The Great Tester Heist...

Perfumes are very important to Queen Michelle and I.

Very very important.

We spend a lot of time thinking about them, talking about them and a lot of money buying them ( in fact a terrifying amount of money)

As with everything in life, our taste in perfumes is very different. Queen Michelle , having identified 'white florals' as being the blooms for her, has spent the last few years trying to find the perfect Gardenia scent while I have been trying to track down the perfect woody/chapel scent.

But over the last few months,  we have come to a rather disturbing conclusion that there is bad smelling problem  at the heart of the fragrance world.

Something we have started to call -

The Great Tester Heist!!!!

Like everyone, when looking for a new smell, we depend on testers. Testers in stores,  testers ordered online, there is no limit to how far and how much we will spend to help us track down that perfect smell.

But we have increasingly noticed a disturbing trend with them. A very distrurbing trend.

A trend where the tester seems to be radically different in strength to the actual fragrance we have then gone on to buy.

We have tried testers that have lasted all day and smelled fantastic only to find that the actual perfume we have purchased subsequently DOES NOT!!!!

We are not talking just talking perfumes that don't last long. We are talking about perfumes that literally seem to evaporate leaving behind no trace. Spraying them onto clothes, or hair makes no difference at all. The smell just disappears. Leaving sod all behind.

Now we understand fully about the difference in strengths between eau de toilette and perfume and the difference in peoples skin chemistry but this problem goes beyond that. The problem is that the tester is actually misleading.

It has persuaded Queen Michelle, Frances and I to part with cold hard cash for a fragrance that bears little resemblence to what we then receive. Time and time and time again.

Burberrry Body, Laura Biagotti, Sahara Noir, Serge Leutens, Keiko Mecheri ,Elie Saab, Samsara to name but a few.  All of them lasting nowhere near as long a the tester did!

 And we are not talking about inexpensive smells here. Take Sahara Noir above, (thank you Michael x) £100 for 5oml. One hundred pounds for sod all! All that glitters is most definitely not golden!!!

We have come to the disturbing conclusion that the manufacturers are stitching us right up in the Great Tester Heist.

And we have insider knowledge that our suspicions may be correct. A girl we know, works in a large perfume hall told us, that yes, the testers were much stronger  and more concentrated than the perfume themselves!

I accept that some people may think we are over reacting and making a fuss about something trivial.

But this is far from trivial. We are being deceived. And when you consider that Tom Ford has over 46 perfumes listed over at Fragrantica, that's a whole world of deception.

In fact in the last few weeks, I have actually found myself setting aside nearly two hundred quids worth of fine fragrance, in place of a bottle of patchouli oil that costs £2.39 from a health food store!.

It lasts all day and I've had more appreciative comments about it than any of my other perfumes.

I don't know what we can do about this but Queen Michelle and I are ANGRY!

Have you been held up in the Great Tester Heist ?

Any ideas on how to call it to a halt will be gratefully received.....

Queen Marie

x