It happens all the time.You find a fragrance you love, or you’ve worn the same fragrance all your life, and then one day you can’t find it anymore.
Fragrances get discontinued for a variety of reasons. In this blog, we will go over some of the reasons we have come across, and hints that the one(s) you are looking for is gone.
From what we understand, IFRA(International Fragrance Association) has created a chapter called IFRA Standards, a system that helps manage the safe use of fragrance ingredients and set the boundaries for fragrance creation. They work with RIFM(Research Institute for Fragrance Materials) and a group known as the Expert Panel for Fragrance Safety, researching statistics and running tests.
Sometimes ingredients become considered too harmful to be used safely and are banned, while other ingredients have restrictions put on them.
With about 80% of the global volume of fragrance coming from IFRA members, bans can have a big impact on what happens to fragrances.
From our recollection, around 2014 or so, some new restrictions were put into place and quite a few ingredients were banned. This resulted in many fragrances, some that had been in production since the 1920’s, to become unavailable. Many companies did not want to tarnish their beloved fragrances with synthetics or close-enough ingredients, so discontinued their fragrances. Other companies made changes, which resulted in life-long lovers of fragrances to stop wearing their favorite scents. In other instances, companies decided to close and ended up selling the rights to their products, resulting in changes to the fragrances.
Some reformulations got close, and had continued success, others did not fare so well.
This seems to be the biggest culprit for many fragrance discontinuations over the last decade or so.
Other reasons can be that some ingredients have become too expensive, so the scents that need them change or go out of production. Sometimes it is that the company wants to release a new fragrance that is too close to the original, so they discontinue the original. Sometimes sales are going down with an ‘older’ fragrance, and so it is discontinued to make way for new fragrances that will appeal to a new generation of fragrance lovers.
Every so often, a fragrance house will see that there is still a demand for a discontinued scent, and will bring it back with a new look, and sometimes some small tweaks to the formulation.
With discontinuations happening too often, we will share with you some hints we have learned that something you are looking for is now gone.
Sometimes a simple Google search of, “Has (insert fragrance name here) been discontinued” is all it takes. We have made this exact search with an answer of an official discontinuation right at the top.
When you do an internet search for that fragrance, you will see that the only places it is available are on discounted websites, or with a very high markup on places like Ebay.
Another hint is if you search on the website of the fragrance house that makes the scent, and it is simply not listed on their website anymore.
Sometimes you can go into fragrance groups, or sites like Fragrantica.com or Basenotes.com, and people who write reviews will say whether it has been discontinued or not, and sometimes where you can find it if it’s still available. Websites like these are helpful if you are open to trying fragrances that are comparable to your discontinued scent, as many people will say what they have found that is similar.
If you happen to interact with someone who has worked in the fragrance industry for a long time, they may know the answer, or are able to see the trends and help you with the likely answer.
This information and these hints are not the be-all-end-all of this subject, but information that has helped us over the years, and will hopefully help you if you find yourself in this frustrating situation.
We are always happy to help, and would love for you to reach out if we did not answer any questions you may still have had on this subject.
Happy fragrance hunting!
