Indie niche line CB I Hate Perfume has introduced Voyage, a new monthly scent subscription program.
With a current collection comprised of 44 perfumes that have been developed by the company’s founder, Christopher Brosius, since its launch over ten years ago, CB I Hate perfume has earned itself a reputation as the authority in independent fragrance, and with the launch of Voyage, CBIHP offers its fans an invitation to experience this unique olfactory journey and to collect each special scent along the way.
Every subscription to Voyage entitles the customer to receive one 2ml trial absolute from the Ready To Wear Collection each month curated by CBIHP, as well as a specially designed collectable card for each perfume listing the story that inspired it, and information about each unique fragrance.
These components will be sent out to each member of the program during the first week of every month, and free ground shipping is included within the continental USA. Customers in Alaska, Hawaii, and elsewhere internationally should contact CBIHP directly for additional shipping charges. Membership costs $35 per fragrance when billed monthly, but customers can take advantage of a 10% discount if they pay for the subscription upfront at a cost of $1386 USD, and they will still receive all 44 fragrances monthly.
(via press release)
I would like to find out what others think of this perfume house. I have never had the opportunity to try any of these fragrances.
I like a number of them…
I believe this is the house with water-based scents, which were more fleeting than Demeter, and that’s saying a lot. Alas.
Leapin’ lizards! That is expensive, $35 for 2mL, and $1386 total? Bananas. I have tried several from the line and been underwhelmed. The fragrances and the lasting power were not great. (Deep apologies to fans of the brand.) This house get lots of love in the blogosphere, but I’d rather spend $35 on decants/samples from multiple houses. Just my $0.02. Be well!
As I just said above, I do like several of them, and really should say I love a few of them.
But agree, this is terribly expensive, and I’m having a hard time seeing who the audience would be. If you’re already a fan, you wouldn’t want to get fragrances you’d already tried, and if you’re not, can’t see why you’d spend that much. IMHO they should not have done the Absolute concentration, it’s too expensive…
…but at least they’d then last more than a couple of minutes? Fleeting, I say again…
Oh, have not had that problem with the water based scents at all…Black March does very well on me.
I’m really intrigued by CB fragrances, but distribution in Europe is very poor, so this post immediately caught my attention. However at $34 per 2ml, plus international shipping, it’s not really affordable. Their Box had the same pricing issue for me. Bummer.
IIf I have to spend that much for the set, I would rather redirect the funds to a new super-thin, super-light macbook.
To play the devil’s advocate, $35 for 2 mL of perfume is not outrageous on a per-volume basis: that’s less than $125 for a standard 7.5 mL bottle, which is about right these days. But of course if you were buying a quarter ounce of perfume, you’d also get a beautiful bottle and fantastic packaging, whereas with this I assume you’re just getting a vial.
I’m going to offer a little dissent here: even among niche lines, my price limit (absolute) is $5/ml. At $250 for a 50ml bottle, even that is nearly twice as much as any Le Labo. Much more reasonable is $2-$3 per ml. A 50ml bottle of an ELdO can be $80, less than $2/ml, and it’s wonderful stuff and still in some cases twice as much as non-niche. At $35 for $2ml, CB has exceeded my limit by more than three times! I have owned a bottle of Mr. Hulot’s Holiday and currently have a bottle of Black March, but this pricing is more in line with Roja Dove’s plastic gemstone-bedecked monstrosities. Even if I could afford this extravagance, I would feel guilty. I should hope I could find a more generous or creative use for my resources! And this line still has miles to go with establishing more than collections of really terrific top notes and very little longevity.
Perfume, and I mean extrait as opposed to cologne or EDT or EDP or whatever, is always more expensive on a per-volume basis. It’s often worth it in terms of lasting power and general lushness.
I wouldn’t pay more than about $3/mL for most scents, but for vintage perfume I would willingly go a lot higher. I have a 15-mL bottle of vintage Parfum d’Hermes extrait that I paid $135 for a few years back, and it was worth every cent.
It’s like when I explain Venice (California) to people. I’m glad it exists. In my younger days I might have even loved it. But, for me today? No. It’s too much.
I’m a fan of what Brosius is doing, and I’m a huge sucker for his storytelling. I think Black March and a Room with a View are really nicely done, in particular. But I don’t want to wear them. I just like knowing they’re out there for someone to enjoy.
And at that price thank goodness. I could never justify it.