The Nose Job: How India is recreating the world's most expensive perfumes

Economic Times

9 hours ago

A few years ago, American fashion designer Tom Ford's childhood in Texas was captured in an expensive black bottle. Unusual notes of leather, cardamom, violet, jasmine, patchouli and moss were combined to conjure up the dust and beauty of the American Wild West. Tom Ford Ombre Leather eau de parfum costs Rs 12,000 for a 50 ml bottle.
A world away, on the first floor of Supertech Ecociti Tower in Sector 137 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, Mohammed Zaid crafts his perfume that matches the luxury fragrance—drop by drop. His Eau de Zidaan Ombre Leather has, its website says, notes of leather, warm spices, white florals, amber, moss and patchouli. 'Inspired by Tom Ford's Ombre Leather', it costs a mere Rs 1,770 for a 100 ml bottle.
Zaid, the 32-year-old founder of Zidaan Fragrance Industries, says, dropping the names of some of the most popular luxury fragrances: 'Some of our bestsellers are inspired by Baccarat Rouge, Louis Vuitton Pacific Chill and YSL Black Opium. But we never claim they are exact copies. Our scents are tributes — we build each one from scratch based on mood and projection.'Eau de Zidaan has quite a portfolio of 'inspired' perfumes and they come for Rs 1,100-1,800 each. Zaid says his company has loyalists who buy eight or more bottles and keep reordering their favourites. 'That's loyalty built on scent, not hype,' he says.Zaid's bootstrapped label is part of India's olfactory uprising: perfumes that smell of luxury without the pricey price tag. These 'inspired' perfumes, the affordable smell-alikes—of almost everything from YSL's Libre to Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle—are drawing in millennials and Gen Z who like to smell rich without burning through their monthly salary. They are turning to affordable recreations that bottle the aura of oud, amber and French florals. The word is spread at the speed of Instagram reels.
'Everyone wants to smell luxurious. The logo doesn't matter anymore,' says a perfume seller in Crawford Market, Mumbai. A dupe of Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 —the original is hard to find in Indian stores and, when you do, costs about Rs 28,000 for a 70 ml bottle—sells out every month from his shop. Meanwhile, at Eau de Zidaan, Zaid is founder and perfumer rolled into one. He creates each fragrance, choosing the oils and calculating their composition. He says he discovered perfumery through his father, a professional nose who worked with a renowned French company. 'I later honed my craft during five hands-on years in Dubai's vibrant fragrance industry,' he says.'Zidaan' means 'to grow' in Arabic and his company, founded in 2023, has sold 20,000 bottles since.
SMELLS OF KANPUR About 400 km away, in Kanpur, Harshit Gupta's Arabian Aroma too has an Ombre Leather, inspired, again, by Tom Ford. And it comes for a jaw-dropping Rs 700 for a 50 ml bottle. 'People want the luxury fragrance experience but at an affordable price,' says Gupta. 'Customers are more focused on quality than quantity—we offer 50 ml perfumes at Rs 600-700 instead of 100 ml bottles filled with subpar blends.' Arabian Aroma sold around 500,000 bottles in 2024, and is targeting over Rs 30 crore in revenue this fiscal year.Gupta says a shift to innovation is now gathering momentum. 'In 2024, we launched our signature collection— original perfumes crafted in-house. Our bestselling perfume today is Seduction, not an inspired scent but our own creation,' he says.Rajesh Manjaramkar, a 23-year-old engineer and fragrance enthusiast from Pune, has tried several perfumes by Arabian Aroma. 'Their recreations of Dior Sauvage, Azzaro's The Most Wanted and Jean Paul Gaultier Ultra Male last three to five hours, while their originals like Seduction and Royal Oud easily last eight hours,' he says.XLNC Perfumery and Celestial Perfume in Gujarat too are known for recreating global luxury fragrances.
1% INSPIRATION? Behind every inspired perfume that smells like a Rs 20,000 classic but costs under Rs 1,000 lies a meticulous deconstruction of fragrances and an intricate backend industry.Perfume-makers don't just guess notes in a bottle —many reverse-engineer the originals down to their chemical DNA, and blend top, heart and base accords with near-obsessive precision.'Crafting a high-quality, inspired fragrance is not as simple as just blending ingredients,' says Gupta. 'We always purchase the original bottle or authentic samplers to study the perfume's DNA. The structure and layering have to be understood deeply to recreate the aura, not just the top note.' He claims many new brands skip this step, leading to scents that feel like 'cheap echoes'— resulting in poor word-ofmouth and zero repeat buyers.
This is why suppliers like Harkaran Singh, founder of Delhi-based Aldrome, are in demand. He says his company creates bespoke fragrance oils for many perfume houses in the country, including replica-makers. 'The demand is high for profiles like white oud, velvet rose and oud, and Amalfi coast—their luxurious, layered notes suggest premium even when sold affordably.' Aldrome sources lavender from Bulgaria, lemon from Italy and orange from Brazil. Singh says the company uses the technique of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, which analyses the composition of perfumes, to ensure scent accuracy and batch consistency. 'Our team can combine two, five, even 10 accords to mimic the mood of a highend scent,' he says. 'It's not about copying—it's about hitting the right emotional chord.'This behind-the-scenes chemistry allows indie perfumers to move fast. 'We are obsessed with performance,' says Zaid. 'We test every oil on how it blends, how it wears on skin, how it holds in Indian weather. That is the edge.' And it is finding its fans.Pranav Gupta, a Delhi-based brand consultant, says, 'I used to save up for designer perfumes, but now I get compliments on my Rs 1,300 Zidaan YSL scent more than I ever did with other perfumes. It lasts through the day, smells luxe and doesn't burn a hole in my wallet.'
NO SCENT OF LAWSUIT Smelling like money no longer costs it. But why don't luxury fashion houses call out the imitations? Or, file lawsuits?'Fragrances, being intangible, are not protected under Indian copyright law,' says Dinesh Parmar, partner, Parker & Parker.You cannot, in short, copyright a smell. Law protects packaging, logos and brand names —but not the perfume. Therefore, perfume makers who make recreations steer clear of copying logos or packaging.'An inspired-by perfume isn't illegal,' says Samta Mehra, partner and trademark chair at Remfry & Sagar. 'Trade dress and bottle shape can be challenged —as in the Davidoff vs Ramsons case— but the fragrance itself remains legally unprotected.'Luxury brands have pushed back when the mimicry is visual. In the Davidoff vs Ramsons case of 2019, which Mehra refers to, the Delhi High Court stopped Thane's Ramsons Perfumes from selling perfumes in a dumbbell-shaped bottle that closely resembled Davidoff Champion's. Similarly, in 2024, the Delhi High Court blocked Mumbai-based Petrol Perfume's Mr. Petrol for packaging that copied Burberry's Mr. Burberry.Duplicate perfumes lead to brand dilution and financial losses. Global losses from counterfeit perfumes are estimated to be over $2 billion annually, according to Jarsking, a global packaging manufacturer. Parmar says even if a buyer never intended to purchase an original— say, Chanel Bleu for Rs 18,000 — the fact that its aura can be bought for Rs 900 affects its exclusivity and longterm brand equity.Duplication isn't new in the perfume world. In the 1990s, Parfums de Coeur cheekily displayed the slogan: 'If you like OBSESSION, you'll love CONFESS.' The brand spent just $3 million on ads and raked in $30 million in sales—the same amount that the original Calvin Klein Obsession earned after investing $17 million on its launch.Indians have begun to discover and take delight in fragrances. India's fragrance market was worth $1 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $3.2 billion by 2033, according to IMARC Group.
RISE OF THE ORIGINALS Meanwhile, Indian perfume brands, which are creating affordable, original blends, are rising, too. Labels like Naso Profumi and ISAK from UP, Aamod from Maharashtra, Neesh and Bella Vita from Haryana, and Contraband by Birla Cosmetics, which all come under Rs 2,000, prove that affordable doesn't mean inferior.Astha Suri, founder of Naso Profumi, says, 'Most of our blends are original stories mapping India's cultural heritage in spices, herbs and flowers. We build eau de parfums as narratives, not imitations.'Others like ISAK blend ingredients like kewra, mitti attar and vetiver into minimalist packaging.Mumbai-based creative producer Aayushi Mehta, who loves Naso Wild Jasmine, says, 'It feels like I am wearing a piece of India. My bottle is like a mood.'This generation of perfume buyers— and makers— is proving you don't need a French logo to wear good taste.Others like ISAK blend ingredients like kewra, mitti attar and vetiver into minimalist packaging.Mumbai-based creative producer Aayushi Mehta, who loves Naso Wild Jasmine, says, 'It feels like I am wearing a piece of India. My bottle is like a mood.'This generation of perfume buyers— and makers— is proving you don't need a French logo to wear good taste.