What's new

creed

So i went to try and pick up a bottle of creed at bergdorf goodman here in nyc. Smelled and loved it but then i saw the price tag and was flabbergasted. why is it that colognes cost so much? i pay about 80-100 for my jean paul gaultier or YSL but 300 for creed? is it made organically or made with bits of gold??
 
I'm sure that the actual cost of ingredients only accounts for a fraction of the price. Even if we take into account the putatively natural ingredients that perfumers like Creed use, the profit margin must be huge. At the same time, I would bet that the profit margin on your Gualtier is even greater although the price is cheaper. Look at it this way: buying Creed means that you might have to pay a lot more to be taken advantage of a little less.
 
The retail cost of Creed fragrances is unjustified to me. With that said, they're worth what people are willing to pay for them. To some, they're well worth $300 and up. I own 6 bottles from Creed and didn't pay more than $160 for any of them, most of them from Fragrancenet.
 
Some very good points being made.

I'm of a similar view of Nid Hog, in that I am extremely skeptical of reports that Creed use synthetic ingredients any less than other brands. A lot of the claims made in Creed's marketing are just that. Marketing.

I also couldn't seen paying retail for them, like lt114 - I own bottles of Royal Oud, Bois du Portugal, Virgin Island Water and a 50ml decant of Aventus. I got the VIW and Aventus from BN members, and the other two from Beauty Encounter.

The simple reason they're priced so high is that people will buy them. The fragrance enthusiast market is very small for these retailers; most of their customers buy it for the status symbol that Creed has cultivated, and the high price preserves that.
There are fragrances that cost a lot more than any Creed. Just look for anything made by Roja Dove or Puredistance, Clive Christian or the like.
 
didn't you expect all that when you walked into BG?
fashion biz. totally.
you can say same about Coach, Louis Vuitton (sp?), Amouage, etc.
and as timmy points out, there are others that make Creed look like a dollar store item.
 
BeautyEncounter.com also has Creed at decent prices, about 140 for a 4oz. I've bought Creed from them and they are legit.
 
Welcome to the world of "luxury items!" To some degree the price seems to reflect the desire on the part of those buying the items to feel special, better than the "common folk." It's true that you could buy high-quality essential oils and create your own scent for a lot less, and then you would know there are no synthetics in it, if that's a concern, but most people won't do that, at least not right now. I own a decant of Vintage Tabarome and a partial bottle of GIT but beyond that I'm not especially interested in Creed, since I enjoy a lot of vintage and a few new ones, like Pure Havane.
 
What scent did you try and like? Some Creed fragrances are worth more than others IMO. I've paid full on retail for Green Irish Tweed..... and then I've bought others at discount sites like Fragrancenet and Beautyencounter. GIT, Bois du Portugal, Silver Mountain Water, and Millesime Imperial are a few that are worth the money IMO. They are unique (well, GIT not so much as there are a bunch of imposters out there) and the quality of ingredients is apparent when you sniff them.

Echoing what others have said above, don't be afraid to pick bottles up at discount websites for half the retail price..... they are legit, but may be a year old. I've had very good luck with the two sites I mentioned above.

Ben
 
Check the online sources. You can easily beat department store prices. Also recommend The Perfumed Court to try samples. There are some very popular Creed fragrances that I don't like at all. Others I really like, but let your own nose (or in my case mine and my wife's) be your guide. Creed does produce a quality product and with a little online searching you can get it for a price that is less painful.
 
As others have noted, trying to justify the price in terms of intrinsic quality (i.e., more expensive ingredients) is a fool's errand. No doubt some finer ingredients are used, but Creed costs what it does primarily because that's what the manufacturer has determined is an appropriate price for the market segment in which they want to sell it. In other words, high-end market equals high cost. Or...what Nid Hog said.

That said, it's worth the price if you like it enough to buy it, and you can afford it. As a very general rule, subject to any number of individual exceptions, the fragrances from finer perfume houses are made with greater skill and care than mass-market designer fragrances, and the accustomed nose can smell the difference. (Of course, this "rule" can easily lead into Emperor's New Clothes territory and baseless brand snobbery.) I still enjoy some of the classic designer fragrances out there, but to me, most of what's on offer at the average Nordstrom fragrance counter smells crass and mass market, and I gravitate more to the offerings of classic houses.

As for Creed itself, I have several different fragrances of theirs, none of which I would re-purchase. I can think of a few others I like, but not enough to pay the asking price, when a number of my other favorite houses (Penhaligon's, Santa Maria Novella, etc.) offer fragrances I like even more, for a much lower price.
 
I do not know what to say about Creed. I admire its marketing savvy. I also admire that it puts out some of my very favorite scents, especially their limited and discontinued lines. I admire that Creed seems to recognize what is the best of its line and to charge us dearly for it.

To me, Bois de Santal, the original Tabarome, Windsor, CdR are absolutely as good as it gets, even though CdR may be a little "short." GIT is an amazing example of a scent that many other scents are similar to. SMW is an aquatic similar to, but different from and better than the literal ocean of aquatics out there.
 
Creed has been raising prices steadily for the past few years. I like a number of their fragrances, but they finally jacked the price so high that they turned me off. There are more interesting fragrances at those price levels. And below those price levels.

I would consider getting some Bois de Santal if they every re-released it, but I have a feeling the price would be stratospheric.
 
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]You guys are right that Creed has been jacking prices recently. Even the discount stores have been doing the same thing to 'keep up' with them. Perhaps they should be called Greed instead?

Some fragrance ingredients (Mysore Sandalwood comes to mind) are getting rarer and obviously that means the raw materials go up in price too, but the idea that Creeds are full of natural oils are just complete myths and fairy tales. All fragrance companies add synthetics to their scents so as to maintain longevity on the skin and consistency between bottles. Furthermore, natural oils would go off much quicker if they were sat in a bottle on a shelf for ages, and would therefore require preservatives to prevent this from happening.
[/FONT]
 
All fragrance companies add synthetics to their scents so as to maintain longevity on the skin and consistency between bottles. Furthermore, natural oils would go off much quicker if they were sat in a bottle on a shelf for ages, and would therefore require preservatives to prevent this from happening.

I believe my Nancy Boy Signature is 100% pure natural oils, and it doesn't last long. BTW, they tell you that on their website.

For me, that $150+ bottle of Original Vetiver or Green Irish Tweed is worth every penny. I absolutely love it, and it's better than a $75.00 bottle of Polo Black that is just "ok" and which I don't get thrilled to used.

OTOH, my $25.00 4.2 oz bottle of Guerlain Vetiver that I bought off the BST excites me almost as much as the Creed. So does my weekend scent, Bigelow Bay Rum, which cost about $30.00.

There are tons of crappy or average fragrances out there, so keep looking if you want to find a bargain. But using an average fragrance, regardless of the cost, just sucks.
 
...that $150+ bottle of Original Vetiver or Green Irish Tweed is worth every penny.

Ah, those were the days. I just checked Neiman's, and now just a 1-ounce bottle of either of those scents goes for $165. If you want anything approaching a "normal" size bottle of Creed, be prepared to shell out a good $275, at least.
 
I believe my Nancy Boy Signature is 100% pure natural oils, and it doesn't last long. BTW, they tell you that on their website.

For me, that $150+ bottle of Original Vetiver or Green Irish Tweed is worth every penny. I absolutely love it, and it's better than a $75.00 bottle of Polo Black that is just "ok" and which I don't get thrilled to used.

OTOH, my $25.00 4.2 oz bottle of Guerlain Vetiver that I bought off the BST excites me almost as much as the Creed. So does my weekend scent, Bigelow Bay Rum, which cost about $30.00.

There are tons of crappy or average fragrances out there, so keep looking if you want to find a bargain. But using an average fragrance, regardless of the cost, just sucks.

I agree with this to some extent, but why compare today's Creeds to today's "middle range" designer scents? Even some old Avons are quite good, and some of their aftershave formulations have the longevity of today's EdTs!
 
Creed is quality...there is no if, ands or buts about it whether you favor their offerings or not. Are they overpriced? I think so, but the reality is price vs. value is extremely subjective. Most of my 4oz bottles of Creed were gotten via Fragrancenet or places similar. Im a splitter so the majority of my Creed juice comes from Flacons purchased directly from Creed. I always make up a 100ml decant from what ever Creed Im splitting.
 
Top Bottom