Instead of my scheduled post for today, I decided to share with all of you that the Penhaligon’s Winter Sale has landed. Normally I would have shared this on the Beauty Offers Club as this is a single brand offer and at first it might not seem like much, but since we are a bit behind on the other website and to me this is a bigger deal or feels like it should be, I decided to share this one with you on this platform. Hope you won’t mind!
Is it me, or Penhaligon’s never had a sale before? Look, I know that I have very limited experience with the brand. I tried maybe three products from them and sampled a few more at the airport, but I honestly cannot recall the brand ever having a sale. In fact, I do not recall any of the perfume houses such as this one ever having a sale, but I could be wrong.
But here it is. I don’t know why, maybe it is the drop in sales, maybe it is something they do every time and again, but the fact is that you can get a selection, a generous selection of the perfumes at up to 50% off.
- Roaring Radcliffe – A sexy rum-spiked scent of gingerbread and tobacco. Hedonism in a bottle. – This fragrance is now £90, reduced from £204
- Terrible Teddy – Incense, leather and ambroxan. A smooth and deadly operator. – This fragrance is now £135, reduced from £204
- The Ingenue Cousin Flora – Effusive, ebullient, fresh. Flora’s perfume is citrus sip of invigoration. – This fragrance is also £135, reduced from £204
- Orange Blossom – A fragrant stroll through the honeyed haze of a sun-drenched orange grove. – This fragrance is now £44, reduced from £110.
- As Sawira – A souk full of extravagant, seductive scents – bergamot, labdanum and oud. – This fragrance is now £63, reduced from £178
- Elisabethan Rose – The Tudor rose: symbol of Elizabethan England, immortalised in this airy scent – This fragrance is now available for £68, reduced from £168
- Elenisia – Full-bodied and floral, this parfum’s sweet face hides a sensuous nature. – This fragrance is now available for £68, reduced form £168
- Heartless Helen – A flourish of tuberose in mandarin-scented woods. Hooked? You will be. – This fragrance is available for £135, down from £204.
- Lothair – Scented with the spoils of adventure: juniper, fig milk and ambergris. – This one is £36, reduced from £91.
- The Impudent Cousin Matthew – A fresh fragrance sparkling with mandarin, mischief and patchouli. – This other fragrance is £135, down from £204.
Shop the sale here.
Most of these fragrances are quite strong and wintery, but there are still some you can wear in spring. The fragrances have been selling relatively fast, so if you want to grab something, you might need to hurry.
I have to say that I am quite surprised, as you probably realised already. This is highly unusual as far as I know, for fragrances especially boutique fragrances to be reduced this much, but at the same time, I cannot say that I mind. I appreciate art, the skills and the work that wet into creating something beautiful and effective as well as high quality ingredients, but prices have gone up significantly in the past few years.
I only found some shady sources, but according to Go Business, “for perfumes the profit margin can be up to 90%!” (Go Business (2014) What does it really cost: The biggest profit margins. Available here). This is pretty much what an older article published in the Los Angeles Times claims as well. According to P. Calistro (1988) “the ingredients in the average bottle of prestige perfume cost about $1.20 to $1.50. The actual liquid in a typical bottle of $150 perfume is less than 1% of the retail cost.” Unfortunately, there are not many reports on this topic, but let’s assume that things have not changed all that much. Let’s assume that the price of the liquid in the fragrance bottles is about 10% off the retail price and I am pretty sure this is us being generous. If that is indeed the case, then why should’t we be happy when there are sales?
This is not the direction I wanted this short and sweet article to go. However, IMO no matter the levels of disposable income, sensitivity to price and so on, a sale is a sale and if the products are in mint condition, there is nothing to be ashamed of. Yes, the business makes less money but you can pretty much bet they are still selling the products at a profit. Okay, I am aware that to the costs mentioned in the article above you need to add overheads, employee salaries, marketing, R&D and all that, but it is not fair for all that to fall onto the consumer, especially not when the brand still makes a pretty decent profit margin, most likely higher than in other industries despite having to incur all the costs. Yes, business is business, but lately less and less brands seem to truly care about their consumer. I am not attacking any brand in particular and I am definitely not talking about Penhaligon’s here. I am talking in general terms. Just something to keep in mind 🙂
With that being said, this is a nice sale and as you can see, more than you saving some money while grabbing your favourite fragrance at a discount or perhaps a new fragrance, you get to pay a price that is more fair.
…and please do not ask what is wrong with me. To borrow a line from the Big Bang Theory, “my mother had me tested”.
Do you have a favourite fragrance form Penhaligon’s?
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*Feature photo credits: Penhaligon’s.