WHY ARE PERFUMES AND COLOGNES SO EXPENSIVE?

It’s  pretty obvious that the world’s most expensive perfumes & colognes generally possess the world’s most exceptional & priciest ingredients. While it’s really difficult to put a figure related to the price on certain things — happiness or the essence of a campfire on a very cold/chilly morning are the two things that might strike your mind ⁠— not subject to said hassle in determining the monetary value of various leading colognes, some of which holds price tags that run into hundreds or thousands of dollars. 

However, talking about the perfumes & colognes & their expensiveness, you might be paying for one of a few things:

1. EXPENSIVE UNIQUE INGREDIENTS & ESSENTIAL OILS

Some of the top-class fragrances at Awesome Perfumes contain rare flower petals or the aroma of a rare root or tree, which are very difficult to obtain. The same is true for most essential oils & the more essential oil a perfume or cologne contains, the more expensive it usually is.

THREE OF THE WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE INGREDIENTS ARE:

 

  • Ambergris at ~$5,000/kg

A kind of secretion created in the digestive system of some unique species of sperm whales. Initially, this material has a “marine fecal odor,” which later matures into a sweet earthy odor. Besides its incomparable scent, Ambergris is also utilized as a fixative to expand a fragrance’s longevity.

 

  • Oud at ~$3,000/kg

A dark kind of fragrant resin released as a defence means to starve mold infection on one of the most expensive woods in the world – the Agarwood tree. The Oud note is a musty, woody-nutty, rich fragrance that is very famous in the Middle East. The cost to extract the oil from this resin-embedded wood is very high because of the low yield from plant material, in addition to the slow process of extraction, which is very labor-intensive.

 

  • Orris at ~$3,000/kg

Orris is the scent found in the Iris root that is similar to the smell of violets. Orris can be expressed as soapy, powdery, sweet, floral & earthy in fragrance. Extraction of the oil, also called orris butter, can take 3 to 5 years as the root must first dry & age. Due to the volume & time required to produce the oil, pure orris is considered one of the most valued & expensive ingredients in perfume making.

2. PRICY MARKETING/BRANDING PROGRAMS TO LAUNCH THE FRAGRANCES

The most precious perfumes come from the most elite high-fashion brands. Some companies spend millions on marketing a perfume & getting celebrities to endorse a particular scent.

 

3. LUXURY, HIGH-END PACKAGING

Perfumers understand that it really takes unique packaging for a nice product to stand out. And this alone can be pretty costly, but it’s not all vanity. High-quality perfumes use thicker glass in special shapes rather than thin, stock bottles. This makes them sturdier & more protective of the perfume. 

Similarly, the dispenser & cap on cheap perfumes is often plastic & poorly fitted, which means the juice is exposed to air which will gradually turn the fragrance. On exceptional fragrances, special attention is taken to make sure the vessels are air-tight & shielding the fragrances well or not.

 

4. EXCLUSIVITY

Of course, some of the prices are also self-imposed. There’s a cache value in smelling like no one else & not like the latest mass-produced designer fragrance to hit the mall. Fragrance enthusiasts are willing to pay a premium amount for rare scents. For some niche perfumers, sometimes, the exclusiveness of the fragrance is specifically what makes it so desirable.

 

IS IT WORTH IT PAYING MORE FOR NICHE & LUXURY PERFUMES?

If you are a fragrance enthusiast, then Yes, of course. A good perfume or cologne from Awesome Perfumes (One Of The Largest Online Retail Fragrance Store For Thousands Of Top Brand Perfumes, Colognes, And Gift Sets For Men, Women, And Kids.) makes you stand out from the crowd. Sense of smell is among the most powerful of the 5 senses humans have. Many times one can simply get attracted to someone because of the way they smell. Perfumes are rich in pheromones & make anyone attractive. 

And as far as luxury or premium perfumes are considered, a key indicator for the expensiveness of the perfume would be the ingredients. The more expensive perfumes would have several levels of fragrance, i.e., top notes, middle notes & base notes.