Your new (psst – high st) perfume
Using quality ingredients and teaming up with the best ‘noses’ in the business mean that inexpensive fragrances are no longer being seen as the inferior option. But how are brands managing to make sophisticated scents so affordable? ‘ There are no extra costs other than what goes into the bottle. No celebrity face, expensive advertising or sampling campaign,’ explains Jo Fairley, co-founder of The Perfume Society. ‘ The perfume is put on the shelf – and it flies, or it doesn’t.’
Some fashion retailers are undoubtedly using fewer hard-to-source materials and upping the number of synthetic scents, but this doesn’t necessarily mean a more mediocre product. Synthetic notes can be remarkably similar, and sometimes superior, to the real deal. It does mean, however, that in these cases the scent will wear off quicker – but that’s easily resolved if you’re up for keeping a bottle in your bag.
Plus, the quality of ingredients doesn’t have to be compromised. Take H&M’S new fragrance collection, created by awardwinning perfumer Olivier Pescheux. ‘ We focused a lot on high-class materials, from the single note fragrances to contemporary blends that really highlight the origin of the key ingredient,’ says Olivier. H&M’S Sara Wallander adds that consumer cost can be kept down simply by bulk-buying on their side. We’ll spritz to that.