Cologne/Perfume from Chemist Warehouse

Henray on 06/08/2016 - 19:03
Last edited 06/08/2016 - 19:04

Has anyone noticed any problems with their colognes or perfumes from chemists such as Chemist Warehouse and Priceline?

I mainly use Aqua and a couple of other colognes such as Ralph Black and CK Euphoria, bought from Chemist Warehouse. What I've noticed is that these colognes don't seem to last for as long as most reviews say they should. In fact, those around me can barely smell it a couple of hours in - controlling for variables; no sweating, in many different situations, small distances. This is consistant over 3 bottles of Aqua. I thought this might have been normal due to individual differences, but I've sampled the same colognes from Sephora while the gf is off looking at make-up, and the contrast is staggering. I, and those around me, could smell it strongly hours later, and also lasted days on my clothes.

Is this Chemist Warehouse selling an inferior product, or the also very possible, Sephora using an extra-concentrated product for their samples?

I still have a largely unfinished bottles of cologne in my drawer, and don't feel rich enough to buy duplicates to run a comparison at the moment. Hoping someone else has insight.

Cheers

Health & Beauty

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Chemist Warehouse
Chemist Warehouse

Comments

  • CyberMurning on 06/08/2016 - 19:23
    +1

    Very surprised if chemist warehouse selling fakes.

  • Adz81 on 06/08/2016 - 19:27
    +3

    Are you comparing apples to apples? What I mean is, are you trying the eu de toilet (spelling is sure to be wrong) of each and not comparing to an aftershave variant? You'll normally get about 6-8 hours from and EDT and less from an aftershave, and less again from something else.
    Also, you'll be the first one to think your colonge as you get used to the smell (think walking into a stinking toilet, at first the smell is horrid, then it's not so bad, then you don't notice it, the smell is likely still there, you just get used to it).

    I've had no problems with Chemist Warehouse colonges or perfumes.

    • spackbace on 06/08/2016 - 19:52
      +3

      Agreed, look for EDP, not EDT :)

    • Henray on 06/08/2016 - 21:27

      This is a comparison of Acqua EDT, to Acqua EDT.

      And understandably, desensitisation of smell occurs, and is completely normal. However, I find it is noticeable even from onset of application, the difference in strength and clarity of smell to me personally is stark, and the difference also seems to be noticeable when I run a pseudo-experiment by asking family and gf if they also notice a difference, throughout the day compared to previous days etc. Desensitisation isn't complete either, directly smelling the wrist will still elicit the smell; the difference though, is that after an hour or two I can barely smell CW on my wrist, vses half a day later, the sample spray is still going strong from Sephora.

      Also don't believe it's any placebo effect associated with higher level stores.

      Any chance you've previously bought the same product from a higher-end store? If you have, have you found it to be as good as CW?

  • Stewardo on 06/08/2016 - 20:05
    +1

    They are real, they just sell different grades of the same brand at different price points. The cheaper ones have cheaper ingredients and they don't smell as good or last as long, the cheap ones that are branded with pop stars etc are almost all this cheaper quality ingredients, as it caters to bottom end of the market

    • Henray on 06/08/2016 - 21:30

      Just to clarify, you're saying for a product like Armani Code or Acqua, theres A, B, C grades etc?

      • Stewardo on 06/08/2016 - 23:13

        Parfum
        Eau de parfum Edp
        Eau de toilette edt
        Eau de cologne
        Splash fragrance mist aftershave etc
        In that order
        There is also an issue where companies make products for different markets and regions all of the products are real and official but vary in ingredients and quality, these are sometimes imported as grey imports. in more affluent countries the official stock is often more expensive, at $100 or less it is very confusing and intentionally so, as a lot of the products are licenced by the brand name owner and are more about marketing than a quality product, these products often contain a lot of synthetic ingredients.

  • nahi11 on 06/08/2016 - 20:23
    +2

    Fragrances from Chemist Warehouse do appear to be of a lower quality in my opinion.

  • Ughhh on 07/08/2016 - 04:04
    +2

    Fragrances are sensitive to temperature and age. I've noticed that many CW stores place their perfumes where the sun can hit them. Their storage room may also not be optimal for the fragrances and they could be buying old stock at discount rates (maybe old stock from myer and DJ, perhaps why it's cheaper) or grey import. All these factors could be the reason why the quality has degraded by the time you buy it. I doubt it's fake stuff. There are websites that tell you how old it is from the batch number on the box.

  • na8an on 07/08/2016 - 11:17

    I have just purchased an EDP - Police ICON gold from Chemist warehouse, only large retailers like Myer and DJ stock EDP's for men.

    links -

    http://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/79747/Police-Icon-Gol…

    http://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/76447/Dolce-Gabbana-P…

  • Jared17 on 07/08/2016 - 15:55

    I have bought edt from CW before. Can't really tell the difference. But then again I did not buy the same type of edt from another place to compare so I can't really say honestly.

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