A dupe can seem like the smart choice for those trying to save some money. But when it comes to their ingredients and how long the results last, are they on par with the originals?
Noted Aromas, based in the United Kingdom, is on course to hit £4 million (US$4.9 million) turnover in its first year.
The firm, run by brothers Thomas and James Gibson, produces a range of fragrances inspired by designer perfumes such as Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540 and Le Labo’s iconic Santal 33.
Why do hotels smell so good and who creates that ‘signature scent’?
“For us, the main motivation behind the brand was creating fragrances that smelt as close [to], if not the same as, the more expensive counterparts, but costing a fraction of the price and still providing customers with that feeling of luxury, so that it’s accessible to all,” says Thomas Gibson.
“The first six months have gone very, very well and we are seeing a lot of customers coming back to buy more,” he tells the Post.
Its website mentions which luxury scents inspired each of Noted Aromas’ fragrances, which are named after global cities like Rio or Lisbon, but there is no such information on its bottles. Prices start from around US$6 and go up to US$75 for a bundle of three 100ml bottles of fragrance.
The alchemy of turning raw ingredients into high-end fragrance is closely guarded by the global beauty industry. Perfume is luxury’s classic entry-point product, and brands invite us into their worlds by selling scents formulated by a revered “nose”.It is big business: according to consulting firm Grand View Research, the size of the global perfume market was estimated at US$50.9 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to US$53.7 billion in annual sales this year.
The fragrance industry has earned a reputation for its huge margins – around 90 per cent. In the 2010s, French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur published a price breakdown of prestige perfumes: the conclusion was that for every €100 a scent cost, the value of the fragrance concentrate amounted to only €1.50 at most; the rest went towards marketing and distribution.
This has fuelled demand for fragrance dupes – particularly among younger shoppers. A recent study by JUV Consulting for data and analysis think tank Business of Fashion Insights found over a third of American consumers aged 13-25 were personally willing to wear dupes.
Nick Steward, founder of London-based independent perfume maker Gallivant Perfumes, can understand the appeal.
“Perfumes are so expensive, and the perception is it doesn’t cost a lot to make these products,” he says. Direct-to-consumer start-ups, by marketing that they lower prices by cutting out the middleman, are also responsible for the perception that perfumes cost nothing to make, he adds.
However, Steward notes that the prices of raw materials used to make perfumes have risen by between 30 and 40 per cent recently and that, although the profit margins make perfume production sound like “a licence to print money”, this is far from the case.
“You only get really profitable when doing massive volumes. Logistic costs are massive as a small supplier, and dealing with retailers is so expensive,” he says.
For brands, it does not help that, while trademarking the composition of a fragrance can be very difficult, they can be easily replicated by fragrance dupe businesses using a gas chromatography machine to analyse a perfume’s formulation.
Fragrances are often made of many ingredients; subtle changes or substitutions will result in scientifically different scents that smell the same.
This leaves the door open for fragrance dupe businesses such as UK-based Eden Perfumes. Founded in 2014, the company’s website features a disclaimer: “Any references to brand names are made strictly for comparison purposes only”.Unlike some of the designer scents its products are modelled after, Eden’s products are totally vegan.
“We use some of the highest grades of ingredients but try to swap non-essential for natural ones. We call them ‘vegan natural alternatives’,” says director Tony Shidiak.
Eden’s most popular fragrance is a US$30 dupe of Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s viral Baccarat Rouge 540, which is priced at over US$255 for a 70ml bottle.
Shidiak hopes to become the reputable face of the fragrance dupe sector; although big fragrance brands do not like what he is doing, he does not see the work as problematic.
“You can walk into Poundland [a British discount retail store] and get dupes for £1 (US$1.25) or £2. Anybody can sell anything online. We are providing an alternative. We are not saying it’s the original.”
Some of the world’s biggest retailers are also capitalising on the growing market for fragrance dupes. While they do not reference the originals by name, in-the-know shoppers know where to look, thanks to social media.
Zara and Marks & Spencer are among the many businesses selling fragrances that smell remarkably similar to top prestige scents.
London-based 26-year-old Ellie Michaelides swears by the Zara fragrance Red Temptation, which is said to be very similar to the much feted Baccarat Rouge 540.
“It’s still got that kind of bottle I associate with the perfumes on my dressing table, but I paid less for it and it’s just as good,” she says.
In London, super-cheap fragrance dupes have a growing presence on convenience store sales counters, next to chocolate bars and vapes. Unlike the expensive originals, they are a disposable, impulse purchase.
Whether luxury brands like it or not, the existence of dupes could actually make original scents more desirable: for some shoppers, dupes are a way to sample a scent before investing in the real deal.
Though a growing number of people buy into the idea that fragrance dupes are blowing the lid off a secretive and overpriced perfume industry, not everyone agrees.
Christopher Chong, brand and artistic director of fragrance brand Thameen, does not believe fragrance dupes offer shoppers good value.
“They may be able to dupe the few seconds of the opening tone, but they are not able to replicate the entire formula due to lack of access to certain ingredients and their costs,” Chong says.
And he adds: “It’s not regulated so you don’t know what you are spraying onto your skin. A lot of the ingredients used in dupes are not tested properly.”
