A lot of people from the four corners of the world asking the same question. The truth of the matter is that the question applies to almost everything, right? And in my opinion, it should be followed by the famous movie line “what’s in it for me” if I choose one.
So, what should I buy? Should I go for the cheap one or for the one which can easily bust my wallet? As you all know, that there are a lot of knock-offs that are expensive as hell.
Now, I will provide you with tips or knowledge-based from the people who are in the perfume industry that may help you decide which one to buy and hopefully, at the end of this article, you will be able to answer if buying an expensive perfume really worth it or if it’s just a waste of money.
Cool? Let’s go ahead!
Have you ever heard of Top, Middle, and Base Notes? Or Sillage? Raise your hands up and give yourself a pat on the back. You’re already ahead, my friend.
Tell you what, before I joined my present company, I really have no idea what the hell it meant. The “notes” that I only know of are music notes which I totally ignore because I failed badly in my music class long before. So I tried to avoid it whenever I can.
Interested in buying perfumes online? It’s kinda hard if you don’t know how it smells, right? Don’t worry! You’re not the only one. Fortunately, most of the online stores describe their products sufficiently enough like the brand, Samawa Global, and the notes to give us a better idea about the product.
Like this:
You’re probably wondering why are we talking about notes? Think about it. All of these are related.
How come?
The notes are ingredients of the fragrance. Some ingredients like Oud are more expensive than other ingredients. Expensive perfumes usually have more fragrance concentration, better quality bottles, and packaging. It might not be the case always. Some cheap perfumes are better than expensive ones.
When buying perfumes, one should consider the climate, some fragrances work well in summer and some are better to be worn during the night and some during the day.
Ever noticed how long the smell of expensive perfumes stays against a cheap perfume? How long does it linger in the air when worn?
Think about this for a moment.
Top notes are the smell that you get when you spray perfume in the air or on your wrist. Usually, it’ll last for about an hour. Most cheap perfumes are good at this level but it will fade away quickly as it doesn’t have enough amount or concentration of essential oils to last.
This is the technique used by most fake perfumes in the market today. They’ll replicate or copy as close as they can get to the top note of the original product.
Middle Notes takes it over during the next 2 or 4 hours and then finally, the base notes develop and stay for the rest of the day.
Oh! I almost forgot about the sillage. Most Arabic Perfumes or middle-eastern fragrances are the best on this one. This is the amount of time the fragrance stays in the air when applied or worn.
To point it out, base notes ingredients drive the price factor up of the perfumes. It’s more expensive than the top and mid-note ingredients.
In general, expensive or branded original perfumes are far way better if you compare them to cheap perfumes.
Cheaper perfumes have less variety. You might get good top notes out of it but you might not like the mid or the base notes.
It usually has a sweet smell and is typically marketed towards the younger generation as teenagers’ noses are not that sophisticated or developed yet. Throw in the financial aspect as well. The pricing is well under or within their range.
However, make no mistake about it. There are still a lot of people that prefer cheap perfumes because of the smell.
As I had read from one article about comparing it to wine. They said that perfumes are like wine. The older it gets, the better.
Sadly, we cannot say the same to perfume. It’s just not applicable.
How these two products were done is totally different. It might be because of the sophistication involved in the process or mostly due to the ingredients.
To put up a better comparison between what to buy, expensive or cheap perfumes, might be a little difficult but for me, it’s just preference.
Before I end the article, let’s just have a quick recap bit.
Expensive perfumes
- High quality and superb ingredients
- Essential oils
- Synthetic fragrance
Excellent notes
- Top notes = first half-hour
- Mid notes = next 2 or 4 hours
- Base notes = stay on the rest of the day
Cheaper perfumes
- Less concentrated essential oils
- Usually have a sweet smell
- Marketed towards the teenagers
- Good top notes, but dicey on the middle and base notes
There you have it. If you think that I missed something important, please comment below.