Discontinuing Classic Scents That We Relied On As Our Signature Fragrance
Do you know what it's like to wear a perfume for decades, then one day the company announces that they are not going to make it anymore? It's devastating. We don't care if your share holders want more profits, we want to smell like ourselves again. Who says that a 1950's classic wouldn't attract the modern lady of today? The olfactory glands in the human nose have not changed. If it smelled good then, it will smell good today.
Trying To Trick Us With Your Watered Down "New Formulation" Versions
Grab your picket signs and march with me to one of my biggest peeve companies, Coty. Coty, the company now in charge of Jovan brand fragrances. I loved Jovan Musk spray cologne when I was in high school back in the 1970's. It was rich, mellow, musky and very sexy. The sillage was amazing and it lasted a long, long time. It was a guaranteed compliment magnet; especially from men.
Fast forward to 2015. Jovan Musk is now so weak and watery, I could spray the entire bottle over myself and still not get the same experience as one spritz of the old-school version.
We, the perfume-buying public, want you to know that we are intelligent enough to smell the difference between an original version and what you are trying to sell us now.
When high-end perfume brands like Chanel and Dior are now reformulating and weakening their mega-expensive scents, vintage and eBay will be the words of the day.
Describing Your Notes All Wrong
Fragrance companies, besides the drug test and background check, do your potential employees take a nose test to see if they can sniff out the difference between a rotten cabbage and a fresh flower? Why do you describe a scent as fresh and fruity when it's really vanilla rum? Nowhere is this confusion more noticed than when a perfume is advertised as having patchouli or musk as the main base note when your perfumer only added half a molecule of it.
Adding Way Too Many Varieties And Spinoffs From An Original Scent
In general, the entire product marketing and development one sees these days has gone overboard with offering too many choices of everything. It isn't even fun to shop anymore. It's crazy when it spreads to perfumes.
Hello, Can I interest you in some Secrets To Keep perfume? If you don't like it, we have:
- Secrets To Keep Rose Garden
- Secrets To Keep At Midnight
- Secrets To Keep Casual
- Secrets To Keep Beach Blast
- Secrets To Keep On Keeping
- Secrets To Keep On Safari
- Secrets To Keep Fruity
- Secrets To Keep Sensual
- Secrets To Keep Senior Fresh
- Secrets To Keep Baby Soft
- Secrets To Keep For Him
Revlon, Why Couldn't You Leave Charlie Alone?
Charlie by Revlon is another one that I absolutely love because of its powerhouse florals and long-lasting qualities. Now, with all the add-ons, try sending your hubby out to the drugstore for some:
"Dear, could you pick me up a bottle of Charlie perfume on your way home from work?"
Hubby calls from the drugstore. " Which one is it? They have Charlie Silver, Charlie Gold, Charlie Red, Charlie White, Charlie Sunshine and Charlie Blue".
"Just get the one that says plain original Charlie", replies Wife.
Hubby scratches head and asks salesperson for help. " They say the one in the blue box might be the original Charlie, but they aren't sure".
"Oh forget it! Just grab me a bottle of Jean Nate!", yells Wife.
Offering Genuine Fragrances At Discount Prices That You Source From Counterfeit Countries
Shame, shame, shame. A few of you popular discount fragrance sites online make it a point to splash across your website how everything you sell is the real deal.Your inventory is so huge that you cannot possibly check the bottle designs and scents for authenticity. You trust your suppliers to provide you with the real thing, but sometimes they don't.
I can say from experience that one certain online fragrance company based in Florida sent me a rendition version of a popular Britney Spears perfume that was missing her signature logo. The cap color and manufacturer sticker were different. The liquid inside was almost pure alcohol.
I had to send the company a side-by-side comparison photo of their fake versus my genuine bottle before they could acknowledge an issue with their supplier. Tsk...tsk.
Some American fragrance shops order perfume from wholesale companies overseas on the cheap so they can offer low prices online.It's very difficult for a first-time user to determine whether they are experiencing the real thing or not.
So what are we going to do about this? In my case, I scour the Internet for as many reviews as I can find before I spend money on any fragrance. Depending on how expensive it is, I look for small testers or miniatures before purchasing a large bottle.
In a pinch, I will look up the perfume notes of a desired fragrance, buy some matching essential oils and grain alcohol and make my own fabulous renditions.
BOYCOTT PERFUME BRANDS THAT ARE RIPPING US OFF
Image Credits: Chanel No. 5 Parfum By arz (The photo was taken in Vilnius, Lithuania) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
