Creed - Quality or Con

I like and own some of their scents and dislike many of their others. That said, on the quality side of the spectrum I personally rank them relatively low on the whole.

I can buy high quality ingredients but if I whip up two different batches I doubt they would smell exactly alike. The point is that your concern is not about ingredient quality but quality control (in terms of the finished product). I wonder why companies that market designer scents for a lot of money can't just spend a dollar or so more per 100 ml to prevent the nasty "synthetic" qualities so many of them possess. LT seems to think the accountants are allowed to dictate such things. I wouldn't be surprised if he was correct !

There is no doubt they make some of the best fragrances which endure the test of time. GIT, MI, Aventus (while relatively new is a classic already) Their ingredients are above reproach. BUT their overall batch variations, poor quality atomizers that squeak and fall off, labels that peel, attest to their lack of consistency. Many (not all) Creed lovers get defensive, angry, defend every fragrance no matter the foulness or mediocrity, with fiery passion. There wouldn't be so many Creed bashers if the Creed lovers would just be more realistic. My favorite houses have flops and duds, and so does Creed. Half of the batch variations talk is genuine differences, and half is paranoid untrained newbies who believe they smell/don't smell something that isn't there. Just tallying up the THOUSANDS of posts about batches, you will find completely contradictory posts. "Batch A has no pineapple" While 3 pages on, someone else praises the powerful Pineapple of the same Batch A. I heard someone say it was a conspiracy by Creed Trolls to keep people talking about Aventus. I generally don't believe in conspiracies, but that makes sense... in a warped and twisted way.

With natural ingredients not all batches are necessarily the same, but Creed could do with trying to have more consistency. At least they are not repeatedly reformulating in short intervals like Dior Homme recently.

I love Creed Frags, but batch variations aside, loose fitting caps and peeling labels (the black wrap on both my Aventus bottles) peeling is inexcusable.

Creed is the biggest con known to the mankind. (perfumed-mankind)

People who still complain about batch numbers with Aventus are not up to date. The last year they have all been good, so it would seem they have it down to a science or something. Same goes for most other Creeds. While there are some batches that are "better' according to the community, all of them are good quality and worth the $125 price tag via places like fragrancenet.

Maybe I'm on my own on this, but as long as it smells good and lasts well, I don't care about small quirks like a loose cap or something like that. You wear the fragrance all day, you look at the bottle for five seconds. Now, I like good looking bottles like any other collector, and I honestly think they have awesome bottles.

Well, in all honesty, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it... If Rose Noir by Byredo smells a little different from one batch to another, who would know? Who buys multiple bottle of that? The fact that people can detect differences from one to another (and not all Creed products - I mostly only hear about it from a few) proves that Creed is quality. Maybe not consistent, but quality in terms of creating something people actually want. And it seems pretty clear they are the best at doing that.

And they are not the only one - I have recently gotten around to trying the 2 attars from Amouage available in the US (Homage and Tribute). Both vastly overrated IMO. I keep reading about batch variations with those - but the funny thing is, people don't seem to rip apart Amouage in these forums for that. Also, people rip on Creeds prices. But Amouage fragrances are also more expensive (even the non-attars). No one says much about that either. I love Amouage, but there seems to be a clear double-standard.

And what about Dior Fahrenheit, Polo, Kurous, etc? But people write that off as "reformulation". Is that any better? That is usually worse, since the difference betweeen what you experienced before and what you just bought is usually greater than the overblown batch variations of some of the Creed masterpieces.

But dear God I wish they would do something about those horrid sprayers...

See!!! Creed lovers are sooooo touchy and over-protective. Notice no one jumped to "defend the good name" of Amouage...

What matters is if you like the smell of what you spray.

Everything else is almost irrelevant.

When I think to perfumes launched in the '60, '70, even '80, the ones I have smelled thousand of times, I can easily affirm that "Creed" ( and several others expensive brands) are absolutely average perfumes. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary.
The hype surrounding perfumes such as "Aventus" is really a mistery for my old-scents trained nose.

Except the sticky peeling labels, the atomizers that won't squirt so you have to decant into another, the caps that keep falling on the floor, the...

I do love some of their fragrances and they are quality but they do have serious issues with batch variations that needs to be addressed. I mean you never hear of Guerlain or Dior having batch variations with their scents.

Quality. Maybe batch variations are do to the variations the "natural" ingredients they may use. Synthetic ingredients probably don't vary as greatly.

actually creed fragrances smell more synthetic than most fragrances i have

I disagree with this. Amouage has batch variations, and has been pointed out on other posts. I do hear of batch variations with Dior and Guerlain - but for those houses, they are called "reformulations". Just look at all the makeup and motor oil lovers lamenting about their recent pickup of DH or Fahrenheit and how it doesn't seem to smell the same as the last bottle they owned... checking batch numbers to see when it may have been changed... same thing - only the variation is much greater.

Other than MI and Aventus, I don't really hear of any batch variation issues - and from what I understand (I admittedly don't follow the batch game very closely) the worst batches were in 2010, and since then they have been much better.

Perhaps the variations when Aventus first came out were intentional? A few variants to see what people liked better? I don't see people comparing batches of GIT or Erolfa or Spice & Wood.

I also think that if people would stop buying their Creed products from the Grey market (or fakes)... they would not detect such a variation in batches. A hot warehouse in the middle of nowhere can create some pretty big variations. But people want to save a few bucks... then complain about the quality.

But they should take a note from Dior on how to make a spray nozzle. Those Creed sprayers are the worst - they grunt, squeek and misfire half the time.

As I personally don't pay attention to batch differences, this question never occurred to me.

If people kept starting threads bashing Amouage for their Attar variations, or Dior for their incessant reformulations and how they must be a low quality farce, I would probably respond by point out Creed in response as well.

When someone starts a post to start a conversation - is it not normal to get some "me too" responses and some "I disagree" responses as well?

I promise that if you started a thread saying Dior is just "riding on the coat tails" of their previous successful releases, and they were overrated and they are obviouly low quality because of their reformulations, etc. you would get a whole lot of responses from people that could be considered as "touchy and over-protective".

LOL just teasing...Touchy touchy Creed people!

^ Fully agree with all the above. I'm a lucky guy with the sprayers I guess, all mine spray just fine. Had an Aventus lable peel on the back corner, I'm so glad it didn't turn into a panic attack, yawn, there are the most tiring useless threads.

Creed is a good house IMO. But, their batch problems ara a major flaw.

Keep in mind Creed is a premium product, and gets treated as such. Do you want a mass-reprinted piece of art on your wall or a hand-painted item that is #5 in a lot of 50 done by the artist? The latter may have variations.

Likewise, you're talking also about people who have probably shelled out a pretty penny for the luxury of owning a Creed frag. I myself fall into the trap of defending and even over-inflating my opinion of something just because it's mine and my choice and my money that I spent. It's almost snobbish or elitist, but sometimes it's just someone being overly defensive about their investment.

Personally, I don't ever want to be so picky that I haggle about batch numbers. It's much ado about something that takes away my energy and life from other more satisfying things or more important things to worry about.

It was about a week ago that I introduced myself with a question about Creed. My concerns were answered and as a layman it seemed right not to worry too much about batch numbers etc. As it was pointed out to me, "if you like it, buy it" and not get bogged down with discrepancies in the notes. I was determined to go the next day to my local retailer and purchase my favorites, but something stopped me. Apart from the paranoia of buying a bad'n, Dailey is quite right that certain things are inexcusable. For what you pay, and for the name that the Creed family have built up, the marketing should be perfect, not only in respect for their customers but for their own self respect. And here lies the problem IMHO, who actually runs the House of Creed?

I heard from fairly reputable sources that in order to stay true to their ancient & illustrious heritage Creed fragrances are still meticulously blended by hand, by the dwarves no less, deep in their mountain caverns where it's always dark and cold. It's impossible for truly artisanal handcrafted products to be identical, hence the so called batch variations.

I reserve this distinction for Bond No. 9.

Regardless, the whole batch differences is a problem to me. I can name other fragrances where a certain note or the drydown was different than the prior bottle. The changes per lot may not be as ranged as Creed per batch, but the differences are there and I'm not wholly sure if it's due to "natural" ingredients - I dispute that they use natural ingredients since aromatic chemicals have gotten to the point where they are quickly replacing true natural ingredients and trained noses might even get slightly tripped up on some compositions - or if its due to sourcing materials from different sources.

I tend to suspect the latter moreso than the former. Regardless; it's a con only if you believe their marketing and dislike the product. I like some of their products (GIT, SMW, Aventus, Royal Ceylan, Neroli Sauvage, Himalaya, others) and others I dislike (Orange Spice, Tabarome, VIW, Original Santal, others).

Buy what you like; avoid buying into the hype.

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I reserve this distinction for Bond No. 9.

Regardless, the whole batch differences is a problem to me. I can name other fragrances where a certain note or the drydown was different than the prior bottle. The changes per lot may not be as ranged as Creed per batch, but the differences are there and I'm not wholly sure if it's due to "natural" ingredients - I dispute that they use natural ingredients since aromatic chemicals have gotten to the point where they are quickly replacing true natural ingredients and trained noses might even get slightly tripped up on some compositions - or if its due to sourcing materials from different sources.

I tend to suspect the latter moreso than the former. Regardless; it's a con only if you believe their marketing and dislike the product. I like some of their products (GIT, SMW, Aventus, Royal Ceylan, Neroli Sauvage, Himalaya, others) and others I dislike (Orange Spice, Tabarome, VIW, Original Santal, others).

Buy what you like; avoid buying into the hype.

CON. And there are plenty who fall for it! I'm looking at you Aventus fanboys.

Actually, this is what Olivier Creed would like us to believe according to the article in the Independent on Sunday magazine (3rd March). The guy seems quite arrogant and stated that he doesn't want to go mass market because he would have to start using synthetics in the fragrances, which would follow the inevitable price drop (didn't know whether to laugh or cry). So, he is doing us all a favour by charging £145 per bottle and using all natural ingredients -- wouldn't that be nearer £2000 just to break even? The interviewer tried to provoke him re Luca Turin's comments about Creed as a company in general in the Guide and Olivier said that he had never heard of him ..'but would like to take him to lunch..'.Hilarious.

LOL - I'm still waiting to get on the Creed payroll... Not sure why they haven't called me yet...

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Question - I had never heard of Creed before joining BN last year... I don't read every magazine or watch everything on TV, but after hearing about all this ridiculous Creed marketing, I have been paying attention to any advertising for fragrances in print or TV. I haven't seen any - could someone point me to a few places where I can read / see their claims? I am curious to see some of the claims they make (in their marketing, not an interview with someone who works there).

No one here is being touchy but you.

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If you look on fragrantica they have little blurbs about the fragrances from Creed. Most of them aren't talking about models or actors, but they do have some pretty interesting "back stories" if you choose to believe them.

Also, I love all the drama that always surrounds Creed in the fragrance community. When did we all become 13 year old girls? If you like the fragrances, great. If you don't, fine. Calling something a con just comes off as petty.

I think it's all human hype.

With natural ingredients there's room for slight difference in prominent notes (wouldn't consider this quality control).

The more popular bottles are going to get the most input from users when it comes to this topic, which in turns spreads the pandemonium.

I'm sort of new to this sort of high end fragrance stuff. My fragrances had always been designer EDTs and EDPs. I think Hermes products were the most expensive thing I owned.

Very recently, and after reading the reviews and opinions here at BN, I blind bought my first Creed...a 50ml split of Aventus. I liked it so much that I bought another 50ml split. The batch these came from is fantastic in terms of longevity, projection and smell.

So, I decided I wanted to try another blind buy with Creed. After reading all the opinions here at BN of all the different Creeds, I decided to buy a 4oz bottle of GIT last week at Beauty Encounter for $113. WOW! This is very nice smelling and it lasts at least 8-10 hours on me. Last night, I ordered one more bottle of GIT(hoping I get the same batch) because it's so nice and quite honestly the price is definitely a good value imo.

I guess I got lucky with the Creeds I bought so far. They really are excellent imo.

I repeat, if it's true what I've read, why wouldn't you market your quality product with quality labels, lids, atomizers etc. It doesn't make sense, unless you really don't care about reputation.

No facts, just my gut & $.02...

Another major flaw: loss of control over its distribution channel(s). For such luxury products positioned as such it is so important to maintain control. In the U.S., you've got Nieman Marcus, for instance, that offers up GIT 4oz at around $315. Same price as the Creed Boutique in NY. I don't know who else in the U.S. is considered an 'authorized distributor' but I'd be rather surprised if all authorized dealers did not adhere to suggested minimum MSRP policy as well as, perhaps, certain handling standards. Enter parallel imports or the grey market issue and you've got perfume discounters and folks like k-mart selling the same for half and maybe even a third as much as the authorized distributors.

How do they do that? Well, the folks at Creed certainly distribute their product to other countries -- hell, we've all seen the literature insert that is translated into how many different languages. These other countries might even have been charged as much by Creed as the authorized distributors in the U.S. (for the sake of discussion, let's assume they are charged $50 for GIT 4 oz). Perhaps the distributor in the UAE does not see much demaind for Creed in his shop. A jobber friend of his offers to pay him $75 for each GIT 4 oz, etc. Perhaps the lot ID is scratched off at some time along the continuum or not. The jobber then sells the lot to K-Mart or The Fragrance Shop for $100. They, in turn, are willing to sell it to us for maybe $125-150. They don't carry the same overhead and other issues as a NM and they cater to a different class or consumer profile. In such a scenario, Creed lost all control over its product once it left the UAE distributor. For all anyone knows, such shipments might sit for days, weeks, or months in cargo containers on hot airport tarmacs or shipping ports. Perhaps the handling of these shipments account for 'batch' variations, poor label adhesion, etc.

Does Creed care? Well they should. But if they're making $50/GIT 4 oz whether it is sold through NM or to the UAE distributor in the above scenario, perhaps they don't care either way. Their reputation will suffer if they don't do anything about it. It drives their authorized dealers batshit (e.g. queue in the ms. bond no. 9 story) -- when confronted by a prospective customer asking why he should shell out $315 when he can get it online for $165... what's the authorized dealer supposed to say? Some of them probably say that the $165 GIT is a fake. I believe this is exactly what we have been witnessing the last few years with this house.

Will it spell their doom? Dunno. I don't care much about the issue because, to me in retrospect, Creed is a gateway house. When I was cutting my teeth, I quickly obtained GIT, OV, OS, SMW, VIW, Erolfa, Himalaya, and Tabarome Mill. I rarely reach for any of them these days other than OV (I like my Orange Spice samples too, but the samples will do me just fine I think). I like Aventus and Royal Oud just fine, as well, but have little interest in even paying discount prices for them.

Creed's quality control issues go well beyond batch variations. My bottle of Aventus arrived with the label peeling off and a very loose cap. At its price point, the bottle shouldn't be wrapped in a sticker, but that's beside the point. Creed is well known for faulty/leaky sprayers as well.

The juice is high quality. The bottle? Not so much. That's a shame too, since Creed bottles have such an excellent appearance overall.

I've been using Creed products for about 15 years (had to edit, forgot how to count). They have all come from Neimans. I have never had one sprayer malfunction in any way possible. They are the best atomizer in the industry by far. Peeling label? Ok, maybe they need to go back to R&D to find a better glue.

As far as batch variations, i really don't know. I have never noticed a difference. I thought i did a couple times, but then the next time i smelled, it smelled normal. This was with Original Santal.

Longevity and batches? I don't understand at all. I recently opened my back up bottle of SMW. I saw a thread about SMW batch variations. Slamming a particular batch, saying that it only lasts a couple hours. I go look at my bottle, its this batch. Whivh i had been wear already for a few days. It smells and lasts the same as always.

I think people are buying crap off of ebay or discounters, and they're getting a totally different experience. B) They're liars. This is an internet forum, plenty of those. C) Crazy?

The only creed i will say is terrible in all departments is VIW. I just don't like the scent at all. And it lasts about 2 hours.

But if there were no batch variations then there would be no reason to start 6,000 redundant threads on basenotes about batch variations. It would be a great loss to the community.

I don't agree...You talk of Creed like it is the only niche ever made...There are a lot of niche houses JUST AS GOOD and they don't have the wild variations. The "limited edition" analogy doesn't make sense...Your Aventus wasn't "hand made" like you imply. And as for being defensive over shelling out a lot of money, I own GIT, AVENTUS, and MI, so I have an investment. I'm just not overly defensive and sensitive about them. I see them as well made frags. on par with MANY other well made frags.
I tire of this...so I will let it go at this...let's agree to disagree.

Thanks - yes, I have see the fragrantica blurb before. I can't imagine that is what all the Creed bashing is about when the refer to their "marketing".


Sounds like the Creed hating is mostly
1) about a few batch inconsistencies - but never bring up the constant reformulations other houses do. I don't hear about Creed reformulations - is the GIT today the same as it was 10 years ago? Can people name some of the Creed fragrances today that have undergone reformulation?

2) about the royal history they "claim"- if it is true, then who cares? if it is not, then who cares? - It sounds like a straw man argument that people create just so they can criticize, since I am not aware of any Creed marketing - the blurb on fragrantica hardly counts as "marketing". I saw many commercials showing Tiger Woods driving a Buick. If you really think a young multi-millionaire cruises around in a Buick. What do you think the point of marketing is?

3) Price - but they are cheaper or right in line with most Amouage products, Heeley, Bond No. 9, Tauer, by Kilian, and many other fragrance houses.

4) about Creed likers - saying "they see no wrong", "think everything about Creed is perfect", etc... I have yet to see a single Basenoter claim Creed is perfect. This is another straw man argument. It seems like it is the Creed haters that are more interested in pushing their views (and they usually come back to these 4 things, which, by the way, have nothing to do with how good the juice smells).


If you have labels peeling off, you may have a fake - or one that has been so mistreated along its journey it might as well be - I have never had any problems with anything like that. I don't like the misfiring Aventus nozzle, but the others seem to work ok. However, I usually get all my Creed products from "proper" channels, not off the back of someones truck.

If you don't like a fragrance by them (for me it's Baie de Genievre, MI, SMW, and Tabarome), thats fine. But they make 12 that I do find bottle worthy. And I have not found a house that even comes close to that. I am not defensive (I have no personal interest in the company), nor do I feel I need to justify my investment - they have been some of my best purchases I have made.

yall just hate creed cuz yall too poor to buy one

Well, with my one GIT bottle in hand(and another one on the way), AND my two 50ml splits of Aventus purchased through BN, I'm ready for some good smellin' and good lovin'.

I'm not sure what 13 year old girls you are around. I guess it is a cliche, so it works for an analogy. The best insulting and arguing that occurs is always with "grown" adults.

Because this is a forum. And this is where people come to either talk about perfume, or complain. Even If you rounded up every single active member of basenotes, gave them $350 and made them go buy a bottle from the creed boutique, creed would be in MAJOR trouble financially.

Internet complainers are a very small slice of the fanbase of a popular product. And just like with anything else, if you get too popular, you're going to have those people that are too cool for you all of the sudden.

6000 threads on batch variations? Where would they have even got the idea if there wasn't a thread before it that they saw? But they feel what they have to say is more important, so they start a new thread.

Dissect the huge creed batch # thread? 25% pertinent info, 75% whiners/arguing.

I think there might be slight variations in the smell, MAYBE. MI smells the same as it did to me in the late 90's. But these guys that jump in a say, OMG MY AVENTUZ LASTS ONLY 45 SECONDS, F*CK CREED! Really?

Wait. What? Creed is in MAJOR trouble financially?

How did you get it so cheap. $113 is really low. Did you use a code or something. I just checked beauty encounter and they had it for $128.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Creed is just another house with average quality to me

i fell for the hype, and now gotta live with the consequences

9 bottles of Creed that i have and rarely touch

Type BENEW in the coupon code box during check out. You'll get a $15 credit against the total. You will see it as soon as you type it and click APPLY.

You should probably re-read that

+1 regarding the peeling label on my Aventus. Didn't like that at all. I too also see some of the loose fitting caps and completely agree that it's inexcusable. When we're paying top dollar for a bottle of fragrance, we don't need to be dealing with that.

Regarding the batch variations, I haven't really experienced it. The only "variation" I do see is between Creed's official samples vs the full bottles. The juice in the samples are typically inferior and smell much less natural than when I try the juice from a full bottle.

That's what I find so weird about it. It's so odd.

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Edit. Too much Haterade. Carry on.

Can we use the term "DWARVES" here?

Can we use the term "sprayer malfunction"?

I think that dwarves has established itself as an acceptable term.

Not eager to hear about other dudes sprayer malfunctions.

Apart from that I have no concerns.

The bold type always makes me laugh.

Totally agree --- Overpriced, not the greatest on quality & very inconsistent with rgds 2 their batches...

I haven't tried all the Creeds, but of those I tried I only like Royal Oud. To me, most them them are boring. I don't understand why people like Aventus so much. It smells mundane to me.

There's snobbism in all hobbies and all snobbism is to some degree a matter of self-deception, or con if you will. My issue with Creed, specifically, is that the brand is a bit tacky. The cooked up history, the fake royal insignia, cliche like elegance of the design while the quality of the flasks is poor. If you go snobby about vintage Givenchys and Guerlains, at least it's genuine, but Creed feels fake to me. That said, I really like several of their fragrances.

This. ^

I also agree with a previous poster that Creed is a gateway brand. When first getting into fragrances, it is hard not to be pulled into the hype (and yes, threads like this play into the hype and mystique) and I don't regret buying up on Creed early on. They are classics in particular genres - e.g. GIT, MI, BdP, Aventus, Himalaya, Vintage Tabarome, so they remain reference scents - but I don't wear them, as I don't find them very pleasant (Ok - Vintage Tabarome is an exception)- particularly compared to houses like Amouage, Guerlain, Puredistance, Hermes and so on - even Tom Ford. I view Creed as classic designer scents - that's all...

Wasn't there a Creed subforum for the same questions to be posted again and again and again and again...?

I've said it before, things HAVE settled down some in the past year, but I STILL see the cheerleaders posting things like this: THREAD: What is your favorite tar based frag? POST BY CREED CHEERLEADER: Well, Aventus isn't a tar frag, but you should try it it is the best! I try to avoid the obvious Creed threads (unless I am bored and want a fight) but when they weasel their way into unrelated threads, I guess it bothers me. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go re-re-glue my Aventus label...BTW it isn't "Fake" I got it from Creed boutique.