Fragrance Discounters

created with Ideogram AI

I have always hated paying retail prices--especially with my own money--whether it be for clothes, shoes, most things. Especially for perfume. I loooove perfume. I have a lot of it and always want something new. But I can't be tossing hundreds of dollars around just to feed my habit, so I either rely on sales or on discounters. And if I have to pay full retail, I try to use a gift card earned from credit card points to cover at least part of the cost. 

As I reside in the US, I can only confirm the reliability of the companies that are based here and with which I have experience; those are marked with an asterisk (*). I have received recommendations, however, from folks outside the States who have made successful purchases from fragrance discounters in the UK, EU, and Canada. 

I will endeavor to update this list when I find new places to add. It will eventually become a page, linked on the left sidebar. <-------- If you have any additions for the list, please leave a comment and I'll add it.

US

Aura Fragrance 

Beautyhouse.com sells a little bit of everything--designer, niche, and celebrity scents. They also have a decent selection of Arabian fragrances.

*Fragrancenet is my favorite discounter; I've made dozens of purchases from them, all of which arrived quickly and safely. They stock the gamut, from cheapie celebrity scents to expensive niche brands I've never heard of. They sell testers and purse spray decants as well as full bottles, plus beauty products and cosmetics. I discovered Monotheme Venezia's great and inexpensive fragrances on Fragrancenet, and I've purchased most of the ten Serge Lutens frags in my collection from them. It's a good place for blind buys in that they have so many choices. It's a bad place for blind buys in that they have so many choices. PRO TIP: their catalog of niche brands is listed under the "gifts" header. They're in random order, unfortunately, but you can always select a brand to see all the fragrances from that brand that they generally have in stock. Also, some niche frags aren't actually discounted. Essential Parfums, for example, are more expensive on Fragrancenet. 

*Fragrancex is practically identical to Perfume.com. They send out similar sale emails on the same day, and carry a lot of the same brands. They have a single page directory of the brands they carry, which is great when you're in the mood for a blind buy and have a company in mind. 

*Jomashop is like a high-end discount department store. They have clothes, shoes, sunglasses, jewelry, and watches from brands like Burberry, Cartier, Tag Heuer, Ferragamo, and more. And perfume. They have lots of brands, both inexpensive and high end. Shipping took a bit longer than I'm used to, but my purchase arrived securely packed. (I bought the normally $300 100ml bottle of D.S. & Durga Pistachio on sale for $125.)

*Perfume.com is practically identical to FragranceX. They have a vast inventory of goods at great prices, and they have a single page directory of all the brands they carry. One problem with Perfume.com is that fragrances I want might be listed, but they are usually out of stock. 

Venba sells a limited selection of popular expensive designer and niche brands like Creed, Amouage, Parfums de Marly, Nishane, Maison Crivelli. While prices are still quite high, they are definitely lower than full retail. 

Canada 

Fragrancebuy.ca

UK & EU

All Beauty

Direct Cosmetics 

Escentual

LookFantastic

My Origines

Notino

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

Kaffeeklatsch

created with Ideogram AI and lots of Adobe Photoshop

I have always loved the smell of coffee. When I was a kid, my Dad and I would go to a place called The Bun Penny, which was located at the Mall in Columbia in Columbia, MD. A large portion of the floor was covered in giant sacks full of aromatic coffee beans, and I delighted in sniffing each variety. I can still conjure up the smell of The Bun Penny in my mind's nose, but it isn't solely scented with coffee. There's also the scent of raw almonds, though I can't remember if they sold those or not. It is a precious scent memory I am always trying to recreate through perfume, but haven't yet reached that particular scented nirvana.

There aren't all that many coffee fragrances on the market, actually. Sure, there are perfumes that contain a coffee note, but not that many that star my favorite caffeinated beverage. And some that do, like Montale's Intense Cafe and Ristretto Intense Cafe, pair it with rose. Those, to my nose, are rose fragrances that happens to have some coffee in them. When I see a coffee fragrance, I give it a try, but few have actually come home with me. My absolute favorite is the sadly discontinued Comme des Garcons Sweet Wood Coffee, from their Sweet line of fragrances. They brought back Sticky Cake, so I'm hoping that Wood Coffee will reemerge from the archives someday. I have a small bottle that I treasure, and I use it sparingly. It makes me feel so cozy and delicious. 

Apparently coffee is a trending note these days, so we'll be seeing more of it, and that's fine with me.

Comme des Garcons Sweet Wood Coffee

Licorice, Cardamom, Ginger, Coffee, Almond, Woodsy Notes, Indian Patchouli, Vanilla

This is one of my all-time favorite fragrances. It's coffee, but not, with none of the dark bitterness of actual coffee. It's gourmand-ish, but not too sweet; spicy, but without recognizable spices; and woody, without splinters. Sweet Wood Coffee is so well-blended that I find it hard to pick out individual notes. It just envelops me into the most gorgeous cloud of edible scent. Stunning, and I was crushed that it was discontinued before I was able to snag a back-up bottle or three. I have half a bottle and use it sparingly.

Al Rehab French Coffee

Coffee, Caramel, Vanilla, Milk, Sugar, Cacao, Cinnamon

This is liquid tiramisu in a bottle. The coffee note is quite strong and black at first, but soon fades into an amalgam of sweet and creamy notes reminiscent of the delicious Italian dessert. Nice, but rather one-dimensional. I wish it had some patchouli or woods in the drydown to ground it a bit. 

Bonus Trivia: Retired Baltimore bakery owner Carminantonio Iannaccone claims to have invented tiramisu while he was still living in Treviso, Italy. I've tried his version--it's very good. Impossible to say if it was the original.

Bohoboco Coffee White Flowers
Cinnamon, Cloves, Chocolate, Coffee, Cocoa, Jasmine, Golden Rum, Vanilla, Leather

This starts out like the most delicious caramel latte, and honestly, I would be happy if the notes ended at cocoa and I smelled like this all day. But I am not unhappy that the scent gradually changes to a sexy honeyed white floral. It's an amazing transformation, so totally unexpected, but completely delicious. A great scent for the transition from Winter to Spring, but I find it a bit too sweet for Summer wearing. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks

A Favorite: Trudon Bruma

created with Ideogram AI and Adobe Photoshop
What I really wanted to do was fairly complex, involving a suede purse tipped on its side on the grass, with a lipstick and a tin of pastilles spilled out of it. Behind it would be irises, violets, jasmine, peonies.
Unfortunately, Ideogram wouldn't give me the purse I wanted, or it made some bizarre mutant purse with straps coming out of odd places, with far more things spilling out than I asked for. So I gave up and generated something far more simple. I still had to Photoshop the heck out of it. 

Trudon Bruma

Galbanum, Black Pepper, Lavender, Iris Flower, Violet, Peony, Jasmine, Vetiver, Labdanum, Tonka

During a visit to the Trudon boutique in SoHo, I scored a travel spray of Bruma. It was given as a thank you for attending the Spring Sniffapalooza event in 2024--a very generous gift. I had sniffed it before, during an online master class with Trudon and BeautyHabit, but it didn't stick in my mind. Rather, I was too taken with the sublimely smoky Revolution to pay attention to the other scents in the collection. (This goes to show that perfumes may need to be tried multiple times before they hit the right spot.) At the boutique, I was given a choice of two or three fragrances; I chose Bruma because it was presented as an iris scent, which is right up my alley. But to me, Bruma does not smell particularly of iris. I mean, yes, there's iris, but it isn't what I'd call a primarily iris fragrance. It smells of too many other things. It's green. It's floral. It's powdery. It's peppery. It's aromatic. It has an old-fashioned vibe. It's quite perfume-y. It's warm, but also cool. It's cozy. It's musky. It's one of those fragrances that can fit any occasion, be worn in any temperature, and has become something I reach for when I really don't know what I feel like wearing. Bruma is subtle, sophisticated, balanced, velvety and a bit mysterious. It is always perfect. I honestly adore it. 

It starts out soft and girly, and a bit old-fashioned, with definite iris and violet but also the dry warmth of pepper and a whisper of leather. It's like rummaging through a suede purse and pulling out a lipstick. It's also green and floral in turn, as if that purse was outdoors, in a garden. For a moment, there's also something vaguely candied about it, though it's not sweet. As if that lipstick has become pastilles instead, but are still living in that purse. 

Sometimes, when I wear this, I get a whiff of something clean wafting up from my shirt. It's basically the same floral/lightly green scent, but in a different form. A shift from powdery to soapy. Actually, Bruma isn't really powdery, but rather coated in a gauzy floral veil that's airy rather than heady.

If you're into unusual floral scents that seem to veer a bit old-fashioned (yet don't smell vintage), give Bruma a try. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

Jacques Fath Le Loden

created with Ideogram AI and Adobe Photoshop.
I always wanted to star in fragrance ad.

Jacques Fath Fath's Essentials Le Loden

Haitian Vetiver, Ginger, Pink Pepper, Green Mandarin, Bourbon Vetiver, Juniper Berries, Bourbon Geranium, Raspberry Leaf, Java vetiver oil, Tobacco, Patchouli, Ylang-Ylang

I used to think that I disliked vetiver, but I may have been mistaken. There are some fragrances that I cannot abide that have a vetiver note listed, so I have assumed that's what makes the scent unwearable to me. Yet, I am finding more and more vetiver scents that make me happy. I definitely can now recognize the somewhat watery-but-also-smoky grassiness of proper vetiver. I enjoy Tom Ford's Grey Vetiver, and I simply adore Bamford Gray (though that seems more spicy than vetiver-y). A new favorite, Fath Le Loden, was a love-at-first-sniff sorta thing; it includes three different vetivers.

What? There's actually a vetiver scent I love? Sometimes I don't recognize myself. 

I first encountered Le Loden via a sample included in a goodie bag from my friend Angie. She and I have very different tastes in fragrance and I was not having much luck finding something I liked among her generous selection. When I got to Le Loden, my first thought was, "Jacques Fath is making new perfumes?" I of course was familiar with Iris Gris (1946) and Fath de Fath (1953), but had no idea that the house had been creating newer scents since the 1990s, including the Fath's Essentials series. My second thought was, "wow!"

Some have compared Le Loden to Lalique Encre Noire; while they both have prominent vetiver notes, that's where the similarity ends. It's like comparing Hermes Hiris to Houbigant Iris de Champs. Yes, they are both primarily iris scents, but are otherwise quite different. Overall, Encre Noire is a cold and wet scent, as befitting the name "black ink." I owned it at one point, but found it to be too chilly and dark. It's too "moody vampire" for me (but if you like vetiver, def check it out). Le Loden is also a scent that lives up to its name. While it contains potentially excessive amounts of vetiver, it's a bit wooly, almost snuggly. The leatheriness of the Javanese vetiver and the sweet almost licorice-like quality of the Bourbon vetiver give the fragrance body and warmth. The patchouli is pretty prominent as well, adding a pleasing earthy quality.

For whatever reason, sniffing Le Loden conjures up a feeling of nostalgia, but for memories that aren't actually mine. It makes me think of being outside on a rainy winter day, perhaps walking through the countryside, while wearing a cozy coat. Indeed, the name itself refers to the sturdy, waterproof, 100% wool outerwear that originated in the Tyrol region of Austria. Loden also refers to the traditional olive green of said coats, though modern iterations come in many styles and colors. 

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.

Calvin Klein Obsession

created with Ideogram AI and Adobe Photoshop
No, this is not an actual image of me from the late 80s, though I did own
rainbow suspenders and pleated tartan trousers.

Calvin Klein Obsession

Fragrantica: Basil, Bergamot, Mandarin Orange, Green Notes, Peach, Lemon, Spices, Sandalwood, Coriander, Oakmoss, Cedar, Orange Blossom, Jasmine, Rose, Amber, Incense, Vanilla, Civet, Musk, Vetiver

Basenotes: Lemon, Mandarin, Bergamot, Peach, Jasmine, Rose, Orange Blossom, Rosewood, Coriander, Marigold, Armoise (mugwort), Ylang Ylang, Cedar, Sandalwood, Amber, Oakmoss, Vanilla, Musk, Civet

Obsession was something I wore regularly in the late 80s, along with the even spicier Karl Lagerfeld fragrance, KL. (Floral fragrances were grody and gagged me with a spoon, but ambers were like totally bitchin'.) These perfumes scented my days of lugging a heavy brown pleather portfolio from Art History to Life Drawing and Children's Book Illustration to Computer Graphics (where we learned how to draw shapes on a tiny black and white Mac Classic--this was the Stone Age of personal computers) at the Maryland Institute College of Art. I never wore Big Hair, but I did wear Big Perfume and even bigger earrings. 

While writing my post about Must de Cartier, I came upon more than a few comments and reviews that compared Must to Obsession. I didn't remember it being that similar, but it had been a while since I owned a fresh bottle of Calvin Klein's now classic fragrance. Fragrancenet.com had it on clearance, which allowed me to score 50ml for $23.

I was immediately disappointed with my new purchase. The original opaque poop-brown cap with the gold border had been replaced with a cheaper translucent cap in a darker shade. Did the juice change, too? I spritzed a tester strip and immediately got a flash of the past, though it wasn't as strong and nostalgic as I thought it would be. Damn if the opening doesn't smell a lot like Must de Cartier, with a strong galbanum-like dark green sensation, though it doesn't last as long as Must's. Obsession also has a fairly prominent animalic quality that comes out early and persists for a bit. This is possibly the civet, but could also be indolic jasmine. Cinnamon and a pinch of clove swirl around, with some fruitiness, oakmoss, and of course a lot of ambery-style notes. The drydown is fairly musky and includes quite a bit of vanilla, but not as much as I remember.

I'm not sure why they bothered creating an Obsession for Men, because there's nothing particularly feminine about the original. There's definitely a similarity between the two, though the masculine has even more cinnamon and vanilla and seems softer. It's been my husband's signature cold-weather scent for over 25 years now, and he always smells glorious. Frankly, I think I prefer the men's version to the original, at least in its current formulation. (I'm not saying it's been reformulated, but considering how old this scent is, I think it's likely). 

IMHO, Obsession doesn't smell at all dated. It's a spicy amber fragrance that is just as good as--or better--than many of the newer perfumes in the same style. It's not particularly sweet, nor is it overpoweringly strong unless one oversprays. It's much less-expensive than most new perfumes, only $100 for 100ml if purchased directly from Calvin Klein, and even less than that at discounters. Fans of amber-style scents should definitely look into trying this 1980's classic.

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.