Perfume is divided into two categories. There is budget perfume and luxury perfume. Budget perfume is affordable. It doesn’t use many rare ingredients and isn’t packaged in artisanal bottles. You can easily find budget perfumes at your local department store for an affordable price.
But we’re not here to talk about budget perfume today. We’re going to talk about the most expensive perfumes, tell you how much they cost, and what makes them so expensive.
Most Expensive Perfumes
JAR Parfums Paris Bolt of Lightning
If you’re lucky enough to find JAR Bolt of Lightning in stock, then you’ll see that it can sell anywhere from $700/ounce to $6,900/ounce. It is becoming increasingly harder to find which is only adding to its value.
JAR gets its name from Joel Arthur Rosenthal who still lives and works in Paris as a jeweler and perfumer. It is dubbed the Bolt of Lightning because it only takes a small amount of perfume for it to be noticed. The fragrance is filled with green and floral notes. It was released in 2001 and is still sought after today.
Aside from the aroma of the perfume, the bottle is worth noting, as well. It is a hand-cut glass bottle that only adds to the perfume’s overall value.
No. 1 Clive Christian
Clive Christian is a British kitchen designer who entered the perfume world in 2001 when he created the Christian No. 1 fragrance.
Christian No. 1 is available in fragrances for both men and women. Both scents are expensive and can easily sell for more than $2,000/ounce. The men's fragrance ranks 2nd on the list of most expensive colognes in the world.
No. 5 Chanel Paris
No. 5 Chanel Paris sells for $3,500 for a 7.6-ounce bottle or $14,500 for a 30-ounce bottle. The glass bottle has multiple facets of glass that are carved by hand and sealed using the baudruchage technique to keep the scent protected.
No. 5 Chanel Paris has a strong floral note including rose oil and jasmine oil. It is the epitome of a feminine fragrance which is what makes it so desirable. All you need to do is apply a drop of Chanel No 5 to the pulse points on your wrist and/or neck and the perfume will do the rest! You just need to ask yourself if you can afford to spend $3,500 on a bottle of perfume.
Limited Edition Passion de L‘Amour Eau De Parfum
The Limited Edition Passion de L‘Amour Eau De Parfum sells for $360 for less than one ounce. Part of what makes this perfume so expensive is the intricate design of the bottle. The cap is made with 158 Swarovski crystals that have been placed by hand. The bottle is made of 18K yellow-gold plated glass.
As far as the fragrance goes, Passion de L’Amour Eau De Parfum has notes of saffron, caramel, and oud. This gives it an earthy, floral fragrance that resembles the South Pacific.
Shumukh
Shumukh is likely one perfume you’ll never get to buy because it cost approximately $1.29 million. The value of the perfume comes from the bottle itself rather than the perfume within it, but before we dive into the bottle, it’s important to understand the history of Shumukh.
Shamukh is made by The Spirit of Dubai Parfums and is Arabic for “deserving the highest.” That’s why The Spirit of Dubai combined luxury fragrance and jewelry into one art form.
The bottle of Shumukh has 3,571 diamonds that total 38.55 carats, along with a combination of topaz and pearls to further adorn the bottle. It is 18k gold with a total weight of 2,479 grams, along with 5,892 grams of pure silver.
It includes seven key elements in the fragrance and bottle that are native to the Arabian region including pearl diving (Durra), falconry (Baz), Arabian horses (Abjar), roses (Narjesi), luxury (Haibah), Arabian hospitality (Diwan), and Dubai’s stature as a “city of the future” (Aamal). All of these are intricately included in the gold, silver, diamonds, and precious stones of the bottle.
It took more than three years and 494 trials to get the Shamukh right making is the worlds most expensive perfume. The bottle holds three liters of perfume made from the finest ingredients. It includes notes of sandalwood, musk, amber, Indian agarwood, Turkish rose, patchouli ylang-ylang, and frankincense. All of these fragrances combine to last for 12 hours when applied to the skin.
Caron Poivre
Caron Poivre sells for about $400 for a 0.5/ounce bottle. The Caron Poivre perfume house was founded in 1904 and its signature fragrance seen here was created just a few short years later. It has notes of spices, florals, and an earthy tone. The spice aroma is what gives this perfume its noticeable fragrance. That, and its unique bottle design. It is a handcrafted glass bottle with a tassel. Empty bottles of Caron Poivre are selling for $100 – that’s how valuable this perfume and bottle are!
Les Royales Exclusives Jardin d'Amalfi Fragrance
Les Royales Exclusives Jardin d’Amalfi Fragrance sells for around $1,000 at various retailers, but sometimes you can find it at a discounted price of just $400.
Les Royales Exclusives Jardin d’Amalfi Fragrance is made by Creed and was launched in 2011. It’s a fragrance that can be used by both men and women. It has citrus notes combined with spices, florals, and fruits.
The bottle is made of blown glass which only adds to the value of this expensive cologne. It has an open neck pour, but do not mistake this feature as permission to use a lot of perfume for it to be noticed. A little goes a long way with this fragrance.
What Makes Luxury Perfumes So Expensive?
Luxury perfumes use top-of-the-line ingredients that budget perfumes don’t use. The ingredients are placed into a large decanter and diluted. Then they are matured which can take as long as three weeks if needed. Finally, the ingredients are diluted in alcohol, chilled, and then filtered.
Have you ever purchased a budget perfume and noticed that it has a strong alcohol smell? That’s because the ingredients used in the less expensive perfume are low-quality, making the alcohol used during the final phase of the process more pronounced.
When fragrance companies use top-quality ingredients, they come through the filtration process better and stronger than low-quality ingredients that are used in budget perfumes.
Top-quality ingredients are made of a majority of natural ingredients as well. Natural ingredients react better to alcohol and the entire filtration process. This causes the aroma of the ingredient to be fully released during the process. This doesn’t mean that no synthetic ingredients are used. It just means that more natural ingredients are used than synthetic.
You’ll also find that luxury perfumes are created with a blend of many different ingredients. This gives the perfume a variety of fragrances and aromas that budget perfumes can’t create.
It’s not always the fragrance inside that makes the perfume so expensive. The bottle that the perfume comes in can quickly and easily add to its value.
Look at the Shumukh perfume on our list. The bottle has 3,571 diamonds, 2,479 grams of 18K gold, and 5,892 grams of pure silver, with gemstones like pearls and topaz to complete the adornment. Without the lavish diamonds, silver, gold, and gemstones on the bottle, the Shumukh perfume on our list wouldn’t have a value near $1.29 million.
Is Luxury Perfume Better than Budget Perfume?
Many people believe that luxury perfume is better than budget perfume, but that’s a matter of opinion. You have to look at the quantity of perfume you’re receiving as well as the ingredients that are used to determine which one is better.
On this list of most expensive perfumes, the value comes from a combination of the ingredients used in the perfume like essential oil and Tahitian vanilla, along with the design and style of the perfume bottle (a precious stone or two ups the price significantly!) It’s only logical that luxury perfume that is filled in a bottle that has gold, silver, or diamonds will be worth more than a large bottle of perfume filled in mass-produced bottles.
Conclusion
So, which brand on our list will you purchase the next time you are in the market for a new perfume? The good news is that there are options on our list that are more affordable than others, but you still have to be willing to spend a few hundred dollars for an ounce or less of perfume!
The joy perfume can bring doesn’t necessarily have to cost a small fortune, however. There are several more modestly priced brands from Coco Chanel, Paco Rabanne, Maurice Roucel, and more, available at department stores.
Take a look at some of the other most expensive items on our website, including the most expensive golf clubs and the most expensive liquors. If you think that these expensive fragrance options are samples of extreme luxury but wait until you see what else money can buy!
