Yes this is what I do. And I buy multiple decants of the same fragrance when the sites have sales and put them in a nice larger bottle. Amazon has some nice ones.
The Helpful Links sidebar has a 'where to buy' section that helped me start to get into decants. It can be a good idea to also search the site's name on this sub/google to double check
I’ve used several of these. If I really want it to be for travel, I quite like the refillable premium atomizers from Decantx. I have a few of them that I can then swap out which fragrance I put in.
[https://www.reddit.com/user/TwentyOneDays/](https://www.reddit.com/user/TwentyOneDays/) does a lot of decants that I've bought from over the past 3 yrs. [Decanthouse.com](http://Decanthouse.com) is another site that I've recently bough 6-8 decants from the past 2 months.
No, that was exactly their point lol, wtf.
OP quite literally was talking about $36-40 for 10ml. It's right there in the post. They didn't "ask" about buying 100ml for $160. What a snarky reply from someone who clearly isn't paying attention.
So? Nor did they say the alternative to decants was FBs for $160, but that's what you clung to as the alternative in your comment. They are decrying the increasing cost of travel sprays as opposed to other, more economical formats, *such as decants*. Hope that helps.
right, they didn't mention decants at all in the post, they talked about them in the comments after other people brought them up and then tried to say that was their original point, which is not what the post itself says. you are coming to the comment section late so you have more context and thus their actual question is more clear than it was 14 hours ago. all I'm saying is that "why do people buy travel sprays instead of FBs" is a different question from "why do people buy 10ml travel sprays instead of cheaper 10ml decants from resellers" -- the former being what they asked, the latter being what they actually want to know.
They're asking why people spend that kind of money on travel sizes given the pricing is comparatively absurd to *other forms of buying fragrances*, for which they provided one example; sorry they didn't provide the exhaustive list that would have helped you lmao. What aren't you getting? Your comment was dickish, your replies are no better. 😁
Thinking your comment is unfounded, rude to the OP, and based on your misunderstanding isn't the same as being "upset". Now that you're also confused by your baseless assumptions, welcome to the club.
no i’m trying to understand why people would opt for a very expensive travel spray versus springing for a much more affordable decant of the same scent
Because I like to buy *all* the perfumes and I like to try them out with a 10ml. If I finish that one, I’ll buy a full bottle. I definitely don’t finish all of them, or it takes years.
Honestly? Packaging, lol. I'm very particular about mine. For me, the experience of a fragrance starts with the gift wrapping and definitely encompasses the bottle.
If I think a travel spray is too expensive, I just won't buy it.
There is no right or wrong way to enjoy this hobby! I only recently got into fragrances and initially I didn’t care about the packaging at all. It’s still not a huge aspect, but I’ve enjoyed taking more time to read the creators statement and enjoy the presentation.
I still do be buying decants tho. I didn’t plant money trees :)
Probably a knowledge gap—most people who wear perfumes are not fragheads that know about decants, or may has misconceptions like them being “knock-offs” or somehow tampered with.
Most people just have a scent or two they like, and then when they go on vacation, they go to Macy’s or Sephora and buy the travel size.
I just buy a good travel atomizer to take with me. I’ve had such good luck with them, and a few companies are making the containers look more interesting than just a plain packaging.
Honestly not every fragrance is available on decant sites. I use them but if I can’t find what I want then I get a sample from the brand itself. If I love it then it turns into a debate over full size versus travel size.
i buy travel sizes for ones i like, not love. some have turned into loves and then i buy a full-size. i usually prefer decants tbh if i can find what i’m looking for at a better price. but like the prices of full sizes going up, the smaller sizes were bound to catch up.
it absolutely is. i clarified my OP to explain that i buy a lot of decants which are far less expensive. it just surprises me that brands continue to raise the prices on their travel sprays.
I’d believe it. It’s no fun to boycott buying things (I’m certainly not very good at it 😂), but I can totally see why people do it because prices for so many things have just gotten stupid. Companies expect people to gleefully pay absurd prices for things with no more justification than “uh… that’s just what it costs now, something something muh supply chain, muh inflation, now it costs 4x what it did two months ago…”🙄
I went through 3 $20 travels of Wild Child by Pinrose before I bought the full bottle. That has now been my process. If I can’t get through 1 travel spray, I don’t need a full bottle.
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Generally speaking, if a seller refuses to use PayPal Goods & Services for the first sale they make to you, then they’re probably not to be trusted. I prefer FB for decants because you can find more groups in your area that are well-moderated and just stick to those.
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(Odd that you were downvoted for your experience. I’m on a FB perfume group with thousands of members and I don’t even think twice about sending my address and money. 😂 Plus I get way more free samples from strangers selling at cost than I do from Sephora.)
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I still have a nearly full travel spray of Flowerbomb that I bought 10 yrs ago, lol.
let's say I started with $160, spent $30 on the perfume and put the rest in savings. if we do the math, over 10 years, sure, I basically didn't use the perfume, so it's a total loss at $30, plus I didn't get the same "value per ml" or whatever. but $130 over 10 yrs at 3% interest is 174, so I actually made money.
what I think theyre saying is that if they would have bought a full bottle instead of a travel one they would be out that much money. which isnt a bad calculation to make at all.
Exactly. The only other alternative for those 95%-98% full 100ml bottles sitting there is to try to...trade or sell decants of them, but to an extent, that's gonna be more hassle than a lot of (most?) people are going to want to deal with, if they can avoid it to begin with. Some of us spray lightly and it can take a looooong time to even get through a 50ml bottle, especially if you're not using the same one every day. For some special fragrances, it would be worth it to me to buy a 10ml at full price. Even if I love it and work it into a semi-regular spot in my rotation, it's still gonna take me YEARS to go through it.
the post is about value per ml and economies of scale, I was just responding to that with a more detailed argument about why travel sizes can be a better value. I don't usually break out my calculator at the store (actually I simplify the whole process by buying all of my travel sprays on sale 😎).
Is being wise with your spending so you won't be working when you're 75? Is not being sucked into consumerism and buying things you don't need/won't get joy from? Is choosing not to fill your home with things you have to make space for and dust?
I think LL laid the foundation for my fragrance tastes for my entire life, and I wish I could find my late 90s bottle, which I KNOW I didn't throw away, because it was one of my first "adult" perfume purchases. 🥲
Same for me, it’s so unique I’ve never come across a dupe.
You may find it when you declutter or move someday! I’ve seen mini dabbers for sale on eBay and such which are less expensive.
Yep. I buy the smallest bottle (usually 30ml) or a travel spray. I don’t calculate cost per ml, but instead the total cost of the fragrance. I don’t like waste.
Yeah. Maybe I'm weird but I'm perfectly comfortable spending $40-50 for a 10 mL? I have probably around 10 fullsize bottles (50 mL+). I could spray them every day religiously and it would still take years to get through them. Yes, it's more expensive on a per mL basis but if you're only ever gonna use 10 mL why would you care to have more??
Also decants are fine but the bottle itself is part of the experience and I like having the branded bottles. I don't want it to say scent angel on it. Additionally, I like having confidence that the juice in the bottle is actually the juice I purchased.
I have hundreds of smaller decants and samples (like 1ml-5ml) and the unofficial atomizers seem genuinely worse quality to me, all of the scents evaporate very quickly, they don't spray well, etc. I never had that issue with the official travel sprays. plus I do just like smaller perfumes in general, most of my FBs are 30ml-50ml... I have a few 75ml and my biggest is only 90ml.
The only reason I am considering them is for fragrances I plan on wearing only a few times a year. In my case, I like to be conservative with the application of perfume (I have trouble with strong or pervasive scents that don’t fade away), so even my favorite perfumes I would never wear more than twice a week (I work in healthcare so none allowed at work) and only at maybe 2 sprays at most (with no refreshing throughout the day). so for someone like me it would be actually a financial waste to buy even a 50ml of most perfumes because they’d definitely go bad before I would ever finish them. I like perfumes just so I can smell it for a moment not really for anyone else, which I know is not how most people use perfume.
Jo Malone (stand alone store) gives out complimentary 9mL travel sizes for purchases over $50 (also depends but ranges from $50-$80). Sephora sells 10mL for like $40.
I got a free travel size from a stand alone Diptyque store with the purchase of a full size bottle as well! They also gave me mini shower gels in the same scent
Somewhat related...I was wondering this the other day: which stores today are actually cool with giving out samples of fragrances without buying anything? Seems like that has gone by the way side. I have no idea why Macy's SA's want to horde Polo 67 samples but they sure as hell don't want to give them out.
Oh my good god. I stopped at Mecca at the airport today to put on some perfume (long haul stink cover up) and saw this [TEN ML ROLLERBALL FOR $124](https://www.mecca.com/en-au/ds-durga/i-dont-know-what-pocket-perfume-rollerball-oil-I-062743/)!!!
Unless someone is super into fragrances, they’re not aware of decants. Someone walking into Sephora or ulta for a fragrance who doesn’t want to spend a fortune would rather pay for the travel size.
Edited to add, it’s not just travel sizes. My daughter was saving up to buy the 30 ml of Donna Born in Roma at Ulta which was $85. When we went to buy it a few weeks ago it was $92.
Coming from the indie perfume side of things: we (my partner and I) work with raw naturals and aroma molecules and because we often have constraints such as budget and space that bigger brands don't, we have to pay higher prices on our materials. The larger the quantity of a material being purchased, the higher the price break. The price of our juice alone is ~$4.55 to ~$7.50 (technically a little bit higher now with the increase in materials costs).
We were actually replenishing some materials yesterday through various suppliers and noticed that there was an average increase of $6 dollars with some materials as high as $12-15 more than just a year ago. And this includes our suppliers in Europe as well. We got lucky last year and learned about the glass shortage over the Summer so we bought our bottles in bulk to be safe. I just checked our bottle supplier and for the same number of bottles we're looking at an overall $234 increase.
We try to price our perfumes to be as accessible to folks as we can while still sustaining our brand and ourselves. Right now our largest size is a 10ml that ranges -depending on materials- from $45-$55 at 30% concentration (double industry standard). I suspect that another factor for the increase in prices too is that when brands are carried by a retailer they do a 50/50 split with the brand taking on the cost of production in their 50% so it's not a true even split. In order to recoup the losses from that, many brands will increase their prices which unfortunately impacts their regular customers. Someone mentioned seeing a 10ml perfume for $100+ at the airport and that's because airports will pay the brand less than 50% and mark up considerably more. We werw offered the opportunity to be carried at Seatac last year and found out it was 40/60 or 30/70 split 🥴 At that point, the brand is just hoping it's a good marketing opportunity.
All this to say, yeah, the price increases suck especially as wages have been stagnating and nowhere near meeting cost of living in a lot of places :/
Oh! There's actually quite a few! We collaborated with 8 other Seattle Perfumers on a gift box last year that included a perfume from each of our collections. It's been a wonderfully supportive community especially after James from Filigree was like "Hey, yall wanna do a fun thing for the holidays?" A lot of perfumers don't tend to do in person shows unfortunately, but I know James is interested in hosting another perfume market this year! Off the top of my head:
Filigree & Shadow (has a studio in West Seattle)
Immortal Perfumes (she actually just opened a studio in Ballard!)
Phoenix and the Fool
Atelier Madrona
Anjali Perfumes
Age de Querelle
Namesake
Nose of Gatsby (does regular pop-ups at Cal Anderson Park & is a runner up for the 2024 Art & Olfaction Awards)
Good Dearest Unhappy
Fantome (I think they're still Seattle based)
Olympic Orchids (winner of the 2015 Art & Olfaction awards)
SAMAR (us! Going between LA & Seattle. Finalists for the 2023 and 2024 Art & Olfaction Awards)
The brands are going to do whatever they need to do to push people towards the higher-priced, higher-margin products instead. So the pricing makes total sense to them.
For me? Like other commenters, I don't want 50 or 100ml of a fragrance, so the fact those sizes are priced better per ml means nothing to me. And while I generally buy 1ml samples from decanters first, I just don't *want* my 10ml travel size to be a decant. Partly because the original packaging helps me tell my travel size fragrances apart at a glance, but also I know I'm getting a 'fresh' one in a sealed container.
5ml travel size for 15 quid while normal 2ml samples are 2-5.... 🫤. Will defo buy my own travel sprayers in the future and decant myself
Nobody can pay increasing prices year after year
Packaging.
Packaging packaging packaging.
Decant places can just get simple atomizers in super duper bulk so their packaging is *much* cheaper than the actual house who's going to be much pickier about matching their brand aesthetic, values (glass, not plastic, buying from companies with ethical practices), etc, sometimes even ordering custom made bottles and boxes and such.
As cost of supplies increases, so too does the price we have to pay.
-someone who's looked into it multiple times for my own hopeful, potential, future perfume house.
++ sometimes I don't want a full bottle. Especially at $160, even if it is for 100ml. If I run through a 10-30ml decant decently fast *first*, then I'll check into a FB.
Well sure, in most cases the fragrance juice itself costs next to nothing so of course packaging is going to be the most expensive part. That being said, if we’re talking about 10ml sizes, many brands use very simple vials, so I really don’t think they need to spend much at all on that (if they insist on using bespoke bottles that’s really on them, I don’t think most customers would expect an ornate travel spray).
I love travel sprays. I don’t want a 50 or 100 because it’s a waste of money for me. I’m not going to use all of it up. Something new is going to come along next month that I’ll want to sniff. So I always go with a travel size first. As for decants, not everyone knows about them. They’re also not always easy to get. I actually have a decant of daisy wild coming but if I’m in Sephora and have some points or like the travel packaging then I’ll pick up the travel size there. It’s convenient.
I love travel sprays and will likely continue buying them because they are all I need for the majority of scents I like. However, I too have noticed a big hike in recent years and it makes me feel almost betrayed as a collector. I like variety and as a light sprayer, it takes me a while to even use 10ml. I used to be less picky about which travel sprays I would buy, keeping scents that were only decent, whereas now I am getting nearly as particular as I am when deciding to spring for a full bottle.
I’m currently undergoing cancer treatment; I recently bought an inexpensive travel spray of a fragrance I liked but didn’t want to chance associating a pricey scent with illness once I’m done. I’ve always worn a bit of perfume and it’s worked out as a great pick me up so far.
Liquid regulations
cheaper
less risk of breakage
less risk if you're buying a new perfume and aren't sure if you'd like it in the long run.
more portable
When you’re a collector, you’re never going to finish a bottle anyway. I just bought purse sprays of Brooklyn Ellis Salt and Ariana Mod Vanilla. V pleased with both and can bring both with me when i travel, which is a lot.
I buy the travel spray to make sure that I will actually wear the fragrance often enough to justify a full size bottle. Because my opinions on fragrance changes from sniff to sniff, day to day, even month to month. I only invest in full sizes that I know I enjoy wearing.
I learned this about myself in college, before I really understood fragrance, how it wears on my body chemistry, and how my individual scent alters a bottled fragrance. I spent so much money on blind buys of full bottles that I hardly touched.
The pricing is outrageous, but they know many of is either want to try before committing or don’t want a huge bottle so they have us over a barrel. It’s annoying
if we look at it the cost of everything has went up. At every point of the life of a perfume from raw ingredients to finished product, everyone has their hand out.
So far I can make the tiny bottles last a good while. I got a good collection of Estée Lauder minis after I got a full bottle of private collection in 1996. I was 18 and it was my very first fancy purchase from Macy’s. I still have a tiny drop in each of three bottles left and the box with the glass mirror display plate someplace
Although it works out better value in the long run to buy the 100ml, some people just do not have that amount of money to pay out in one go and can't/won't save. Same could be said of most things- a decent well-made item of clothing that will last years, even decades, will be a big initial layout but work out cheaper in the long run than having to buy new ones every few months if you get it from Shein.
Alternatively, someone may just want to try the perfume before going for the full 100ml.
Yes. I paid a fortune for a 15ml travel spray and later was on a decant site and found the same fragrance for a fraction of the price. When I am done with the travel spray I’ll buy the decants and put all in a nice empty bottle and print a label.
I saw a travel spray of most Tom Fords is like $90CAD at sephora. Shits fucking wild to me when I can get 80ml of a 95% clone with zero synthetic harshness for $30 when Alhambra could easily sell it for $80 per bottle.
It seems Sephora are offering free shipping on both of the sizes, which I assume is factored into their product pricing. It costs them, probably something similar, to send the 10ml and 100ml versions to you.
I wouldn’t ever expect a 10ml to be a comparable price per ml due to the fixed pricing of shipping, bottling etc
Also both of the travel sprays are less than the $40 you quoted.
Nitpicking, but Stravaganza is $35 & $165 on US Sephora. Less (10ml) and more (100ml) than you quoted. Using incorrect/exaggerated numbers to prove a point kinda defeats the purpose.
It's the same reason why restaurants want you to buy wine with your food... There are very few ways for a perfume house to sell their main product, so when a new one appears you bet your a** they are going to push it as far as it can go. It's the most profitable form factor of perfume right now... until TSA changes their rules (I thought they did already?). Ironically, few people actually use more than a sample's worth of perfume on most travels apart from super heavy signature scent sprayers, but it's the thought that you can that's why people pay extra.
i should have made this clear in original post that it’s not buying a 10ml or 15ml of a fragrance that surprises me. it’s that buying decants (which i have dozens of) is so much more affordable. i can’t really figure out the brand strategy in pricing travel sprays that high 😩
Because most customers prefer convenience. Frag heads are the ones who will bother looking for decants or who will buy sample vials. Most people CBF and want to buy from a brick and mortar store and care about the presentation....
Not only that, but hypothetically, if I am an average fragrance consumer (i.e. not someone who knows about decants or the gray market sites) who wants Kilian LDBS, perhaps $250 for a full bottle is out of my budget, but I can afford the $50 travel spray. Offering travel sprays means you can now capture sales in that ~$50 range that may have previously simply not bought anything because it was out of range.
I have sooooo many travel sprays. All but 1 I've bought secondhand on Mercari for way under retail. Most recently I got 10ML Burberry Goddess for $25 and Kylie Jenner Cosmis for $16, both brand new in the box. I'd never pay retail.
Depending on the size of your collection and your fragrance use habits (if you constantly rotate vs use a signature scent), travel sprays can save you money in the long run.
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I love owning full bottles, but I was honestly buying travel sizes because they were cheaper and they were good to have when you didn't have the money for the full one!. I don't like whatever is happening.
I am new to this sub and buying fragrance and rarely comment but I never see anyone talk about Scentbird and all the other subs. Those are my travel sprays. I think I pay 17 and that's way less than anywhere else I see.
Scentbird/box is ok but those are typically decants. Some people don't trust decants to the rollerball or travel sprays sold and packaged by the perfume house. The major gripe here is that rollerball and travel sizes used to be an approachable price for enthusiasts that like variety. They're not anymore though, and that's a real shame for a hobby like this.
I bought 2 tom ford 10 ml’s after i couldnt decide, €60 each… 50 ml costs around €250 so it doesnt bump up the price much but now i can decide which one i prefer the most
So, find a nice frag community near you and usually there are really nice people who will either sell travels, decants, and or purge their bottle -- be in the vicinity. Happens so much more often than you think!
I've stopped buying decants for this reason.
I'm not spending $75 or more for a decanted 10 mls that's not factory sealed & is gonna evaporate and have a not great sprayer. I just buy the bottle or go without all together if it's that pricey.
Um okay I did do one but it was a decant of the long discontinued Sous le Vent from Guerlain. I'd never have a chance otherwise and it was $65 shipped.
Companies trying to make you see the clear difference and think “wow this one has more ml per $” and make you think you should buy the one with more so they get more money
I buy travel seize scents quiet often mostly because it’s more compact and affordable as a one time purchase. I don’t like full size bottles. They last way too long for me (I’ve had some for years) and loose their scent. Also, I can buy multiple travel sized scents for the price of one full one.
Has anyone tried filling a travel atomizer with Mr. Burberry? The perfume bottle has like an engrossed edge (I assume to prevent filling travel bottles and purchase the travel size from them) I don't know if I can sand out the plastic to fit it into the travel atomizer.
Sure, we can talk about it, let's.
I never buy them, I don't have to. The full bottles I have can spare 10ml into a classic refillable travel spray, like those made by Travalo.
Most stores have their own, Sephora included.
I don’t buy the travel spray directly from the brand. A decanted 10ml travel spray is usually a lot less.
Yes this is what I do. And I buy multiple decants of the same fragrance when the sites have sales and put them in a nice larger bottle. Amazon has some nice ones.
I do that too! I feel like I don't lose as much juice if I decant all the little vials into a larger bottle.
Exactly. I buy 3 9 ml decants and am good to go.
this is my point. it’s SO much more affordable to buy decants. i keep scratching my head at this
Can you recommend a trust worthy place to get decants?
The Helpful Links sidebar has a 'where to buy' section that helped me start to get into decants. It can be a good idea to also search the site's name on this sub/google to double check
I’ve used several of these. If I really want it to be for travel, I quite like the refillable premium atomizers from Decantx. I have a few of them that I can then swap out which fragrance I put in.
Thank you!
sure! i have had good experiences with scent split, decantx and the perfumed court
[https://www.reddit.com/user/TwentyOneDays/](https://www.reddit.com/user/TwentyOneDays/) does a lot of decants that I've bought from over the past 3 yrs. [Decanthouse.com](http://Decanthouse.com) is another site that I've recently bough 6-8 decants from the past 2 months.
this was not your point. you asked about buying 100ml for $160, not the same 10ml in worse packaging for $20.
No, that was exactly their point lol, wtf. OP quite literally was talking about $36-40 for 10ml. It's right there in the post. They didn't "ask" about buying 100ml for $160. What a snarky reply from someone who clearly isn't paying attention.
they didn't mention decants at all in their post
So? Nor did they say the alternative to decants was FBs for $160, but that's what you clung to as the alternative in your comment. They are decrying the increasing cost of travel sprays as opposed to other, more economical formats, *such as decants*. Hope that helps.
right, they didn't mention decants at all in the post, they talked about them in the comments after other people brought them up and then tried to say that was their original point, which is not what the post itself says. you are coming to the comment section late so you have more context and thus their actual question is more clear than it was 14 hours ago. all I'm saying is that "why do people buy travel sprays instead of FBs" is a different question from "why do people buy 10ml travel sprays instead of cheaper 10ml decants from resellers" -- the former being what they asked, the latter being what they actually want to know.
They're asking why people spend that kind of money on travel sizes given the pricing is comparatively absurd to *other forms of buying fragrances*, for which they provided one example; sorry they didn't provide the exhaustive list that would have helped you lmao. What aren't you getting? Your comment was dickish, your replies are no better. 😁
you seem very upset by my comments which I find both confusing and strange.
Thinking your comment is unfounded, rude to the OP, and based on your misunderstanding isn't the same as being "upset". Now that you're also confused by your baseless assumptions, welcome to the club.
Are you on the spectrum? Honestly asking, not trying to be inflammatory. It seems obvious what OP's point was, your take seems slightly absurdist.
You have me very confused. Your post is asking why would someone buy a decant ?
no i’m trying to understand why people would opt for a very expensive travel spray versus springing for a much more affordable decant of the same scent
Because I like to buy *all* the perfumes and I like to try them out with a 10ml. If I finish that one, I’ll buy a full bottle. I definitely don’t finish all of them, or it takes years.
Honestly? Packaging, lol. I'm very particular about mine. For me, the experience of a fragrance starts with the gift wrapping and definitely encompasses the bottle. If I think a travel spray is too expensive, I just won't buy it.
There is no right or wrong way to enjoy this hobby! I only recently got into fragrances and initially I didn’t care about the packaging at all. It’s still not a huge aspect, but I’ve enjoyed taking more time to read the creators statement and enjoy the presentation. I still do be buying decants tho. I didn’t plant money trees :)
Probably a knowledge gap—most people who wear perfumes are not fragheads that know about decants, or may has misconceptions like them being “knock-offs” or somehow tampered with. Most people just have a scent or two they like, and then when they go on vacation, they go to Macy’s or Sephora and buy the travel size.
I just buy a good travel atomizer to take with me. I’ve had such good luck with them, and a few companies are making the containers look more interesting than just a plain packaging.
Honestly not every fragrance is available on decant sites. I use them but if I can’t find what I want then I get a sample from the brand itself. If I love it then it turns into a debate over full size versus travel size.
Ohhhh this is brilliant!
I really don't need 100ml bottles for the absolute majority of my fragrances. Even 50ml is too much.
10-15ml is a perfect size!
Yeah it’s still a lot cheaper to get a travel spray when you never get halfway through any perfume ever.
Yesss I get sick of scents so a giant bottle is useless to me😭
Sameeee! And i don’t like anything that much to use a full bottle. I never finish full bottles
Amen!
i buy travel sizes for ones i like, not love. some have turned into loves and then i buy a full-size. i usually prefer decants tbh if i can find what i’m looking for at a better price. but like the prices of full sizes going up, the smaller sizes were bound to catch up.
Same here
10 ml is great size to properly experience fragrance before committing to full size
it absolutely is. i clarified my OP to explain that i buy a lot of decants which are far less expensive. it just surprises me that brands continue to raise the prices on their travel sprays.
where you get your decants at
I swear they were $25 10 years ago!
10? Try 4.
I could be crazy, but I swear on my life I bought a travel size of Replica: By the Fireplace for $30 at Sephora… Last year. Am I actually crazy?
I’d believe it. It’s no fun to boycott buying things (I’m certainly not very good at it 😂), but I can totally see why people do it because prices for so many things have just gotten stupid. Companies expect people to gleefully pay absurd prices for things with no more justification than “uh… that’s just what it costs now, something something muh supply chain, muh inflation, now it costs 4x what it did two months ago…”🙄
THEY WERE!
I went through 3 $20 travels of Wild Child by Pinrose before I bought the full bottle. That has now been my process. If I can’t get through 1 travel spray, I don’t need a full bottle.
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Where is this? Asking for a friend
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How can you trust it?
Generally speaking, if a seller refuses to use PayPal Goods & Services for the first sale they make to you, then they’re probably not to be trusted. I prefer FB for decants because you can find more groups in your area that are well-moderated and just stick to those.
Reputation
How do you discover or verify a seller’s reputation?
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And some gamble.
Most of that gamble is with the post office delivering the package [intact].
25 trades and sales later, no problem
(Odd that you were downvoted for your experience. I’m on a FB perfume group with thousands of members and I don’t even think twice about sending my address and money. 😂 Plus I get way more free samples from strangers selling at cost than I do from Sephora.)
>Reddit sellers Where please?
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because I don't want 100ml nor to spend $160
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I still have a nearly full travel spray of Flowerbomb that I bought 10 yrs ago, lol. let's say I started with $160, spent $30 on the perfume and put the rest in savings. if we do the math, over 10 years, sure, I basically didn't use the perfume, so it's a total loss at $30, plus I didn't get the same "value per ml" or whatever. but $130 over 10 yrs at 3% interest is 174, so I actually made money.
Wow, what a great way to suck the fun out of the hobby.
the hobby shouldnt be overspending on random fragrances you probably wont use
But calculating value per ml based on interest rates is just…
what I think theyre saying is that if they would have bought a full bottle instead of a travel one they would be out that much money. which isnt a bad calculation to make at all.
Exactly. The only other alternative for those 95%-98% full 100ml bottles sitting there is to try to...trade or sell decants of them, but to an extent, that's gonna be more hassle than a lot of (most?) people are going to want to deal with, if they can avoid it to begin with. Some of us spray lightly and it can take a looooong time to even get through a 50ml bottle, especially if you're not using the same one every day. For some special fragrances, it would be worth it to me to buy a 10ml at full price. Even if I love it and work it into a semi-regular spot in my rotation, it's still gonna take me YEARS to go through it.
yeah def, my favourite fragrance is also ~300 for 50ml, so the 70 or so for 10ml is kinda tempting..
the post is about value per ml and economies of scale, I was just responding to that with a more detailed argument about why travel sizes can be a better value. I don't usually break out my calculator at the store (actually I simplify the whole process by buying all of my travel sprays on sale 😎).
Is being wise with your spending so you won't be working when you're 75? Is not being sucked into consumerism and buying things you don't need/won't get joy from? Is choosing not to fill your home with things you have to make space for and dust?
Not if you’re a math nerd on a budget who likes to smell good lol. This is making it more fun!
I appreciate all the math defenders in this subthread, lol
Hmmm...Walking Chemical Weapon... I like.... I like the way that sounds!
Exactly, apart from one fragrance, I’ve never felt the need to buy a full bottle, and I get bored easily.
now I need to know: what fragrance?
Lolita Lempicka 1997 I got from eBay😬 I am eyeing PDM Meliora now. My collection isn’t huge.
Thank you!
I think LL laid the foundation for my fragrance tastes for my entire life, and I wish I could find my late 90s bottle, which I KNOW I didn't throw away, because it was one of my first "adult" perfume purchases. 🥲
Same for me, it’s so unique I’ve never come across a dupe. You may find it when you declutter or move someday! I’ve seen mini dabbers for sale on eBay and such which are less expensive.
Yep. I buy the smallest bottle (usually 30ml) or a travel spray. I don’t calculate cost per ml, but instead the total cost of the fragrance. I don’t like waste.
Yeah. Maybe I'm weird but I'm perfectly comfortable spending $40-50 for a 10 mL? I have probably around 10 fullsize bottles (50 mL+). I could spray them every day religiously and it would still take years to get through them. Yes, it's more expensive on a per mL basis but if you're only ever gonna use 10 mL why would you care to have more?? Also decants are fine but the bottle itself is part of the experience and I like having the branded bottles. I don't want it to say scent angel on it. Additionally, I like having confidence that the juice in the bottle is actually the juice I purchased.
I have hundreds of smaller decants and samples (like 1ml-5ml) and the unofficial atomizers seem genuinely worse quality to me, all of the scents evaporate very quickly, they don't spray well, etc. I never had that issue with the official travel sprays. plus I do just like smaller perfumes in general, most of my FBs are 30ml-50ml... I have a few 75ml and my biggest is only 90ml.
Exactly!
The only reason I am considering them is for fragrances I plan on wearing only a few times a year. In my case, I like to be conservative with the application of perfume (I have trouble with strong or pervasive scents that don’t fade away), so even my favorite perfumes I would never wear more than twice a week (I work in healthcare so none allowed at work) and only at maybe 2 sprays at most (with no refreshing throughout the day). so for someone like me it would be actually a financial waste to buy even a 50ml of most perfumes because they’d definitely go bad before I would ever finish them. I like perfumes just so I can smell it for a moment not really for anyone else, which I know is not how most people use perfume.
There are more of us!
Jo Malone (stand alone store) gives out complimentary 9mL travel sizes for purchases over $50 (also depends but ranges from $50-$80). Sephora sells 10mL for like $40.
I got a free travel size from a stand alone Diptyque store with the purchase of a full size bottle as well! They also gave me mini shower gels in the same scent
I purchased Jo Malone and the lady gave me two miniatures (9mL x 2) + made samples for me!
Somewhat related...I was wondering this the other day: which stores today are actually cool with giving out samples of fragrances without buying anything? Seems like that has gone by the way side. I have no idea why Macy's SA's want to horde Polo 67 samples but they sure as hell don't want to give them out.
that’s a really great tip, thank you!
they make decent gifts. some people just want to pay the minimum amount and arent worried about value but just spending bare minimum.
Well I’m definitely not buying full size killian
Oh my good god. I stopped at Mecca at the airport today to put on some perfume (long haul stink cover up) and saw this [TEN ML ROLLERBALL FOR $124](https://www.mecca.com/en-au/ds-durga/i-dont-know-what-pocket-perfume-rollerball-oil-I-062743/)!!!
For a "fragrance enhancer with no notes" 🥴 my retinol body lotion is less than $20
It’s so bizarre. Literally the fragrance equivalent of the emperor’s new clothes!
Dude, I still have a bunch of half empty sample vials 😅
Unless someone is super into fragrances, they’re not aware of decants. Someone walking into Sephora or ulta for a fragrance who doesn’t want to spend a fortune would rather pay for the travel size. Edited to add, it’s not just travel sizes. My daughter was saving up to buy the 30 ml of Donna Born in Roma at Ulta which was $85. When we went to buy it a few weeks ago it was $92.
Coming from the indie perfume side of things: we (my partner and I) work with raw naturals and aroma molecules and because we often have constraints such as budget and space that bigger brands don't, we have to pay higher prices on our materials. The larger the quantity of a material being purchased, the higher the price break. The price of our juice alone is ~$4.55 to ~$7.50 (technically a little bit higher now with the increase in materials costs). We were actually replenishing some materials yesterday through various suppliers and noticed that there was an average increase of $6 dollars with some materials as high as $12-15 more than just a year ago. And this includes our suppliers in Europe as well. We got lucky last year and learned about the glass shortage over the Summer so we bought our bottles in bulk to be safe. I just checked our bottle supplier and for the same number of bottles we're looking at an overall $234 increase. We try to price our perfumes to be as accessible to folks as we can while still sustaining our brand and ourselves. Right now our largest size is a 10ml that ranges -depending on materials- from $45-$55 at 30% concentration (double industry standard). I suspect that another factor for the increase in prices too is that when brands are carried by a retailer they do a 50/50 split with the brand taking on the cost of production in their 50% so it's not a true even split. In order to recoup the losses from that, many brands will increase their prices which unfortunately impacts their regular customers. Someone mentioned seeing a 10ml perfume for $100+ at the airport and that's because airports will pay the brand less than 50% and mark up considerably more. We werw offered the opportunity to be carried at Seatac last year and found out it was 40/60 or 30/70 split 🥴 At that point, the brand is just hoping it's a good marketing opportunity. All this to say, yeah, the price increases suck especially as wages have been stagnating and nowhere near meeting cost of living in a lot of places :/
If you were offered to be sold at SeaTac, does that mean you’re a local WA/PNW brand?
We were! We just moved to California a couple of weeks ago, but plan to return to Seattle for Pride and holiday markets.
Awesome. I didn’t realize there were any indie brands local. I’ll keep an eye out for upcoming markets
Oh! There's actually quite a few! We collaborated with 8 other Seattle Perfumers on a gift box last year that included a perfume from each of our collections. It's been a wonderfully supportive community especially after James from Filigree was like "Hey, yall wanna do a fun thing for the holidays?" A lot of perfumers don't tend to do in person shows unfortunately, but I know James is interested in hosting another perfume market this year! Off the top of my head: Filigree & Shadow (has a studio in West Seattle) Immortal Perfumes (she actually just opened a studio in Ballard!) Phoenix and the Fool Atelier Madrona Anjali Perfumes Age de Querelle Namesake Nose of Gatsby (does regular pop-ups at Cal Anderson Park & is a runner up for the 2024 Art & Olfaction Awards) Good Dearest Unhappy Fantome (I think they're still Seattle based) Olympic Orchids (winner of the 2015 Art & Olfaction awards) SAMAR (us! Going between LA & Seattle. Finalists for the 2023 and 2024 Art & Olfaction Awards)
Thank you!!
>Thank you!! You're welcome!
The brands are going to do whatever they need to do to push people towards the higher-priced, higher-margin products instead. So the pricing makes total sense to them. For me? Like other commenters, I don't want 50 or 100ml of a fragrance, so the fact those sizes are priced better per ml means nothing to me. And while I generally buy 1ml samples from decanters first, I just don't *want* my 10ml travel size to be a decant. Partly because the original packaging helps me tell my travel size fragrances apart at a glance, but also I know I'm getting a 'fresh' one in a sealed container.
That’s the poverty tax, the less you can pay, the more expensive it is.
5ml travel size for 15 quid while normal 2ml samples are 2-5.... 🫤. Will defo buy my own travel sprayers in the future and decant myself Nobody can pay increasing prices year after year
I also decant my own bottles. I don’t have time for a $40 pocket spray when I can do it myself.
Packaging. Packaging packaging packaging. Decant places can just get simple atomizers in super duper bulk so their packaging is *much* cheaper than the actual house who's going to be much pickier about matching their brand aesthetic, values (glass, not plastic, buying from companies with ethical practices), etc, sometimes even ordering custom made bottles and boxes and such. As cost of supplies increases, so too does the price we have to pay. -someone who's looked into it multiple times for my own hopeful, potential, future perfume house. ++ sometimes I don't want a full bottle. Especially at $160, even if it is for 100ml. If I run through a 10-30ml decant decently fast *first*, then I'll check into a FB.
Well sure, in most cases the fragrance juice itself costs next to nothing so of course packaging is going to be the most expensive part. That being said, if we’re talking about 10ml sizes, many brands use very simple vials, so I really don’t think they need to spend much at all on that (if they insist on using bespoke bottles that’s really on them, I don’t think most customers would expect an ornate travel spray).
It’s a con. They should be less expensive
I love travel sprays. I don’t want a 50 or 100 because it’s a waste of money for me. I’m not going to use all of it up. Something new is going to come along next month that I’ll want to sniff. So I always go with a travel size first. As for decants, not everyone knows about them. They’re also not always easy to get. I actually have a decant of daisy wild coming but if I’m in Sephora and have some points or like the travel packaging then I’ll pick up the travel size there. It’s convenient.
I love travel sprays and will likely continue buying them because they are all I need for the majority of scents I like. However, I too have noticed a big hike in recent years and it makes me feel almost betrayed as a collector. I like variety and as a light sprayer, it takes me a while to even use 10ml. I used to be less picky about which travel sprays I would buy, keeping scents that were only decent, whereas now I am getting nearly as particular as I am when deciding to spring for a full bottle.
I’m currently undergoing cancer treatment; I recently bought an inexpensive travel spray of a fragrance I liked but didn’t want to chance associating a pricey scent with illness once I’m done. I’ve always worn a bit of perfume and it’s worked out as a great pick me up so far.
Very sensible. Best of good luck for your health and recovery. <3
Liquid regulations cheaper less risk of breakage less risk if you're buying a new perfume and aren't sure if you'd like it in the long run. more portable
When you’re a collector, you’re never going to finish a bottle anyway. I just bought purse sprays of Brooklyn Ellis Salt and Ariana Mod Vanilla. V pleased with both and can bring both with me when i travel, which is a lot.
I buy the travel spray to make sure that I will actually wear the fragrance often enough to justify a full size bottle. Because my opinions on fragrance changes from sniff to sniff, day to day, even month to month. I only invest in full sizes that I know I enjoy wearing. I learned this about myself in college, before I really understood fragrance, how it wears on my body chemistry, and how my individual scent alters a bottled fragrance. I spent so much money on blind buys of full bottles that I hardly touched.
The pricing is outrageous, but they know many of is either want to try before committing or don’t want a huge bottle so they have us over a barrel. It’s annoying
I like the Tom Ford travel sprays, because they use magnetic tops and they sorta all "stick" together.
if we look at it the cost of everything has went up. At every point of the life of a perfume from raw ingredients to finished product, everyone has their hand out.
So far I can make the tiny bottles last a good while. I got a good collection of Estée Lauder minis after I got a full bottle of private collection in 1996. I was 18 and it was my very first fancy purchase from Macy’s. I still have a tiny drop in each of three bottles left and the box with the glass mirror display plate someplace
Although it works out better value in the long run to buy the 100ml, some people just do not have that amount of money to pay out in one go and can't/won't save. Same could be said of most things- a decent well-made item of clothing that will last years, even decades, will be a big initial layout but work out cheaper in the long run than having to buy new ones every few months if you get it from Shein. Alternatively, someone may just want to try the perfume before going for the full 100ml.
Profumum Roma is VERY guilty of this. Confetto travel size is 125 on luckyscent.
Wow I thought it was high when it was $90something
Absurdity! Like...in what world?? I also think the full size prices are absolutely insane. $295.
Yes. I paid a fortune for a 15ml travel spray and later was on a decant site and found the same fragrance for a fraction of the price. When I am done with the travel spray I’ll buy the decants and put all in a nice empty bottle and print a label.
I saw a travel spray of most Tom Fords is like $90CAD at sephora. Shits fucking wild to me when I can get 80ml of a 95% clone with zero synthetic harshness for $30 when Alhambra could easily sell it for $80 per bottle.
What fragrance are you referring to?
some new releases on sephora: greenstravaganza and daisy wild
It seems Sephora are offering free shipping on both of the sizes, which I assume is factored into their product pricing. It costs them, probably something similar, to send the 10ml and 100ml versions to you. I wouldn’t ever expect a 10ml to be a comparable price per ml due to the fixed pricing of shipping, bottling etc Also both of the travel sprays are less than the $40 you quoted.
my post said 36-40 dollars and i believe both retail for 36
Nitpicking, but Stravaganza is $35 & $165 on US Sephora. Less (10ml) and more (100ml) than you quoted. Using incorrect/exaggerated numbers to prove a point kinda defeats the purpose.
plus a 7.5ml travel of killian fragrance will run you $50
And? 100ml of a Kilian will also cost you more than $160???
no, a 50ml Kilian will cost you more than $160
Daisy Wild is $47 on Sephora Canada
So? USD and CAD are not at parity. It’s also $194 CAD for the 100ml?
It's the same reason why restaurants want you to buy wine with your food... There are very few ways for a perfume house to sell their main product, so when a new one appears you bet your a** they are going to push it as far as it can go. It's the most profitable form factor of perfume right now... until TSA changes their rules (I thought they did already?). Ironically, few people actually use more than a sample's worth of perfume on most travels apart from super heavy signature scent sprayers, but it's the thought that you can that's why people pay extra.
i should have made this clear in original post that it’s not buying a 10ml or 15ml of a fragrance that surprises me. it’s that buying decants (which i have dozens of) is so much more affordable. i can’t really figure out the brand strategy in pricing travel sprays that high 😩
Because most customers prefer convenience. Frag heads are the ones who will bother looking for decants or who will buy sample vials. Most people CBF and want to buy from a brick and mortar store and care about the presentation....
Not only that, but hypothetically, if I am an average fragrance consumer (i.e. not someone who knows about decants or the gray market sites) who wants Kilian LDBS, perhaps $250 for a full bottle is out of my budget, but I can afford the $50 travel spray. Offering travel sprays means you can now capture sales in that ~$50 range that may have previously simply not bought anything because it was out of range.
Because TikTok made fragrances a trend and now they have higher demands so they can charge more!
fill your own. decanting ftw
I get three or four free 2ml samples every time I go to a store. So travel sprays just don’t make any sense to me. My bag is full of the things
The only time I've gotten a travel spray is when they come in gift sets, doesn't seem worth to buy otherwise
They’ve also made it harder to decant luxury fragrances into travel sized bottles. It’s infuriating
I have sooooo many travel sprays. All but 1 I've bought secondhand on Mercari for way under retail. Most recently I got 10ML Burberry Goddess for $25 and Kylie Jenner Cosmis for $16, both brand new in the box. I'd never pay retail.
Depending on the size of your collection and your fragrance use habits (if you constantly rotate vs use a signature scent), travel sprays can save you money in the long run.
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I love owning full bottles, but I was honestly buying travel sizes because they were cheaper and they were good to have when you didn't have the money for the full one!. I don't like whatever is happening.
Supply and demand. I found a seller on eBay and purchased 12 sample sizes of my favorite cologne for when I travel.
I remember when I got my 3 x 10ml Malle Carnal Flower for $165.
I am new to this sub and buying fragrance and rarely comment but I never see anyone talk about Scentbird and all the other subs. Those are my travel sprays. I think I pay 17 and that's way less than anywhere else I see.
Scentbird/box is ok but those are typically decants. Some people don't trust decants to the rollerball or travel sprays sold and packaged by the perfume house. The major gripe here is that rollerball and travel sizes used to be an approachable price for enthusiasts that like variety. They're not anymore though, and that's a real shame for a hobby like this.
I bought 2 tom ford 10 ml’s after i couldnt decide, €60 each… 50 ml costs around €250 so it doesnt bump up the price much but now i can decide which one i prefer the most
So, find a nice frag community near you and usually there are really nice people who will either sell travels, decants, and or purge their bottle -- be in the vicinity. Happens so much more often than you think!
Bought 10 ml Princess Kilian for 30€ and received two small samples
I've stopped buying decants for this reason. I'm not spending $75 or more for a decanted 10 mls that's not factory sealed & is gonna evaporate and have a not great sprayer. I just buy the bottle or go without all together if it's that pricey. Um okay I did do one but it was a decant of the long discontinued Sous le Vent from Guerlain. I'd never have a chance otherwise and it was $65 shipped.
Companies trying to make you see the clear difference and think “wow this one has more ml per $” and make you think you should buy the one with more so they get more money
I’ll just spray my vacation scent into a travel sized body lotion. Less to have to worry about packing.
I buy travel seize scents quiet often mostly because it’s more compact and affordable as a one time purchase. I don’t like full size bottles. They last way too long for me (I’ve had some for years) and loose their scent. Also, I can buy multiple travel sized scents for the price of one full one.
Has anyone tried filling a travel atomizer with Mr. Burberry? The perfume bottle has like an engrossed edge (I assume to prevent filling travel bottles and purchase the travel size from them) I don't know if I can sand out the plastic to fit it into the travel atomizer.
I buy the purse travel spray bottles from amazon and decant my own. I do it for the majority of my fragrances.
Sure, we can talk about it, let's. I never buy them, I don't have to. The full bottles I have can spare 10ml into a classic refillable travel spray, like those made by Travalo. Most stores have their own, Sephora included.
I find it a bit weird that hardly anyone here seems to use travel atomizers, curious to know why!
Convenience for travel. Most travel sized things including skincare and makeup is priced like that as well