Heaven scent: The story of uber luxury perfumes

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Who’d have thought that a perfume that sprays gold and costs over Rs 2 lakh would be popular? In fact, when you spray this scent, gold particles spray out with its heady, lingering whiffs. Its claim is that the gold flakes in its formula are the least precious of all the materials used. Others being the best oils from around the world and no chemicals. Indie perfumes like the Roja Haute Luxe by Roja Dove which literally sprays gold isn’t a name that a lot of people will know of or use, but for aficionados, luxury perfumes are the new must-haves.Many may not have heard of Elysium, Rose Atlantic, Sahraa Oud and 24 Old Bond Street Triple Extract, but collectors of unique scents are a growing breed in India. And some of them stock over 800 bottles in their “perfume wardrobes”. And they can cost anywhere upwards of Rs 10,000 and go up to Rs 2.5 lakh for a 100ml creation.”Commercial brands are no good and every second person uses them. I don’t want to be seen driving a Rs 2 crore car and wearing a Rs 5000 perfume,” says owner of a top Khan-market eye-wear brand who did not wish to be identified.His wardrobes is usually filled with about 500 oud oil-based perfumes, he says. “At airports, time is limited and most people want to spend their leftover currency and never end up exploring what “real” perfumes are.”But with newer and newer global boutique brands making inroads into the sector, the sector is hotting up.British brand, House of Creed, for instance, does not market its products. Its perfumes have limited production because of their natural ingredients. “We don’t over-produce and work with natural products only. The business in India is expected to grow 25% year-on-year,” says Erwin Creed, seventh generation perfumer of The House of Creed.In Dubai, the company had 70 points of sale, but decided to close 85% of those to reduce their growth to 8% a year globally. “Good quality and quantity are difficult to match,” he added. It has now opened a store in Delhi’s Chanakya Mall. Storefronts for luxury perfumes are limited though. One such specialised scent store is Scentido, which houses boutique perfume brands from around the world. Its founder Shishir Mehta, says niche perfumes sold out of boutiques and made in distilleries are far superior, rare quality and hard to source. These boutiques use higher concentrations of perfume, natural ingredients like lavender or flower extracts, oud oils and other rare ingredients. In fact, he says, that most luxury perfumes brands spend a lot more money developing such perfumes, making a far higher, rarer-to-find products. Ruchi Vaish, founder of ITK Fragrance Design which offers fragrance solutions to Indian brands says traditional niche perfumeries are unlike fashion houses that launch perfume brands.”A designer perfume house needs to service several million customers across the world, so they can’t afford to use ingredients that may run out. But a niche perfumer has the luxury to experiment with their ingredients. These perfumes are like creating high-end jewellery which would be difficult or even impossible to find again because of the uniqueness of the stone,” says Vaish.But newer players are entering the scene too. Gaurav Verma who runs website Splash Fragrance has set up a luxury perfume store in Lucknow by the name of Opulence Perfumery last month. While the store is still new, he says sales have shot up from Rs 5 to Rs 30 lakh a month from 2011 when he first started his website.”Luxury perfume brands were largely unknown to most unless they were fragrance aficionados. When we first incubated our business, popularity was gained only through word of mouth and personalised selling. But now, a lot more people know about and are willing to try luxury perfumes,” he says.And it can take several thousand dollars to create these scents. Shadi Samra, general manager of Real Oud Factory, from fragrance house Fragrance Du Bois says when you smell such perfumes, you know they are high-end. “One kilogram of natural oud oil is $14,000 versus a synthetic oud oil which would be $150 per kilo.”In Europe, long-lasting fragrances don’t work. But in the middle-east they want the perfume to last many days. Jo Malone is luxury, Symbol by Tom Ford are two luxury fragrance brands that are doing well,” he says.He adds that a fragrance in itself is luxury and these perfumes take that one step further. Are you willing to shell out a bomb for them?

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