How to reproduce a fragrance
October 16, 2017 7:28 AM Subscribe
My favorite fragrances keep getting discontinued.
Is there any service out there that will reproduce fragrances that I love which are no longer being sold? The most recent ones that I've discovered to have been discontinued are Trouble by Boucheron and Omnia Green Jade by Bvlgari.
Is there any service out there that will reproduce fragrances that I love which are no longer being sold? The most recent ones that I've discovered to have been discontinued are Trouble by Boucheron and Omnia Green Jade by Bvlgari.
A possible workaround is fragrance.net I was able to purchase one of my favorite discontinued perfumes from them for years, first actual full size bottles, then it slowly dwindled to sample sizes and testers. But they really do have a huge selection of hard to find fragrances.
posted by catatethebird at 9:55 PM on October 16, 2017
posted by catatethebird at 9:55 PM on October 16, 2017
Best answer: A perfume I had worn daily from age fifteen onwards was discontinued around the turn of the millennium, and I am still able to find it on eBay. Set up a saved search so you get an e-mail when a new listing pops up? Despite the age, the old bottles still smell fine. (Bulgari is Bulgari but "stylised as" Bvlgari; a peek says eBay sellers often have no idea and both spellings are used, so use "(bulgari,bvlgari)" in the search terms...)
The pricing is about the same as it was when it was still in the shops. It is definitely on the obscure side, though, and this may not work as well for more popular companies' offerings.
Three Custom Color Specialists do discontinued lipsticks; I would bet they get asked about other toiletries and might shoot them a mail asking if they have a recommendation for a place that does duplicates of discontinued perfumes.
+1 for Fragrantica. Or a very knowledgeable perfume clerk -- when I realised mine had been discontinued, I went off to a posh dept store, preferred a wrist, and asked for help; I was quickly directed to a very, very similar fragrance.
I ended up with, over the years, a whopping amount of perfume. Just as I had nailed down my new daily driver, it was...discontinued. As for the one I had smelled of since my teens, I stopped tracking down old bottles, as the discontinuations of a favourite pair of Gap khakis and a cherished lipstick turned out to be a kindness: I had been clinging to what were not classic, but clearly dated trousers and lip colour. I eventually admitted that the perfume was a little too much of its era, and I was better off moving on. Or just dropping it for a while -- when the only nail polish I used disappeared from the shelves, I quit painting my nails -- for about two decades! Apparently I can really hold a grudge. But the only thing I liked about painting my nails, at that time, was that nail polish. Sometimes it's best to grieve and move on -- though I admit to having a bit of the old perfume, and a bit of the old lipstick, to trot out on odd occasions. Hoard what you can while casting about for a new favourite?
But, yeah, the time to jump on getting more is ASAP once you find it has been discontinued; plenty of discount web perfume retailers have discontinued stuff in stock for a while -- I'd buy a whack as having it reproduced won't be at all cheap unless a direct imitation already exists. And I have never found any imitations of any perfume to be quite right...
posted by kmennie at 1:21 AM on October 19, 2017
The pricing is about the same as it was when it was still in the shops. It is definitely on the obscure side, though, and this may not work as well for more popular companies' offerings.
Three Custom Color Specialists do discontinued lipsticks; I would bet they get asked about other toiletries and might shoot them a mail asking if they have a recommendation for a place that does duplicates of discontinued perfumes.
+1 for Fragrantica. Or a very knowledgeable perfume clerk -- when I realised mine had been discontinued, I went off to a posh dept store, preferred a wrist, and asked for help; I was quickly directed to a very, very similar fragrance.
I ended up with, over the years, a whopping amount of perfume. Just as I had nailed down my new daily driver, it was...discontinued. As for the one I had smelled of since my teens, I stopped tracking down old bottles, as the discontinuations of a favourite pair of Gap khakis and a cherished lipstick turned out to be a kindness: I had been clinging to what were not classic, but clearly dated trousers and lip colour. I eventually admitted that the perfume was a little too much of its era, and I was better off moving on. Or just dropping it for a while -- when the only nail polish I used disappeared from the shelves, I quit painting my nails -- for about two decades! Apparently I can really hold a grudge. But the only thing I liked about painting my nails, at that time, was that nail polish. Sometimes it's best to grieve and move on -- though I admit to having a bit of the old perfume, and a bit of the old lipstick, to trot out on odd occasions. Hoard what you can while casting about for a new favourite?
But, yeah, the time to jump on getting more is ASAP once you find it has been discontinued; plenty of discount web perfume retailers have discontinued stuff in stock for a while -- I'd buy a whack as having it reproduced won't be at all cheap unless a direct imitation already exists. And I have never found any imitations of any perfume to be quite right...
posted by kmennie at 1:21 AM on October 19, 2017
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Also, The Perfumed Court sometimes have bottles of discontinued perfumes available and will sell you larger "sample" sizes to keep you going a bit longer. They offer up to a 15ml of Omnia Green Jade.
posted by pammeke at 8:04 AM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]