How to buy cheap perfume and aftershave
It’s always such a treat to get new perfume or aftershave, but at full price, designer fragrances can be pricey. Luckily, though, we know of lots of ways to save money and buy cheap perfume.
You don’t need to spend a fortune to get good perfume and aftershave. In fact, it’s possible to buy scents from top designer brands for a fraction of their full price.
The key to buying cheap fragrances is knowing where to shop, and how to maximize your savings.
5 best places to buy cheap perfume
Here are the best places to buy cheap perfume and aftershave:
1. The Fragrance Shop
For low-cost designer perfumes, head to The Fragrance Shop (TFS).
They have a huge range of women’s perfumes and men’s aftershaves on sale for good prices. Sometimes, there will only be a small saving (e.g. £1 off the RRP), but if you look in the clearance section of their site you should find some real bargains.
For example, we’ve seen a 75ml Eau de Toilette (we briefly explain the different types of perfume) bottle of Truly Joyful by Kate Spade on sale for £16.50 – the RRP was £45, so it was a big saving.
2. Fragrance Direct
Fragrance Direct is similar to The Fragrance Shop – they sell a huge range of designer perfumes and aftershave for reduced prices.
In the sale, we’ve previously come across a 100ml bottle of Calvin Klein Euphoria Intense (Eau de Parfum). It had an RRP of £70 but was available to buy from Fragrance Direct for just £29.95.
You might be able to find some great offers there, such as voucher codes for 10% off selected brands, or the chance to get a free gift with your purchase – both of which are examples we’ve seen before.
3. The Perfume Shop
One of the most well-known fragrance stores on the high street is The Perfume Shop (not to be confused with The Fragrance Shop!).
Although you can often find the best perfume deals online, it is pretty tricky to know whether a fragrance will be right for you until you’ve smelled it. So, if you’re keen to buy perfume or aftershave in person, The Perfume Shop is a great choice.
As well as their online shop, they have over 250 stores across the UK and Ireland.
They do have some good savings on perfumes and aftershave. But, you could potentially find products with bigger discounts at The Fragrance Shop or Fragrance Direct.
4. eBay
On eBay, you can find just about anything you need – with cheap designer perfume being no exception.
In a similar way to the previous three retailers on this list, you can find new perfume and aftershave available for less than their RRP on eBay. But, an added perk of this site is that you can find fragrances for cheaper if you’re willing to buy an unboxed bottle.
Granted, it is a bit more of a risk, but if you do your research, it can pay off. We explain the best ways to approach this later.
5. Amazon
A good alternative to eBay is Amazon. You’ll usually find similar prices and products on there, including unboxed fragrances.
You can find some cheap designer perfumes on Amazon. We’ve previously spotted a 100ml bottle of Calvin Klein Eternity for Women (Eau de Parfum) on sale for £37. Its RRP was £73, so it was a pretty big saving.
But, it’s worth noting that we saw a similar bottle of Calvin Klein perfume (Eternity Moment, rather than just Eternity) on the same day for only £28. So, again, always shop around before buying any fragrances to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
6 ways to find the best perfume deals
Here’s how to get the best deals on perfume:
1. Buy perfume dupes
Although the sites listed above are great for finding designer perfume for less, this isn’t the only way to get affordable fragrances. Often, supermarkets and high-street beauty stores will release perfumes and aftershaves that smell just as nice as designer versions but are a lot cheaper.
Poundland sells some very cheap perfume dupes. It’s also worth trying the own-brand versions of fragrances in other high-street stores in case they can compete with your favorite designer ones – M&S and Zara could be good ones to try.
2. Regularly check our deals page
As you’ve probably guessed from this guide, we are big fans of cheap aftershave and perfume. So, when we come across great deals on our favorite fragrances, we post them on our deals page. On the deals page, you can often find out about flash sales, discount codes, and free perfume samples. We also tend to post about them pretty quickly in our Facebook deals group (if you’re not yet a member, you can join here).
3. Use a price-checking website
If you have a favorite perfume or aftershave, set up an alert on a price-tracking website to find out when it’s reduced. This way you can make sure you’re getting the best deal and saving as much money on your go-to fragrance as you can.
Camelcamelcamel is a good site for tracking Amazon prices. If you set up alerts, you’ll get notified if and when products go down in cost. You could also try using Idealo. On there, you’d be able to see comparisons of the prices on loads of different sites. This will help you save money on perfume if there’s one particular product you have in mind.
4. Shop in seasonal sales
Big seasonal sales, like the January sales and BlackFriday, can be great times to buy cheap perfume. However, the key to finding cheap fragrances in these sales is to do your research. Not all deals will necessarily be good deals.
This is another benefit of using price checking sites like CamelCamelCamel – they’ll be able to give you an indication of whether the price of perfume and aftershave in the sale really is a decent reduction. If you find out a fragrance is available for cheaper at other times of the year, you could save money by waiting until it goes on sale again for a lower price.
5. Buy the right type of perfume or aftershave
When buying perfume or aftershave, it’s important that you check how strong-smelling it will be. The more concentrated the fragrance, the less you’ll need to use (and therefore the longer it will last).
These are the main types of fragrance, with a general guideline of how concentrated they are:
- Parfum – Strong perfume (20% – 30% fragrance concentration)
- Eau de Parfum is – Pretty strong perfume (15% – 20% fragrance concentration)
- Eau de Toilette – Slightly lighter perfume (5% – 15% fragrance concentration)
- Eau de Cologne – Even lighter perfume (2% – 4% fragrance concentration)
- Eau Fraiche – Very light perfume (1% – 3% fragrance concentration).
6. Get free perfume samples in fashion magazines
If you’re looking for free perfume samples, fashion magazines are ideal. Magazines like Vogue and Elle generally have two or three fragrance samples per issue. Often, the sample will only be for single use of the perfume. But, if you’re lucky, you might get a free miniature bottle of perfume that can be used several times.
As magazines tend to cost around £4 or £5 per issue, it’s a cheap way to get perfume, and to really get your money’s worth, make sure it’s a publication that you’re going to enjoy reading. Also, keep in mind that it can be pretty wasteful to get a magazine that you won’t read, so if you do buy one, make sure it’s not just to get the free perfume samples.
When looking for cheap perfume, always check if you can get a student discount before buying a fragrance.
