Saturday Question: What Is Your Favourite Perfume Packaging?

/ 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: only 26 comments

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

Saturday Question: What Is Your Favourite Perfume Packaging?

Packaging! Often the most expensive part of the perfumes we buy. They can be simple and lean like Etat Libre d’Orange, safety for travel conscious like Juliette Has A Gun, functionally glam like CHANEL exclusives or go all the way up to the fabulous Amouage Gift Set Boxes. This includes their choice of bottles as well, mind you. The WHOLE package, what is your favourite, or favourites and why?

My Answer:

I have a couple of answers.

Ormonde Jayne packaging is minimal but with that fabulous orange, strong fabric covered card. The beautifully simple but luxuriously hefty bottle and that heavy duty, sticks well enough to lift with lid. I am a fan. It’s easy to transport, doesn’t use extraordinary amounts of non recyclable padding and looks magnificent.

Maria Candida Gentile packaging is also a hefty card, this time covered with embossed paper. Strong enough to withstand travel, doesn’t take up enormous amounts of room, and feels expensive in my hand. I love the bottle. Its thick, bevelled edged squareness beautifully offsets the simple metal cap. It looks old but modern, simple but by design.

My Saturday Question to you is:

What Is Your Favourite Perfume Packaging?

76 thoughts on “Saturday Question: What Is Your Favourite Perfume Packaging?”

  1. I enjoy simple, classic, and hefty bottles with clear glass most. For example Chanel Exclusives and Dior La Collection Privee. I also love when the cap is heavy. I usually don’t keep the perfume boxes especially when cardboard which goes into recycling (I’m ok with ecofriendly and minimal packaging, I prefer to admire the bottle itself), but a few lines have presentation boxes that I enjoy including Areej Le Dore, Auphorie, M.Micalef and Roja Dove. They have boxes with silky and colorful decorative material which I just have to keep.

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  3. I’m a fan of the Ormonde Jayne packaging because I love orange – but don’t actually own a FB. The travel set is in an orange box but obviously no classy bottle.. From my collection, the prettiest has been Shalimar Ode de la Vanille sur la route Mexique (I’m tired just from tying the name.). The classic Shalimar bottle in a beautiful box.

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  4. Hands down Berdoues Grand Cru Collection. I love both the bottles and the boxes. I also still collect the Escadas but I prefer the older bottles to current ones. I have every single LE from 1994 to current year. The majority are empty.

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  5. I’m with Kathleen on the Areej Le Dore, the satin lining and heavy box. Leather wrapped bottle. Yummers.
    And for over the top it would have to be Swiss Arabian, so much bling!

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  6. I love most of the Guerlain bottles. Shalimar bottle is a favourite. La Petite Robe Noir, all the flankers have a different dress on the label. The Muget line they bring out in February have very pretty bottles. I like the Tocca bottles, nice shape and interesting lids. Prada Infusions have a pretty box as well. I can’t think of any more at the moment XXXX

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      • I actually like both styles of bottles,but wish that some perfumes weren’t now in bee bottles.Some of the older style bottles were really lovely. The AA’s are fine in bee bottles.

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          • A friend of my friend has just sold me a 30ml bottle,for a very very good price,of Guerlain Secret Intention. It’s in a dark red box with a pink pull thingy on top of the box. Pull the ribbon and the perfume is inside the box. The bottle is unusual. There’s a picture of it on Fragantica, if you want to have a look.

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            • I can’t believe I’ve not heard of Guerlain Secret Intention Matty! How did that one slip by me? I looked on Fragrantica, and the heavy round glass bottle looks pretty. Does it have the familiar Guerlain DNA to it?

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              • I’d never heard of it either.It’s from 2001, so probably discontinued a long time ago.The lady who sold it to me knows I love Guerlain.It was really a no brainer to buy it unsniffed. I don’t know if you read the notes on Fragantica. they are…
                Top Notes..Coriander. Tea.Bergamot.Cardamon.Lemon
                Middle Notes. Peony. Jasmin. Neroli
                Base Notes. Sandalwood. Tonka Bean. Vanilla
                It’s got mixed reviews.
                I don’t think it’s typical Guerlain, but I like it.

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  7. I have always loved the simplicity and elegance of the Jo Malone box presentation. I also loved the packaging and bottles of NEST and Berdoues fragrances. I am also fond of Penhaligon.
    There are many fancy box presentations from Guerlain, Lalique, Dior, etc. But I prefer simplicity overall.

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  8. I too like the Jo Malone boxes and I also really like Hermes. As for bottles there are many beautiful ones but I enjoy the satisfying snap of a metallic cap. Hate any ones that are hard to take off, also because I clumsy and live in fear of the bottle slipping out of my hands!

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  9. Had to poke my nose into the backup bottle armoire to see which boxes I’ve kept. Most get recycled, but evidently I liked the Fancy Lancome box the Oud Bouquet came in. The Mugler Supra Floral came in an amusingly Too Much box, excuse me, “coffret”, which I passed along to a perfume friend who loved it.

    A pretty bottle is quite nice to have, like OJ or Chanel, if not make-or-break for a purchase. I only realized my need for “pretty on the outside” when I bought a full bottle of Smell Bent Bollywood or Bust – I’ve seen cuter bottles of bathtub scrubber!

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  11. I like a heavy glass bottle, which is not too big to handle. A nice metap cap is also a lot s. But i dont care for the packaging, because i store my bottles in the dark without it.

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  12. April Aromatics — the whole presentation! Beautiful thin round bottle containing crystals and held inside a round cardboard container with a simple, elegant typeface!

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  14. Jeez Portia, you’re making me think! I had to put down my phone and go upstairs for some inspiration and on the way back stopped at the fridge to get myself a cold glass of wine, so buckle up, this could be a bumpy ride with many twists and turns. First off, I’m going retro, back to Christmas 1981 or could’ve been 82, my favourite perfume packaging ever was for Max Factor Epris, a gift box of perfume and body lotion that was either hexagonal or octagonal , covered in rippled silver foil with the inside cerise, and the bottles lying on cerise satin. I had never owned anything so beautiful before. I kept the box for years and used it for jewellery and bits n bobs.

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  15. And though pink isn’t my favorite colour my next choice is Fracas Parfum, in the teeny little 7ml bottle in its signature black and pink, with the clear glass stopper and gold threaded neck. I love JPG bottles for both the male and female line, the red sparkly corset of Classique Cabaret is particularly eye catching and how could I not mention my darling Fragile with its kitch snow globe. Then there’s Lolita Lempicka’s fairytale like bottles, Narciso Rouge’s red cube, Gucci Rush with cheap and tacky red plastic, Dita Von Teese black ribbed glass with bulb atomiser and black tassel with a red bead, and my latest piece of bottle porn, Alien Fusion, clear red glass. I too love Ormonde Jayne’s unusual orange, and their original packaging of the four travel bottle set, which was all in black, and wrapped in a dull gold paper. The crazily expensive Amouage bottles may be beautiful but I know I’ll never own one so I can admire from afar. Strictly Come Dancing is just starting so gotta go 🏃‍♀️ 😉

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    • WOW Cassieflower,
      So many of our favourites SNAP! I to love the Lolita Lempicka aesthetic, JPG has had some FABULOUS ideas, as has Mugler. That original black Dita von Tease was so fun and felt very fantasy French whore when applying it in a Drag Queen’s dressing room.
      I hope you enjoyed your TV.
      Portia xx

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      • 😂😂😂 Fantasy French Whore. OMG wouldn’t that be a simply marvellous perfume title. Maybe Tom Ford will steal it from you. I might just wear it to bed tonight, oooerrr😳

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  16. I think the Chanel exclusives might have the most satisfying magnified click tops and I love the look of the big ones especially. Malles also click very nicely and l love their boxes. I also love the Neela Vermeire bottles and the Slumberhouse bottles I have, which are a great shape with lovely tarnished metal on the top and rounded lids.

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  19. Balenciaga Florabotanica for the prettiest bottle. Opps, and Bond No9’s for their fancy bottles. Tokyomilk for the whole package, bottle and box and special mention to my first full bottle purchase of Zoologist Camel. Lovely shaped bottle, heavy yet not too heavy, feels like quality all stored in a beautiful box.

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  20. Great presentation on my limited edition red bottle of Costume National Scent Intense and also love the Zoologist house with the simplistic and heavy glass bottles plus the artwork 👌🏻👌🏻

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  21. I admit I don’t pay much attention to packaging. But I also concede I am a fan of the perfume packaging of the yesteryears, especially when they used to include those leaflets. In terms of modern packaging, I like Tauer’s. That metallic can and bottles snuggly fitted in the plastic inside. I think Tauer’s packaging has a retro feel, given how steel/aluminum packaging used to be ubiquitous in the past.

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  22. I have a couple that I really like. The By Killian black box with crushed velvet insert and a nice key with a red tassel oozes class and almost justifies the price. Another that I really like is Lubin’s Idole. The box feels solid and tactile, and the African style bottle design is fantastic.

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  23. Tiffany & Co. is tops for bottle and packaging, especially the Intense version, for which the bottle is a transparent Tiffany blue! That is my favorite version too. Gorgeous box, bag, bottle, scent. The whole package, in other words! I also love the ombré glass bottles of Hermes’ Jardin series and their pretty boxes. They are beautiful lined up together.

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  24. Since I keep all of my perfumes in the original packaging, I’m torn between the practicality of smaller boxes for fitting my favorites in the available shelf space and beauty of the elaborate presentation of some of the items in my collection.
    But, in general, I prefer well-made packaging: when I see poor execution of the bottle or a box, I start wondering where else the brand cut corners.
    I have a love/hate relationship with the latest Chanel “Paris – …” series: their bottles, including the spray mechanisms, are ones of the best I’ve used ever but the box is so flimsy and without additional inserts that protect a bottle that I cringe every time I open it: they shouldn’t have skimped on that, it’s nothing but the corporate greed and some executive “genius” who thought nobody would notice anyway. Some of us do. And, in my opinion, it deludes the brand’s standing as a luxury one.

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    • Oh yes, good call Undina,
      Those Eaux packs are the insert cardboard from the rest of the line. A plastic/paper melange. I do like the feel of it but completely get where you’re coming from as to cheapness and corner cutting. CHANEL seems to be going through another cycle of demeaning itself for profit. I wonder what the future holds for then now Lagerfeld has gone?
      Portia xx

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  25. Like Donna I really like the AA bottles, boxes not so much because they don’t close easily. I also really like the quaintness of the older Goutal bottles, and Penhaligon’s Ostara box and bottle. Chanel packaging, box and bottle, my absolute favourite!

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  26. One of my favorites started life in your country- Tommi Sooni Passerelle. The bottle was exquisite-clear high quality smudge proof glass, with a picture of an Etruscan on it. Each fragrance had a unique silk wrap-mine was a deep blue silk. The bottle lay in an exquiste pearlized faux leather box, and the bottle was protected by beautiful Japanses paper wrap, that cleverly lifted on one side. It’s amazing. My other favorites are the Annick Goutals-special mention to the deep blue Nuit Etoilee, and the glowing ruby of Mon Parfum Cherie.

    Cheer, and Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it,

    Carole

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    • Hey there Carole,
      OHHHHHHHHH Those first release boxes from Tommi Sooni were exquisite. Can’t believe they left its before I collected the whole set. I have I, II and Jinx but would have loved the others. Had he told us he was in trouble I may even have bought the company, that’s how much I loved them.
      Portia xx

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      • Ah, Portia I feel the same way-if you have time, google his interview on CaFleurBon website-there was an exceptionally in depth one with the Founder, Steve. About the genesis of the line, the significance of the packaging, and poignantly plans for the future. He was a man with a vision. I think it was distribution problems-the line was available at Henri Bendel, in the states. It was difficult, read impossible , for lots of us to get our hands on. It’s a shame, because it was a super special line. If you have time can you share some thoughts on the scents you have? Passerelle is really beautiful-it’s correct and elegant and French but it’s made with exotic Australian ingredients, like silver wattle. I’m very intrigued by Australia because I live in Canada, and I don’t think your country gets snow. I’d love that 🙂

        Best regards,

        Carole

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  27. I love the Tauer bottle I have and the metal box it came in (I think Andy Tauer since changed what boxes he use). Also, the Ostara box is beautiful, sadly not all my perfumes are in equally nice and sturdy boxes! The Chanel magnetic caps are a joy to use, but the boxes not equally great (my brother moved some bottles for me and remarked on that kind of boxes, the lid fits hard enough that you can start to lift the box, but then may start to slip).

    The private line from Dior has bottles with a nice shape, but the 125 ml bottle is a little too big for my liking. A bottle designed to mirror the “feel” of a perfume is often a good thing, but sometimes several near identical bottles wil make a nice display, like the SL or Malle bottles. I like simplicity more than bling, but admit some presentation boxes with satin or velvet on the inside look very glam.

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    • Hey there Ingeborg,
      Yes, I agree that the Tauer metal boxes were wonderful. I didn’t know he’s changed packaging. BUMMER!
      The Serge Lutens 50ml export bottles look so pretty lined up together, with the different colours juices. No other bottle looks so ‘just so” when massed.
      Good choice.
      Portia xx

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