Updated Poll Concerning Purchasing Creed

Son of a civet scraper, I just checked online, you are right !

I was at Neimans 2 weeks ago and they hadnt increased their prices then. I guess this was to be expected after Lutens and L'Artisan bumped up the cost of their juices 2 months ago. Apparently shifting massive quantities of 4oz. Virgin Island Water (the recent best seller) didn't satiate Creed's thirst for the american green.

I have only bought retail twice: SMW and Neroli Sauvage. I had received too many "uneven" bottles and decants of these, so decided to take the plunge and purchased 1 oz fresh bottles from Saks and Neimans. No more overly fruity-berry SMW or turbo charged bitter orange Neroli Sauvage for me.

I've bought from both online and in store...in store always has the edge, especially with MI. Totally noticeable difference.

TNMA

Thanks for the insight Scentemental, I just checked the boxes of SMW from Neimans, and Neroli Sauvage from Saks (bought within the past month) and Santal Imperial from Saks (given to me as a gift, bough from the same local Saks early summer).

Theres no sticker of any sorts regarding the ingredients list in either Neroli Sauvage or Santal Imperial.

The SMW from Neimans though has the ingredients sticker, with the following info:

Lot: AF02S07
Ingredients/contains: Alcohol denat, Aqua(water), Parfum, Methyl 2-Octynoate, Limonene, ButylPhenyl methylpropional, citronellol

I looked up my box of Original Vetiver bought from fragrancenet.com and sure enough, it had the sticker, with the following info:

**lot number is blocked out**
Ingredients: Alcohol denat, parfum, benzyl alcohol, cinnamyl alcohol, citral, eugenol, iso eugenol, benzyl salycylate, cinnamal coumarin, geraniol, anise alcohol, benzyl cinnamate, farnesol, linalool, benzyl benzoate, citronellol, lemonene

A google search on the ingredients highlighted above reveals that almost all of them are naturally occurring organic compounds but can cause allergies and skin irritation. So just because an ingredient is natural doesn't mean its 100% safe.

I have never paid full retail for a Creed and in all likelihood never will. I don't see the point, especially considering what scentemental posted - it just always seems to be a va banque game. Up to this point I believe all my Creeds bought of BNers and ebay have been in perfect condition, though I am not entirely sure about Neroli Sauvage anymore.

With a two bottle exception and a host of decant from Basenoters, I have bought all the Creed products I now own (testers one and all) from eBay seller Creedirect at very healthy discounts from retail, most in the $35-$45 range + shipping.

Contrary to the posted experiences of some, she was very prompt in shipping and very generous in upgrading at no additional cost to me sizes of bottles if I had ordered a 2.5oz to a 4.0 oz on several occasions. The bottles from her were all purchased after the decants and they were basically the same scent IMO.

My Creeds have all been online purchases. I have obtained several (free) Creed samples from department stores to help me with my buy decisions (does that make me bad?) but I won't pay retail for the stuff. My nose isn't "tuned" enough to pickup minor aging differences in the juices.

Mike

I'm with HIM!!

As a relative newie/apprentice I'm still exploring and am HUGELY grateful to you more knowledgeable guys for this kind of sharing. In a short while I went from being a pooh-pooh-er of Creeds to being an addict - will keep all of this in mind when I've amassed enough clams to acquire some more.

How many people besides me had to look up 'anfractuous'?

Great report Scentemental

Thanks for the new word.

Leaky flacons suck!!

http://myworld.ebay.com/creedirect/ She has no items for sale....?

Caveat emptor indeed. A few months ago, I sent an email message to Parfums Raffy concerning the derivation of the lot number on Creed bottles. I thought they would know because they are an official Creed retailer. I was told that the lot number possibly indicated the date of production and that not every bottle they received had a lot number on it. This raised a red flag, an official Creed retailer receiving inconsistent product. Why would an official Creed retailer be receiving bottles without lot numbers? Would those with missing lot numbers possibly be older bottles slated for gray market sale? From where did they receive their stock of Creed? I only own one Creed and I don't know if I will be buying any more because as scentemental said, "buying a Creed is essentially a crap shoot." This is problematic for both consumer and retailer. IMO Creed needs to address product quality control and rethink their distribution system.

I have a retail bottle of GIT without the lot number on the bottom of the back of the flask. I have an online bottle of OV with the lot number. I have a retail bottle of OS with the lot number. You are correct--don't expect consistency.

With regard to the quality of the juices, I took a sample of my online-purchased OV juice to Neiman Marcus and compared it to that from a retail tester. The only perceptible difference I (and the SA) could detect was that the initial citrus blast from my juice was somewhat muted compared to the sparkle of the retail juice. I (and the SA) attributed that to the age of the bottle. Since the topnotes are the most volatile, I was not terribly concerned. An hour later, and four hours later, I could detect absolutely no difference.

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Ahem to that brother!

I might also add that Creed's indifference to its consumers and retailers in this regard is quite staggering and unique. An index of how sloppy and unprofessional their whole operation is can be seen from their new official website, which even though it has been up for at least 6 to 8 months now is still incomplete. It's still impossible to get any information on the eaux de toilettes. What, they can't afford to hire some commoner to input the information? Like I said, quite staggering and unique.

scentemental

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That's not surprising since the items they've been selling for the last two and a half to three years were stock that was left over when they ceased being an official Creed supplier. It had to run out some day.

scentemental


While they might be "naturally occurring organic compounds," most of these aroma chemicals are chemically isolated in the laboratory in many cases from pertroleum derivates and organic compounds that have no relationship to the end product. Their purity is not in question. In fact, when one derives these naturally occuring compounds from natural sources, they tend to contain impurities that are very difficult and expensive to remove. The laboratory isolated compounds are always entirely pure, cheaper to manufacture, and more consistent.

But the point I want to make here is that, in short, they are isolated in the lab and are commonly used aroma chemicals, without which no modern day fragrance is possible. These are important distinctions to remember when reading the Creed's vague, undifferentiated claims about how pure and natural their products are. I'd say there about as pure and natural as most products on the market and less so than say something by Profumum. To their credit, they do claim on their website that Creed fragrances "contain the highest percentage of natural components in the French Perfume industry". If they didn't, that claim would simply be false.

Creed is less sui generis than they would have one believe. In their newer fragrances of the last two years, I do sense more modernized and standardized formulae and production practices, and I think that's a good thing. While I am just amateur going on a little bit of knowledge and a lot of common sense and intuition, I don't think we'll see as many problems with the consistency and quality with the likes of something like Virgin Island Water as we have seen with earlier Creed products.

scentemental

P.S. Not wanting to be seen only as the cantankerous Creed criticizing curmudgeon that I am, I will say that their new releases in the last few years have been quite impressive, interesting, and original. For my money, though, and for what it's worth, Santal Imperial, and many of the older eaux de toilettes are really beautiful examples of the perfumer's art.

That happens on her eBay site from time to time Lightnin..

She usually is back on in a week or two with new items.

kbe,

I would qualify the word "new" items here since the whole point about Creedirect selling off their Creed stock was that Creed cut them off as one of its official authorized resellers because the same people who were running Creedirect started up Bond No. 9 New York. I might be entirely wrong, and I stand to be corrected, but I don't think Creedirect has an inside line to any "new" stock.

scentemental

Scentemental, what does that quote about the highest percentage of natural components mean ? And are you saying its true ? Also, I would be very interested in the differences between the modern and "old style" of perfumery that you talk about; can you give us some examples of fragrances which adhere to the two styles? If you can't elaborate on it fully, then some web links would be great !

Someone needs to get into the Creed boutique/headquarters and see what really goes on there. If I recall correctly, Geo F. Trumper makes similar (but less blunt) claims about employees hand pressing oils for their fragrances...and it was a Basenotes article by a former GFT employee which mentioned that, if I recall correctly.

It seems like Erwin Creed (and his family friend Romano Ricci, of the house of Nina Ricci and of "Juliette has a gun" fame) are more businessmen than noses - that could be both a good and a bad thing, because it could lead Creed to a more diverse modern fragrance portfolio (with less focus on "green and fresh" fragrances) and bad in the sense that Erwin Creed's fragrance credentials are not fully established yet Creed promotes him as the face of the house now.

As for Creedirect, everything that Scentemental says is true - they used to have a wide and varied Creed stock about an year or so ago, but that has dwindled recently.

I am a proponent of strict, harsh yet fair criticism - if a company can't back up their claims, I say off with their heads !