The best feeling is when you discover the perfect scent for you. It smells fresh with every application, and the compliments never stop rolling in. 

Best of all: it makes you feel as amazing as it smells.  

But eventually, you’re horrified to see your favorite scent has been discontinued. Worst of all, you have no idea why. 

We’re going to go into detail why perfumes are often discontinued, what it means to be discontinued, but also where you can find your discontinued fragrance again — even after they’ve disappeared into oblivion.

1. They’re not selling as well as expected

The company who represents a perfume (e.g, Tom Ford, Vera Wang), and the manufacturers of the perfume are two different entities. But they work together to produce a new scent — the scent you adore.  

When the company sets out to create this scent, they buy their ingredients in bulk from manufacturers based on concentration percentages, ingredients, shelf life, and more. Buying these ingredients at large volumes is absolutely necessary. To lower the volume size and buy fewer ingredients from the manufacturer would cost the company an arm and a leg. 

When your favorite perfume isn’t the favorite of the world, and the company’s profits begin to suffer, it’s not a smart decision financially to continue selling the perfume any longer. Either the company pays more for fewer ingredients, or they buy the ingredients at high volumes and throw them out, because not enough people are buying the perfumes in stores. 

Either way, the company is tossing out money. Financially it’s smarter to simply cut losses and discontinue your favorite perfume than to continue down the path of lost profits. 

2. The ingredients are extinct

Perfume scents are affected by the smallest change to the ingredients, concentration, or the way in which it was manufactured. It doesn’t take a lot to create a huge difference — good or bad — depending on the nose.  

Ingredients also change frequently. Some that were available in one location may now be completely extinct. Although they may still exist elsewhere, it could cost the company extensively to have the ingredients flown in. Instead, the better cost effective alternative is supplementing a different ingredient into the perfume formula. But this change can make or break the perfume’s original scent. 

If the company can’t find a suitable replacement, they’ll discontinue the perfume. If they can, the scent will change, and it may be re-created under a new name. 

3. Legalities and time changes

Many perfumes include ingredients which are not 100% natural. These ingredients need to be checked by appropriate figureheads to determine if they’re safe for the skin and the body. If it causes pain or discomfort (such as irritation to the skin), it can very easily turn into a legal dispute. 

Some ingredients can’t be sold or imported depending on the rules of the country, while others need to be thoroughly examined and approved before being used to create the perfume. 

It’s also a case of time. If your favorite scent was sold years ago, the way in which it was created then would be vastly different now. What worked before (including specific ingredients) might not give the same results now as it once did. For that reason, some fragrances are forced to be discontinued.

4. Replica perfumes are difficult to recreate 

It’s not just the ingredients that make the perfume, it’s the way the ingredients are used that result in a specific scent. This is why some perfumes may remind you of an old favorite, but it’s not the exact same. Something is off. That ‘something’ can be the deciding factor whether you buy it or put it back down.

If you’re feeling up to it, you could send a sample of your discontinued perfume to Prive Label and they can replicate it. The cost of the sample replication is $250, which can be used towards your own private label perfume line as well. www.privelabel.com

There’s great news, though! 

Many classics forced off of the shelves are available right here at Perfume Express. They’re 100% original from the packaging to the scent. All of our fragrances are stored in a cooled environment to ensure the perfume doesn't go bad.

On top of that, many of these discontinued fragrances are priced better than when they were available in retail stores. If there was ever a reason for a smile, it’s right now.  

If you're unsure whether we have the discontinued perfume, use our search option above or contact us to find it quickly!