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"It's fake, but it's genuine..."

post #1 of 8
1/18/13 at 3:02am
Thread Starter 
This is a strange but happy-ending story, that could explain some of the mysteries of perfumery.....

Let's see this bottle of vintage Kouros, sealed, with the two white band in front of the box and only one color (intense blue) in the background



and now let's see the bottom of the box: can you read the batch code? It reports "4014" : Spring 2004.



it's a bit strange because such a modern batch doesn'n match with a vintage box ... so, let's open the box:



It's a splash bottle! But remember: Yves Saint Laurent discontinued all splash bottles in 1998-1999.
Here, we have found a splash vintage bottle in a vintage box... with a modern batch..

Let's see the bottom of the bottle:



We can read: "NY NY NEW YORK 10019 USA".
And what about the juice? it's smell quite GREAT . No fake, it's the vintage Kouros in all its glory and potency

What happened? Why an early vintage bottle was boxed in 2004?

A friend of mine watched closely the bottle and tried to explain: it was a bottle produced for US market, probably at mid or end of '80. It has been unsold, and returned to Europe. Here, in 2004 , put in an old box for splash bottles, then "re-batched" , and finally sent to shops again. But, this time in Europe, not in USA.
In a few words, the packaging is somewhat "fake"... but the bottle and juice are really vintage.

Strange things happen !!
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post #2 of 8
1/18/13 at 7:09am
Interesting analysis
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post #3 of 8
1/18/13 at 7:12am
I thought the splash bottles were just for the aftershave. Seems I was wrong.
If it's at least twenty five years old EDT and just opened we ( I) would love to hear a side to side comparison with the present day stuff.
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post #4 of 8
1/18/13 at 7:23am
A happy ending!
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post #5 of 8
1/18/13 at 8:47am
I've just checked checkcosmetics.net, and it claims that 4014 was produced in January 2004.
So I presume that's the site you're using?
But that site only goes back so far. Older bottles, like early 90's and older often gets fony dates.
The number could also have been reused in a later batch. Who knows?

That said, checkcosmetics is not that trustworthy. You can put in random numbers and it
almost always gives you a production date. I just did it with YSL, try it.
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post #6 of 8
1/21/13 at 8:18am
Thread Starter 
Checkcosmetics was trustworthy in a range from 2001 to 2010; now Cosmetic Wizard seems a bit (only a bit) more reliable especially for some vintage fragrances.
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post #7 of 8
2/4/13 at 12:33pm
Interesting thread. I wonder how often stuff like that happens - not just gray market stuff, but like this where the fragrance house itself "legitimately" puts a bottle like this back into circulation in another market. Not to mention repackaging it like this.
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post #8 of 8
2/4/13 at 12:46pm
That's good bro. Enjoy!
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