Rose 31 doesnt smell the same

[Beranium Chotato]

Molehills, people. Molehills.

[jamwires]

I have to agree, some of these reactions are blown way out of proportion. If you don't particularly like Le Labo, that's fine, but judging from the emails and customer service the OP has received, the company is going out of their way to right a potential wrong. I say kudos to them for their timely and personal response.

[SculptureOfSoul]

Still have to call complete BS on the expiration date thing. Their explanation is lame. If they wanted to inform people to keep the scent away from heat and light, their label could state exactly that. Instead, they do this expiration date thing. Why? Well, they know that it will lead some of those 'not in the know' to repurchase the fragrance because it has "expired", and even more than that, it greatly reduces the resale value of any Le Labo frag (who wants to buy a fragrance that has supposedly "expired" or is about to.) thus almost destroying the second hand market for Le Labo frags and ensuring all purchases go through them. It's all about the $$$.

[laph]

Thanks for the update persianprince. Not sure I like their response re the expiration date but I am very interested to know how you go with the returned bottle of R31.

[persianprince]

Still have to call complete BS on the expiration date thing. Their explanation is lame. If they wanted to inform people to keep the scent away from heat and light, their label could state exactly that. Instead, they do this expiration date thing. Why? Well, they know that it will lead some of those 'not in the know' to repurchase the fragrance because it has "expired", and even more than that, it greatly reduces the resale value of any Le Labo frag (who wants to buy a fragrance that has supposedly "expired" or is about to.) thus almost destroying the second hand market for Le Labo frags and ensuring all purchases go through them. It's all about the $$$.

You have a lot of valid points here. I can't disagree with any of them.

[persianprince]

Thanks for the update persianprince. Not sure I like their response re the expiration date but I am very interested to know how you go with the returned bottle of R31.

I will defintely keep everyone informed of how this all turns out. The bottle will be in there hands today, it was worth spending the extra 15bucks to overnight, sicne i really want to get this resolved and want to get it back ASAP. I just hope its a new bottle and not the same one.

I really hope my Baie Rose 26 i'm receiving from a split here on BN is up to par with the decants i've tried before...

[persianprince]

Received confirmation from Le Labo that my bottle has been delivered. Gaelle and the one of the owners will be sniffing the bottle and getting back to me. Should have a ending to this story tomorrow.

[laph]

Great, thanks pp

[persianprince]

Received response from Le Labo today. One of the owners sniffed my bottled and said it was fine. Gaelle offered to send me a new 100ml since i was willing to send back the bottle and go through this process. or send me back my bottle and give me an additional 50ml bottle (since 50ml is roughly what was gone from my bottle). I figure getting a new 100ml bottle was best bet. Both ways, they were willing to do what i believe is right and i'm pleased with the end result.

I can't say one bad thing about their customer support.

[jamwires]

Good to hear

[DNT]

Very good customer service from Le Labo.

[dollars&scents]

I wanted to see if anyone else has had this experience. I have a decant from a 500ml flacon that i purchased back in May, and it smelt great and i went through it recently. So i decided to buy a full bottle, which i did roughly 8 weeks ago and i can honestly tell you the new bottle doesn't last at all or project. My original decant which i still have roughly 10-15ml left is much stronger.

Oh wow, sure was excellent customer service.
We were informed about a maceration period, one apparently the owner of that outlet felt was completed inasmuch as the juice smelled fine, and the need for the contents to age, again it must have been completed for the same rationale as explained earlier with the maceration process, and, now, a new bottle will be sent to replace the one sent back, which apparently was fine and merely a figment of the OP's imagination, as far as its quality is concerned. Could it be the OP was bambozzled under the guise of excellent customer service? Was the initial concern raised by the OP, to wit, the lack of projection and longevity, swept under the carpet by the maceration process and aging process and expiration dates and excellent customer service tangents?
Why did the OP originally feel the fragrance was inadequate compared to the sample?
We will have to wait for an excellent, customer service representative from that outlet to address that concern at a subsequent time and incident. Thank goodness for excellent customer service!

[laph]

That's excellent customer service. I hope the new bottle meets your expectations too

[mesaboogie]

Le Labo really came through for you! They seem to have excellent customer service, unlike a certain fragrance company who re-releases 4 year old stocks of limited edition frags and refuses refunds.

[Vinrambo09]

Received response from Le Labo today. One of the owners sniffed my bottled and said it was fine. Gaelle offered to send me a new 100ml since i was willing to send back the bottle and go through this process. or send me back my bottle and give me an additional 50ml bottle (since 50ml is roughly what was gone from my bottle). I figure getting a new 100ml bottle was best bet. Both ways, they were willing to do what i believe is right and i'm pleased with the end result.

I can't say one bad thing about their customer support.

How is the longevity/sillage in the new bottle ??? Is it strong now or weak?

[flouris]

Still have to call complete BS on the expiration date thing. Their explanation is lame. If they wanted to inform people to keep the scent away from heat and light, their label could state exactly that. Instead, they do this expiration date thing. Why? Well, they know that it will lead some of those 'not in the know' to repurchase the fragrance because it has "expired", and even more than that, it greatly reduces the resale value of any Le Labo frag (who wants to buy a fragrance that has supposedly "expired" or is about to.) thus almost destroying the second hand market for Le Labo frags and ensuring all purchases go through them. It's all about the $$$.

Agreed. While I appreciate that Le Labo provided good customer service, their explanation of the expiration date is utter nonsense. It seems to be either a move of deception, or an attempt to thwart second hand sales/ebay of 'older' bottles. Their smoke-and-mirrors routine over the expiration date has no sway on knowledgable perfume heads who know Le Labo's claim is absolute poppycock, but I'd imagine your average fragrance shopper actually heeds the expiration date. To me, their claims of expiration dates seems highly deceptive and is one of a few reasons I've yet to bother sampling this line.

[finsfan]

Glad to hear of the customer service. Maybe the expiration date is pure marketing, or at least, we at BN seem to think so for the most part. Fair enough. But I guess those that love fragrances and take time to post in a forum make up what, maybe 2% of all of their sales? SO maybe this expiration thing helps those that dont pay attention to heat and light and stuff keeping the scent lasting as long as possible without degrading? I don't know, but I dont want to be too strident in this matter. I think it just marketing and take it with a grain of salt, and if I like a Le Labo scent, then I will buy it nothwithstanding

[Beranium Chotato]

But why is it Le Labo's responsibility to ensure the re-saleability of your bottle on Ebay?

[SculptureOfSoul]

Oh wow, sure was excellent customer service.
We were informed about a maceration period, one apparently the owner of that outlet felt was completed inasmuch as the juice smelled fine, and the need for the contents to age, again it must have been completed for the same rationale as explained earlier with the maceration process, and, now, a new bottle will be sent to replace the one sent back, which apparently was fine and merely a figment of the OP's imagination, as far as its quality is concerned. Could it be the OP was bambozzled under the guise of excellent customer service? Was the initial concern raised by the OP, to wit, the lack of projection and longevity, swept under the carpet by the maceration process and aging process and expiration dates and excellent customer service tangents?
Why did the OP originally feel the fragrance was inadequate compared to the sample?
We will have to wait for an excellent, customer service representative from that outlet to address that concern at a subsequent time and incident. Thank goodness for excellent customer service!

Thank you for saying this. Somebody had to. It's funny what constitutes excellent service here. I too would be upset about the illogical run-around.

[flouris]

But why is it Le Labo's responsibility to ensure the re-saleability of your bottle on Ebay?

It's their responsibility not to mislead their customers into thinking their juice has expired after a paltry 1 year of ownership, especially when they're also suggesting the fragrance needs 6-8 weeks of time to macerate upon purchasing said fragrance, thus reducing Le Labo's proposed lifespan of the fragrance to a mere 10 months. It is misleading and dishonest to label a product as expiring in one year when in fact it does not expire in one year.

[SculptureOfSoul]

But why is it Le Labo's responsibility to ensure the re-saleability of your bottle on Ebay?

I've never ever read a perfumer or anyone in the industry claiming that their perfumes have a shelf life of only one year. The Osmotheque wouldn't exist if that were true.

Le Labo is being intentionally misleading and irresponsible here, especially because a number of people (most of their customers, I would imagine) will believe their expiration date, and even worse, will think that the rest of their frags will expire within a year from purchase. Whether or not you're ok with their practice is up to you, but it's beyond me why you'd approve of something that goes against the industry, causes even more misinformation in a hobby that is already full of it, and is rather clearly about money than "instructing customers to keep their scents away from heat and light."

[d4N13L]

If their juice expires in 1 year, why in the sanity of the mankind sell 500ml bottles?

Theat means more than 1.35ml a day, wich means about 19 sprays a day!!!
Even heavy sprayers like me would not use that much!!

[SculptureOfSoul]

We should all boycott them until they change this ridiculous practice.

Well, I will, anyway.

[dollars&scents]

We should all boycott them until they change this ridiculous practice.

Well, I will, anyway.

Le Labo's practices do, indeed, call into question its integrity, and that alone should trigger a hands-off approach until some degree of practicality, if not veracity, becomes evident.

[d4N13L]

We should all boycott them until they change this ridiculous practice.

Well, I will, anyway.

But... Their fragrances are... so good...

[dollars&scents]

But... Their fragrances are... so good...

and batch variations thereof abound ...

[SculptureOfSoul]

But... Their fragrances are... so good...

Unfortunately, it's usually the only language companies truly understand.

[Skyline]

I just noticed in that picture that my most recent purchase, Patch 24, has a two year expiration date instead of one year.

Found a picture of Isaac:

Just a simple typo.

Look, he even spelled his name wrong in the 2nd pic.

[Buzzlepuff]

I had a similar situation with a LeLabo Gaiac 10. It was formulated in the New York store and when I received it, the bottled version didn't smell the same as the sample vial which I had purchased a month before. I called the store and they said they checked records and they indicate it was mixed properly. They offered to have me mail the bottle back to them and one of the owners would check it to see if it smelled correctly. This seemed like a lot of bother to go to since they already had expressed the opinion that it was the correct formulation. I saved my sample bottle to see if the maceration process which they also described would cause it to change over time and guess what - it didn't change at all! I am convinced that this particular batch had more alcohol and less perfume oil in it than the samples that they sold earlier. Since both the sample vial and the actual limited release bottles were quite expensive, I was disappointed. I still have the sample to prove this theory because it smells very different. I like the one I got just fine but it is not as wonderful as the sample. I am satisfied that this variation is just one of those variances that happens when things are more "handcrafted" and made in smaller batches.

There is definitely a quality control issue though because after that I told myself I was not going to purchase again from LeLabo and I have not. I was a very loyal fan up til then and had purchased six full bottles from them at that point and I felt betrayed. I agree with Trevor in that I think I was duped, inadvertently of course. I am sure they are concerned for their loss of my business! LOL.