Mother's Day Perfume: a Perfume Maven Reveals All About Counterfeits, Knock-offs, and Fakes

You may not know this, but the formula to a perfume is something that the copyright laws do not protect.

That may not seem exactly worrisome to you, but considering fragrance is a $4 billion a year industry, it gives a lot of business people insomnia.

The perfume industry is unlike many other businesses, in that it relies on old-fashioned secrecy to protect its interests instead of a gaggle of corporate attorneys.

In actual fact, it is hard to copy a perfume for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that most of the really great perfumes on the market are incredibly complicated. Chanel No. 5, for example, contains more than 100 different ingredients or chemical notes, which must come together in very specific proportions to yield the result.

Second, the talented individuals who create these perfumes work behind the scenes, in spy-like secrecy. Many perfume companies simply do not reveal the inventors (the "nose" as they're called in the business) of any given fragrance.

Third, it's really hard to pick out all of the ingredients--or even the main ingredients--in a given perfume. Is that orange or bergamot? Tuberose or lily? Orchid or freesia? Most perfume mavens can identify those biggies, but even they get stumped by the complexities beneath the strongest notes.

This brings us to the darker side of the perfume industry: there are imitations on the market.

And this, in turn, brings us to the complications of shopping for perfume. How do you know if you are buying the real thing or an imitation?

There are two types of perfume imitations, one is legitimate (that is to say, not illegal) and the other is a fraud.

Let's start with the legal imitation. It happens to be acceptable (at least according to prevailing standards, if not everyone's individual ethics) for a company to try to imitate the fragrance of another company. The company who copies the perfume is even allowed to promote it in a bottle or display that says the imitations "smells just like..." some other famous perfume.

Drug stores are the main purveyors of these products, which appear around Mother's Day and Christmas for the unsuspecting to foist on their mothers and other loved ones.

Such imitations are not unlawful. The main reason to imitate a successful fragrance is that the imitator can offer a similar product at a much lower price. Is it ever a good idea to purchase one of these imitation products?

First of all, imitations have all of the appeal of rhinestones. If you're trying to give a gift to express your love and affection, an imitation cologne is not going to impress anyone with anything, other than the fact that you are cheap.

Knock-offs are also imperfect. Most perfume divas can quickly sniff them out. Even if you could fool your mom's nose, these imitations rarely offer the packaging of the real thing. Believe it or not, a jazzy perfume bottle and fancy box is part of the appeal of a gift of fine fragrance.

Last but not least, companies that specialize in imitations typically go for the top sellers at the perfume counter. You're not likely to find a lot of diversity in the knock-off world. In short, knock-offs are legal, but they likely aren't a good idea for a gift for your mother.

Counterfeits are much worse. Such products break the law, but not because they're copying a successful scent. They're illegal because they come in deceptive packaging and claim on their labels and boxes to be the real thing.

In other words, counterfeit perfume, like counterfeit money, tries to pass itself off as the real thing!

You're not going to find counterfeits at your local drug store, but you can find some online and you may find them among the offerings of impromptu street vendors or disreputable shops in the big cities.

You know when you're buying a knock-off (it will say on the label, "Smells like Eternity" and the bottle and packaging does not resemble the bottle and packaging of genuine Eternity). If you see a display of knock-offs at the drug store, you'll see that the bottles of the scents resemble each other but not the real article. That means the actual bottle of imitation Eternity is going to look a lot like the bottle of imitation Romance.

Counterfeits try to deceive you. They imitate the packaging and labeling as well. (Some counterfeiters are better at this than others, though. Sometimes you can see through the phony packaging.)

The best way to sniff out a counterfeit: if you've got a good enough nose, try the sniff test. A genuine fragrance product will have a very smooth, polished, harmonious scent, which some perfume lovers compare to harmony in music. A counterfeit scent is usually manufactured on the cheap and can have a harsh, unharmonious scent or just smell "uneven."

Look at the packaging (is it exactly like the manufacturer's packaging? Check the manufacturer's website if you have to).

And then look at the price. Most counterfeit perfume is sold at a discount to try to entice buyers. If you shop for much perfume at reputable department stores or the manufacturers' sites, you know that perfume is expensive and never goes on sale.

The online world of perfume warehouses or cosmetic stores does indeed contain so-called "discount" perfume. That discount may be a reduced price on genuine stuff (rare, but it happens) or it may be a knock-off or counterfeit.

First, it is possible for an online business to sell discount perfume. Unlike a brick-and-mortar business, an online enterprise can be set up for very little money at all. It may even be run out of somebody's basement. With minimal expense, minimal inventory (many discount sites offer only a smattering of choices), and a rather plain website, it is possible for a merchant to buy perfume at wholesale, mark it up slightly, and undersell the traditional brick-and-mortar competition.

So if you shop online for perfume and find a slightly-less-than-retail price, you may still be getting the real thing.

Good clues for discount online vendors: look for a physical address (and try to contact them), a Better Business Bureau seal on the website, testimonials, and prices that are reasonable but not so ridiculous you know that the goods have to be fake. You just cannot sell a bottle of Chanel No. 5 for $10 and not take a serious loss.

Look at the bottles and packaging to be sure it's legitimate. When in doubt, check out department stores or well-known and highly reputable online perfume sources like Sephora.

Many perfumers run their own websites and sell their own product directly; buying there virtually assures you of top-quality original goods. Remember, if you're buying perfume as a gift, the quality of that gift is an important statement.