Over the past 4 years or so, I’ve built up my perfume collection from scratch. I have a mix of designer and some quite pricy niche fragrances in my collection and thought I’d share how I budget for them. I know it’s not always easy, and when you’re on social sometimes you see someone’s collection and think “how did they afford all of that?”
For reference, I’m not wealthy and I’ve never received any PR / fragrances from companies to try. Everything in my collection has been bought with my own money. I work full time but I don’t have any additional income streams aside from that, and have rent etc to pay as well.
Here are a few ways I budget for fragrance, and some tips on where to buy perfumes at a more affordable price point. Many of these can be combined which can result in some quite impressive savings!
This isn’t necessarily about getting expensive niche fragrances for less (although I have included some tips on how to do that). But just how to save money on fragrance in general when building your collection. Whether that’s niche or designer – as it all adds up in the end. Therefore I haven’t included any tips on finding dupes or clones.
1. Determine your budget
Please don’t overstretch yourself to buy that new designer release. Building your collection isn’t worth getting into debt over and eating is more important than smelling like syrupy cherries.
After all my outgoings, I usually set aside a small amount of money for “leisure” and this could include perfume. Sometimes it’s only £10 a month, and sometimes nothing. This all adds up though, and it’s so much more satisfying finally getting your hands on something you’ve spent months saving for.
2. Join Facebook Groups for cheaper perfumes
On Facebook there are many active groups with people looking to buy / sell / swap fragrances. Often this means you can get your favourite perfume for a significant discount or swap something you’re not loving for something you’ve been wanting to buy for a while.
I know you can buy perfumes on eBay etc too. But I like how through Facebook groups sellers can be verified by other buyers on there.
To find these groups just search in Facebook for your country + fragrance or perfume. Many of the groups have “house rules” on how to buy / swap and sell fragrances on there that you may need to agree to before joining.
3. Consider swaps or decants
Slightly connected to the previous point – but consider a swap, discant or even a used fragrance. On Facebook Groups, many users might be looking to swap a fragrance or clear out their collections, and you can often find a bargain.
If you’re new to perfume or have a growing collection, there is a chance your tastes might change if you buy a full bottle. Having a decant or buying a used bottle means you get to enjoy the fragrance before deciding whether you want to commit to a full bottle.
4. Sell or swap any fragrances you already own but no longer use
You might have a couple of perfumes sitting on your shelf that you no longer enjoy or have the occasion to wear them. Instead of letting them gather dust, you can always swap or sell them through the Facebook Groups and put the money towards something you will truly enjoy.
5. Sign up to retailer newsletters for discount codes
If you’ve decided you want to buy a full bottle of fragrance through an authorised retailer, remember to make use of any welcome discount. Whether that’s signing up to a newsletter for 10% off, or downloading the app and purchasing through it to get 15% off – it all adds up in the end.
6. Purchase during sales promotion periods – e.g Black Friday
Similarly, you might find some retailers such as LookFantastic, Cult Beauty, SpaceNK and Liberty London have excellent Black Friday sales and promotions on throughout the year. If you have your eye on a fragrance, making use of those discounts will add up.
7. Consider discounter websites
Found your favourite fragrance but realised it’s in no active sales promotions?
Consider having a look through discounter websites to see if it’s on there. My favourites are AllBeauty, Notino and Justmylook. I use AllBeauty in particular for niche fragrances – some I have bought for 30% – 50% off retail price.
8. Take advantage of referral codes and credit
LookFantastic, Cult Beauty and AllBeauty all have referral programmes where if someone signs up using your code, you get credit and they get money or a discount off their first purchase.
If you share your discount codes with others, you can soon build up credit to put towards a new perfume. This is how I get significant discounts for many of my purchases. That £30 in referral credit can help a lot.
Here are my codes which you can use to get money off:
LookFantastic referral code:
Receive £10 off selected products when you place your first order by signing up with my referral code: LookFantastic referral code. My code is: SARAH-R1G9B
Cult Beauty referral code:
Get £5 off your next order by signing up to a Cult Beauty account with my referral code. My code is: SARAH-RCN3
AllBeauty referral code
Receive a 10% discount when placing your first order using my referral code.
9. Use TopCashBack for online orders
Whenever I make an online purchase – for anything, even if it’s not perfume – I check TopCashBack to see if it’s listed first. By making the purchase through TopCashBack, you can get a certain percentage back. Sometimes they have promotions too, where you can make a higher percentage back, or get £2 back for any purchase made totalling more than £5.
If you’re going to buy something anyway, it just makes sense to buy it through TopCashBack if you can get some money back from it.
They also run regular sign up bonuses if you register using a referrral link. Here is my referral link and as of today (25/10) you can get the £10 sign up bonus by using the link and making £10 total in cashback (terms and conditions are here).
10. Sample the fragrance first
Perhaps the running thread through all of these tips is yes, you can usually get many fragrances for much less if you know where to look, and yes, there are many discounts and codes that you can make use of, but perhaps the most important thing is to make sure you love it first. And more than that, make sure you’ll wear it. Use the whole sample, and test it over multiple days. You want to see how it wears and how you feel when you wear it. Does it make you feel chic, calm and put together, or is there a note that ends up irritating your nose that you didn’t notice at first sniff?
I know tastes can change, or you might attach unpleasant scent memories to a particular fragrance and want to sell it on, but I do recommend minimising the risk of owning fragrances you aren’t in love with by sampling them first. As even if you barely wear it and then choose to resell it, you’re probably still going to lose a chunk of money.
If you can’t sample it then try buying a travel size before committing to the full bottle. I did this with Nest’s Indigo and it ended up becoming one of my favourite scents.
So there you have it. My top ten tips for growing your perfume collection for less. I hope this helps if you’re looking to start your collection, or if you have your eye on a couple of bottles but can’t justify paying full price for them.
Do you have any money saving hacks for your interests?
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