Start with where it came from
Every physical check in this guide is secondary to one question: through what channel did this bottle reach you? Counterfeits enter the market through unauthorised sellers — marketplace listings, social media sellers, liquidators, wholesalers whose upstream supply nobody can audit. They do not enter through a department store fragrance counter or a brand boutique.
This matters because the physical checks are increasingly unreliable on their own. A well-made counterfeit will pass most of them. Provenance is the only test that does not degrade as counterfeiters improve, which is why serious buyers care more about where a bottle was bought than about how its cellophane is folded.
The price test
A genuine current-production Creed Aventus does not sell for ninety dollars. A genuine Baccarat Rouge 540 does not sell for sixty. If a price is dramatically below every authorised retailer, the most likely explanation is not a sourcing coup — it is that the product is counterfeit, and the second most likely is that it is diluted.
Some discounting is legitimate. Discontinued lines, grey-market parallel imports and end-of-line clearances are real and can be twenty to thirty per cent below retail. Seventy per cent below retail on a current flagship is not a discount, it is a signal.
Checks that still tell you something
Batch code consistency. A genuine bottle has the same batch code printed on the bottle itself and on the outer box, usually stamped or laser-etched rather than printed on a sticker. If the codes differ, or one is missing, or the code is on an adhesive label, that is a meaningful problem.
Cap and sprayer behaviour. Most premium houses use a weighted cap with a firm magnetic or precise friction fit. Counterfeits frequently get the weight wrong — a cap that feels hollow or rattles is a bad sign. The sprayer should atomise into a fine even mist; a counterfeit often produces a coarse, wet, uneven spray or dribbles.
Glass and label quality. Look at the seams of the glass, the registration of printed text, and whether the label is centred and straight. Genuine bottles are made to tight tolerances. Off-centre labels, visible mould lines, wobbly text alignment and slightly-wrong fonts are common counterfeit failures.
The liquid itself. Genuine fragrance is clear and free of particles, though the colour varies legitimately between batches and darkens somewhat with age. Cloudiness, visible sediment or a colour dramatically different from reference photographs of the same batch are all worth taking seriously.
The smell, with a caveat. A counterfeit usually has a harsh alcoholic opening, thin projection and a dry-down that collapses within two hours. But do not use this as your first test — reformulation is real, and a genuine 2025 batch of a classic may legitimately smell different from a 2014 one you remember. Poor performance suggests dilution or fakery; it does not prove it.
Checks that do not work
Cellophane wrapping tells you nothing. Counterfeiters have industrial wrapping machines, and plenty of genuine bottles are sold unwrapped as testers or from opened stock. The same goes for holographic stickers, which are trivially reproduced.
Serial number lookup tools are mostly unreliable. Batch code decoders tell you a manufacturing date, not authenticity — and counterfeiters simply print valid-looking codes. A code that decodes successfully proves only that it follows the format.
Bottle weight comparisons are shaky unless you have a verified bottle to compare against, since genuine glass weights vary by production run. Without a control, a number on a scale means very little.
What this means for buying decants
A decant removes your ability to inspect the bottle, which means the entire burden shifts onto the seller's sourcing and their willingness to document it. This is the central trust problem of the decant market and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than smoothed over.
The questions worth asking any decanter: where do you buy your bottles, will you tell me the batch code before I order, and can you send me photographs of the source bottle? A seller who answers all three concretely is offering something checkable. A seller who responds with general assurances about quality and authenticity is offering a claim.
There is one other protection available to you, and it is a good one. Buy a 2 ml decant and compare it against a tester at a department store counter. If the decant is noticeably weaker in the first ten minutes, or the opening smells harsher, you have learned something useful for about fifteen dollars.
Frequently asked
Often but not reliably. Counterfeits typically have a harsh alcoholic opening and collapse within two hours. However, legitimate reformulation also changes how a fragrance smells between batches, so a difference from what you remember is not proof of a fake.
No. Counterfeiters use industrial wrapping machines, and genuine bottles are frequently sold unwrapped as testers or from opened stock. Wrapping tells you nothing either way.
Not for authenticity. They decode a manufacturing date from a code's format, and counterfeiters print correctly formatted codes. What is useful is checking that the code matches between the bottle and the box, and that it is etched rather than on a sticker.
You cannot verify it yourself, so shift the standard to traceability. Ask for the batch code before ordering and ask for dated photographs of the source bottle. Sellers who log and share both are giving you evidence rather than assurance.