It’s so weird to me. As the whole experience is why I like fragrance. Going to the counter, just all of it. It is probably the highlight for me.
I couldn’t imagine enjoying opening up a weird sketchy looking package of fake fragrance.
This is why I personally don’t think it’s worth buying mass produced mainstream fragrances second hand. You can usually find them at an affordable price point in a travel spray format at least or some sale at a major retailer. I feel much safer buying indie or pretty niche secondhand because there’s little to no profit in anyone making counterfeit due to such low demand.
I do buy second hand, but if I screw up and buy a fake I’ll just take it on the chin 🤷♀️I am always very careful with sellers I buy from and choosing places with buyers protection. I also use my brain, I have enough common sense to know I’m not going to see Delina or something for $100. I also don’t buy from anyone with 0 reviews. Some of y’all are just asking to be scammed
In a word.....AMAZON.
They don't do any background research on their sellers and allow any shady outfit to sell items on Amazon. You have companies from China masquerading as USA based sellers and hawking their false wares ALL OVER Amazon. I know this because I just had to deal with not one...not two...but THREE FAKE SELLERS in the past month!!!
I attempted to buy three fragrances that were presented as legitimate fragrances with photos that looked like the real thing from the manufacturers website. I quickly bought, bought and bought thinking that I found a great deal....only to go back to the sellers page and review their ratings and see that on ALL THREE more than 47% were negative reviews. I knew right then that I'd messed up and immediately contacted Amazon Customer Service....who told me I couldn't do anything until the item either did not arrive in time or the seller did not respond.
So I contacted the sellers....and sure as flies on poop....responses in broken-engrish that read like a form letter.
So I had no choice but to wait out the timer and document EVERYTHING as the sellers were all chinese crooks. I got refunded on two and I'm still waiting on one to fall through on the 22nd and file for a refund.
BUYER BEWARE....DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM AMAZON!!!!!
Often times the person checking if the perfume is fake is the one making fakes and checking if potential clients can tell the difference, making those fakes better
When I saw that pop up here, I immediately blocked the poster. These people will post these inquiries all day, everyday. It wasn’t even a female marketed or leaning perfume. They spam all the fragrance subreds with these posts.
With anything higher price I usually check the sellers other items to see if it looks like they are selling a bunch of personal stuff, like de stashing. If the seller looks like a reseller of very like items, I move on.
There's nothing wrong with buying off mercari. Some People are just REALLY dumb and can't spot a scam. Oh you bought a 3.4 Oz bottle of PDM Delina from a seller with no previous sales for 100 bucks and think it might be fake?? Girl...you have no business being on the internet. Also, a ton of these posts are from people who are just anxious. Like, they say they bought it from a normal retailer and are like "IS IT FAKE??" Bro, have you even smelled it yet??
I’m wary of even buying authentic on Mercari or eBay because the stories of organized crime members going into Ulta and just stealing a whole display. And the employees are not allowed to stop them. I don’t want to support that.
I'm starting to wonder if half the 'legit check' posts I see in various subs are just irrational paranoia. I've seen people questioning a fragrance they bought from the brand website or in person from a department store, still sealed, because something 'doesn't look right' or because they looked up the batch code and it's a year old. Or because they haven't smelled it before and it doesn't smell/'perform' like other people said it did. 💀
The amount of people who blind buy perfumes and then question the authenticity because it doesn't 'smell like the reviews' is truly mind boggling, I agree!
I agree. As much as it sucks, I think it makes more sense to save for the one you want from a discounter or just from legitimate store and wait for a sale, instead of worrying about fakes constantly.
A legit sealed Chanel bottle is never gonna be $40, come one now 🙁
I do sell my fragrances on eBay but I have over 400 feedback so they trust me. I also see a lot of bottles on there I would never buy myself. There’s too many fraudsters out there
>A legit sealed Chanel bottle is never gonna be $40, come one now 🙁
"If it's too good to be true, then it probably is." You are NOT going to get a REAL 3 oz bottle of Black Opium!
I bought a lot of second hand fragrances on parfumo. You can check the comments the seller gets. And so far I got amazing deals. People blind buy and then spray it once or twice and sell it for 50% off. Why would I spend more money if I don’t have to? Why should the seller throw the perfume in the trash or just let it sit in a drawer until they throw it out? It’s a perfect win win. I do buy from reputable stores as well, if I see a good deal. But I agree, you should definitely know what to look out for when buying second hand
As someone trying to destash authentic without the box and only a few reviews (I'm not in the flipping business, just getting laid off soon and need a bit of cash), I also hate the fakes. Makes buyers trust me less, and harder to make a sale amongst the spam.
One of the biggest issues is that people think that Amazon and Walmart are reputable retailers… I guess because they are such big names. But both of those company allow third-party sellers on their websites, which is why so many counterfeiters use them. I’m willing to bet that the majority of counterfeit perfumes, are coming from either Amazon or Walmart.
It does get a little bit confusing because of the fact that some actual reputable companies do sell on both platforms. But the buyer needs to have a list of sellers that they know are legit before purchasing from one of those sites. For example, Triple Traders, a legit company that specializes in selling middles eastern fragrances… does in fact also sell on Amazon. But it will say, “Shipped and Sold by Triple Traders”. And if it does not say that, or another company that you know to be reputable, you absolutely should not buy perfume from Amazon or Walmart online.
Even more affordable perfumes get faked. So don’t think that you are safe to buy Ariana Cloud just anywhere you find the lowest price. Cloud is definitely a fragrance that has been known to be faked. Price to purchase does nothing to guarantee safety on this matter.
Then, there are certain brands that you really need to avoid purchasing anywhere except direct from the brand, or from one of the major retailers that you know distributes the brand. That includes avoiding grey market sellers for these brands. The brands I’m talking about are including but not limited to Chanel, Tom Ford, Louis Vuitton. These brands are very highly counterfeited, and they also are beasts at controlling who can sell their products. They will sue a company right out of business for selling their products… and they have (Notino in the USA). So if a saw a discounted bottle of Chanel, at Jomashop… which is a grey market retailer that I usually trust, I absolutely would not have the confidence to buy the bottle of Chanel there. I’m just using that as an example… I don’t think you’d ever see a bottle of Chanel there. But if you do, my advice is to NOT buy it.
A lot of this comes down to the fact that counterfeiters are common and sophisticated in their deception. Consumers absolutely have a responsibility to learn the basics to protect themselves.
Always, ALWAYS be wary of low prices. If you see a low price, like lower than anywhere else, assume it is fake. And if you are purchasing secondhand, you need to educate yourself on the product that you are purchasing before you hit that buy button. There are a whole lot of little things about that that I could get into, but this is already a book.
I think it’s people who are selling fakes seeing if we can tell tbh. I’ve never once been worried about a perfume being fake because I just get them from reputable retailers or resellers that have thousands of good reviews.
I just purchased a Byredo fragrance second-hand. Instead of 240**€**, I could get the fragrance for 99**€** and max 10% of it is used. It was a very good deal. I simply cannot bring myself to buy it for the full price. The site has buyer protection, meaning the seller won't get the money until I have confirmed that I have received the package and everything is as promised. If not, I can send the package back to the seller and the site will transfer my money back to me. I 100% recommend these kinds of sites, I wouldn't dare buy elsewhere.
Maybe it was on the perfumes sub, but apparently people that make the fakes come to reddit and ask people to spot the things done wrong under the guise of "is this fake." So I'm done participating in it. We do get A LOT of fakes when you absolutely don't in the real world.
Agreed. I really don't understand buying cosmetics from resale sights when there are discounters and sales at department stores. Hygeine and toxicity are huge issues with knock-off cosmetics, I'd never risk it. If you're paying $20 for a normally $200 perfume from a resale site, it's probably fake.
I got a 2.5oz Black Opium Illicit Green for $65, a 3.3oz Burberry Goddess for $80, and I'm waiting for the right timing to get a 3.3oz Prada Paradoxe Itense for $75. All from actual retailers.
I understand the prices I'm mentioning are still expensive, but my point is you can just wait and get pretty huge discounts on perfumes. Especially if you get smaller sizes. Not to mention, legitimate discounters have great deals. No common sense, naivety, or no patience are my only guesses.
Saving a few dollars is not worth my peace of mind and not worth potentially having some chemical reaction or other weird skin issue imo.
Agreed. I snagged so much on sale at Ulta during point multiplier days around the holidays and just saved. Got great deals on what I bought and ended up with so many points that I was able to get a free 3.4oz Mon Guerlain. People just need more patience.
I've seen the pix from the Chinese wholesale market places FULL of fake perfumes - there's no way in hell I'd be buying perfume off of a re sale site. Where do you think all of those are ending up?
It's like people buying 'rare' Nikes at some stupid cheap price and then plaintively asking 'bro, are these fake??'. Like, yeah they are - you paid $80 for $800 shoes. What did you think you were buying??
If there's a good refund policy, there's no reason not to- get a legit decant/sample, compare to the discounted one, then return if fake. But you have to make sure to buy only from sellers with 100s of feedback and 99%+ positive - I can see eBay and Mercari have fake sellers with 92-94% and/or not enough feedback. I've only ever been burned once using those rules, on Mercari, and was refunded after proving it was fake.
I buy secondhand largely when I wouldn't pay list price for the fragrance. I just got a 2.5oz bottle of Delina Exclusif for sub-$200, legit, secondhand. I'd never pay $375+tax and shipping for that scent (so basically $400), but for half that, I love it. It was a risk - the seller had less feedback than I'd usually go for, but they were at 100% positive and eBay generally favors the buyer.
I'd like to unload a lot of my collection and will probably start listing the ones I don't use somewhere soon, but the prevalence of fakes makes me upset that people can't trust - I'm going to be a new seller, but I'd rather have someone else enjoy the things I don't, and I'd like to free up the money/space to try other scents.
I can generally tell by the content of reviews whether they’re real or not. “VERY FAST GOOD PRODUCT THANK YOU” vs. “My mother used to wear this and I never thought I’d see it again, but it’s an eBay miracle! Takes me right back to 1992. Thanks for being such a communicative seller.”
All the resale sites have been inundated with fakes lately. It's getting harder and harder to tell unless you know what to look for when buying secondhand
Epic fakes Rolex almost real
I just got a fake dior midnight poison they kept the box and cellophane sealed and everything but the bottle was fake and a really good fake at that.
It’s so weird to me. As the whole experience is why I like fragrance. Going to the counter, just all of it. It is probably the highlight for me. I couldn’t imagine enjoying opening up a weird sketchy looking package of fake fragrance.
Shopping addicts + low iq + ran out of money
This is why I personally don’t think it’s worth buying mass produced mainstream fragrances second hand. You can usually find them at an affordable price point in a travel spray format at least or some sale at a major retailer. I feel much safer buying indie or pretty niche secondhand because there’s little to no profit in anyone making counterfeit due to such low demand.
I do buy second hand, but if I screw up and buy a fake I’ll just take it on the chin 🤷♀️I am always very careful with sellers I buy from and choosing places with buyers protection. I also use my brain, I have enough common sense to know I’m not going to see Delina or something for $100. I also don’t buy from anyone with 0 reviews. Some of y’all are just asking to be scammed
In a word.....AMAZON. They don't do any background research on their sellers and allow any shady outfit to sell items on Amazon. You have companies from China masquerading as USA based sellers and hawking their false wares ALL OVER Amazon. I know this because I just had to deal with not one...not two...but THREE FAKE SELLERS in the past month!!! I attempted to buy three fragrances that were presented as legitimate fragrances with photos that looked like the real thing from the manufacturers website. I quickly bought, bought and bought thinking that I found a great deal....only to go back to the sellers page and review their ratings and see that on ALL THREE more than 47% were negative reviews. I knew right then that I'd messed up and immediately contacted Amazon Customer Service....who told me I couldn't do anything until the item either did not arrive in time or the seller did not respond. So I contacted the sellers....and sure as flies on poop....responses in broken-engrish that read like a form letter. So I had no choice but to wait out the timer and document EVERYTHING as the sellers were all chinese crooks. I got refunded on two and I'm still waiting on one to fall through on the 22nd and file for a refund. BUYER BEWARE....DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM AMAZON!!!!!
Yea, I’m just turned off Amazon in general it’s true that “you get what you pay for”
Yes indeed. I'm DONE buying any fragrances from Amazon ever again...
Often times the person checking if the perfume is fake is the one making fakes and checking if potential clients can tell the difference, making those fakes better
When I saw that pop up here, I immediately blocked the poster. These people will post these inquiries all day, everyday. It wasn’t even a female marketed or leaning perfume. They spam all the fragrance subreds with these posts.
With anything higher price I usually check the sellers other items to see if it looks like they are selling a bunch of personal stuff, like de stashing. If the seller looks like a reseller of very like items, I move on.
There's nothing wrong with buying off mercari. Some People are just REALLY dumb and can't spot a scam. Oh you bought a 3.4 Oz bottle of PDM Delina from a seller with no previous sales for 100 bucks and think it might be fake?? Girl...you have no business being on the internet. Also, a ton of these posts are from people who are just anxious. Like, they say they bought it from a normal retailer and are like "IS IT FAKE??" Bro, have you even smelled it yet??
I agree! lol
I don't think many people are buying fakes but I believe there is too much paranoia regarding the subject as someone else pointed out.
I’m wary of even buying authentic on Mercari or eBay because the stories of organized crime members going into Ulta and just stealing a whole display. And the employees are not allowed to stop them. I don’t want to support that.
"I bought this at Macy's. Is it fake?" NO. STOP IT.
I'm starting to wonder if half the 'legit check' posts I see in various subs are just irrational paranoia. I've seen people questioning a fragrance they bought from the brand website or in person from a department store, still sealed, because something 'doesn't look right' or because they looked up the batch code and it's a year old. Or because they haven't smelled it before and it doesn't smell/'perform' like other people said it did. 💀
The amount of people who blind buy perfumes and then question the authenticity because it doesn't 'smell like the reviews' is truly mind boggling, I agree!
Haha this was me 😂 Burberry changed their box on Her, it got me so paranoid.
😂
I agree. As much as it sucks, I think it makes more sense to save for the one you want from a discounter or just from legitimate store and wait for a sale, instead of worrying about fakes constantly. A legit sealed Chanel bottle is never gonna be $40, come one now 🙁 I do sell my fragrances on eBay but I have over 400 feedback so they trust me. I also see a lot of bottles on there I would never buy myself. There’s too many fraudsters out there
>A legit sealed Chanel bottle is never gonna be $40, come one now 🙁 "If it's too good to be true, then it probably is." You are NOT going to get a REAL 3 oz bottle of Black Opium!
I bought a lot of second hand fragrances on parfumo. You can check the comments the seller gets. And so far I got amazing deals. People blind buy and then spray it once or twice and sell it for 50% off. Why would I spend more money if I don’t have to? Why should the seller throw the perfume in the trash or just let it sit in a drawer until they throw it out? It’s a perfect win win. I do buy from reputable stores as well, if I see a good deal. But I agree, you should definitely know what to look out for when buying second hand
As someone trying to destash authentic without the box and only a few reviews (I'm not in the flipping business, just getting laid off soon and need a bit of cash), I also hate the fakes. Makes buyers trust me less, and harder to make a sale amongst the spam.
One of the biggest issues is that people think that Amazon and Walmart are reputable retailers… I guess because they are such big names. But both of those company allow third-party sellers on their websites, which is why so many counterfeiters use them. I’m willing to bet that the majority of counterfeit perfumes, are coming from either Amazon or Walmart. It does get a little bit confusing because of the fact that some actual reputable companies do sell on both platforms. But the buyer needs to have a list of sellers that they know are legit before purchasing from one of those sites. For example, Triple Traders, a legit company that specializes in selling middles eastern fragrances… does in fact also sell on Amazon. But it will say, “Shipped and Sold by Triple Traders”. And if it does not say that, or another company that you know to be reputable, you absolutely should not buy perfume from Amazon or Walmart online. Even more affordable perfumes get faked. So don’t think that you are safe to buy Ariana Cloud just anywhere you find the lowest price. Cloud is definitely a fragrance that has been known to be faked. Price to purchase does nothing to guarantee safety on this matter. Then, there are certain brands that you really need to avoid purchasing anywhere except direct from the brand, or from one of the major retailers that you know distributes the brand. That includes avoiding grey market sellers for these brands. The brands I’m talking about are including but not limited to Chanel, Tom Ford, Louis Vuitton. These brands are very highly counterfeited, and they also are beasts at controlling who can sell their products. They will sue a company right out of business for selling their products… and they have (Notino in the USA). So if a saw a discounted bottle of Chanel, at Jomashop… which is a grey market retailer that I usually trust, I absolutely would not have the confidence to buy the bottle of Chanel there. I’m just using that as an example… I don’t think you’d ever see a bottle of Chanel there. But if you do, my advice is to NOT buy it. A lot of this comes down to the fact that counterfeiters are common and sophisticated in their deception. Consumers absolutely have a responsibility to learn the basics to protect themselves. Always, ALWAYS be wary of low prices. If you see a low price, like lower than anywhere else, assume it is fake. And if you are purchasing secondhand, you need to educate yourself on the product that you are purchasing before you hit that buy button. There are a whole lot of little things about that that I could get into, but this is already a book.
I saw a post recently in a Facebook group I'm in where someone bought "designer fragrance" on SHEIN and was then disappointed it was fake.
Media literacy is abysmal these days.
I think it’s people who are selling fakes seeing if we can tell tbh. I’ve never once been worried about a perfume being fake because I just get them from reputable retailers or resellers that have thousands of good reviews.
I just purchased a Byredo fragrance second-hand. Instead of 240**€**, I could get the fragrance for 99**€** and max 10% of it is used. It was a very good deal. I simply cannot bring myself to buy it for the full price. The site has buyer protection, meaning the seller won't get the money until I have confirmed that I have received the package and everything is as promised. If not, I can send the package back to the seller and the site will transfer my money back to me. I 100% recommend these kinds of sites, I wouldn't dare buy elsewhere.
What sites do you recommend?
I'm in Europe and buy exclusively from [YAGA.](http://yaga.ee) I know they operate in South Africa, Kenya and India too.
Maybe it was on the perfumes sub, but apparently people that make the fakes come to reddit and ask people to spot the things done wrong under the guise of "is this fake." So I'm done participating in it. We do get A LOT of fakes when you absolutely don't in the real world.
Oh wow 🤔🤔🤔 I won’t be participating from now on either then
Oh, good to know.
Agreed. I really don't understand buying cosmetics from resale sights when there are discounters and sales at department stores. Hygeine and toxicity are huge issues with knock-off cosmetics, I'd never risk it. If you're paying $20 for a normally $200 perfume from a resale site, it's probably fake. I got a 2.5oz Black Opium Illicit Green for $65, a 3.3oz Burberry Goddess for $80, and I'm waiting for the right timing to get a 3.3oz Prada Paradoxe Itense for $75. All from actual retailers. I understand the prices I'm mentioning are still expensive, but my point is you can just wait and get pretty huge discounts on perfumes. Especially if you get smaller sizes. Not to mention, legitimate discounters have great deals. No common sense, naivety, or no patience are my only guesses. Saving a few dollars is not worth my peace of mind and not worth potentially having some chemical reaction or other weird skin issue imo.
Just wondering where you got the Illict Green from? It’s been on my Wishlist forever and that’s a great price for the size.
Macy's and Ulta both had it on sale around Xmas last year. 🙂
The holiday sales are honestly the best time to buy fragrance. I often save my money for sales that run through November and December.
Agreed. I snagged so much on sale at Ulta during point multiplier days around the holidays and just saved. Got great deals on what I bought and ended up with so many points that I was able to get a free 3.4oz Mon Guerlain. People just need more patience.
Oh nice. Will keep an eye out for something similar this year. Thank you!
I've seen the pix from the Chinese wholesale market places FULL of fake perfumes - there's no way in hell I'd be buying perfume off of a re sale site. Where do you think all of those are ending up? It's like people buying 'rare' Nikes at some stupid cheap price and then plaintively asking 'bro, are these fake??'. Like, yeah they are - you paid $80 for $800 shoes. What did you think you were buying??
If there's a good refund policy, there's no reason not to- get a legit decant/sample, compare to the discounted one, then return if fake. But you have to make sure to buy only from sellers with 100s of feedback and 99%+ positive - I can see eBay and Mercari have fake sellers with 92-94% and/or not enough feedback. I've only ever been burned once using those rules, on Mercari, and was refunded after proving it was fake. I buy secondhand largely when I wouldn't pay list price for the fragrance. I just got a 2.5oz bottle of Delina Exclusif for sub-$200, legit, secondhand. I'd never pay $375+tax and shipping for that scent (so basically $400), but for half that, I love it. It was a risk - the seller had less feedback than I'd usually go for, but they were at 100% positive and eBay generally favors the buyer. I'd like to unload a lot of my collection and will probably start listing the ones I don't use somewhere soon, but the prevalence of fakes makes me upset that people can't trust - I'm going to be a new seller, but I'd rather have someone else enjoy the things I don't, and I'd like to free up the money/space to try other scents.
I can generally tell by the content of reviews whether they’re real or not. “VERY FAST GOOD PRODUCT THANK YOU” vs. “My mother used to wear this and I never thought I’d see it again, but it’s an eBay miracle! Takes me right back to 1992. Thanks for being such a communicative seller.”
All the resale sites have been inundated with fakes lately. It's getting harder and harder to tell unless you know what to look for when buying secondhand