Reverse Engineering a Perfume, Why is it So Expensive?

We’re Innosol Fragrances, and after 25 years, we know a thing or two about perfume and product deformation. We also get this questions all the time so here’s a quick breakdown of the expenses required to reverse engineer a Perfume.

Securing and reverse-engineering a fine fragrance involves multiple technical and analytical steps, and the costs break-down roughly as follows:

1. Securing the Fragranced Product or Perfume Sample

• Purchasing a retail bottle:
• High-end scented cosmetics, or national brand products often cost around $50-$1000 each.
• High-end niche perfumes often cost around $150-$800 per bottle.

2. Reverse Engineering Process (Cost: $1,000 – $5,000 for simple projects & between $50K – $100,000 depending on customer requirements). Please see below the following steps involved.

1. Sample Preparation
   • Filter to remove particulates and stabilize volatile components.
2. Analytical Testing – Mapping
   • GC-MS analysis to identify and quantify the chemical components.
   • Using advanced methods such as FT-IR for identifying functional groups.
   • NMR for determining molecular structure.
   • HPLC for separating compounds.
   • These techniques are essential for isolating and quantifying ingredients accurately. Testing yields 80% of the perfume formula; next, our perfumers perfect it.
3. Reconstruction of Formula
   • Based on analytical results, perfumers create a working formula & perfect it.
   • Often requires substitution of proprietary aroma chemicals with available equivalents.
4. Stability and Sensory Testing
   • Evaluate longevity, projection, and dry-down compared to the original.
   • Iterate adjustments to match the olfactory profile.
5. The biggest expense is the Time Required to properly RE: 
   1. On average, a simple deformulation takes 3 weeks, but the timeframe can be as long as a year to create and perfect a bespoke formulation, or as we call it… aromatic artistry.