Counterfeit In Unbranded Bottles With False Authenticity Claims
My girlfriend works in the fashion industry, and deal directly with their fragrance departments. I've bought her several of her favorite scents at Microperfumes (MP) thinking she would be happy. She wasn't because she explained to me that this company does not have the rights to any of the actual "branded" formulas we normally buy in the retail shops. Not a single company granted this directly to them for redistribution. She explained to me that they buy their fragrances in bulk from China, by the gallons, and fill their own bottles claiming it to be authentic, but it is not. She took all of the ones I bought her from MP and had me blind smell test and I could definitely tell a difference. Most of the MP ones don't even smell like the "branded" bottles you get from the retailers. She explained to me that China attempts to "reverse engineer" the scents to try and come close as possible. Then they sell it in massive quantities to companies like MP to pass them off as "authentic" in which they are NOT. People buying from MP are funding overseas counterfeiters. Just like the days of fake Gucci bags and fake Rolexs that keep pouring into the US. Only buy stuff that is "branded" and from retailers. MP can't put it in a "branded" bottle because if they got caught, it would be very bad legally for them. So they stick to unbranded bottling, a ubiquitous safe haven. If you like it great, that's on you. But I don't like to be told that it's authentic, when it's NOT. I've now read many complaints about MP that their scents also seem watered down, that's because it's counterfeit. They don't have the "secret" formula these fragrance companies create. It's safer and smarter to buy "branded" bottled fragrances only.