The best perfume for your budget is the one that gives you the most perfume oil per rupee, not the biggest bottle. Under Rs 2,000, five 5ml Eau de Parfum vials beat a large body spray. From about Rs 3,200 you can own a full 50ml Eau de Parfum, and with Rs 10,000 two 50ml bottles in one box give you a day scent and an evening scent.
Concentration. A body spray usually carries only a few percent perfume oil. An Eau de Toilette usually carries 5 to 15 percent, and an Eau de Parfum usually 15 to 20 percent. More oil means more material on your skin to evaporate slowly.
Bottle size. A big cheap bottle is no bargain if it is mostly alcohol.
Cost per ml. Divide the price by the millilitres. This one sum exposes most bad buys.
This budget usually buys a 150 to 200ml body spray or a 30ml Eau de Toilette. The spray looks cheap at about Rs 7 to 10 per ml, but with so little oil it fades early.
The sharper move is to buy concentration in a smaller dose. The Houdini Discovery Box holds any five scents in 5ml for Rs 1,200. That is 25ml of Eau de Parfum at Rs 48 per ml, and five scents to test on your own skin. With Rs 250 delivery it comes to Rs 1,450.
A typical 50ml Eau de Toilette near Rs 2,800 works out at about Rs 56 per ml, at the lower concentration. It suits daytime and air conditioning, and struggles at a summer dawat.
Go a little past the line and the picture changes. Très Belle (Rs 3,200), with peony, iris, rose, tonka and vanilla, is a 50ml Eau de Parfum, about Rs 64 per ml at the higher concentration.
At this budget expect Eau de Parfum and nothing less. Every Houdini 50ml bottle fits, from Rs 3,200 to Rs 4,190. Prime Time (Rs 3,250) with pineapple, bergamot, patchouli and vanilla, or First Glance (Rs 4,190) with peony, rose, osmanthus and sandalwood.
Buy two bottles, not one expensive one. The Two Bottle Box holds any two 50ml scents with 10 percent off the pair. Prime Time and Très Belle together list at Rs 6,450, and come to Rs 5,805 after the discount, with free delivery over Rs 5,000.
Imported designer bottles often cost several times more per ml. Much of the difference pays for freight and import, not for the oil.
A perfume is worn for a moment: the meeting, the dawat, the barat. Its job is to make you smell good through that moment. A double blind study by Roberts and colleagues in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science (2009) found men wearing a scent felt more confident, and women watching silent video clips rated them more attractive, even though they could not smell them.
Delivery is Rs 250 to any city in Pakistan, and free over Rs 5,000. Cash on delivery anywhere in Pakistan.
For full strength, a small Eau de Parfum dose beats a big spray. The Houdini Discovery Box is five 5ml Eau de Parfum scents for Rs 1,200. A full 50ml Houdini bottle starts at Rs 3,200.
Any 50ml Eau de Parfum with a woody, amber or vanilla base. Houdini 50ml bottles cost Rs 3,200 to Rs 4,190.
Usually not. A body spray carries only a few percent perfume oil, so the cost per ml of actual fragrance is high and it fades fast.
Divide the price by the millilitres and check the concentration on the label. Eau de Parfum gives you more oil per ml than Eau de Toilette.