands are readily available in your favourite high street stores. These perfume dupes smell like designer scents for the likes of Chanel, Hugo Boss, Dior and many more, but they don’t have the price tag of the originals..
Marks & Spencer’s ‘True Red’ smells like ‘Hugo Boss Deep Red’ and is so much cheaper, even the name sounds the same.
The packaging of Bodycare’s ‘Black Addiction’ is so similar to ‘YSL Black Opium’; you’ll be able to fool just about anyone at a fraction of the cost. The Zara perfume dupe of this classic amber floral is named ‘Gardenia’.
Everybody loves a bit of Chanel and Lidl’s perfume inspired ‘Suddenly Madame Glamour’ uses a number of the same notes of ‘Coco Mademoiselle’.
Aldi’s ‘5th Element’ emulates the iconic ‘Chanel No 5’, that sits on dressing tables the world over.
Source: 28 dupes that smell just like designer scents - GoodtoKnow
Online inspired fragrances
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Copycat perfumes are widely available online but it can be a bit of hit and miss when it comes to their quality, longevity and performance.
High quality replica perfumes
Luxury made 'inspired perfumes', created in boutique perfume houses, are likely to have several levels of fragrance. You will smell the top notes immediately then after several minutes the middle notes develop for two to four hours. The base ensures the perfume is well rounded and gives the fragrance depth.
Commercial copycat perfumes
Commercial copycat perfumes, made on a budget, focus on the top notes of a fragrance and if you are lucky, the middle notes as well. Base notes can be amongst the most expensive in the perfume industry, so it makes sense that cheaper copy perfumes may not have them, so fall flat on the underlying tones.
It is best not to compare perfumes when first sprayed, but to wait a few hours to see how the fragrance develops on your skin.
Generally, a cheaper made copycat perfume will substitute the more expensive natural ingredients with a higher quantity of the less expensive synthetic oils.
Counterfeit and fake perfumes
Counterfeit perfumes may initially look the same as the designer brand, with the same name, label and packaging but unlike the genuine article, the scent of these cheap imports will quickly evaporate.
These illegal counterfeit goods appear in markets, sidewalks, from the back of lorries and online. The first sniff of the fragrance is often quite similar, to deceive your nose in the first minutes into thinking it is the genuine product.
They are also likely to contain high levels of chemicals that can cause nasty reactions when sprayed on the skin.
Conclusion
What do you do when you run out of your favourite designer perfume, with the thought of having to spend a pretty penny to get a fragrance that smells as beautiful and lasts as long?
Match Perfumes have a line of superior dupe perfumes that prove you don’t have to spend a fortune, as each one is a near perfect replica for a much more expensive designer scent.
An inspired fragrance can never be an exact match, but it can come as close to the original perfume as one can reasonably expect and be as beautiful.