Chanel, Versace, Dior, Hermes, Gucci, Jo Malone, Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, Givenchy, Burberry. Issi Miyake, Davidoff – What do these perfumes have in common?

Wondering what is common about these International Designer Perfumes? Well, for one, all of them are luxury designer fragrances, and for two, none of them are Indian. And considering India is demographically younger, has 17% of world’s population that’s a little strange, right? 

If we were to make a list of top perfume brands in India, we would have to think hard.

Is it that we were not capable of making such quality perfumes? Definitely not.

It was a simple business and economic decision. Perfumes had limited usage. It was perceived as a luxury lifestyle which must be used occasionally. Those elite few who used it, had access to overseas market to buy these designer perfumes. The rest of the populace found it expensive and unaffordable. Because of these factors, Perfume usage in India remained limited. So, if there was limited usage, there was no real market. If there was no real market, would it make sense to create a distribution network?

There were some who did venture into it initially. But for economic reasons had to succumb to the pressure of doling out scents that were heady and popular among the masses. What was getting sold easily, was getting made. And the more it was getting made, the farther away these brands went from truly matching the fragrances of the international designer fragrances. A futile cycle that didn’t help genuine Indian perfume customers.

No perfume brand could never cater to the taste of genuine Indian Perfume users who was exposed to the varied fragrance palette of International Designer Perfumes. These users would not find the fragrances they wanted in an Indian brand. And worse they would not trust the quality of the Indian brand.

All in all, these multiple barriers led to a situation like this

But things are changing now, just like everything else in India.

With online shopping and penetration of e-commerce, it is now possible for homegrown brands to venture into the space of designer fragrances. Simply because there is hardly any cost of creating a distribution network. They can experiment with the same quality used by Chanels, Diors and Gucci’s of the world. Make a small batch and test it out. They don’t have to worry about succumbing to the pressure of providing common scents. What’s more, these homegrown brands don’t have to deal with legacy costs and can provide a good quality product at a decent price.

Over the last few years, there have been many homegrown brands that have sprung up and about for this new generation of Indian Perfume users. Names like Bombay Perfumery, Naso Perfumery, Ajmal, All Good Scents etc

Indian users who would earlier scramble at the airport duty frees or hunt for testers (and sometimes even unknowingly take the risk of a fake product) of these top International Designer Perfume brands, would now be willing to look at an Indian brand that matches the quality and fragrance style of such brands. These homegrown brands are gradually seeing this shift happening.

This will in turn kick start a cycle of higher volumes, which in turn attract more companies to come into this fray. More options would mean more usage. The business cycle will kick in. This is an encouraging cycle. Now is the time when a genuine Indian perfume user will get the choice that they need.

When we were brainstorming on Dopamine Perfumes, our starting point was that we will be India’s answer to International Designer Perfumes. And when we looked at it from that platform, we told ourselves, Wow! This looks exciting and promising.

At the outset, we decided to cut the hoopla around flamboyant packaging. Keep it minimalistic and cost effective. That helped us divert resources on ingredients and their combination. We focussed on getting a fragrance mix suited for Indian climate, usage occasion and created variants with different dominant families. For more details check out: www.dopamineshop.in

We extensively tested the fragrances we had created amongst the discerning perfume users who use Chanels, Diors, Calvin Kleins to the world (and swear by those). The feedback was like a shot in the arm. That we received orders from many of those users in the first batch itself is a moment of pride for us.

Upwards and onwards from here!

Happy Smells to you