Dossier's creations are not counterfeits. Counterfeit perfumes, like a counterfeit handbag, explicitly mislead consumers by pretending to come from a brand with which they have no affiliation, and are therefore illegal, if relatively common. Nor are Dossier scents what you might consider knockoffs; as with luxury fashion, scents originating in high-end perfume trickle down to the mass market all the time. But it takes a discerning nose to recognize that, say, Zara Gardenia is a riff on YSL Black Opium, just like it would take a knowledgeable shopper to see that Zara's Mini City Bag features traces of Balenciaga's Hourglass Bag.
— Read more in Inside the Complex World of Fragrance Dupes at Allure.
This is fascinating, but it certainly isn’t new. Back in the ’80s, as some of you remember, there was a line actually called Designer Imposters, and the packaging actually said, “If you like Obsession, you’ll love Confess!” Here’s an entire NYT article about the phenomenon (and it makes a lot of the same points that the Allure piece does): https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/25/business/discounters-mimicry-plagues-costly-scents.html?unlocked_article_code=hLQqbnycHW3egP1ynYXWYvguzIE0C3Fi7b8DWX1tVvO_OZTkfuEUZG4IP9uhLV4tMTWakdHnaWz994_0in9S66dTMgg24KqHYdpwefOr-Nb-vSyt9xa2u6In8l3IT4p1Xq-66l2IXkdAd0Q5qGfbYumqKvxq2YrARSOhssTqgw3OqRZYZk8QMSk7vto0SuRXsntMztNiHlMRIYYPVza2IRqgL4cj3n_CCJCHDtU44B6PC1vsh50tNM153aADkRsi-k-53Y6UzojLKA2PF4oKYusJOHMBqfJJNDfaecpZs3VgB9vKpXxVyiITVTXAwoPJ0vbPLNqNX9alZsKrmU2v0MqSqVD3vMJddNJwMmugO8vvpQT0tw&smid=url-share
Dupes are old as time…I remember seeing them in the drugstore when I was a young ‘un.
As I am reading The Ghost Perfumer, I am learning a lot about the issue of fragrance dupes, tweaks to existing formulas and lots of other details.
Ah, and is it a good read?
It’s rather verbose and heavy on personal musings of the author, but I have really learned so many new things about commercial perfume creation, the structure and the inner workings of the perfume industry (hello, “core list”) and the crazy fantasy world of Creed. It also reads a bit like thriller – will the villain face the truth or not? What will the hero say in the end? Read to find out! – and so I have been plowing through it and I am almost done. And even with the degree of anger it can generate in anyone interested in perfumes, it is also a nice, light reading compared to another book I just finished, Tender is the Flesh.
Tender is the Flesh looks like heavier reading than I can manage these days.
But meanwhile I can provide the author with a list of brands for his continuing series…