Why is perfume so expensive? Here are the reasons

Perfume can be costly; there's no doubt about that. Knowing what makes perfume costly is important if you want to get the best value out of your money.

If you understand why fragrances tend to be expensive, you can decide if they're worth the extra buck or not.

To make it easier for you, I listed the top 5 reasons perfumes are so expensive. These range from rare ingredients to product marketing and even packaging.

So, without any further ado, let's begin! 

Top 5 Reasons Why Perfumes Are So Expensive:

Rare Natural Ingredients:

One of the most common reasons a perfume may be expensive is that it uses rare perfume ingredients.

These ingredients can be rare in two respects. One, they are sporadic. These can be threatened plants, only bloom once in a few years, or are difficult to acquire. And two, they are very common, but the fragrance is difficult to extract.

You'll see some very common ingredients, such as Jasmine. However, the truth is that extracting the essence from certain plants isn't as easy as it seems.

Here are a few ingredients that are very rare and hence make perfumes expensive:

1. Jasmine:

Jasmine is a very rare ingredient that is present in some perfumes. But, of course, the flowers themselves are not very rare. But the fragrance is tough to extract. It takes about 240,000 Jasmine flowers for an ounce of the essential oil.

This makes it one of the rarest floral essences in the world. Additionally, Jasmine flowers are hard to bloom and need the right conditions to produce the best essence.

Jasmines prefer colder climates, unlike most other flowers. And that's not all. Jasmines require lower temperatures as well as shaded areas.

2. Oud:

Oud is one of the most expensive scents in the world. Mostly popular in the Middle East, Oud comes from agarwood and has a unique, strong, woody scent.

Oud is a costly scent since it only comes from the agarwood tree. There are only 15 species of the tree, and they are grown in India and some parts of Southeast Asia.

And that's not all.

When the agarwood is infected with a specific mold, it becomes a hard resin used to make Oud. Due to the specific conditions required to make Oud, its prices are high.

3. Bulgarian Rose:

Bulgarian Rose is a very exotic scent used in some perfumes. Unlike Jasmine, Bulgarian Rose is even rarer and takes longer to extract.

The Bulgarian Rose scent is so expensive because it only comes from one place. The valley south of the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria is where these roses grow.

Additionally, around 50,000 petals must make a milligram of the essence. And as if that wasn't enough,  you can only harvest the roses in May.

4.  Ambergris:

Ambergris is a scarce ingredient in sperm whales. When sperm whales eat cephalopods, the beaks of these animals enter the whales' intestines. Sometimes, the beaks in the whale's stomach harden up, creating Ambergris.

Due to the fact that it can only be obtained through a certain kind of whale, it's highly rare. As such, most perfumes use synthetic Ambergris. But if you get your hands on the real thing, you can bet that the price tag on the perfume will be hefty.

Ambergris has a robust resinous smell that is "marine fecal." The scent is often available in aquatic perfumes and other types of perfumes.

5. Orris:

Orris is the rarest perfume ingredient in the world. It's a scent that comes from the root of the Iris plant. But you can't just use any Iris plant. Instead, you must use a specific type and species of Iris.

The Iris plant is a scarce flowering plant that can only be available in Tuscany. Even in Tuscany, the flower rates are higher than gold. The flower only blooms in May, and perfume experts need to harvest the best Iris plants.

The flowers must be at least four years old, and harvesting, drying, and storing them is extremely labor-intensive. Due to that, the Orris scent is extremely rare and is not common in many perfumes.

Luxurious Packaging:

While many people don't pay much attention to luxurious packaging, expert perfumers know it's half the experience. But how expensive can fancy packaging get?

Well, it depends on the perfume manufacturer. Many companies use regular glass for storing the scent. However, some use special glass such as Baccarat for their packaging.

Baccarat is a costly and premium crystal from the French company of the same name. The crystal bottles are expensive and are only available in some luxury perfumes. Besides that, other decorative items like diamonds and silver are used in some perfumes.

There's also a protective aspect to luxurious packaging. If you're buying expensive fragrances, you'd want the company to protect the perfume extremely well. That's why so much science and engineering goes into the design of the packaging.

Marketing:

Let's be honest. Although some perfumes are definitely worth their price, it's a reality that you're mostly paying for perfume brands' marketing. The more famous the perfume brand is the more expensive perfumes.

And we're not talking about a few hundred bucks. Some companies even spend up to a million dollars or even more. They get A-list celebrities and media personalities to endorse their products. And many companies only create limited edition perfumes to generate more hype. This, in turn, makes them extremely expensive.

Perfume Manufacturing:

The perfume industry requires a lot of labor and engineering, making the process highly costly. The whole process costs millions of dollars, from acquiring the scent to mixing it with alcohol to packaging and dispensing.

Acquiring the scent is the first obstacle. Although most companies don't produce their scents, outsourcing the scents may be very expensive due to the rarity of some scents and the labor-intensive process of extracting them.

But even if companies can get their hands on the scent, production and packaging are still very costly. So some companies use premium materials for their packaging. And since the bottle is so expensive, even more money goes into protecting the bottle.

This means the company has to hire product engineers and spend hundreds to ensure safe packaging.

Additionally, other aspects like dispatching and perfume mixing can easily raise the same scent price of the perfume in the fragrance industry. 

Niche Perfumes:

Finally, some perfumes are expensive. It's a given that you'll get cheaper perfumes in any old dollar store than in luxury fragrances brands. These are called niche perfumes and are the most luxurious fragrance available.

These luxury brands are even more expensive and exclusive than regular celebrity perfumes. They are perfumes that are limited edition and cannot be acquired easily. But the main reason that they're so expensive is the quality of the product.

While many companies focus on marketing and packaging, niche fragrances only focus on fragrance. This makes the fragrance much more premium and surely worth your price.

These perfumes are made by small-time designers who are professionals in the field. The exclusivity and the hype created around the perfumes make them the rarest kinds of perfumes.