Saturday Question: What Is Your Most Expensive Perfume Purchase?

/ AustralianPerfumeJunkies

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Portia

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

At APJ we have a Saturday Question. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it’s a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back regularly and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them. The aim is to generate real conversation and connection even though we are scattered around the globe.

 

Over 100 responses I will draw a Secret Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)

Last Weeks Winner: MATTY 1649

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

Saturday Question: What Is Your Most Expensive Perfume Purchase?

There are a few ways you can look at this. You can tell us something you may have bought a sample of and give its price per ml. Price of a full bottle. Price it cost you to get it, maybe you flew to France to buy something rare, discontinued or place specific. You can even give us a fragrance that cost you in emotional turmoil, that might be fun as well.

My Answer:

I have two answers for you today.

A few years ago when Jin and I were not very long along in our relationship I discovered how freaking hard it is to buy for him. He just goes and buys anything he needs and wants so there’s very little left for me to buy him. We had been down to Peony Melbourne and tried the Mona do Orio range and he had fallen madly in love with Oud. Their most expensive offering at the time. So it cost me over US$500 to buy it for him. That is by far my most expensive outlay to date. Just so you know, it smells freaking amazing on him.

My personal most expensive buy is Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur Extrait. A richer, deeper, less explosive version of Mohur that lasts for days. If you spray it on your scarf you will smell it for years. Takes me on a magnificent rose and EVERYTHING journey, each ride is slightly different and conjures stories in my head. Worth every cent!

My Saturday Question to you is:

What Is Your Most Expensive Perfume Purchase?

123 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Is Your Most Expensive Perfume Purchase?”

  1. Ooh I love this question, coz there are so many ways to look at it.

    If I consider the total money spent on a perfume, it’s gonna be New York Intense because I have stocked up so many bottles of it. Vintage Opium is a close second.
    If I consider the price for a single bottle, it’ll be a (current) Vol de Nuit extrait.
    If I look at per-ml price, that would be a (current) No. 22 extrait because the bottle is just 15ml.
    If I think of the emotional value, I’d say the most expensive is my stock of Le Temps d’une Fête, because it’s been discontinued and more importantly it’s my partner’s favourite perfume. I’m happy to have stocked up for us.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I remember years ago being slightly breathless after paying retail for Cuir Beluga. Nowadays I probably wouldn’t blink!
    I envy you Mohur Extrait, I fell in love with it in Jovoy…if Mr B had not been with me maybe I would have shelled out for it?

    Liked by 1 person

    • There you are!!! I have been thinking about you as of late and so lovely to see you commenting! I get the guilt of buying something with the spouse around-LOL!

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    • Oh yes JackieB,
      I have been a little breathless paying retail for some of the Guerlain too. Now when I’m in Paris I don’t even ask the price anymore, just buy it and deal with paying it off over time.
      Mohur Extriat is THE BEST! Considering it’s a 50ml extrait I thought it was pretty good value. Not much more expensive than a 30ml Guerlain extrait if I remember rightly.
      Portia xx

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Do gifts count? Cause I bought eldest Marzipan the 6.8 oz bottle of Orange Sanguine for 180 USD several years ago but it came with a travel of Vanille Insensee in a leather pouch for free which I gifted to middle Marzipan. Plus we made loads of decants for family and friends from that huge bottle as she only kept decanting from it when she went away to university.Currently there is only about 20 mls left which she has in a travel spray (the honkin’ huge bottle is empty now)

    About 19 or more years ago I bought no 22 perfume in the 15 ml bottle which was by far the most expensive purchase EVER for me (it was thunked long ago).

    These days I am on such a tight budget due to college expenses that I try to keep the costs down. The most expensive purchase was a birthday gift of my Sarah Horowitz custom perfume Brigitte which I got discounted at 95USD for 2 oz of EDP. That seems pretty cheap to me, eh? Plus the mini Marzipans paid for it, so maybe that doesn’t count?

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      • I absolutely love it and i use it a lot 🙂 , everytime i find an ocassion, because i cannot put br540 extrait in the gym 😆😆. Anyway the nicest thing is that i have to go slow on the trigger cause for my skin it’s really potent, so 2 sprays are just enough 😜 What are your thoughts Portia on br540 extrait?

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  5. Hmmm, well my worst total outlay was when I visited Harrods in London and came home with Guerlain Liu in the bee bottle with atomizer, Bal a Versailles, Oud Saphir, and one other I am not recalling. Then I got Oud Accord at Molton Brown the same day. Another time I wanted a unicorn: Jul et Mad Amour de Palazzo and bought it when it was on sale but still over $100. I usually never pay retail and never more than $50. I own a $600 fragrance that I got for $12 or $14. That’s how I roll. But, that was when you could get fragrances cheap two or three years ago before the boom in demand and the hobby going mainstream.

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  6. I also bought that MdO Oud, plus Roja Dove Aoud, and the 2007 reissue of Hermès Doblis, all $500+ each. Then my tastes changed and I sold them all. Currently my most expensive bottle is probably a $300 Dior exclusive, I try to keep it down below $300 per bottle, $200 as much as possible.

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  7. I have a hard time going over $100 for any single purchase of ANYTHING, household appliances and cars excepted. Clothing, shoes, handbags- I’m a serious sale shopper and as I work with kids I’m not investing in fine things much 😳. So my mental barrier has meant that I haven’t purchased many expensive bottles. I did buy a 100ml of Nicolai Fig-Tea last summer but it came with a bonus 30ml of choice so it didn’t feel like I was spending $150 on a single bottle. I tend to seek out 30 and 50ml unless I’m getting a deal at the discounters. My other pricey purchase last summer was the travel set of 5x8ml at Ormonde Jayne- but I got 5 different scents of choice so that didn’t seem so bad either! (And I do have some pricey per ml decants – Mitzah….)

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  8. I am too embarrassed to talk about price, but I did give myself a retirement present of a bottle of Guerlain Djedi and a week later a bottle of Slumberland Lanz. Both are just amazing, thank heavens!

    Ross W

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  9. The most expensive by far was my bottle of Knightsbridge – I had to buy 2 bottles to get it. The 1st bottle I had sent to a UK friend was apparently confiscated and destroyed by Royal Post when she mailed it to me. I paid someone to buy me a second bottle, personally fly with it and then post from the US.
    So, my 1 bottle cost me the price of 2 full bottles ( at retail) + 2 shipping plus the service charge for the second person. Worth every penny !!!

    Liked by 1 person

  10. My most expensive perfumes are around the $400 price point: Ajmal Eternal Crescent, a large bottle of Amouage Memoir Woman Extrait, and Ghazal by House of Matriarch (which is $800 but I had earned a 50% off reward). I adore them all and do wear them, Ghazal most frequently, and although I will be sad when they’re used up, I don’t hoard them. I bought them to enjoy and to be worn, life is short. 🙂

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  11. Honestly cannot remember. I hardly ever pay full retail for anything anymore. For a full bottle it could probably have been a Chanel for my daughter, that’s the nearest I can tie it down to. And as for price per ml decants I wouldn’t even know where to start (there has been so many of late🤫)

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  12. I don’t remember well now, but I have had few kind of expensive perfume purchases like Tauer Un Rose de Kandahar and Floris London Honey Oud. I ended up swapping those bottle and keeping decants, since I knew I was never going to finish them. Bottles that I have kept are Heeley Sel Marin and Masque Milano L’Attesa which I wear frequently.

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  13. My most expensive have been discontinued finds from ebay; Tom Ford Amber Absolute and Cartier Panthere. Also Caron N’Aimez Que Moi and Parfum Sacree, Roja Dove Enslaved, Guerlain L’Heure de Nuit, and recently my coveted Stoned by Lynn Harris for Solange.

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  15. I pay for my Chanel Exclusifs, but always wait for the 20 % off day (twice a year in Vienna). My couple of bottles of Hermessences – normal retail. I bought a current bottlle of Shalimar Extrait a couple of years ago, but on the day they had 20% off. Otherwise hmmmm, no really expensive things. I would not pay a really extortionate sum for anything, I really wouldn‘t. Mind you Chanel is not cheap but you know what I mean. Interesting question though.

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  16. Oh, blimey. that monster 250ml of Mitzah is the most for a single bottle. But my 50ml of Vero’s Naja would be the runner up, even with a 10% discount. Both worth it though, and absolutely not regretted. (for Chanel and the like, as with Val, I wait for the big department store discount days.)

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  17. My vintage Shalimar perfumes, one from the early 80’s and the other, later 80’s. Still not vintage enough for me. I’d love one from the late 60’s or early 70’s, but at US$400-$500 for the small Marley bottle? Nope.
    And, like Cassie I have decant issues. Le Mat, MEM, MAAI, Kiki VdE and probably several others were all blindingly expensive per ml. To assuage my guilt, I conveniently forgot the per ml price.
    Matty! Congratulations! The happy recipient if a PPP.

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  18. Chanel Coromandel, when you could only buy the 200 ml bottle. It was $330. I even got hubby to go into the Chanel boutique to get it for me, he didn’t bat an eyelid ( yes, keeper, lol ).
    Still love it, I should wear it more.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. I was going to say: I plead the fifth 😉 but seeing different approaches to answering this question, I’ll leave out a single bottle price but mention my family of Lancôme Climat bottles in all possible bottle sizes, concentrations and vintages – I think I have 1K+ (in replacement cost) if this my all-time favorite. And Guerlain Chamade extrait would be probably one of the most expensive per ml in my collection (but that bottle is gorgeous!).

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  21. I cheated. I made my most expensive perfume purchase using Amazon points! We buy a lot of the things we need on Amazon.com, because my hubby and I both have intense jobs that demand a lot of time, so anything that saves time helps. And if you use an Amazon Visa card, you get LOTS of points. So … when I found the Guerlain Muguet 2016, the new version, in the beautiful silver-plated bottle designed by a Parisian jeweller, ON AMAZON, I saved up every point we had amassed, used that Visa card on EVERYTHING, and bought it. List price: $499. But on points. Oh happy day!

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  22. The most I’ve paid per ml was a tie between 5ml Xerjoff Richwood and 5ml 2011 Creed Aventus, both were around $9/ml. Although I don’t regret either purchase I don’t think I’d pay any more than that.

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      • Aventus was bought mainly for curiosities sake, so I wore it once or twice now it just sits there!

        Richwood I save for special occasions, I think of everything in my collection it’s the most ‘expensive smelling’

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  23. For me, it’s going to be one of my vintage treasures. I have a 1947 bottle of Patou L’Heure Attendue, an Art Deco era Caron Narcisse Noir with the bakelite cap and a 1950s era Miss Dior. All were full and in box when I bought them. I can’t remember which was the most expensive, but they were all in the $200-300 range.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Hi Undina,

      Yes they were blind buys!! I read as much as I could beforehand on the Djedi and had purchased Essential Alchemy’s Hokkabaz (which is somewhat similar), but it really was a spur of the moment treat when one came up on eBay. As for Slumberhouse Lanz, I have a large collection of Josh’s other scents and being a real sucker for both limited editions and the smell of Boronia, it too was a no brainer.
      Thanks for asking.

      Ross

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  27. Great Saturday question Portia. About ten years ago I would have said $100 would be my limit on any perfume, always online. I found a couple of discontinued scents i had to have so I’m still a bit shocked to say I’ve spent 225 on 50ml just recently. I do try to not order decants of expensive scents so I don’t fall in love with something I can’t afford! Doesn’t always work though. I have been lucky enough to purchase some Alamut, by Lorenzo Villerosi having visited his Florence office while on a holiday to Italy. First visit to Italy he was renovating so it was a must visit on my 2nd trip. Nearly spent all my pocket money but it was worth every cent!

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  28. Let’s see, per ml probably was the wee bottle of Beige extract. L’Attesa would have been close except there was a Luckyscent sale. For sheer price the bee bottle of Vetiver Pour Ellle. Finally, for price per minute of wear is Dusita Douceur de Siam, fortunately on a Niche Essence holiday sale.

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  29. I am a bargain hunter so it would have been easier for me to answer which is the fragrance I own with the highest market value now. However, the question is which fragrance I spent the most to acquire and I am struggling to remember which one it might have been because even my most expensive purchases tend not to exceed $300 and it is also quite rare for me to spend over $200 on a single fragrance. From what I can recall now, probably the most I spent on a fragrance might have been Guerlain Metallica at around 280 euros or something around 2014 and it was brand new in original packaging and this was still a bargain price at the time.

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  30. I’m not exactly sure which is my most expensive perfume. I have a sample decant of Puredistance I and Puredistance Antonia. I love them both but at $190 for just 17.5 mL that’s a bit too rich for my blood. I also have a bottle of Amouage Lyric woman which is probably the most I’ve ever spent on one bottle. It now sits in the “to be sold” bag. Sigh, I thought I loved it when I bought it.
    An expensive one I decided to pass on was Jovoy Fragrance du Bois Amber Intense that I tried in Paris. At the time the smallest bottle they were selling was 695,00 €. Too much for one bottle.

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    • So you loved the Lyric enough to buy it, and now the love is gone and you want to sell it. I understand completely. It’s happened to me far too many times.
      I have a new strategy now. If I sample something and I like it, I get a small decant. If it turns to a love and I’ve finished the decant quickly, I order the largest decant I can find. Usually 8-10 ml. 5ml if it’s super pricey. If I still love it after finishing the big decant only then do I buy a bottle. 90% of the time the perfume has started to bore me or I discover some note that just doesn’t work on me. So, money saved. Ka-ching!

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      • Marcellavmiller, I had gone through at least two or three decants and loved it, that is why I splurged and bought the bottle. It usually takes me almost a year to decide to buy full bottles as I like to wear them in all weather to see if they work year round or just in certain weather. I can only attribute my inability to wear it to hormonal changes.

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  31. A 3.4 oz bottle of Frederic Malle’s / Ralf Schweiger’s Lipstick Rose 💄🌹 has been my most expensive purchase thus far: $295 (including tax).

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  32. I think the priciest I have gone is $275 for Atelier des Ors Lune Feline. I’m with Gina though, I generally do prefer to pick up partials (rescue scents!) with acceptable provenance whenever possible. I love having the original bottles but do feel that it is wasteful for me personally to invest in so much juice that I will never use.

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  33. My most expensive bottle is the 125ml Dior Fève Délicieuse. I haven’t done the maths, but think the 15ml spray bottle of Le Labo Iris 39 must be among the most expensive purchases per millilitre.

    I remember finding a sample of Chanel no. 19 in pure perfume really expensive, as well as some other samples. Still, better to test before buying!

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