While perfume is a luxury item, the price may not necessarily reflect the quality of fragrance either within the mainstream or the niche brands. As I was testing Cartier Les Heures de Parfum and feeling shocked by the price sticker of $255 per 75ml, I began to wonder about affordable and good quality fragrances.

What is your favorite, reasonably priced fragrance? How do you find your perfume bargains?

My favorite reasonably priced fragrances include Bath & Body Works Cotton Blossom ($10.50, a lovely powdery orange blossom reminiscent of Rochas Tocade) and Velvet Tuberose (75ml $13.25, airy, creamy tuberose,) Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure (17ml $36, excellent smoky incense,) Crabtree & Evelyn Iris (30 ml $25, simple, but very elegant iris), Pacifica California Star Jasmine ($9 solid perfume, green, bright jasmine), Demeter Gin & Tonic (120ml $18.80, effervescent, green citrus with a hint of pepper.) Rochas Tocade is not necessarily cheap, but I recently got a 100ml bottle for about $30 on Amazon.com. Ebay.com can also be a great place to find perfumes at bargain prices, but buyer beware, not everything sold there is authentic.

The best fragrance bargain I have come across was a bottle of Shalimar EDP at the garage sale for $5.  Alas, it was the first and only time…

Image: Moschino Cheap & Chic ad (I love its tongue-in-cheek, flamboyant quality)

The deterioration of perfume’s luxury status has resulted in some new marketing strategies on the part of high-end brands. The most obvious one has been to create niche lines within the main range that are distinguished from their commercial offerings both by the elaborate nature of packaging and the impressive prices: Chanel Les Exclusifs, Hermès Hermessence, Guerlain L’Art et la Matière, Giorgio Armani Privé, Cartier Les Heures de Parfum, and Christian Dior La Collection. Cartier Les Heures de Parfum first launched in 2009 with five fragrances (L’Heure Promise, L’Heure Brilliante, L’Heure Folle, L’Heure Mystérieuse, La Treiziéme Heure,) and this year, the collection was expanded to include three more (L’Heure Defendue, L’Heure Fougueuse, L’Heure Diaphane.) As I have been testing my way through Dior La Collection, I decided to revisit Les Heures de Parfum as well.

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When Marina recently asked if there were a candle that smells like a dark gothic rose, I enthusiastically set out to find one. After all, dark, mysterious roses like Agent Provocateur, Guerlain Nahéma and Fredéric Malle Portrait of a Lady are among my favorite fragrances. However, as I looked through my candle collection as well as browsed the available selection at various department stores, I quickly discovered that most rose scented candles fall into the pink and romantic category. Yet, as I tried various candles, uncovered old favorites and made a few new discoveries, I found myself enjoying this rose candle quest very much. Below are my favorite candles for a whole week of romantic roses. While many of these candles would make wonderful Valentine’s Day gifts, they should not be reserved only for February 14th. The same can also be said about romance!

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by Elise Pearlstine

Victoria’s Note: Wildlife ecologist, natural perfumer and avid gardener, Elise Pearlstine has an intimate connection to the world around her through her diverse interests. Her philosophy may be summed by the word “bellyflowers” (also the name of her own blog.) Bellyflowers are aromatic wildflowers so tiny that you have to get on your belly to smell them. It is about slowing down and taking in your surroundings.
In this series of guest articles, Elise will be sharing with us her passion and enthusiasm for scented plants as well as her extensive knowledge of gardening. Please welcome Elise with her first post on palmarosa, a fascinating grass that smells of roses and green citrus rinds.

If you chew on a blade of palmarosa grass you get a sharp, sweet and tangy taste that is very slightly floral, almost citrusy and the smell of the essential oil seems to sneak into your nose. The smell is rich and floral, seemingly more complex than the essential oil. The plant from which I have picked the blade grows next to the front porch of a lovely small house in Miami. It has exploded from a small houseplant to a grassy clump with stalks over eight feet tall and is mingling with a large Jasmine auriculatum. Seeds cover the tops of the palmarosa stalks where it bends over the sidewalk and steps. It is a rangy plant with a reed-like center stem and grass blades growing along the sides. New tender growth is coming up from the bottom of the clump and will soon replace the part I have cut.

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With Vétiver, Jean-Paul Guerlain did a seemingly simple thing—he emphasized each facet of the natural raw material, vetiver oil, to create an abstract, modern fragrance. Even though Vétiver de Guerlain has been in existence since 1959 and along with Carven Vétiver engendered a whole family of classical woods, it possesses a timeless elegance that has come to define masculine perfumery. Therefore, it continues to inspire new fragrances based around the dark, green woody note of vetiver, the latest of which is Christian Dior Vétiver.

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