3 things to know before buying a personalized perfume

If you're reading this, it's because the desire for a custom-made perfume has already crossed your mind. And we understand you: smelling La Vie Est Belle on half the women you pass in the street can only make you dream of having a perfume just for you. A unique fragrance, created by you with raw materials that you have chosen and that you really love. It is because there are more and more requests like yours that many brands have started to offer"personalised perfumes". An offer that may seem great at first, but in some cases smells like a scam.

Follow the guide, we'll tell you what goes on behind the scenes 👇

What is a custom-made perfume?

A bespoke perfume is a perfume created just for you by a perfumery professional. In other words, you tell the perfumer what you like in terms of scent notes, your personality, what inspires you, etc., so that he can compose the perfume of your dreams. - In other words, you tell the perfumer what you like in terms of scent notes, your personality, what inspires you, etc., so that he can compose the perfume of your dreams. Sounds good, doesn't it?

In fact, this is how it was done at the time: in the 18th century, kings and queens hired perfumers to create perfumes according to their tastes and desires. This is how Jean Fargeon for Louis XV, Jean-Louis Fargeon (the son) for Marie-Antoinette or Jean-Marie Farina for Napoleon I (history does not say if being called Jean was a criterion to sign the fragrances of his Majesty) remained famous.

As you can see, this type of service was only available to the elite at the time. And that hasn't really changed. Even today, to get a real made-to-measure perfume, you have to pay a certain amount of money that may make your banker's head spin.

Why a real personalized perfume costs thousands of euros

You read that right: we're talking thousands of euros. Nowadays, to create a personalized perfume, you have to pay a minimum of 2 000€ for the creation of a formula (for example at Flair)! And that's just the minimum. At Francis Kurkdjian, your custom perfume will be created for 15 000€. At Sylvaine Delacourte, you'll have to pay an extra €10,000, a "reasonable" price compared to the €50,000 at Guerlain or the €60,000 at Cartier. Don't worry: at this price, you won't just get a 50ml bottle, but rather 2L of perfume and sublime crystal bottles.

So why the astronomical cost? One might think that these amounts, which at first glance are frightening, are only related to marketing and brand prestige... but this is not quite the case. There are several reasons why a custom-made perfume costs so much:

1) The weather

The first is the time the perfumer devotes to creating the fragrance. As you might guess, creating a perfume is not a one-day job. Several tests are first carried out and presented to the customer, then reworked at length before the lucky one is chosen. Here's how Anne Flipo, famous perfumer and co-author of our perfume Pleine Lune, describes the immense amount of work involved in creating a fragrance:

"Recently, I spent hours at home, in the Pas-de-Calais, wondering how I was going to interpret a green fruity seventies chypre subject. I spent hours meditating without moving, in the dark of late October days... and finally I found the angle of attack, the chord, and then I juggled with it and launched the festival of essays to be dosed".

Anne Flipo - Artists of Perfumery, IFF, 2021

2) Raw materials

The second is due to the cost of the raw materials used. The final flavour concentrate may not be very expensive, but think of the number of tries you have to make and then miss out on the competition. It's like making a cake several times before you find the right amount of sugar: you're going to need a dozen eggs even though there will only be 3 in your final recipe. It is therefore the total cost of the raw materials used that is taken into account.

3) Regulations

The third reason is due to the regulations, because yes: now that the creative part is over, there is still the administrative part that we like so much! It is indeed impossible to put a perfume on the market without having first registered it with the EU, and having performed a basic toxicological analysis. This is called the "Cosmetic Dossier", and all the products in your bathroom - without exception! - have gone through this. Here is what Dominique Belaïd, an expert in cosmetic regulation, has to say about it:

"The European regulation is clear: each perfume must have its own file, which guarantees consumer safety. No product should be put on the market without verification. Unfortunately, some customers are fooled: at €80, you don't get a custom-made perfume, you get in the best case a base with one or two variable ingredients, and if things are done correctly all the combinations have been tested and approved by the regulations".

Dominique Belaïd, General Manager of Cosmetic Office

4) Craft production

Finally, the fact that a custom-made perfume is produced in very small quantities (two liters of perfume is nothing compared to the 500,000 liters of N°5 that Chanel produces every year) makes it even more expensive. Simply because mass production allows brands to make important economies of scale: for example, starting up a bottling machine for 10,000 bottles is much less expensive than filling very small batches by hand. And that, unfortunately, is not about to change.

The myth of the "personalized perfume" at less than 1000€.

If you're interested in the subject of personalised perfumes, you've probably already Googled how to get one. Among the results, you've probably come across brands that promise to make a personalised or bespoke perfume for a hundred euros or less. But then, how have these brands divided the cost of the object of your desire by 20? 

Quite simply, by selling a customization that is not a customization. Of course, you are asked to "choose" all the ingredients of your perfume through a personalized online questionnaire... except that the perfume you are offered at the end is part of an already existing collection, from which they will pick the one that best matches your answers. In fact, your future perfume has been created in advance, and sold to thousands of other customers. In the best of cases, as Dominique Belaïd explains, you are only allowed to add one or two ingredients to a formula that includes more than fifty on average.

In short: under a ton of marketing and pretty visuals, you can't see anything but fire. At the reception, the customer has no idea that his perfume is not unique, even if some are frankly disappointed when they discover a mainly floral perfume, whereas they had explicitly asked for vanilla as the main note... 

In short, the only way to know if your perfume is truly unique is by the price - because yes, exclusivity does come at a cost. If you're keen to wear a rare perfume at a reasonable price, turn to confidential niche brands instead: their fragrances are made in small batches, and you're unlikely to come across a stranger wearing the same perfume as you - without having to leave your PEL there. And if you'd like to find out more about fragrances Bastille, click here: