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Suggest me an online discounter for Creed fragrances!

post #1 of 22
8/5/10 at 8:05pm
Thread Starter 
I hear fragrancenet.com sells 'old stock'... What do you guys think about beautyencounter.com for Creed?

I'm looking to pick up a 4.0oz bottle of Himalaya, and finding prices around $150 online, which is great, but I wonder if its 'safe' - I don't want a bottle with lacking top notes, ect...

any recommendations?

Thanks in advance
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post #2 of 22
8/5/10 at 8:10pm
I've had good dealings with Beauty Encounter. Amazon even sells some direct, as well.
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post #3 of 22
8/5/10 at 8:13pm
Thread Starter 
any issues with it smelling 'off' ?

i personally had a bad experience buying A&F Fierce on eBay - NEVER AGAIN!!! lol.... so I'm weary.... any help would be great!
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post #4 of 22
8/5/10 at 8:23pm
Nope, no problems at all.
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post #5 of 22
8/5/10 at 8:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MdGrwl View Post

any issues with it smelling 'off' ?

i personally had a bad experience buying A&F Fierce on eBay - NEVER AGAIN!!! lol.... so I'm weary.... any help would be great!

eBay is vastly different than most of the online retailers. I'm sure there are many upstanding eBayers, but I'd never even consider an eBay puchase of a frag.

I hear all the issues with getting "fresh" Creed and I'm not so sure how much that can be controlled really. I would presume some of the slower sellers are going to be older batches almost anywhere you get them. Don't know. I have a bottle of Royal English Leather I bought this year. Smells great. But I note none of the Creed "batch" etching with what may or may not be a date is on the bottle at all.

The trap you're in (and I can say this because I've been there) is that when you buy it at a lower price from an online retailer, it's going to be very easy to second guess the bottle. Not as a fake, but as an "old" bottle. My nose is not as discerning as many in here, but are a lot of reports from talented noses that Creeds can be slightly different from bottle to bottle. So it may not even be old, just a different batch that doesn't smell EXACTLY the way you hoped.

I've done okay with Fragrancenet and Millesime Imperial, but I've concluded I'd rather bite the bullet and get it from Nieman or Creed Boutique from here out.
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post #6 of 22
8/5/10 at 9:19pm
I've recently bought a Creed off Ebay (Acier Aluminium) and it smells the same as the sample I'd got from The Perfumed Court.
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post #7 of 22
8/5/10 at 9:31pm
I got a bottle of GIT through Walgreens.com for half price a while back. I also used various coupons which brought it down to 90 bucks for a 4 oz bottle. Smelled as good and as fresh as can be.
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post #8 of 22
8/6/10 at 9:25am
I note that Parfum1.com has quite a few Creeds in stock right now. I've had good experience generally with them, but never ordered any Creeds. Interested though - any ever bought Creed through Parfum1?
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post #9 of 22
8/6/10 at 10:14am
My experiences buying discounted Creeds online has been completely without incidence. I have purchased at least 8 different ones and they all smelled exactly like the testers on the counters of Neiman Marcus and Saks. There's probably differences in batches from season to season, due to the quality of the year's harvest used, but this is going to be the case even at a Creed Boutique. I find the claim that Creed fragrances have a very short shelf life to be very exaggerated. Counterfeits are another story. But as other posters have stated stores like beautyencounter.com, fragrancenet.com, parfum1.com and Walgreens are highly unlikely to sell counterfeit products as they would be committing a felony.
Discounters offer an opportunity to expand a brand into different demographics than were originally intended. Take advantage of it!
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post #10 of 22
8/6/10 at 10:26am
www.parfumesraffy.com www.luckyscent.com www.strawberrynet.com All of them are serious distributors.
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post #11 of 22
8/6/10 at 11:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MdGrwl View Post

any issues with it smelling 'off' ?

i personally had a bad experience buying A&F Fierce on eBay - NEVER AGAIN!!! lol.... so I'm weary.... any help would be great!

When does that one smell "on"? ;-)

Maybe I've just been lucky, but the Creed purchases I've made between FragranceNet and FragranceX yielded no surprises. Good stuff each time.
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post #12 of 22
8/6/10 at 1:45pm
Well allow me to be the first naysayer here. I received my 4 oz. bottle of Millesime Imperial from Fragrancenet.com today, and it smells nothing like my sample from TPC. Gone is that sweet, creamy melon and sandalwood I get from my TPC sample; instead, I get a high-quality lemon water that bears only the vaguest resemblance to my sample, and then the scent is gone entirely after about 10 minutes.

Now, my sample from TPC is 2 years old, and I've heard claims on the BN threads that Creeds actually smell better as they "develop" over time. But, then again, I've also heard just the opposite -- that they lose their potency over time. So, I don't know what to think.

Here's the other thing. My other Creed bottle (2.5 oz. Acier Aluminium) (the one I know is legit) has a lot number *printed* on the bottom of the bottle (LOT C1008A01) that matches one of the two lot numbers *printed* on the bottom of the box (LOT C1808A01 and, beneath it, LOT C1008A01). My MI bottle, on the other hand, has no lot number on the bottom whatsoever, and no lot number printed on the bottom of the box. It does feature a lot number on a sticker applied to the bottom of the box (LOT: A3309W02) but, unlike my AA box, there is no lot number printed on the box itself.

So, I don't know what to think. I've never had a problem with Fragrancenet in the past, but this is the first Creed I've bought from them. There is no doubt in my mind that it differs drastically from my TPC sample. I'm doing a side-by-side comparison right now; the TPC sample (from an atomizer) is still going strong, but the Fragrancenet bottle is, as I said, basically a high-quality lemon water that is virtually gone after after 10 minutes.

The bottle / box / Creed pamphlet all appear 100% legit. Is it possible that this bottle will "ripen" over time and eventually come to smell like my 2-year old TPC sample? Should I just have faith and hope for the best? Or, should I look into getting a refund? Any other ideas or suggestions? I am disappointed to say the least.
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post #13 of 22
8/6/10 at 2:30pm
You MI is most likely legit. It should have an etched lot no. on the back lip of the base of the bottle and it should match the sticker. Also check the sticker for ref. number 1112033 for the 4 oz bottle which is Creed's ref. number you can see on their site. Your AA on the other hand has 2 different lot numbers? Now that's odd.
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post #14 of 22
8/6/10 at 2:34pm
From Creed's own website: "Creating a 100% natural CREED perfume is preferable, of course. But a natural composition would not survive the months-long journey that begins with hand bottling at the CREED workshop in France, sea shipping to the United States, clearance at the U.S. port and transportation by ground to CREED’s authorized retailers coast to coast..............if there were not a synthetic to prevent natural ingredients from spoiling along the way in the wide temperature variations that occur from, say, Boston to San Diego."
With this statement I think that Creed is trying to dispel the endlessly repeated myth that their fragrances are somehow 'fragile' and don't have a long shelf life. That said, I wouldn't hold The Perfumed Court up to any gold standard, who knows how old the bottle they're decanting from is and how often its contents are being exposed to the air to create the decants.
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post #15 of 22
8/6/10 at 2:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chasing the Dragon View Post

Well allow me to be the first naysayer here. I received my bottle of Millesime Imperial from Fragrancenet.com today, and it smells nothing like my sample from TPC. Gone is that sweet, creamy melon and sandalwood I get from my TPC sample; instead, I get a high-quality lemon water that bears only the vaguest resemblance to my sample, and then the scent is gone entirely after about 10 minutes.

Now, my sample from TPC is 2 years old, and I've heard claims on the BN threads that Creeds actually smell better as they "develop" over time. But, then again, I've also heard just the opposite -- that they lose their potency over time. So, I don't know what to think.

Here's the other thing. My other Creed bottle (Acier Aluminium) (the one I know is legit) has a lot number *printed* on the bottom of the bottle (LOT C1008A01) that matches one of the two lot numbers *printed* on the bottom of the box (LOT C1808A01 and, beneath it, LOT C1008A01). My MI bottle, on the other hand, has no lot number on the bottom whatsoever, and no lot number printed on the bottom of the box. It does feature a lot number on a sticker applied to the bottom of the box (LOT: A3309W02) but, unlike my AA box, there is no lot number printed on the box itself.

So, I don't know what to think. I've never had a problem with Fragrancenet in the past, but this is the first Creed I've bought from them. There is no doubt in my mind that it differs drastically from my TPC sample. I'm doing a side-by-side comparison right now; the TPC sample (from an atomizer) is still going strong, but the Fragrancenet bottle is, as I said, basically a high-quality lemon water that is virtually gone after after 10 minutes.

The bottle / box / Creed pamphlet all appear 100% legit. Is it possible that this bottle will "ripen" over time and eventually come to smell like my 2-year old TPC sample? Should I just have faith and hope for the best? Or, should I look into getting a refund? Any other ideas or suggestions? I am disappointed to say the least.

i'm not sure about the sticker situation (mine is etched), but I got an "09" bottle of MI from Creed Boutique a few months ago, and it smelled exactly how you describe at first. first time i put it on, it smelled like salt-water mixed with a bit of lemon. and yes, it disappeared after 10 minutes.

But now, about 5 months later, it is starting to grow up. it is seriously developing into the sweeter, fuller fragrance i remember (and can still experience with my older MI bottle).

So just be patient, and keep using it occasionally... it will come around. don't refrigerate it either... let it stay in room temperature. I found that the upside to having this young bottle was that it layered EXTREMELY well over other Creeds (whereas my older, "fuller" MI is too strong to do so). I put it on top of GIT and they combine to make the most extraordinary fragrance. More than the sum of it's parts. So good, I wonder why Creed doesn't do this themselves. If you have GIT, try it. Base spray of GIT, and a top spray of MI (1-1).
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post #16 of 22
8/6/10 at 2:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert G. View Post

You MI is most likely legit. It should have an etched lot no. on the back lip of the base of the bottle and it should match the sticker. Also check the sticker for ref. number 1112033 for the 4 oz bottle which is Creed's ref. number you can see on their site. Your AA on the other hand has 2 different lot numbers? Now that's odd.

Thank you, I hadn't noticed that. Yes, the lot number on the back lip of the bottle's base is A3309W02, which does match the lot number on the sticker on the bottom of the box. And the reference number on the sticker is 11120-33, as you said. So, that makes me feel better.

Any idea as to why the bottle smells so inferior to the TPC sample? I mean, there is no contest between the two. Nearly an hour later and the TPC sample still smells fantastic; the new bottle's scent is nonexistent and didn't resemble the TPC sample even fresh out of the bottle except in the most superficial ways (a light, pleasant but weak lemon scent without much distinction or personality).

Yes my AA box has two lot numbers but the scent itself is identical to my TPC sample, so I'm not worried about that. But this MI discrepancy has me scratching my head, to say the least!
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post #17 of 22
8/6/10 at 3:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Guyer View Post

From Creed's own website: "Creating a 100% natural CREED perfume is preferable, of course. But a natural composition would not survive the months-long journey that begins with hand bottling at the CREED workshop in France, sea shipping to the United States, clearance at the U.S. port and transportation by ground to CREED’s authorized retailers coast to coast..............if there were not a synthetic to prevent natural ingredients from spoiling along the way in the wide temperature variations that occur from, say, Boston to San Diego."
With this statement I think that Creed is trying to dispel the endlessly repeated myth that their fragrances are somehow 'fragile' and don't have a long shelf life. That said, I wouldn't hold The Perfumed Court up to any gold standard, who knows how old the bottle they're decanting from is and how often its contents are being exposed to the air to create the decants.

Agreed, I've always been skeptical of the idea that Creed fragrances "degrade" after only a few years. It makes more sense to me that, if anything, they would actually become richer and more potent over time.

The Perfumed Court sample could very well have been decanted from an older bottle, but if that's the case I want an older bottle because it smells so much better! What's more is that the descriptions of MI in the BN reviews match the scent of the TPC sample, and not of my new 4 oz. bottle. I get no melon or sandalwood in my new bottle whatsoever. But I do see your point that TPC shouldn't necessarily be the gold standard here.
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post #18 of 22
8/6/10 at 3:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TalkingMuffin View Post

i'm not sure about the sticker situation (mine is etched), but I got an "09" bottle of MI from Creed Boutique a few months ago, and it smelled exactly how you describe at first. first time i put it on, it smelled like salt-water mixed with a bit of lemon. and yes, it disappeared after 10 minutes.

But now, about 5 months later, it is starting to grow up. it is seriously developing into the sweeter, fuller fragrance i remember (and can still experience with my older MI bottle).

So just be patient, and keep using it occasionally... it will come around. don't refrigerate it either... let it stay in room temperature. I found that the upside to having this young bottle was that it layered EXTREMELY well over other Creeds (whereas my older, "fuller" MI is too strong to do so). I put it on top of GIT and they combine to make the most extraordinary fragrance. More than the sum of it's parts. So good, I wonder why Creed doesn't do this themselves. If you have GIT, try it. Base spray of GIT, and a top spray of MI (1-1).

Yes! Exactly! It smells like salt-water mixed with a bit of lemon. Nothing distinctive at all. If this had been my first impression of MI, I wouldn't have been impressed at all. I don't remember my initial impression of the TPC sample from 2 years ago, but it apparently wasn't enough to motivate me to get a bottle at the time. Whereas, when I revisited it a couple weeks ago, I wondered why I hadn't bothered to get a bottle because it smells fantastic! So I suppose it could be that these last couple years have improved its scent. But I'm still baffled that this new bottle could smell that differently from my TPC sample. I've never experienced this much of a discrepancy between sample and bottle -- but I am a relative newcomer when it comes to Creeds. Where did you get your bottle, if I may ask?
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post #19 of 22
8/6/10 at 3:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by A. Homme View Post

I've had good dealings with Beauty Encounter.

Me too.
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post #20 of 22
8/6/10 at 8:53pm
I actually scored a tester of Vintage Tabarome on ebay for $100 and it was perfect. I ended up selling it off, as it wasn't something I could easily pull off. This thread has inspired me to do a little, on-line discount Creed hunting tonight.
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post #21 of 22
4/29/12 at 4:57pm
Thank you for this post - I received a sample of MI from Beauty Encounter - I thought it had gone bad. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but based on reviews, I expected it to be good. I assumed it was very old and went bad. But then I received another sample of it from the Creed Boutique - and it smelled the same! I wasn't sure what to think, since I couldn't imagine that many people would think this was that great. I will keep it around and try it again in about 6 months - good to hear there is hope for these samples yet!
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post #22 of 22
4/29/12 at 8:51pm
I've had good luck with both of them. Depending on the fragrance, some have been very recent lots and other not (because they have been discontinued). In some cases with Creed, I highly prefer "old stock" (e.g., Baie de Genevre).

Martin
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