Hello dear readers!
Lately, I no longer go to L'Etoile to try out any perfume. There were a lot of cases (to be honest - almost always) when the fragrances I have at home in stock smell different in the store itself. Often worse.
I buy from trusted stores, originals, I check everything against the batch code and carefully examine the bottle itself. Plus there is a dedicated group of perfume enthusiasts and collectors who can help you determine whether you bought a fake or an original. The girls helped a lot, for example, not to run into fake perfume, which is sold on Avito.
Let me give you a few examples from personal experience, when in L'Etoile perfume was revealed differently than at my home.
Serge Lutens Santal majuscule is my tree favorite. I recognize it from thousands of other oriental woody scents. On the skin and clothes it sits tightly for more than a day. A simple pyramid, but it unfolds very beautifully: wood dust, nuts, salt, dusty spices and a velvet rose. In L'Etoile, I did not recognize him: somehow sour, closer to the brine, and the woody base vanished after two hours.
Those aromas where the garden rose is caught in L'Etoile smells very chemical. Now I understand where the wind is blowing about the fake bike in this store.
London Burberry, with their signature blend of jasmine tea and sweet citrus, is unmistakable. And in the store it is also revealed in a different way, with some kind of compote. And flies quickly.
If you think that counterfeits are being sold on the L'Etoile network, I will disappoint you. They are not there, it has already been discussed a million times. Yes, and for the "Unbeliever Thomas" introduced perfume labeling, because of which their cost will skyrocket. But you can scan a unique matrix code through the application and be calm.
L'Etoile's problem is different - they store testers badly.
Firstly, a lot of fragrances are on shelves with backlighting, which gets very hot. A heated bottle - the contents are revealed in a different way.
Secondly, water is poured into many testers. This is normal practice, but a visitor to a store might think they are being cheated. Water testers (usually tinted to match the color of perfume) are called factis. Just a promotional bottle that adorns the shop window. Original scents are hidden from the light in special boxes, which will be opened by a consultant at your request.
Thirdly, light also changes the contents of the vials. Why are all alcoholic tinctures or pickles stored dry and, most importantly, dark location? Because light is also a reagent, it is capable of causing various energy-intensive reactions. Light strongly influences various chemical processes, there is even such a term for it - photochemistry. The light changes the color of the liquid and the aroma itself - the chypre goes into the alcoholic, the floral - into the chemical, etc.
Of course, there is a difference between a store and a store. If the L'Etoile retail space is huge, with a large distance between two shelves, where people do not push each other, you can still test the scent there. Just imagine what the temperature is when, in addition to heating lamps, there is still a large crowd of people per square meter. Temperature drops are even more harmful for perfume. I talked about this in previous articles.
Go to a large shopping center outside the city, where we have the largest perfume salon in Kaliningrad, and compare the same scent in other stores - yes, it's easier for me to buy a sample (or poured into an atomizer) perfume. Almost the same money that I will spend on the road.
Or you can ask for something in the store and calmly test the scent (for free!). I'll talk about this in the next article. If interested - put your "thumbs up" and subscribe to the channel so as not to miss.
