The 6 Most Expensive-Smelling Perfume Notes

If you’re on the hunt for a new signature scent, it can be hard to know where to begin. Perfume is typically one of the more expensive products in our beauty routines, however not all fragrances justify their premium price tags, so recognising which perfumes deserve to be splurged on isn’t always an easy process.

As a beauty editor, I’m fortunate to be on the receiving end of the latest and greatest fragrance launches, which means that I’ve smelled many a perfume over the years. These days, when I open up a newly arrived bottle and give it its first spritz, the ‘make or break’ moment lies in one thing, whether or not the perfume smells expensive. Now, I don’t say this as a perfume snob—in fact, it’s something I have to be super aware of—I’m a migraine-sufferer and have learned over time that synthetic (and typically cheaper-smelling) fragrance notes tend to trigger my headaches. For this reason, I do tend to fare better with more expensive smelling perfumes, which are typically made with higher quality ingredients. Of course, the added bonus is that these ingredients are typically much more potent, longer-lasting, and actually do smell expensive.

While perfume ingredients may not be something you’ve considered before beyond simply a list of notes, if you’ve ever wondered why some fragrances cost so much more than others, it’s usually down to the ingredients. In fact, ingredients like oud, saffron, and musk are some of the most expensive in the world—often because they’re hard to source or because the process of harvesting the raw ingredients and converting them into fragrance oils is so costly.