TOP 10 MOST EXPENSIVE PERFUMES
From rich ouds to luxurious florals, these perfumes cost a pretty penny. Fine fragrance doesn’t have to cost a fortune. But it can. Clive Christian’s No. 1 Imperial Majesty, which was named the World’s Most Expensive Perfume by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006, was priced at $2,355 per ounce a splurge that included delivery in a Bentley. A bottle of DKNY’s Golden Delicious, designed by jeweller Martin Katz and featuring nearly 3,000 precious stones including 2,700 diamonds sold at a charity auction in 2011 for $1 million. The price of a perfume typically reflects the scarcity or quality of the natural materials you’ll find in the bottle, the ornaments you’ll find on the bottle, and/or the craftsmanship of the master perfumer who concocted the scent. Here, 10 of the priciest perfumes in the world, unquestionably desirable to a certain set. The more you pay, the less likely you are to come across someone else wearing the same spray.
Joy Baccarat Pure Parfum, Limited Edition
Jean Patou’s Joy, created in 1930, has always been notoriously pricey. It was, for most of the 20th century, considered the costliest perfume you could buy due to the sheer extravagance of its floral content an astonishing 10,600 jasmine flowers and 28 dozen or roses per bottle. This limited-edition marvel ups the ante even more with a keepsake Baccarat bottle an expression of Joy that isn’t fleeting.
Gardenia Les Exclusifs de Chanel – Parfum Grand Extrait
Talk about a showstopper.
The Les Exclusifs de Chanel Parfums represent the house’s most haute fragrance creations and Grand Extrait Gardenia is no exception. A voluptuous, creamy gardenia envisaged as an homage to Coco’s beloved camellia, housed in a magnificently over-sized iconic faceted bottle. (True devotees can watch for Chanel’s lavish, extremely limited-edition Grand Extrait holiday coffrets, which move the investment needle up to about $30,000).
Les Royales Exclusives Jardin dAmalfi Fragrance
British perfumery Creed, creator of fragrances beloved by Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, introduced this Royal Exclusive scent in 2011 to celebrate the house’s 250th anniversary. The notes are an olfactive evocation of an Italian garden effervescent, sunlit citrus, soft rose and apple, woody cedar, vetiver, and cinnamon and the hand-blown Pochet bottle features an openneck pour, to facilitate lavish
slathering.
Amorem Rose Parfum presented in a Lalique Crystal Flacon
An opulent, smoky rose, crafted by master perfumer Maurice Roucel with notes of Bulgarian Rose, Saffron flowers, Baltic Amber and Mahogany wood, Amorem Rose is housed in a Lalique crystal flacon, “Les Hirondelles,” representing the flight of love. Could there a more suitable vessel for this spectacularly OTT tribute to the Queen of Flowers?
Love is in the Air Limited Edition
You could do worse than gifting a perfume lover or just a lover with this ode to amore. Sensuous white musk, delicate jasmine, and fleshy plum characterize the romantic juice, but it’s the bottle that puts it over the top: gemstoneencrusted glass, topped with two silver lovebirds.
MAISON
FRANCIS
KURKDJIAN PARIS À La Rose Eau de Parfum
Another almost inconceivably petal-packed eau containing 250 Grasse centifolia roses per bottle. And for those not yet willing to pony up for the celebrated perfumer’s bespoke services, which start at $35,000, a way to own a Kurkdjian masterpiece for a relative steal.
Roja Haute Luxe
Roja Dove is a lavish, flamboyant perfumer, a man who isn’t afraid of even the most decadent overdose of exquisite ingredients. Haute Luxe is a chypre oriental that practically drips money. Stuffed to the brim with rose, jasmine, and ylang ylang, and grounded with earthy, spicy, ever-evolving base notes of ginger, cinnamon, clove, patchouli, woods, resins, and ambergris, a fresh batch of Haute Luxe is whipped up every year, and limited to 500 bottles.
Fabulous
Eau de
Parfum Decanter
If you’re going to go Fucking Fabulous, go big. This 8.4-ounce decanter is outré is all the best ways from the label to the scent it contains: A decadent, spicy explosion of herbaceous lavender and sage, deepened with bitter almond and sweet vanilla, grounded in earthy, leathery orris, amber, and wood.
Original Collection No. 1 Feminine
Clive Christian’s No. 1 Imperial Majesty, created in 2006 and issued in a limited-edition run (as in, 10 bottles) of diamondstudded Baccarat crystal flacons, was named the World’s Most Expensive Perfume by the Guinness Book of World Records. That elite juice is no longer available, but you can snag this one, Original Collection No. 1 Feminine, for $850, a bargain by compare. Prepare to be bowled over by a complex, lush composition of white peach, plum, jasmine, rose, and spicy carnation.
ELEGANTER SCHWAN 06 - Limited Edition perfume
Albert Krigler was inspired by Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein Castle (the model for Disneyland’s iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle) when creating this warm, romantic rose-and-sandalwood eau, and named it after the historic site’s famous swans. An early 20th century favourite, it was recently re-introduced by the storied fragrance house as a covetable limited-edition.