Last week on the radio I heard about a study that had been done on how the cost of wine — or at least how much people think it costs — affects how much people enjoy it. In the study, participants tasted what they thought were seven different wines. As they sipped each wine, they read information about the wine, including its price. At the same time, researchers monitored their brain's responses. What the participants didn't know was that they actually only tasted five wines, but they tasted two of them twice. For these two wines, the researchers first told participants the wine was low cost, and the second time they tasted the wine, participants were told it was expensive.
You've probably already guessed the study's results: when people thought they were tasting a costly wine, they reported liking it better. Not only that, but the pleasure centers of their brains were more active, too. When they drank the exact same wine but thought it was cheaper, they didn't like it as much.
Of course, my first thought was how a similar study would play out with perfume. What if I took two similar fragrances, one downmarket and one upscale, and asked people to compare them? Would they be able to tell the expensive from the cheap in a blind sniff? Would they prefer the cheaper one if I told them it cost a lot?
For perfume lovers, factors other than price would play in. Give me an anonymous drugstore scent and tell me it was a lost Edmond Roudnitska formula and I'd sell a kidney to have some. Although I'm more restrained than I used to be, hint that a fragrance is discontinued or that it's made with concentrations of oakmoss or other ingredients too expensive for modern perfumery or not allowed anymore, and I'm following the lemmings right off the cliff.
For my own informal study, I selected two dry, woody roses — Parfums Grès Cabaret (less than $20 for 100 ml of Eau de Toilette) and Portrait of a Lady ($300 for 100 ml of Eau de Parfum) — sprayed them on cotton balls, and put each cotton ball in a ziplock bag labeled "A" and "B". One of the bags was a little more beat up than the other, so in an attempt to skew the results for something more exciting I put Portrait of a Lady in the battered bag.
Right away I knew I had a problem. Even the faintest spray of Portrait of a Lady powered through the bag, while several spritzes of Cabaret only left an alcohol-slicked cotton ball with a faint aroma of woody rose. I tossed the original cotton balls and passed a fresh cotton ball quickly through a mist of Portrait. I soaked the other cotton ball with Cabaret and let the alcohol burn off before it went in the bag.
I took bags A and B with me over the next day and tried two approaches. Initially, I handed people the bags and asked them which fragrance they preferred, then asked them which one they thought was the most expensive. It was unanimous. Everyone nailed Portrait of a Lady both as their favorite and as the most expensive. "It's like this one —" one coworker said, pointing at Portrait, "—Is a symphony, while the other one is a string quartet." People smelling Portrait rapturously talked about roses, spices, wood, and incense. For Cabaret, they mentioned a "sharp, alcohol smell" (and I was airing out the bag so it would dissipate!) and roses.
Then I tried handing people the bag with the Cabaret sample and telling them it was an expensive perfume you could only get in Paris, and Portrait was some loud mass market fragrance. No dice. That approach only made people spout off about how perfume companies rip you off and how you can find perfectly nice fragrances at drugstores, like that charming scent in bag B (aka Portrait of a Lady).
So, what did I discover? Really, the only thing I definitely learned is that many people — me included — firmly prefer Portrait of a Lady to Cabaret. I may need to run this test again, only do it more like the wine test where I hand people several samples with prices attached, including the same sample twice with different price information, and see how they respond.
In the meantime, I still suspect price, provenance, and the story surrounding a perfume create an aura that adds (or detracts) pleasure from the actual smell of a fragrance. I just can't prove it. What do you think? If we ran a perfume preference study similar to the wine study, would we have similar results?
One more note about the study on wine preferences. When participants had no information at all about the wines, they overwhelmingly preferred the five dollar bottle. Go figure.
Note: image is Toujours un peu perdu dans les nuages [cropped] by Jason OX4 at flickr; some rights reserved.
I’d have preferred the $5 wine, and the fact that it was cheap would have made me only love it more. 😀 I know this, bc I have lots of wine snobs in the family, but try as I might, I just prefer the cheaper stuff. It would be fun if you could replicate the wine experiment with the same people you used for perfume to see if the sampling as representative. For one thing, I don’t think anyone outside the perfumista community thinks of perfume as something to be appreciated in the same way as wine. Everyone knows if you don’t appreciate a fine wine, you’ll be perceived as unsophisticated; I don’t think they have the same perception about perfume.
What do you prefer Boojum, sweet or dry wines? I find I have terrible trouble getting an affordable (let alone cheap) dry wine that’s really nice and good and dry! *sigh* Particularly when it comes to reds. Maybe I just don’t know where to look, but…*shrugs*
Sweet…I’m truly hopeless. Fortunately, I almost never drink anyway.
I think big, fruity, syrah-like wines are the most popular, so that’s what the less expensive, made-in-a-silo-in-CA wines tend to taste like.
That is so true! California wineries produce some quite tasty, big, bold, cheap reds.
You know, two Christmases ago I bought myself a $50 red Burgundy as a “treat” and definitely decided that I am just as happy with $10 bottles from Trader Joe’s. It wasn’t nearly as sublime as I thought it might be. Maybe in the $100+ range wine becomes sublime…?
Maybe after two glasses (of any wine) it becomes sublime…
Seriously though, if you tasted the TJ pinot next to the fancy Burgundy, I bet you’d be able to tell the difference very easily, and you’d prefer the Burgundy. But would you prefer it $40 more? That’s the question.
Unfortunately, Burgundy is a minefield in that regard. More than any other winegrowing region in the world, price is often not a good indicator of quality. There are so many tiny plots divided up between so many growers and price is largely dictated by the vineyard, so any inferior producer can charge a huge price for their wine. To make matters worse, there’s so much inbreeding and political marriage within Burgundy that many of the growers have the same or similar (often double-barrelled) names, so it’s extremely difficult to remember what’s good and what isn’t.
It sounds like the only solution is to fly there immediately and start tasting! My passport is in my hand right now.
B, the researchers said their guess was that the study’s participants weren’t super sophisticated wine drinkers, and the $5 bottle was bolder, and that’s why it was so popular. I’m all in favor of that. After all, I don’t sit around watching art house movies all day–sometimes I just want a good romantic comedy!
Nothing will cure you of wine drinking faster than a number of ladies book club nights involving a lot more wine than books. 🙁
My book club meets this Thursday….
Daisy, is that the book club your husband didn’t want you to go to anymore? 😉
yep, that would be the one…..he thought we were up to no good.
You?! Never!
Feel free to send me some little vials samples labeled however you please…and I’ll get back to you. *wink* Really. I promise. I’ll even promise to be fairly honest.
A willing participant!
Shamelessly begging for goodies! ;D
I’m having a similar issue currently: do I really like Iris Ukiyoe or do I just like it because it’s Hermes, it’s rare, and it’s blue? I’m not surprised by the results of the study. When you spend more for something, you don’t have the money to buy something else. Which sounds simple, but in economics, opportunity cost is a linchpin concept. Therefore, if you buy a $300 perfume instead of buying five $60 perfumes, you’re going to have to get more enjoyment from the more expensive one. Otherwise, you wouldn’t buy it. Of course, then we consider exploiting this concept….
All of which is neither here nor there for me. I still have not made the 4-hour drive to my nearest Barney’s to sniff Portrait of a Lady and it’s killing me. Kind of. ;P
For the cost of gas, you can probably buy a sample of POTL over the internet. (I think Aedes still has a sample program, not cheap, but also not the price of several tanks of gas).
I think most people would, in a blind test, prefer the scents that they were told were more costly. The interesting question is whether wine connoisseurs could tell the difference between the inexpensive and expensive wines and prefer the expensive ones. SImilarly, it would be interesting to compare the ability of perfume connoisseurs on whether they could pick out the more expensive scents and whether they would prefer the more expensive ones.
I think part of what gave my informal poll away is that I had a side by side comparison. When you smell two fragrances together, it’s so much easier to tell which one is better quality. In a vacuum, not so easy for the non-perfume fiend.
Unfortunately your ‘experiment’ has cooled me toward one of my favorite ‘old’ scents, Cabaret. I think the bottle enjoyment must have something to do with it. The Cabaret bottle is hands down more appealing than POAL’s. I know I used to occasionally enjoy the wine labels as much as the juice! I know I know don’t judge a book by its cover… I can be shamelessly superficial!
The Cabaret bottle really is a party in a bottle! The experiment cooled me on the juice, though, too. I put the decant in my give-away bottle.
Dilana, I think I actually saw an experiment done with wine CRITICS who were fooled much of the time in terms of which was the more expensive wine. I’d need to Google around for that to sef if I could find the article.
An interesting link:
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/02/24/fine-wine/
I guess the famous test was called the Brochet experiment. I’m not sure if it’s been replicated or anything.
I read the link–thanks–and it is kind of scary, really. I bet the wine “experts” who participated in the study don’t go around bragging about it!
In perfume, sometimes–SOMETIMES–cost really does make a difference, I think. The materials in a good, costly perfume just scream quality. Sometimes. Hermes does make everything sound good, though. I’ve even considered buying a pack of Hermes playing cards just because they’re Hermes. I mean, they’re playing cards, right? How much better could they be than the pack I got at Walgreen’s?
But I bet they’re cuter!
I do have a deck of cards from the ’70s with squirrels on them. Now *those* are some cute cards.
I covet your squirrel cards.
Regarding the back story rather than the price tag: when Havana Vanille came out I was bitterly disappointed. I’d been reading about it and anticipating it, and gosh, with a name like “Havana Vanille”, how could it go wrong? Fast forward six months. I tried the sample again without any preconceptions and I was shocked to find I loved it! I got a decant and I’ve been wearing it a lot ever since.
Moral of the story: extra information might help us like a perfume but it can also hinder our appreciation of it.
Interesting point! I guess we can expect too much, too. I know I’ve picked up lots of books I’ve heard raves about and been disappointed, but if I hadn’t been expecting a novel that would change my life I probably would have liked it a lot.
I’m glad you’ve come around to Havana Vanille!
I had a similar experience with Vanilla Galante and now it’s one of my favorites.
I think I’m following your steps in this one. I only smelled it once, and it was nice, but not fabulous. I have a feeling if I smelled it again, I’d really like it.
While I definitely DO think that expensive fragrances will often smell expensive and cheap fragrances will smell cheap, sometimes I worry that “price, provenance, and story”, or worse yet, advertising or packaging, are coloring my perception and making me enjoy a pricey, pricey fragrance that much more! I do try fragrances in all price ranges with an open mind, but sometimes I think I should find a way to test things more blindly. Perhaps I should just stop sampling scents that *ought* to be out of my price range… but I don’t want to deny myself the pleasure. 😛
I know what you mean! Some expensive fragrance seem to be about more than marketing than craftsmanship and materials, I sometimes think. But other times you can definitely smell the difference.
What a fun article and experiment! I’m not sure I would have put PoaL up against anything!
This kind of reminds of what you said about the Xerjoffs – that it is good to at least try something obviously made with excellent ingredients. I think there are a lot of expensive perfume brands that are aspirationally priced (looking at you, Creed) but the juice could reasonably be compared to something less expensive. Then you get the Malles, the Xerjoffs, Vero Profumos and Tauers, that are very obviously more well-constructed than most brands, and could possibly fare better in a “taste-test” even among non-perfumistas. I wonder if any of the wines they tested were the kind that are so uber-expensive and amazing that there would be no doubt. A $5 wine might hold its own against a $30 wine, but maybe not so much a $750 wine.
I think part of the problem with the wine experiment–which probably holds true for perfume, too–is that when we drink a $10 wine we’re probably not looking for the same thing we want in a $100 wine. One is tasty and drinkable, and the other is complex, challenging, and rewarding in a whole different way.
A $750 wine! Wow! A lot of pressure.
I nodded my way through this. (Nodded in agreement!) I get plenty of enjoyment from the cheap things I found at Filene’s Basement, but I get even more enjoyment from my expensive niche perfumes partly because I know they’re expensive and niche. But then, for a few of them you can just smell the quality ingredients; you couldn’t get that quality for a cheap price.
See, I’m just the opposite. If my niche frags aren’t markedly better than what I can find mass market, I enjoy them LESS, because I feel my money was wasted. I’m just a bargain hunter, through and through, I guess.
Of course, the best is to find something expensive for cheap!
Ah, I don’t have your luck in that department. But given the choice between a mid priced mass market frag and a niche frag, both of the same quality… I’ll take the mass market every time. Wouldn’t have been the case 10 years ago, though… I was still pretty aspirational back then.
Same quality for less? Sign me up too!
Especially when you try the good stuff next to the mediocre stuff you can really smell the difference.
Hey, I heard that report, and went musing down a similar path. I didn’t go ahead and prepare a couple of cotton balls for an unsuspecting public, though–well done!
I wonder about perception and perfume all the time. Our understanding of most things involves context, after all, and even if it doesn’t, we then sort out what we “learn” into context categories. One of the fun debates about perfume and smell is whether it exists outside of those contexts in our thinking process.
So many things to sort out–is there as much ingredient/preparation variation from one bottle of wine to another as there is between one perfume to another? One of the points I seem to recall coming out in the wine discussion was that once you narrowed down for quality of grape and type of processing, you kind of had the same end product, no matter what the price. (The counter to the full-bodiedness of the cheap wine enticing “less familiar” palates in that direction…after all, some of the tasters were “expert.”) My knee jerk response is that you can find a greater (relative) range in content from one perfume to the next, but I’d also have to be honest and say that I only know superficial things about the perfume making process.
But I still like to think about it. 😉 Thanks for a fun post.
Actually, I also wonder if certain treatments aren’t subject to a range of quality more than others…whether in the product, or the nose of the beholder. To be honest, any tuberose is going to scream tuberose at me before it does any revealing of facets or quality…. 😉
It’s interesting you mention tuberose, because I was thinking that maybe comparing tuberoses or tuberose/gardenias might be a good test!
I think it would be interesting to try Vamp NY in a tuberose blind test. I was wearing a sample the other day (I have an Anthropologie gift certificate and am trying to figure out which of their frags to buy) and both my husband and son were saying, what are you wearing, CANDY? I think to them it smelled like a cheap fruity floral! Their reactions turned me off. I felt it was like the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Interesting! And it’s been getting such great reviews, too! (I haven’t smelled it yet.)
I luvs me some Vamp! And it’s very clearly made with natural stuff that cost more than a dollar per gallon. I don’t get “fruity” at all; I get spice and vanilla and that buttered popcorn note, as well as the tubey.
But… I’m being honest here: It. Is. Trashy. Totally trashy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, exactly – sometimes I want to smell like the equivalent of a beach read. I’ll bet your family’s picking up on the trashiness.
Now it’s a must-smell!
Oh, and if you do a tuberose test, I’d like to send you some Lady Caron.
I’m all set in that department, but I appreciate the offer.
hello, great to hear someone else likes Lady Caron, apart from me, I reckon you do:-) it was my purchase in Caron boutique in Paris a year ago and I absolutely fell into it:-))
It would be interesting to do a comparison with two classic-style men’s colognes or two vetivers. All I can say right now is that I NEED to try PoaL, and that my bottle of Gres Cabaret is pouting. 🙂
Great idea on the men’s colognes or vetivers!
Please pat your bottle of Cabaret for me and apologize.
OK, it feels a little better now.
Are there any truly “cheap” vetivers, though?
(Mine too!)
But for making wine, there’s still the winemaker. Two winemakers might take the same selection of grapes and create something different, depending on how long they age the juice, what barrels they blend from (since different barrels of the same vintage can taste different), what small amounts of other grapes they decide to blend in, etc. Then, of course, the same grape can be grown on the same acre as another grape, but up the hill in more sun, or in rockier soil, or or or…
In the Willamette Valley where I live, different wineries take the Pinot Noir grape and create an amazing palette of flavors, with different house styles.
So true!
True that. I think I was influenced by memories of a comment from what must have been a wine plebe. 😉
That said…I love that “terroir” can come up for wine and (I think) perfume. When it comes to plant based ingredients, at least. And the hand…the influence of the hand that mixes the “stew,” as it were. Whether ’tis truly a hand or a robot. 🙂
Now I want a flight of Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs. Dang!
We need to organize a cruise. The hold would be jam-packed with delicious foods, wines, and perfumes. Each day could have a theme. “Cabs & Chypres”, Rosés & Roses, etc. Hey – we could run all kinds of experiments!
Great idea! Count me in.
I am there. SO there. 🙂
I’m thirsty, too! I always do a dry January, though, so no drinking for me. To make it worse, I’m doing some freelance work on a wine auction catalog now. 1940s Barolos anyone?
Seriously? Ouch.
Wow. Those prices must be big and bold!
It’s a charity auction that raises millions every year.
What a great test. It is interesting what role “experience level” of a sniffer//taster may play. My pocket book does feel less guilty with your findings though;)
Having spent a bit recently, I went on a blind sniff of my collection to test. I found that (for my nose) I will need to continue to spend money for (some) of my favs. I didn’t track the cost of all the 200+ frags sampled in the “sniff-a-thon” but alot of my Malles easily made it into the top 20. I was actually surprised when I did notice a smell of better “quality”, as I really didn’t think I would. Then again not certain if someone told me the inexpensive were “better” if that would change anything?
Some of my “pre-perfumnista” favs still ranked high on my like lis thought-which pleased me. Whereas I didn’t enjoy most of my current iris frags as much as I thought & found that sometimes when iris, jasmine etc are in the title I actually believe there is more there than really is. Have been considering buying some “absolutes” for some more nose training though;)
You bring up a good point: in people’s top 10 or 20 fragrances, how many would be cheapies and how many luxury or niche?
I could definitely use nose training, too.
When I occassionally contemplate my top 20 (true HG) fragrances, cost never went into consideration. Although my tops inevitably are the more expensive or rare scents – several Guerlains and AGs, Gardenia Passion, which almost always makes the cut, can be had for cheap these days.
It’s true that you can definitely find them for decent prices now and again, but I still think of them as “fancy” (thereby making me love them more.)
Thanks for the post Angela!. I vaguely remember reading a report once about Chanel No 5. A blind smell test was done of No 5 among average non-perfume people, and most didn’t like it and had no idea of its status. This was reported quite cynically in the context of, ‘Oh, Chanel No 5 is not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s just the marketing that convinces people to buy it.’
Actually I think No 5’s quality is pretty obvious and it would survive comparison with many cheap, discount store fragrances because No 5 is made from first rate materials and the others (generally) are not. Still, marketing, and the history and aura of a fragrance, are very powerful, more so than most of us like to admit.
I do admit to buying Chanel lipstick. I could get good lipstick for half the price, but I just adore the packaging of Chanel’s lipsticks. They are first class quality and I love carrying around that little bit of glamour in my handbag., It helpls me get through the day. I don’t mind paying extra for that.
I know what you mean about the Chanel lipstick. I have a Chanel nail polish I used on my toes, and I love handling the little cubed bottle. (Lilac Sky, by the way.)
I wonder if comparing No. 5 to a drugstore perfume is really more like comparing (to use something cribbed from a Frank Prial article on wine) an Ingemar Bergman movie with Porky’s? They serve two different purposes, really. (Although some of us wouldn’t be caught dead watching Porky’s. The Leslie Nielson Airplane movies, sure, but not Porky’s.)
Hi Angela, newish commenter here but wanted to say I loved this post — fascinating and very thought-provoking. Please let us know if you do another experiment. And hi to Annemarie. I, too, am with both of you on the Chanel beauty products. I have a number of their lipsticks and one of their powder compacts works beautifully on me. They might be pricey but when I use them, I’m so happy with the results. And I love the touch of elegance they add to my day-to-day life.
Oh good, another Chanel cosmetic lover! I absoluitely agree with you.
I’m glad you liked the post! yes, those Chanel lipsticks and compacts really do class up a purse.
I have only tried chanel 5 on my skin and on me its really blah/ew. Just doesnt react well with my skin. If it was just sprayed on my skin i wouldn’t think it was a good perfume. I know what you mean though because I get that ‘obviously a a great’ with the eau de premier. The same for SL bas de soir; the same sort of blah/euw. Its a bit different with womanity because its a weird revoltingness on me. I might well think that that could be some great piece my nose (or skin) is not ready for…
Keep trying! You never know what you’ll think in a year.
exactly, that’s how it was with me…I think Merlin should try different concentrations… I believe most people try EDP which for me is not the best, but EDT is absolutely lovely and you feel like a million bucks
It’s true that the different concentration/ formulations do make a difference.
Packaging! Bottles! Important!!!
Where would we be without them! lol!
Very important!
The failure of so many non-perfume people to like Chanel no. 5 could very well be due to the fact that aldehylic florals are seriously out of style these days. If the people in the study are used to fruity florals, to the point that that is what they think perfume should smell like, they probably would not like no. 5.
I agree. No. 5 is definitely not in style. (Eau Premiere, on the other hand, is.) It takes time to embrace aldehydic florals as part of your fragrance vocabulary if you aren’t used to them.
…some of us are still counting just how long it takes… 😉
Standing with you in solidarity. 🙂
O.K., maybe it never happens for some people, but keep trying!
When it comes to makeup, I am guilty of paying more, I don’t mind cheapie if it works. Unfortunately with my skin, (very oily, odd color) foundation is a tough match so I pay more for a texture that doesn’t melt down my face and matches like it should. I’ve tasted a 400 dollar bottle of wine and preferred Trader Joe’s 9 dollar red wine.
Re: perfumes, I LOVE cheap thrills, unfortunately, most perfumes I adore are discontinued so their prices are premium most of the time. I hate to say this, but I think scents like Clive Christian and Creed are over rated, perhaps I just don’t “get” them….
See, and I was just about to post Creed above as an example of what I meant. I’ll take Chanel over Creed any day of the week, and on average, Chanel is cheaper.
You and me both!
You picked two lines that don’t move me particularly, either. Bond No. 9 is another expensive line that has more misses than hits for me, too.
Bond is another that is mostly “miss” for me.
add me to the list: In general Creed smells “cheap” to me, Bond’s all boil down to the same cheap smelling base (which I loathe) and another line that too me does not smell high quality to me, yet has aspirational pricing is Boadicea the Victorious. Very disappointing because Boadicea was one tough-a** chick.
I’m with you on Boadicea. I’ve tried lots of them but not all (how can you try them all? There are so many!) and only a few stood out.
I’ve been using high-end makeup and skincare products for over 20 years and just recently, purchased Mabelline’s Dream Smooth Mousse from reading all the raves on the various blog pages. I haven’t bought anything Mabelline since my late teens except for my wedding day mascara, and this makeup turned out to be fantastic. So it’s still possible to find cosmetic gems even in drugstores and supermarkets!
I agree, especially when it comes to mascara, Loreal makes fantastic products.
I also think the reason I don’t care for Creed is they all seem to have a common ingredient in the base that doesn’t agree with my poor sinuses. They also just don’t seem to develop smoothly on me.
I keep hearing about that Maybelline Mousse!
I want to try that Maybelline Mousse! I always use L’Oreal or Maybelline mascara (I hate Chanel mascara–flakes like mad) and Guerlain mascara (clumpy AND practically requires dynamite to remove) ……Pur makes a fabulous mineral powder makeup and smashbox makes fab shadows. Mary Kay makes great lipstick…but Clinique and LipFusion make the best gloss….there, the official Daisy Recommendation 😉
Thanks! Always helpful.
The mousse was a very pleasant surprise. For someone with pore clogging issues with foundations, I’ve not had any with this at all.
Oh but those Guerlain lattice cased 6-color shadows and liner they came out with last fall are gorgeous. I splurged on one last year….
That does sound completely gorgeous. I’ve lusted after one of the fancy lipsticks, too. The cases are great.
I think most lines have their “stars”, like Lancome and Loreal mascaras are typically great, Chanel foundations have great quality and texture and a wide variety of colors and finishes.
I have heard wonderful things about the Maybellene Mousse foundation, but as I’ve got oily skin, mousse formulations typically don’t work for me at all.
Actually, I’ve seen articles showing that with makeup, very often the drugstore brands are not only equal, but superior to the pricy brands. I can’t be bothered with eye makeup or lipstick anymore, though, so I can’t give examples.
Some of them are even the same thing in different packaging.
Wasn’t there that experiment where some $19 Olay product was rated superior across the board for plumping fine wrinkles to all those $150+ “skin extracts” and whatnot? It might have been a Consumer Reports study.
I can’t get over how much ladies (ok, and men) will pay for some quarter-ounce jar of Lancome or La Mer eye cream.
Here we go: http://www.consumerreports.org/health/healthy-living/beauty-personal-care/wrinkle-products/wrinkle-creams/index.htm
ah the face creams….it’s amazing what people will believe and what they will spend. I hate to dash their hopes but if you are buying it without a prescription then it’s effects are only cosmetically temporary. If it’s doing anything other than sitting on top of your skin cells –protecting by sealing in moisture —then it requires a script! Not that I don’t wish I could buy youth in a jar as much as the next woman.
My vote is for renova at night, and a c-serum in the morning, followed by sunscreen.
I think Tania Sanchez also touched on something similar this when she was writing about the different stages of perfume-addiction in one of her essays. Y’know, the point when you are largely drawn to the obscure,the discontinued, the rare, the expensive and the exclusive.
I don’t think that anyone is completely immune to that lure of something supposedly ‘special’ otherwise why would companies bother with limited editions, city exclusives (my personal pet hate) and fancy lacquered boxes with keys and tassels. I know that while I hate the super-limited distribution concept (looking at you, Le Labo) I’m a sucker for a pretty bottle.
Price is a funny one. I get a genuine thrill when I discover that a great fragrance is also relatively affordable like EL Azurée or SSS Champagne de Bois. I hate that Amouage is so expensive and I like to get a good deal. Knowing that I got something cheaper from a discounter certainly doesn’t spoil The Experience for me. But – if I were being entirely honest – I more or less ignore the really cheap, drug store scents because I presume that, fairly or unfairly, they’ll be rubbish.
Well put, Abyss!
Yes, well put!
Fascinating experiment… though it was really unfair to poor old Cabaret to pit it against Portrait of a Lady, which boasts the highest concentration of rose oil on the market and is easily the most powerful stuff I’ve smelled recently! Anything would seem anorexic in comparison.
As for wine, I’m not up to speed on the Californian style, but someone (you?) mentioned soil, exposition, aging, etc, which of course can make a world of difference in French wine. Though the Parker school has pretty much taken over – flattering top notes, lots of vanilla — here in France, especially the Bordeaux region, as much as it has in the perfume-world equivalent…
Yes, I didn’t choose too well in the Cabaret/ Portrait match up. It ended up a rout.
I’ve had it with Parker! I saw a terrific documentary about wine a few years ago where Parker was interviewed in his house in Baltimore. My immediate thought was that I couldn’t trust a man’s taste who lived with that kind of furniture.
::chuckling at the furniture::
That’s how I feel about Roja Dove, but with him it’s the Versace-style shirts…
This is excellent food for thought, Angela! There is also the whole issue of, as you say, provenance. For wines, certainly, I am more likely to taste/buy a zinfandel from Sonoma County than one from, say, Lodi. I wonder, too, if non-perfumistas would automatically give more points to a French perfume than to an American one, all other things being equal. Of course, all other things are almost never equal!
Interesting point about American v. French perfume!
Poor old Lodi. Didn’t the city of Lodi sue John Fogarty after he wrote “Stuck in Lodi Again”?
Well, they should have if they didn’t! 😉
What a great songwriter, Fogarty. If not for him, Lodi probably wouldn’t have any songs that mentioned it.
Exactly. And that’s a great song, and pretty much the only reason that I know Lodi exists!
I’m from SF, and the funny thing about this particular comparison is that Lodi and the Central Valley actually have a GREAT reputation for zins, especially old vine zinfandels. I would totally agree with you if you picked, say, syrah or pinot, but if I wanted a big, jammy, peppery zin, I’d probably go for the Lodi bottle!
Gosh you guys are making me thirsty!
Back in the mid-90’s, I happened upon some Seghesio’s Zins that sold for less than $10/bottle. I thought they were fantastic for the price. Fast forward a few years, when word got out about their quality and Zins became more popular, the prices practically doubled and my love affair with Seghesio ended because it became too expensive.
Just like 1940s suits and bakelite bracelets. Big sigh.
You know, we had one from Lodi just last week and it WAS good!
… and then there are the Perfumers. A talented perfumer is a scientist, a mathematician, and above all else, an artist. When we buy perfume, we’re buying art—and while it’s not a perfect analogy, I think that a perfume created by talented perfumer using quality materials will always stand apart, regardless of how much or little we pay for it.
As far as perception goes, I think that when it comes down to it, us perfumista’s like what we like, wherever we find it!
Although, I will admit that I’m more liberal in both application and frequency of wear with those perfumes that I got a good deal on 🙂
Perfumers make all the difference, of course. There are plenty of dull perfumes made of beautiful materials, and undoubtedly some fascinating perfumes made cheaply–the perfumer would make all the difference.
And how much control s/he is given. Even with a great artist, something can still be focus grouped into utter crap.
So true. Or soon reformulated into crap.
Both your experiment and exploration of the issues it raises are excellent. But I don’t think you need to “prove” that other factors besides the scent itself affect our reactions to it because I believe it’s basically a given. In literary criticism there exists the concept of “frame of reference,” which refers to everything you bring to a text. This includes not only your reaction to the cover, name of author, etc. but also your own past, emotional life, other books you’ve read, movies you seen, etc. Surely all these things figure in to a person’s reaction to a perfume as well (or any work of art). And of course it is impossible to eliminate these factors, but we can observe them.
For me, like you, the word “discontinued” in terms of both fragrances and ingredients, are definite triggers! That being said, with patience, I’ve been able to obtain some vintage (or just plain discontinued) fragrances at a fraction of the cost of a niche perfume. So actually I think it’s saving me money!
It might be fun to do a poll for suggestions of pairs of fragrances to compare side by side (sort of like those Splurge and Steal articles in fashion magazines).
Great idea for a post!
I also like the “frame of reference” concept and agree wholeheartedly. Still, I think lots of people believe they are immune to marketing, packaging, history, etc. I don’t believe it a second, as much as I wish it were true.
Angela, you could try to do the study with Byredo fragrances. They are great for that purpose, since most of them are expensive and smell like cheap frags hahahaha
Hmmm–more ideas!
I suggest you a comparison. If you find samples, pick Alain Delon Samourai 47 versus Byredo Chembur. They are somehow similar to me, and i don’t see significant quality differences between both frags.
I’ve never smelled either of them, but I’m scribbling the names down now….
Hey! I like several Byredos! 😉
For me, the price of a fragrance makes me get higher expectations about it. Makes me feel more bitchty about the fragrance flaws. If it’s a more affordable one, they are more acceptable i think. Sometimes what’s hard is when you know that you think the fragrance is overpriced, that the smell is not so different from the others, and that you still want it anyway. It happened to me with Kilian Rose Oud. I’m glad that i have a 10ml decant that will last me a long time, because my head says :” IT’S TOO EXPENSIVE”, but my heart says “BUY IT!” Sometimes it’s hard to balance heart and head =/
You’re so right! We expect a lot more of an expensive fragrance. It had darn well better be worth the money. But if it wasn’t very expensive, and it’s performing all right, then it is satisfying. But wouldn’t it be better not to buy the merely “o.k.” fragrances and save that money toward the spectacular ones? (I say that, but I don’t do it.)
Heart v. Head. Now that’s a tough one!
Angela, i have thought of it too sometimes. I see a fragrance that we love, but it’s too expensive, but then i ended buying more affordable ones, that were ok and which the values summed would be the same of that expensive fragrance. Maybe our brain feels more rewarded with amount than quality? I don’t now, but i have tried to stop doing this. But it’s really hard, specially those days that you feel that you need to buy something…
I know what you mean! It’s so hard to have patience, even if in the end it’s more satisfying to have waited and saved then bought.
I have already regreted a lot of times because of that – not having patience. I notice that fragrances that i buy in an impulse, even if i like them, i end not creating a strong link that makes them hard to sell if i need to sell something to create space at my wardrobe.
Lately, i’m trying to buy more decants than FB because of that. They satisfy the need of buying something, you’ll not feel so guilty of a big bottle that you don’t need, and they end faster soon.
And speaking of decants, I don’t know if you are a Tabac Blond lover Angela, but perfumedcourt was with an amazing sale price of the edt concentration – 15ml for 32 dollars and 30ml for 60 dollars
Thanks for the Tabac Blond tip! I have plenty now, but it’s nice to know people are looking out for me.
“wouldn’t it be better not to buy the merely “o.k.” fragrances and save that money toward the spectacular ones?”
Angela, your comment here reminds me of what you wrote about saving up for a bottle of Enlèvement au Serail because it would be worth every penny. I often think of the way you put that when trying to decide which treasures would be “worth it” for me… instead of dropping all kinds of small amounts here and there on decants. Did you ever buy one?
No! I never did, darn it. Now I’m going to get out my sample of it and start wearing it again to see if the love is still there.
I have been much better about only buying selectively, though. And I’ve been thinning out my perfume collection. My new rule about buying anything is that on a scale of 1 to 10, it has to be at least an 8. It doesn’t matter if it’s a screaming deal, or a good perfume, or whatever–if it’s not at least an 8 I don’t need it.
Angela, I’m glad that you brought up the topic.
Being a wine enthusiast I’ve read about that study before (actually, there were at least several similar studies before just without a brain scanning) and wasn’t surprised by results. Being a perfume lover I wondered how much the price point, a perfumer’s name, a brand or exclusivity qualifiers play a role in my personal perception or liking of different fragrances.
I think I might be more inclined to like something on a sniffing/testing stage, but I’m not sure if anything but personal scent preferences will take any of those “likes” into a FB and/or my “all times favorites”.
I’ve become a lot more choosy about what I’ll buy a full bottle of these days, so I certainly agree with you.
As far as the perfume experiment goes, now I’m going to have to see if I can get an MRI machine….
I always wanted to this experiment but not with two different fragrances, but with the same one. I always wondered if Bleu de Chanel would have good opinions if it was launched by another house. I’d like to see how people’s perception of it would change if they tried it on a different bottle and without knowing that it’s a chanel fragrance.
I think that the bottle and the brand are also important in the judgment of an specific fragrance. From the brand, you can have lower or high expectations about it, the same way you’d have with the price and bottle i think.
I think you’re right. It would be such an interesting experiment to see what would happen if the same fragrance were released by two companies!
That reminds me of Guerlain releasing some of the same fragrances with different names and in different lines, like Coriolan/Ame d’un Heros and Mahora/Mayotte. I wonder if people perceive them differently?
I confess that i have tried both Coriolan and L’Ame d’Un Heros, and for me, the expensive one was fainter than the most affordable one. It lasted less than Coriolan and seemed so much bloodless for a 200 dollars fragrance. I never tried Mahora, but i have a sample of Mayotte here that i still need to try.
The same fragrance sold at versions of different price is appealing Angela. I’d like to know with a fragrance like Guerlain Philtre d’Amour if people would see which one was more expensive, since both almost has the same smell (this is another one that i think that the former version was better). It’s a pitty that Philtre d’Amour is not so easy to find in both concentrations 🙁
So many of those gorgeous old Guerlains are so hard to find and so expensive when you do find them.
Like Abyss, I do tend to avoid sniffing the really cheap stuff, as I don’t expect it to be any good at all. Beyond that , however, there is not necessarily a connection between price and enjoyment for me. There are many expensive perfumes that I do not like at all, including Portrait of a Lady. I just got a sample of this in my last sample order, and can report that I did not like it one bit. I have been on something of a quest for a good rose scent, and ordered a sample of PoaL because it was described as a “rose” scent. I really didn’t get much rose out of it. What I did get was a strong scent of something burning (oil? plastic? I am not sure). I have not been very taken with any of the Tauers I have tried either, and of the 12 Xerjoff Shooting Stars perfumes (I got the sample set), there was only one that really grabbed me (Ibitira). Two or three others were nice and I would certainly wear them if a bottle dropped out of the sky. Several others I found quite blah or even unpleasant–and they are all the same price. There are also a number of (relatively) inexpensive perfumes that I have enjoyed very much.
Now, I do not claim to be immune to packaging. I love a beautiful bottle, and it can be the thing that gives me that final nudge if I am on the fence about buying. I do not think, however, I would ever buy a perfume I disliked just for the bottle, at least not unless it was very cheap and I bought it just to display. I would also not refuse to buy one I loved just because the bottle was ugly.
The influence of marketing is another matter. Certainly, marketing influences buying behavior, if only by making you aware of the product. I mean, how can you buy something if you don’t know it exists? On the other hand, I find a lot of contemporary advertising to be quite tasteless, and I have been know to NOT buy something just because I hated the commercials.
You’re saving yourself lots of money! Good for you! Have you tried Nahema or Coup de Foudre? Those are some pretty roses, I think. I especially love Nahema for a juicy, peachy rose. Oh, and Eau Suave for a green rose.
I have a vintage mini of Nahema (it was among my grandmother’s things, and she died in 1983). I can’t be sure that it hasn’t turned, of course, but I don’t like it much. It smells too synthetic. It”s funny with Guerlains–the ones I like, I like a whole lot (Vol de Nuit, Shalimar, Apres l’Ondee, Liu, Attrape-Coeur), and the ones that don’t work for me, *really* do not work (Mitsouko, Nahema, Jicky).
Confession time–after trying a bunch of roses, I ordered a bottle of Oha. I had forgotten about Coup de Foudre, and have not smelled it yet.
And of course, you are right–it does save a lot of money not to like a really expensive perfume. Often, I avoid sniffing a lot of the really high-dollar stuff, just so I won’t pine after something I cannot buy. PoaL, however, got so many positive reviews that I had to check it out.
Oha! I seem to remember that one as a gorgeous rose chypre. I bet you smell lovely.
50_Roses, have you tried Oha before buying? I’m curious because the sample I bought from ebay seems to be old (or at least I hope that that not so pleasant opening comes from the sample being not fresh because I really liked it on a dry down).
I liked PoaL definitely not because of the hype (there are at least couple of acclaimed FM’s perfumes that I cannot stand on me), but I almost wish I didn’t like it.
I did try Oha–I got my sample from The Posh Peasant. I didn’t smell anything objectionable in the opening, but then I often don’t get the same things from a perfume as everyone else. On me, it starts out simply as “rose”, then gets deeper and lusher with time. I was testing 3 or 4 things at once, but I kept on smelling the wrist on which I had sprayed Oha and wishing I could just wash everything else off so I could wear just the one perfume. I also tried it side-by-side with SSS Velvet Rose and C&S Dark Rose (my two previous favorite roses) and decided Oha was the winner (by a small margin, I will say. They are all pretty terrific).
I have an idea for a way to test this concept. Take several sample vials of perfumes of similar types (several rose frags, or incense or whatever) that you have not smelled yet at all. Put them in a box or bag, then select one at random, and apply it without looking at the label, then stash it away somewhere. Sniff it and make notes on it throughout the day. If you need to reapply, again do so without reading the name. At the end of the day, place it in an envelope labeled with the date. Do this with several frags on different days, and keep notes–how much do you like it, how high quality does it seem to be, how long does it last, etc. After several days of this, then open the enveloped and check the names against your perceptions of them. See if you really do like the expensive ones better, not knowing what they cost.
Great idea! You have the makings of a scientist.
I share the reaction of many folks here. I really don’t bother anymore with drugstore or celebrity fragrances. I tried for awhile, but they all seemed harsh, dull, or almost industrial smelling. And while I intend to try some samples of outrageously priced darlings, I anticipate my expectations to be unreasonable; maybe in the same realm of people that scoff at pricey wines.
Judging by friends and family reaction, my Lolita Lempicka scored the best, well ahead of Guerlain and Chanel. I did try my own little experiment with my mom, to have her guess my most expensive stuff (I sprayed them on index cards). She made the comment that certain ones she liked the best, but she thought some others were more expensive. And she was right most of the time. I used a sample of Bond’s Silver Factory, which she thought was the priciest (it was), but she didn’t like it!
As a woman who’s favorite wine is Cavit pinot grigio, I can’t give an informed opinion about wine, but I do have anecdotal evidence that the perceived value of the wine has a great deal of influence. Years ago a elderly friend of my parents gave them an expensive bottle of wine. They don’t drink, so they served it to other friends (who really loved wine, and were impressed by the name on the bottle). They promptly raved about it and told others how kind my folks were.
Maybe they were just being kind themselves, but we discovered later that this elderly gentleman was in the habit of bribing staff at expensive restaurants to give him the empty bottles, so he could refill ’em with cheap stuff and give it away to business associates! And no one ever mentioned the taste being off! Even after the guy was discovered to be a con artist, people he scammed told my dad that at least he handed out good wine.
Could one of the differences in perception be that people are more attuned to smell than taste? Not that they could describe the elements in a perfume, but they would know that more than 3 or 4 elements were involved, while with wine sweet/dry/white/red might be all that they could sense as being present?
There is a funny episode at the beginning of the Agatha Christie play “Spider’s Web” (recently adapted into a novel) in which two men who consider themselves connoisseurs are trying a taste test in which they sample three glasses of port, which they believe to be one very old and expensive one, one less expensive (but still high quality), and one el cheapo. They taste, consider, and then write down their opinions of which is which (very strong opinions, I might add). They are then informed by their hostess that she has played a trick on them–it is all the same port! To add to the irony, a younger man who knows nothing about port had also tasted them, and proclaimed that they all tasted the same.
Fabulous! I do love Agatha Christie.
Totally irrelevant, but I love port! It’s my favorite 😉
What a funny story! It really is difficult to try to judge something solely on its merits. It seems like it shouldn’t be, but it is.
I like Lolita Lempicka, too! (Of course, Silver Factory is very very nice, too–one of the few Bonds I like.)
Great piece, Angela. I think more extensive experiments of this type are in order. Oh, and I’d gladly volunteer to be your research assistant… 🙂
We should do it! We could design a study, then I could carry it out up here, you could do it down there, then we could combine the results.
Where do I sign up to be a guinea pig? 😉
I’ll let you know if anything transpires…
This project would need many research assistants. All of those variables in age/gender/experience would need to be accounted for! Perhaps someone in the industry would be willing to fund this study? All those decants would be quite pricey, but I think I know of a place to find willing guinea pigs to experiment with. 😉
Maybe industry people should just send us all a bunch of free bottles and let us figure it out…
Angela, you’re one of the few bloggers that consistently remind us of the quality that may be found in some bargain fragrances, so obviously, bargain treasures are still out there to be discovered, though I think it’s harder nowadays than before. But think of all the horrible things being turned out these days at premium prices, and I think the companies are still pulling the wool over many eyes.
I enjoy reading customer reviews on Lucky Scent in spite of variations due to individual preferences because it’s easy to see the good ones float to the top. Some of the most interesting and possibly the best scents are the ones with the widest range of responses.
Maybe a wide range of opinions means the perfume has a personality, at least. That’s a good sign.
HAH – as Jimmy Durante used to say, the nose knows! 🙂
It did in this case!
It would be fun to run a blind test of reformulated fragrances. Give a random group of people strips with pre- and post-reformulated Mitsouko and see what happens. Likewise Miss Dior, Diorissimo, Vent Vert … the Piguets … Magie Noire … Norell …
That would be really interesting! Would the reformulated fragrances be more popular because some of them take modern tastes into account, or would they smell thin and simple? I’d love to find out.
When I was in Italy this fall, I ran out to the parfumeria next door to our hotel for some toothpaste, and so sure, sampled stuff… but all those perfumes seemed empty and pointless after I anointed some skin on my forearm with Mitsokou — and mind, this is the reformulated stuff. Most standard-issue contemporary perfumes just pale in comparison to even a reformulated Guerlain or to an indie perfume, like a Tauer.
Once you do a little test like that, you understand why you can never go back.
Another little test I did was with a vintage Halston and a contemporary Mitsouko — the Halston was all jagged and coarse in comparison, and the Guerlain smooth and strong yet soft. A fascinating comparison…
So true. A lot of things are like that. Coffee, for instance. Once you have the good stuff you can’t go back. Nice boots. A well-made arm chair.
It’s kind of interesting … I enjoy a good coffee, but I can just as well enjoy a fresh cup of Folger’s at my grandmother’s house. Maybe because it has the grandmother connection? I’m not sure… it’s like being able to always savor the deliciousness of a cheap boardwalk hot dog.
Oh yes, I understand that. Really good coffee in a diner would somehow be wrong, and there’s always a place for boxed mac and cheese.
Anything your grandmother makes is inherently superior to what you get anywhere else. If your grandmother makes you a PB&J, it it better than a dinner at a 5-star restaurant.
I love this topic, Angela! We did this a long time ago, March, Marina and me (maybe Lee or Tom too? Or Victoria?), we sent each other blind samples, one had to be some vintage classic, one had to be a current celeb thing, and then the other two could be whatever we chose. This was so long ago, back before I figured out how to love classic Diors, and I totally trashed them, knowing full well that I would be told they were classics beloved, blah, blah. Since then, I’ve learned to appreciate and love them, especially vintage Diorling. Would I have tried so hard to love them if they weren’t discontinued, classics? Not sure.
I’d love to do a cross-blog blind thing like this again now that there are more of us. Holler if you want to! We could involve some readers/commenters from the blogs as well.
What a fabulous idea! I’ll check in with Robin and send you an email later in the day (after that darned office job I have to go to in a few minutes).
I remember reading that, and some of the comments here just made me think of it. It would definitely be fun!
I’m an avid champagne drinker and honestly can say that once the price exceeds a certain amount you’re most defintiely paying for the name and the prestige. Now, as far as perfume goes I won’t say that the price tag makes it seem more appealing because of the alleged ‘prestige’ some $300+ niche’ fragrance might hold, but I can definitely smell the difference between something that’s found in a drug store, or even something that’s readily available and touted at say Sephora against a bottle of Amouage. I can very accutely smell the alcohol in cheaper fragrances, whereas some higher end perfumes I have I cannot even detect a trace of it.
While I can’t necessarily justify spending several hundred dollars on a bottle of champagne when I’m quite happy with my $35 bottle, perfume is one of those things that I find the quality does seem to match the price tag … within reason. I personally found Clive Christian No 1 to smell like WD-40 despite being ‘the most expensive perfume’.
There are very few perfume houses I feel are worthy of a $300+ price tag, though. Amouage is one of the few. Epic Woman has become the perfume I receive the most compiments on these days. Interestingly enough though, a discounted bottle of YSL Yvresse holds the second place.
Yvresse is so nicely designed–so interesting and pretty–that I can see why it gets compliments. And I think I’m going to wear Epic Woman today!
I have brought 3 or 4 female friends with me to the Frederic Malle counter, and told them the story behind Le Parfum de Therese, and every single one of them tried it, and said “That story’s really romantic, but .. eh. It’s not for me. Now this Noir Epices…”
So much for the power of the story!
Seriously, huh? Oh well. It at least gets people thinking about perfume as more than just something to splash on and forget about!
If anyone does a blind test like this, for the love of all that is good in this world, please include a few Comme des Garcons fragrances packaged as drug store products. As much as I love it, if you told someone on the street that 8 88 was from Walgreens I guarantee you they’d believe it.
I’ll file that one away, thanks!
Didn’t get a chance to comment yesterday, and I see that several people have touched on my thoughts already! I do think that good quality ingredients show; that the perfumer’s expertise makes a difference; that advertising and story and packaging make a difference, though I’d like to claim I’m immune to them (I do avoid women’s magazines, and I don’t shop a lot, so really the truth might be that I’m just not exposed to a lot of those elements, other than through the fume blogs).
I will say, No wonder the ‘spensive one took the prize in your test – I like Cabaret very much, and did not get on with the balsamy stuff down in the base of PoaL, but PoaL is very strong stuff, and the rose part of it is really beautiful. Wonder what would happen if you repeated it with Carnal Flower, Kai, Sand&Sable, and Fracas? Or if you threw the superbly-trashy Vamp a NY into the mix? I liked Kai until I smelled some tuberose EO, and realized that most of the composition had been done by Mother Nature. Kai’s still pretty, but I’m annoyed at what it costs. Honestly, I’d rather have the tuberose EO.
Last winter I did a three-fer test with vintage Ysatis, Divine edp, and Ubar (the new one), and asked my increasingly-scent-aware 11 year old son to sniff them. I asked which one he liked best, and he pointed immediately to Divine. “That one,” he said. “They’re all nice, and they smell kind of alike, but I like that one best.” Then he pointed to the Ubar patch. “That one smells more expensive, but the one I like is smoother.”
Huh.
That’s a pretty savvy 11-year old.
Gaze is sharp. (And sweet.)
I definitely like the idea of doing a white flower test, and you list some good ones to try.
Smart boy, your son!
I have Ubar and a sample of Divine, and I never thought of them as smelling terribly similar. Divine is one of those florals that are just too sweet. I think the “roughness” of Ubar is what keeps it from being cloying to my nose.
Divine is not too sweet on me, but I like it the least of those three (which are only vaguely related anyway, along a “citrus, white florals, rich base” angle). Ubar is probably closer to Ysatis than to Divine.