We all periodically complain about high perfume prices. Sometimes, it’s not a general “too expensive” but “too expensive for me” or “isn’t worth the price.” But probably we would be tempted by a deeply discounted “too expensive” reject. Unless, of course, we are on a circumstantial or self-imposed “no-buys.” In general, we all like a good deal and would rather pay less than more. But stepping away from all that and not considering your financial situation at this time…
Saturday Question #189:
What Do You Consider a Fair Price for Niche Perfume?
Creating, producing, packaging and selling perfumes cost money. It is a business, and we don’t think brands/perfumers should do it out of altruism. But what do you think is a fair price for, let’s say, a 50 ml bottle of good niche perfume?
You might not have even $20 for discretionary spending now, you might not be buying any more perfume, period, or your budget might easily fit a real bespoke perfume – it doesn’t matter, it’s not about buying. The question is about your perception of a fair price, not what you’d pay for perfume you love or like.
My Answer
I think my threshold for a 50 ml bottle of niche perfume is about $200. How did I arrive at this number? If Andy Tauer, Hiram Green and Ormonde Jayne whose perfumes I like and who I trust use good ingredients can do that and stay in business, I don’t see why others wouldn’t be able to do the same.
It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t buy more expensive perfumes (when I’m back to buying), and on a case-by-case basis, I might consider justifiable a higher price for perfumes with the most expensive ingredients (e.g., iris, ambergris or agarwood), but as a rule, anything above $200/50 ml seems greedy.
How about you?
Undina's Looking Glass 
I’ve made my views known before. The most I’ve ever paid was £260 for 50ml Papillon Hera, an extrait. To me it was worth it for the beauty, artistry, quality & Liz Moores talent & methods.
It would take the same level of those to make me spend that amount again.
For 50ml of a run of the mill, standard niche I struggle to think that I would pay more than £120-£150. Where possible I buy travel sizes these days or on the grey or resale market
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I think Hera is worth it! I would have preferred to get about 10-15 ml bottle of it. But since the only available size is 50, one day I’ll do it.
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I saved for 7 months to buy her as you know. Worth every penny
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$200 for 50mls would definitely be my maximum, I think $150 would be more reasonable. But I have zero insight into the true costs of artisan perfumery.
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I read some articles and discussions, so I can imagine the complexity of this business and money involved. But I think about it only if I like perfumes. Otherwise it feels like wasted resources.
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I agree with your assessment, Undina. A price of $200 seems fair for a 50ml bottle, as long as the quality of the perfume is high. There is a great deal in the marketplace where the price is excessive and the quality questionable. If I have my eye on a perfume that I’ve sample, love, but find the price to be a bit ridiculous, I look for alternative retailers for a better price.
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As my collection grows, whether I would pay a full price for that perfume goes in consideration of whether to buy it even at a much better price (which, of course, I prefer). With so many great perfumes that I already own, adding to my collection sometimes “just nice” even if it’s a bargain, means that either I’ll spend money and neglect it, or I will be wearing my existing favorites less.
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I may be closer to alityke’s pricepoint of $300 for a 50mL bottle of niche perfume. The definition of niche seems to have blurred a lot given that distribution points have expanded. Also, why 50mL for a bottle? Why not 30mL? In any case, I really should be on a low- to no buy but the only way to do that is to avoid all the perfume blogs and unsubscribe from all the emails and these I won’t do because you never know when the next bargain will show up! 🤣
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I have a simple answer why not 30 ml: because, unfortunately, not enough brands make those! I would have preferred smaller bottles for almost any of my purchases, but it’s not possible. So, I thought it would be easier for everyone to compare something that exists than trying to recalculate.
My price tolerance is much higher for travel sprays: since 8-10 ml is all I need for most perfumes these days, paying $70-$80 for a travel bottle feels better than $350-$400 for a 50 ml bottle of the same perfume.
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I’m with you on travel sprays. Even with something I adore & fall hard for 7.5-10mls is likely enough to tell me if I need something larger
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My perceptions are similar to what Alityke and Flaconneur said. It’s also hard to know what’s “fair” when different retailers or times mean different prices for the same thing.
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Well, we’re not trying to make a decree for universal “fairness” – just outline our general perception of it. :)
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I would say that around $200 for a 50 ml bottle of a good niche perfume is reasonable, with $250 to $300 being my ceiling for a large bottle or a fragrance with rare ingredients.
I saw that the latest Guerlain L’Arts et Matieres offerings are now $350 for a 50 ml bottle, which is $100 more than what they were charging last November and December. I’m glad I bought the smaller bottle of Rose Cherie last year.
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I understand that prices go up for everything. But I cannot accept a 40% hike in price. Well, now I’ll wait a couple of years (or more) until their prices become less expensive due to inflation :)
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I don’t have a concept of fair pricing anymore as I really don’t buy perfume anymore because I have, of course, way too much. But I would say between $250 and $300 would be fair. Anything over that gives me a lot of heartache as to if it should be purchased or not.
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heartburn, not heartache. LOL…well, maybe a bit of heartache if I don’t end up buying it.
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:)))
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I don’t buy much either. So, it’s probably easier for me to theorize about fair prices :)
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I think $200 for a 50 ml bottle of truly niche eau de parfum, by which I mean made by an independent perfumer, is fair, though I haven’t spent that myself. I think more than that is fair for an excellent extrait de parfum. By way of comparison, Chanel No. 5 parfum is $355 for one ounce.
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I wasn’t thinking about different concentrations. But, in general, I think that true extrait shouldn’t be sold in 50 ml bottles. And, in my opinion, it shouldn’t be sprayed. But yes, those might be more expensive.
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What a question-you’ve given us food for thought, for sure :)
I think I’d pay more if there was an actual store, staffed by knowledgeable people, to actually try things on and hear what the employees had to say about it. My answer: about 200$ for 50 ml, cause I’m CDN so you’d have to add tax and all that suff, which makes it $230 at least. It would have to be pretty special too.
I’ve been organizing my collection ( never my strong suit) and I think I have about 100 bottles. So if I never bought another one I’d be ok for this lifetime. But I would spring for something really special.
Thanks for making me think :)
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I think I wouldn’t need any more perfumes (provided those that I have do not turn), but I might want to buy some eventually. Meanwhile, I really slowed down and mostly get rare samples and sometimes decants.
We also have taxes on top of the price (in my state it’s currently close to 10%). I still don’t understand why in stores I have to mentally calculate the final price while looking at a tag that lists just the base price: as if the tax on top isn’t also my money that I would need to pay! :)
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Great question! With the conversion rate, your 200 dollar price point is about 300 AUD. That’s probably a little too high for me. I’d say Maybe between 200-250AUD is probably fair. So, I guess that sits somewhere around the 130-160USD mark. However, brands like Miller et Bertaux and Milano Fragranze are composing quality scents at that threshold (130-160USD) for 100ml.
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I haven’t tried any perfumes from the two brands you mentioned, but there is a number of brands that manage to produce great perfumes for less than $200 (initial price, not considering sales).
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I love Diane St. Clair’s perfumes. They are really high quality extraits, many natural ingredients. Her narcissus perfume (narcissus is expensive) Song of Aubrac costs USD 210 for 30 ml. But ingredients are only a small part of the calculation. Diane’s is a one-woman operation, from sourcing, creation, packaging, and shipment she does it all herself. I consider the price entirely reasonable. Georg Staudt of MGO Duftanker is in a similar position. He manages to put something like his Oud Mukhallat on the market at the price of EUR 320 for 50 ml. That perfume contains several real ouds, real rose (I do not know whether otto or absolute), real musk, and real ambergris. That’s a fair price, in my view.
However, I would probably consider it not fair if a mass producer (yes, there are niche mass producers according to my definitions) offered the same perfume with the same ingredients at the same price. So exclusivity (low supply) and artisanship do influence my decision.
[Side note: The nice thing about buying vintage perfume is that you get the same or higher quality ingredients at a usually much lower price. The driving factor here is scarcity, but there are excellent deals from time to time. But I’ve really no idea how to estimate a fair price for a vintage perfume. I buy it when my gut tells me that it’s worth having at the price the seller is asking for it.]
Then there is the question of how many years of experience and experimentation go into a perfume. And the question of how long it takes to actually produce it. When getting 1 gram of oud oil from Ensar for USD 150, can that be fair? I believe it can be. There are so many variables influencing the price of oud products! (Whether I’d buy it is a different question.)
On the other hand, there are purely synthetic niche perfumes that get designed with the help of a computer. Nothing against that, it’s still niche. But a price for something by Akro or CdG that I’d consider fair would be far, far lower than what I’ve mentioned above.
So no hard and fast rules here.
Interesting question, Undina. Makes one reflect.
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Thank you, Sebastian, for such a detailed answer! I agree with most of your points, but one about the scarcity that dictates the price.
If perfume is great, and I love it, I would pay the same amount of money no matter how it was produced. If a perfumer produced something extraordinary and unique, and nobody else offers something similar but less expensive, I will pay whatever high price is dictated by the producer (well, within my budget, I meant). But if I do not find perfume extraordinary, I don’t care if a perfumer cultivated irises, infected Aquilaria trees or fed ipecac to a sperm whale: I’m not paying for the process, I’m paying for the result.
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I see it a bit differently. A useful parallel might be art. When presented with, say, two paintings by the same artist that I find equally beautiful, both of the same size and costing the same, but the one produced in an hour, while the other took days to make and using more expensive paints, I’d consider the price for the former unfair. Same goes for perfume. I also pay for the process, the irreproducibility by anyone else, the history connected to it – I find all these considerations important beside the pure smell.
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Gosh, that is a hard question, because my price expectations are still mired in an era when the likes of Ormonde Jayne or Parfumerie Generale – or even Serge Lutens – were about £65 for 50ml. I don’t think I would pay more than £2 per ml for anything now, so £100 for 50ml, unless it blew me away. I did buy 15ml of an Ajne scent for $230 over ten years ago, which was insanity looking back.
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True! With our collections built back when $200+ was considered luxury/aspirational pricing, it’s hard to accept new perfumes from new brands easily pushing $300 ceiling.
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