A. I do not have any particular attachment to one specific website, but I will avoid making a direct comment. Whatever the site, I think it is worth first checking whether what it does is legal. In situations like this, COLORIA’s article is properly written and useful, since this is its line of business.
My view is that selling perfume by volume or in small decants is the best option for people in Japan, considering that perfume is a discretionary pleasure rather than an everyday staple, along with recent perfume price increases and stagnant incomes. I have no doubt that this market will continue to grow little by little.
However, as a perfume lover, I can honestly understand the feeling of “ugh.” The reason is that, as I see it, all these sellers do is buy genuine products behind the scenes, divide them up, and resell them at a higher unit price. People say that at least this raises awareness of the brands. Unfortunately, though, these decant sellers have no intention of building the brands and use superficial language; when I talk to people involved with the brands, nine times out of ten they dislike the practice. Personally, I think this could be resolved if the brands made samples or worked with department stores to create a way to try perfumes through authorized channels. Another problem with decanting and selling perfume by volume is that it inevitably comes into contact with air during the process, and then remains exposed to air inside the small bottles, making the scent more prone to change. The larger the bottle and the more perfume left in it, the less readily this happens.
Thinking about it that way, rather than spending all your time enjoying different perfumes every day solely through decants, I think you need to use them on the following basis if you want to enjoy the perfume as it was intended:
・Try it a few times before buying a full bottle.
・Use each portion up and rotate to another one every month.
Though that does leave the question of what on earth I mean by “the perfume as it was intended.”
