In the wake of crazy price increases in the perfumery sector and ahead of Esxence 2025, i.e. the international niche perfume fair which will be held in Milan from the 19th to the 22nd February, I thought I would take a minute discuss the few brands that I think are managing to keep their prices within the realms of reason while still offering beautiful creative scents. Don’t get me wrong, those brands have, like all brands, increased their prices over the years, partly due to inflation and the rising costs of raw materials, partly due to the rising prices of energy, which are passed on to virtually everything. So, I’m not arguing that price increases are always unreasonable. What is unreasonable is the kind of systematic annual price increase bonanza that has come to define the perfume industry.
To give some perspective, I became a true fragrance fanatic about 12 years ago, so in the early 2010s. If I look back at how much fragrances cost a mere 10 years ago, the difference is really shocking. I want to quote famed fragrance critic Luca Turing (seen below with his wife, Tania Sanchez, also the co-author of the two perfume “bibles” people associate with Turin), who in 2016 was asked what he thought was a reasonable price for a bottle of perfume:“ I replied that the price of a dinner for two with a decent bottle of wine in a decent restaurant was about the upper limit for me, so let’s say $120 or so for 100 ml of EdP or a half ounce of proper extrait”. Well of course, in 2025, dinner for 2 with wine doesn’t cost 120 eur in most places in Western Europe and it is becoming increasingly hard to find a decent 100 ml bottle of perfume for that price.
So, I thought it would be useful to highlight a few exceptions to this trend. What are the criteria I took into consideration to select the niche brands that are, in my opinion, still good value for money? First of all, the quality and creativity of the perfumes. Are the perfumes offered by the brand interesting, intriguing and well executed or have they fallen into the trap of chasing trends and riding on the coattails of other popular fragrances?
The second criteria is of course pricing: are the fragrances fairly priced? That doesn’t mean are they cheap. The brands I selected do not offer cheap fragrances but seem to target discerning people who enjoy fragrances but might still blink an eye at spending 200 eur on perfume. How can I tell? Well, for starters these brands generally offer a selection of sizes in terms of bottle formats, allowing customers to properly sample their perfumes at an affordable price point, well under 100 eur (for 8 ml, 10 ml, etc..). As always, the bigger formats will be better value per ml of “juice”, but if you have already quite a few fragrances in your collection, chances are you will not actually need or use a 100 ml bottle. By comparison, most brands only sell 100 ml of scent as their smallest format, partly because that is what retailers want, and partly because this is how they make the most profit. Also, regarding price increases, I feel that when the brands I selected increase their prices, it is not an annual inescapable ritual but something that is occasional and considered and reflects the additional costs they have to take on (of course, I don’t claim to have any knowledge of their internal accounts, this is just my best guess).
Finally, and this is the criteria that very few brands fulfil, the prices of fragrances they sell vary according to the raw materials used. So a citrus fragrance will cost less than a rose perfume, because to take a simple example, citrus oils costs a fraction of rose essential oil. That way, ingredients end up meaning something and it also suggests that there is a chance that some of the ingredients listed may actually be in the formula of the perfume.Of course, this is a big no-no for distributors and retailers who much prefer brands with only one price point.
Let’s have a look at some of the brands I think have managed to keep the balance right between quality and price and that will attending Esxence in a few days:
- The artisan one:
-Parfum d’Empire.
I love Parfum d’Empire and I think Marc-Antoine Corticchiato is a poet. They have increased their prices but remain reasonable with 50 ml bottles at between 110-130 eur (they also offer bigger 100 ml formats) which, for the quality you get, is amazing. Incredibly, there isn’t a dud in their entire line. The sample set is also reasonably priced and gives you a discount code for future purchases, which I think is how a sample set should work. So they don’t try to scam you with sample sets that costs an astronomical amount, as so many houses do (60 to 95 eur for sample sets? Nothing is out of bounds now). Also, PdE scents are priced differently depending on ingredients they use, which I appreciate. I have Equistrius and Le Cri, both iris perfumes, both 130 eur, both gorgeous and original. Mal Aimé, or “bien aimé” as it is easily my favourite from the entire line, costs 120 eur. Finally a green scent that isn’t afraid to be green! And then Fougère Bengale, also 120, which I have gifted to my husband, as this beautiful immortelle/curry leaf fougère works much better on a man in my opinion. Azemour-les-Orangers (110 eur) I love but can’t justify a bottle in my collection at the moment.
If you don’t know this brand: go out and find them!
- The traditional one:
-Nicolaï Parfum
The brand founder and perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï, is a legend. Not only her lineage traces back to the Guerlain family, who did everything they could to discourage her from getting into perfumery because of her gender (ok, times have changed thankfully), she was also for many years the director of the perfume museum l’Osmothèque in Versailles, and created her own eponymous brand back in 1989, when artisan perfumery was in its infancy. So in a nutshell, she is an incredible perfumer. Again, her skills are apparent in every one of her creations, and they all have a classic and classy touch. She offers a range of formats, starting at 30 ml for 88 eur, and going up to 210 eur for 100 ml and 370 or 250 ml. I mean, that’s not cheap but you have the option of getting a smaller bottles for a reasonable price. I have small bottles of Week End en Normandie and Odalisque, both beautiful chypre fragrances that feel quite in the vein of vintage Chanel’s Cristallle. My cup of tea. I adore her perfume “Fig Tea”, a beautiful osmanthus-scented tea-inspired perfume (but I don’t understand the name by the way, there is no fig note at all to my nose), which hopefully I will add to my collection at some point. Well worth a try if you like classical perfumes.
- The all-natural one:
–Les Parfumeurs du Monde
LPdM are not just a perfume brand. What they propose is a paradigm shift. Selected raw materials that are ethically sourced. All natural ingredients. Perfumers with full creative license and respectful of the code of ethics of the company. The founder and main perfumer is Thierry Bernard, although he often chooses to collaborate with perfumers such as Nathalie Feisthauer, Bernard Duchaufour, Patrice Revillard, etc. The range comes in a 50 ml format and retails for 145 eur. Thankfully for those who want to test drive the fragrances before committing to a full bottle, they also offer 8 ml bottles at the very democratic price of 25 eur. So really, a steal for what you get. Now the rub is that being all-natural perfumes, and although created by extraordinary perfumers, they do have some of the drawbacks of natural scents: a less long lasting performance for some, less projection, and in some cases, a more “dense” scent profile that is certainly different from what you find currently on the market. In my book being different is always a good thing, but I think it is a bit like wine makers trying to make a natural, biological, no-added-sulphites’ kind of wine. Sounds great, but the ones I have tried (and I have not tried many) were more of an acquired taste. The LPdM perfumes are certainly interesting but I think they will appeal most to people who either value the natural and ethical aspect of the brand or to those who have already smelled quite a few perfumes and put a premium on scents that are original and unique and not just “pretty”. Definitely worth trying in any case.
- The mood boosting one:
-Le Jardin retrouvé:
A historic brand of sorts created in 1975 (I know that in the context of brands that claim to go back to the 18th century that seems recent, but it still means they are celebrating their 50th anniversary). Revived by a husband and wife duo, Clara Feder and Michel Gutsatz, the son of the original founder and in-house perfumer Yuri Gutsatz., it is rich with history, seems to have a good amount of cash behind it and is currently being developed with Givaudan. So we are not talking about some small artisan house here despite the back story. The brand’s leitmotiv seems to be that their scents promote wellness, a claim that they say Givaudan has data to support. Well, I am the first to say that fragrance is a mood booster, but as I already touched on in my article from last year (see: https://www.pixidisperfumes.com/january-february-new-year-new-hope/) , it’s very hard to actually come up with universal data connecting emotions and scents. Their main line focuses on various botanical ingredients such as: Mousse Arashiyama, Citron Boboli, Violette Kew, etc. They are not 100% natural like the previous brand, despite the garden-inspired theme but are 90% natural meaning that the concentrate is made of a mix gf natural materials and synthetic derived from natural ingredients. They are also formulated at quite a low concentration at around 8-10% (often a decision for brands deciding to prioritise natural ingredients, both for a reason of costs and for IFRA compliance reasons).
They offer various formats: 15 ml for 50 eur and 50 ml for 120 eur. Again, if you think of the price per ml, it is not cheap, but it’s possible to buy a bottle, albeit a smaller format, for a reasonable price. The other positive thing is that the brand offers refills for all its fragrances that come in a screw neck bottle.
That seems the best we can hope for at this stage. I have not tried their fragrances yet. Will report back after Esxence.
This wraps my quick list of worthy brands that will attend Esxence and that, in my opinion, manage to find the right balance between quality and price. As always, let me know what you think!
