The perfume industry merges scientific innovation with meticulous craftsmanship, creating small bottles of fragrance that can be valued at hundreds of dollars.

The high price tags of many fragrances, especially those from niche or luxury brands, are caused by several factors, including brand reputation, limited ingredients, and the intricate process of perfume making. Creating a unique, memorable scent takes months of trial and error. The cost of perfumes represents the science and craftsmanship of the fragrance.

Perfume making is not only a science but also a form of art. The process of creating perfumes starts with a perfumer. They combine various natural and synthetic ingredients into a well-mixed blend.

According to Bon Parfumer, a well-known perfume company founded in 1989, creating a scent is a highly specialized process that takes up to 10 years to master. Some people, such as Antonia Kohl, who is the co-owner of Ministry of Scent, a niche perfume fragrance store, and has been in the perfume industry for over 11 years, took time to understand perfume and blends of perfume. A specialist needs to learn the different fragrances, blends, and what scents work well together.

Fragrances are made of various layers of scents, also known as the notes of the fragrance. These different scents blend together to make the fragrance.

According to Kohl, scents are usually made of three different notes: the top note, the middle or heart note, and the base notes.

The top notes are typically the scents that are smelled when perfume is first applied. These notes are usually lighter, and they evaporate quickly. The middle notes are generally complex, and the scents that last the longest are the scents that most people will smell. They can linger for hours on the skin after initially being applied. Lastly, the base notes are the long-lasting fragrances that usually have a woody or musky scent.

The process of blending ingredients in the correct proportions takes years of training. Some can even take up to 10 years to master the process.

One of the factors in the price of luxury perfumes is the expensive price of materials. Ingredients in many luxury perfumes include jasmine, Bulgarian rose, and oud.

“These ingredients are commonly used in luxury perfume scents. They are made into extracts and added in,” Kohl said.

Rare ingredients can take years or possibly decades to grow. According to Kohl, oud is derived from a resin from a specific tree that takes many years to grow and harvest. Natural Niche Perfume says that oud takes around 10 years to develop into a form of resin that can be harvested for perfumes. According to Aerre, a luxury perfume brand, oud is a luxury ingredient that can cost more than gold if paid for by weight.

Due to the increasing usage of these materials and the attempts to stop these materials from being harvested, such as the Plantations International Foundation wanting to save agarwood from extinction, the price of perfumes has gone up significantly and will continue to go up.

Many companies, such as Sultan Fragrances, run by Ali Raya, a university student, have been creating bold new perfumes using various ingredients.

“One of the ingredients we use the most is tobacco because not everyone can appreciate the heavy smell of it,” Raya said.

Raya and his colleagues use various ingredients such as tobacco, oud, and vanilla in their scents to create a unique, memorable blend of fragrances for their wearers.

Due to the high costs of ingredients, Raya and his colleagues are testing out synthetic ingredients in their scents.

According to Malibu Apothecary, increasing technological advancements help create synthetic compounds that replicate rare scents. These can be made in laboratories, but their development involves significant research. Synthetic materials can mimic staple scents in perfumery, but the creation takes years of scientific research and sometimes can be just as expensive as the original scent.

Synthetic scents are the recreation of the scented particles using lab-made atoms. According to Petite Histoire, an all-natural luxury perfume brand, these synthetic compounds are still overall better than natural scents because they can help the environment and decrease the amount of natural resources used. The reduction of natural resources being used helps reduce the carbon footprint left on Earth. While many scents can be replicated, the switch is not perfect.

“Some scents in perfume cannot be recreated and will still smell slightly different than the original,” Kohl said.

Due to technological advancements in perfume-making, the precision and efficiency of extracting scents have significantly increased. The production of perfume is still expensive, especially when it involves rare materials, due to the extensive extraction process.

“We use the best ingredients to ensure we have a good quality scent; the ingredients have to be high quality; otherwise, it can negatively affect the scent,” Raya said.

Because of this, getting these perfume ingredients is extremely expensive, sometimes costing more than synthetic substitutes.

While the rarity of the materials used is a significant factor in the price, the amount of ingredients used is also a substantial factor in the price. Dior’s J’adore perfume costs just over $100 per ounce. According to Bazar, one of the most prominent reasons for this is that J’adore uses 80 different ingredients to create its unique, classy scent.

Creating perfume needs a lot of time and expertise. Creating a single scent usually involves many trials and revisions until perfect. Perfumers change the formula to create the desired scent, and many luxury perfume houses use the R&D method, which, according to Innosolinc, is when perfumers examine the chemical properties of materials and replace carbon-based ingredients with synthetic or other materials. According to Envy Nature, reducing carbon-based ingredients helps reduce human usage of fossil fuels, which then helps not harm the environment, reducing human carbon footprint.

Luxury perfume houses reduce our overall carbon footprint on Earth with their perfumes and ensure that the perfumes will last under different conditions. Raya and his colleagues test the perfume in extreme temperatures and with varying body temperatures to ensure that the perfume can last throughout a typical day, no matter where the person is.

Creating a fragrance is considered by many as a form of art that requires precision. Even the slightest change in ingredient ratios or timing of ingredient blending can alter the product significantly, for better or worse. As a result, many high-end perfumes are created in limited quantities, and many people work on them to ensure uniformity.

“Perfume makes me feel put together in a way; it’s like the finishing touch to my routine. I love the J’adore perfume; it’s clean and floral,” said sophomore Ella Hoogerbeets, an avid perfume collector.

Perfume can cause people to feel a certain way when smelling it. Some scents can be nostalgic, while others can cause calmness or confidence. Multiple studies by renowned research groups, such as Johns Hopkins Medicine, have found that aromatherapy impacts the brain.

While the ingredients and the process of making perfumes are expensive, the second main reason for the high prices is custom packaging. The bottles and boxing are custom-made with high-quality materials and molds. According to AOL, about 10% of the perfume’s cost is spent on custom packaging for each perfume. Many designer brands have a custom bottle for each scent, capturing the scent in a design. Some range from simple glass bottles with small designs to out-of-the-ordinary packaging, no longer looking like a perfume bottle. Nudiflorum’s Nassomatto is a perfume that retails for $137.

“It is a small glass bottle with fun and whimsical lids that are made with something involving the ingredients,” Kohl said.

The product has one ounce of perfume, and the Nudiflorum perfume specifically has a cylindrical red-colored wood lid that is larger than the bottle of perfume itself. The lid is made of Pudak wood, which represents the fragrances since the ingredients are overall red and the base notes are musky scents, represented by the lid being wood.

Some brands create special limited-edition bottles to appeal to collectors. Carolina Herrera’s limited edition perfume is an example — the unique heel-shaped bottle with snowflakes on the side of the heel for the holiday season. The boxing and packaging that also comes with the bottle are costly, using uniquely printed boxes and paper. These custom bottles are not just containers but essential parts of the fragrance’s identity, making them a key factor in the high cost of luxury perfumes.

While creating perfume, it can cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. Since the perfume is made into many bottles and diluted with alcohol or other bases, according to AOL, about 76% of the price paid for perfume is profit. A lot of people are involved in making perfume, and while they are paid to create these perfumes, an additional commission is given per bottle sold. Brand CEOs, manufacturers, retailers, and sellers split each perfume bottle’s profit, allowing them to invest in making more perfume scents and selling more bottles.

Overall, the high cost of luxury perfumes reflects more than branding and packaging. Though they may seem exclusive to some, creating a luxury fragrance involves rare materials and the science, time, and effort to create a memorable “timeless” scent. Luxury perfumes also mean more than just a brand name; perfumes represent the individual, embodying the wearer.