Authenticity
The batch code on your label matches a bottle we can show you.
Counterfeit fragrance is a real and growing problem, and the decant market is an obvious place for it to hide. Here is exactly how we source, verify and pour — and how you can check our work.
Where our bottles come from
Every bottle we decant is bought at full retail price from an authorised source — Canadian department stores and fragrance retailers, brand boutiques, and authorised European retailers for boutique-exclusive lines that are not sold here. We do not buy from online marketplaces, liquidators, or wholesalers whose upstream supply we cannot audit, because those are precisely the channels through which counterfeits enter the legitimate market.
Paying retail is expensive and it is the main input into our pricing. It is also the only sourcing model that lets us make the promise on this page honestly.
What happens when a bottle arrives
Each bottle is photographed from four angles including the base, and the batch code is recorded against the supplier, purchase date and price paid. That record stays open for as long as we are pouring from the bottle. When a bottle is finished, the record is archived rather than deleted, so a decant you bought eight months ago can still be traced.
We also check the physical bottle: cap weight and fit, sprayer atomisation, glass moulding, label registration and the batch code's presence on both the box and the bottle. None of these checks is conclusive on its own, and anyone who tells you a single test proves authenticity is overselling it. Together with a verified purchase channel, they are meaningful.
How we pour
Decants are filled on the day they ship, never in advance. We use new glass atomisers, and a pipette assigned to that fragrance alone — cross-contamination between a heavy oud and a light citrus is the most common way a decanting operation ruins its own product. Vials are filled slightly above the stated volume to account for what stays in the sprayer mechanism.
Your label carries the fragrance name, concentration, volume, the batch code of the source bottle and the date it was poured. If you want the source photographs for a bottle you have ordered from, email us the batch code and we will send them.
What we cannot promise
We cannot promise that a fragrance smells identical to a bottle you owned five years ago. Houses reformulate constantly, usually because a raw material has been restricted, and a 2024 batch of a classic genuinely may not smell like a 2015 batch. That is not counterfeiting and it is not something a decanter can fix. What we can do is tell you which batch you are getting, which is more than most retailers will.
On every label
- ✦Fragrance name and house
- ✦Concentration — EDT, EDP, Extrait or Parfum
- ✦Volume in millilitres
- ✦Source bottle batch code
- ✦Date poured
Reformulation, flankers and versions. Where a fragrance exists in several concentrations or has been reformulated in a way people care about — Ombré Leather 2016 versus 2018, Dior Homme Intense before and after 2020 — our product page states which one we are pouring. Getting this wrong is the most common complaint about decant sellers and it is entirely avoidable.
Authenticity questions
What buyers want to know
You cannot know that from a website alone, which is why the standard should be traceability rather than reassurance. We print the source bottle's batch code on your label and will send you the dated photographs of that bottle on request. A seller who cannot produce either is asking you to trust a claim rather than showing you evidence.
Because it is easy, hard to detect and profitable — topping a bottle with perfumer's alcohol stretches it considerably. Two practical protections: buy from somewhere that publishes its sourcing, and compare a decant against a shop tester if you have any doubt. A diluted decant is noticeably weaker in the first ten minutes.
Yes. Email us the fragrance name and we will tell you what is currently open. If you have loved a particular batch before, ask — sometimes we have it and sometimes we honestly do not.
Only when a fragrance is not otherwise obtainable, and we say so on the product page when we do. Testers contain the same juice as retail bottles but the packaging differs, and we think you should be told which you are buying from.
Lines like Dior Privée, YSL Le Vestiaire and Louis Vuitton are only sold through brand boutiques, so we buy them there or through authorised European retail. These carry a higher cost per millilitre, which is reflected in our pricing and is the honest reason those decants cost more.