How we pick

How we decide what to show you.

This category runs on hype: fake urgency, invented notes, creators paid to call everything a perfect match. We built the opposite. Here is exactly how every page is put together, and why you can trust it.

Genuine first

The genuine fragrance comes first.

Every page leads with the authentic designer fragrance, and where to buy it when it is available. We never invent a hero product or bury the real thing beneath the alternatives.

Real bottle, real price

The real bottle, at the real price.

We exclude sample vials and tiny travel sizes from an original’s headline price, so you never see a nine dollar vial standing in for a two hundred dollar fragrance. When a fragrance sells in several sizes, we lead with a standard bottle, not the biggest gift size.

Best genuine offer

The best genuine offer, honestly labeled.

When more than one retailer carries a fragrance, we prefer trusted and authorized sources. Some sellers are gray-market discounters: the goods are genuine, sold through unofficial channels, which is legal, but we never call them “authentic.” We show the price and let each retailer’s own guarantee stand.

Cited notes

Notes come from the source, and we cite them.

Every scent profile traces to a brand or retailer’s own page, with a link. We describe scents in coarse, honest accord families, not invented note-by-note pyramids copied from who knows where. When we cannot verify a fragrance honestly, we leave it blank and keep looking rather than fill the gap with a guess.

Honest alternatives

The alternatives are honest about being alternatives.

An accessible “smells-like” option is an impression, not the same formula, and we say so plainly. We show you the cheaper alternative even though we would earn more sending you to the original.

How we earn

How we make money, and how we do not.

Some links are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission on a qualifying purchase, at no cost to you. Because we earn the same whether you buy one alternative or another, that money never changes what we show first, or the order we rank things in. Our rankings answer to your nose, not to a sponsor.

That is the whole method. If a page ever falls short of it, tell us, and we will fix it or take it down.

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