Perfume is probably one of the most popular gifts for Valentine's Day. But what exactly is real perfume – and what is just cheap water? You can find out the exact difference here. We also reveal which perfume is bought most frequently and is one of the absolute bestsellers.
The most expensive perfume in the world costs 375,000 euros: "Imperial Majesty" by Clive Christian. The content is probably less expensive than the bottle. This should consist of the finest crystal, comes up with a 5-carat diamond and an 18-carat gold collar nestles around the neck. So it goes without saying that the strictly limited fragrance will neither be sold nor diffused senselessly, but rather eke out its existence as a valuable collector's item in the bathrooms of some of the rich and beautiful.
Nevertheless, good money can be made with the coveted substance. According to Statista, women and men spent around 1.5 billion euros on perfume and fragrances in Germany alone last year. About two thirds of these were women's fragrances and the rest men's fragrances. And Germans are willing to pay for this fleeting good: in a POSpulse consumer survey from 2019, around two-thirds of those surveyed were willing to spend up to 50 euros when buying fragrances; the remaining respondents wanted to invest even more. And for special occasions such as Christmas or Valentine's Day, no savings are made.
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Perfume brands: Big names sell better
According to Statista, business is mainly done in perfumeries such as Douglas and drugstores such as DM or Rossmann. Online trade is still lagging behind, but the trend is rising. The two fragrance manufacturers Coty and Mäurer & Wirtz secured the largest piece of the cake in drugstores and perfumeries, each with a little more than 30 percent market share (as of 2019). Don't you know Coty? Then its perfume brands like Cerruti, Chloé, Chopard, Davidoff, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada, Esprit, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Jil Sander, Joop, Pierre Cardin or Vivienne Westwood will surely tell you something. And the Mäurer & Wirtz range includes such well-known brands as Baldessarini, Route 66, Tosca, 4711, Tabac and Otto Kern.
In principle, brands in the fragrance sector obviously play an important role. So it is no coincidence that many well-known designers or celebrities adorn the labels of the perfume bottles. Because: According to a survey published on Statista, more than half of the population in Germany pay more attention to the perfume brand than to the price – a third, on the other hand, looks more to the price.
5 typical types of fragrance: Perfume is not just perfume
Sometimes quickly evaporated: not all perfumes are created equal
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Who is supposed to see through that? What is colloquially known as perfume floating through the air is actually a mix of different types of fragrance. In addition to the perfume, there are also eau de parfum, eau de toilette, eau de cologne and eau fraîche as fragrance variants. The main difference (besides the amount of alcohol), which is reflected in the quality and price of the colognes, is the content of scented oils. This in turn is particularly noticeable in the duration of the effect.
For example, the "real", mostly very expensive perfume consists of up to 30 percent fragrance oils and unfolds its effect almost all day long. In the "cheapest" variant, Eau Fraîche, the fragrance oil content is only between one and three percent. This means, among other things, that the scent has disappeared after about two hours at the latest.
