[Image: Pixabay]
How much do we really know about how our favourite fragrances are made and what’s in them?
Unless you have skin allergies and inspect the label, Chanel No5 might as well be brewed from Koala hair in Coco’s old teapot. It’s not, but it’s very seldom that we interrogate the origins and ingredients – known as “composition” – of our favourite perfumes.
Much of the allure of iconic brands like Chanel or Yves St Laurent has to do with the closely guarded trade secrets around their creation, with even perfumers in the same companies often not knowing what’s inside the fragrances their colleagues are working on. This air of exclusivity and mystery makes No5 so much more desirably, and expensive, than the urine-coloured water you buy on the sidewalk in Adderley Street.
While Eau de Adderley might be the Shein of perfumes, so-called “dupes” have become increasingly popular among the younger crowds, leading to high-end brands waging a silent war against the rise of the perfume “dupe houses” trying to copy their fragrances.
You might think it’s a pointless fight until you start to question who makes these dupes – after all, their origins are as mysterious as Chanel’s.
Unless you’re an industry insider, it’s unlikely you’ve heard of them, but most of the fragrances you buy are outsourced to a small group of perfume compounding houses – Givaudan, Firmenich and International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF).
The same perfumers will work with both luxury brands and more affordable companies.
All across the globe, perfume houses you’ve likely never heard of supply most of the well-known brands, with the same perfumers often producing fragrances for the likes of Chloe and Yves Saint Laurent as well as the budget companies. Call them dupes if you wish, But increasingly, companies have been popping up offering fragrances “inspired by” designer brands.
Known as dupe houses, they’re not pretending to be the real thing, but they’re not trying to hide what they’re copying either.
Two of the best-known are Noted Aromas, which allegedly made £4 million (R92 million) in its first year of operation, and The Essence Vault. Other brands include Dossier, A.L.T Fragrances, Eden Perfumes, Oakcha, and Montagne.
On its website, Noted Aromas boasts that its scents smell “just like the designer brands” and are “near exact copies without the high prices”.
This is nothing new, and the likes of Zara, M&S and H&M also produce low-cost perfumes that are technically dupes. However, according to Sky News, industry insiders say it’s “not by accident that they smell the same.”
Brands will often approach perfumers with a brief asking them to create something “heavily inspired” by a fragrance that is already successful as they know it sells.
With many people being priced out of high-end brands, it’s not hard to imagine why people turn to dupes. Add to this the mysterious origins of some top brands and you may well ask: What’s the difference if only 1% of a perfume’s price is the actual liquid?
Much of the money that high-end brands spend is on marketing, celebrity-led advertising campaigns and expensive bottles, and it’s well-known that perfumes have high product margins (hence why you’ll see many brands selling fragrances).
According to Dariush Alavi, who writes for the perfume blog Persolaise and also authored the book Le Snob: Perfume, customers are paying for the brand’s heritage and status, which explains why dupe brands can offer very similar fragrances for a fraction of the price.
“Fashion brands get perfumes as cheap as possible from a fragrance house to put it in a bling bling bottle and sell it as expensively as possible”.
Perfume critic and biophysicist Luca Turin said the cost of perfume formulas has been “going downhill for years”, except when it comes to natural ingredients, so there is little justification for many brands’ sky-high prices. However, he said dupe houses arguing they make perfumes more accessible was “self-serving tosh” and that “plagiarism sucks”.
Obviously, dupe houses are no Robin Hoods, and have been described as “completely unethical and completely immoral”. Nobody is claiming that knock-off Nike’s from China are as good as the real deal, but the demand for fakes/dupes is fanned on by the massive profit margins of some of the exclusive brands.
While not defending the high prices of the perfume industry, insiders say that when you buy an original perfume, you are often paying for the perfumer’s “years and years of experience”, creative thinking and ideas.
“The cost of a Picasso isn’t dependent on the cost of the paint that is actually physically present on the canvas. We don’t add up how many reds and blues and greens he’s used and go, okay, this is how much we expect it would cost therefore this is what the painting should cost.”
The creative process to make a singular fragrance can take between six to 12 months. Perfumers need to know “hundreds of different ingredients and what they do, and having the skills to create a quality fragrance takes years of practice and experimentation”.
In most other creative industries, creators are protected by copyright law – but it’s nearly impossible to trademark a fragrance. And companies like Noted Aromas know, and exploit this.
For now, the only solution to this ‘silent war of smells’ is the proposed Perfumery Code of Ethics, an initiative created by Christophe Laudamiel that calls for perfumes to be protected by copyright law. But it may be some time before this is implemented.
Until then, dupe houses will continue to sell their “inspired by” perfumes.
[Source: SkyNews]