Are Dupes Dying?

2024 until now has seen a massive influx of copycat fragrances or 'dupes', these have sent the industry into disarray with many differing opinions on the ethics behind this. This unflux has now settled and it seems the hype behind dupes have died. The main reason dupes exist and have purpose is they are a gateway to highly inspired and quality fragrances without the price tag that follows. So you can own "Amouage Reflection Man" for under £50. This is the key to the relevance and at first there is no drawbacks to this because you are often smelling something at least 90% similar to the original for a fracture of the price. The key anchor and turning point here is the quality is different. Those in the industry know the margins made on a lot of perfume is high without most fragrances returning at least 50% over the unit cost and dupe fragrances this increases. The following issue that comes is the drop in quality, cheaper raw ingredients and cut corners. However the over arching feeling as to why dupes are dying is the nature of dupes, the copy no matter how good it is will never hold the same value as the original. If i have a picture of the Mona Lisa even though it looks exactly the same it will never hold the same weight as the original, why? Because by nature we value and are attracted to inspiration and when access to the original appears then the former fades away. Another issue arising is simply craftsmanship is evolving like i alluded to in the previous chapter. Dupe houses are starting to find it difficult to copy formulations as they become more complicated and ingredients find harder to identify through their fancy machines.

So what does the future hold for dupes? Well dupes wont die but there certaintly will not be a "dupeflation" again, inspiration had been sifted and what remains are good wheat. As long as inspiration remains dupes will always have a market but it remains to be seen how houses plan to combat their formulations being copied.