I come from a small city in NorthEast India, and there’s no store where I can explore through a range of perfume brands – let alone high-end designer brands. And I get it – people don’t always wear perfumes here. But I have been interested since young – and have found online to be my only way to buy and sample perfumes.
You can buy original perfumes online in India on these sites. Note that, whether you are buying online or offline, there will always be chances of getting scammed. So, while my experience with these sites has been good, or minimal, yours can be different.
Myntra was there when most others weren’t a big choice, and it still is one of the best places to shop for perfumes in India. Back then, there wasn’t much choice regarding high-end luxury perfumes, but a few years back, I started seeing Myntra launching brands like Dolce & Gabbana, DKNY, Issey Miyake, Versace, Clinique, etc.
Apart from these, Myntra also hosts various Indian-origin brands like A Fragrance Story, Chumbak, Iba Cosmetics, etc. You will also find perfumes from various Indian dupe houses including Bella Vita Organic, Renee Cosmetics, etc., and other brands that produce dupes like Armaf, Marks & Spencer, etc. While I cannot vouch whether all these dupe houses’ perfumes are dupes, my research tells me that at least some of their perfumes are dupes.
I have made a great number of perfume purchases from Myntra including designer ones, and my experience has been good over the years. Perfumes purchased from Myntra were 100% original according to my best knowledge. A common distributor of perfumes on Myntra is Baccarose Perfumes and Beauty Products, which is a known distributor in the Indian perfume world.
My go-to place for exploring and purchasing perfumes is definitely Nykaa. As far as my knowledge goes, Nykaa is one of the first e-commerce sites that brought designer perfumes to the Indian market and made them easily accessible. As of now, I also found that Kayali perfumes aren’t available on any other sites like Myntra or Tira, but only on Nykaa.
As Nykaa claims, its perfumes are 100% original, and after looking at the information of its distributors, I put my trust in its authenticity too. Some of the official distributors associated with Nykaa are Tarz Distribution India Pvt. Ltd., Beauty Concepts Pvt Ltd., Baccarose Perfumes & Beauty Products Pvt. Ltd., L’Oreal India Pvt. Ltd., etc.
Parcos started selling its online retail store during the pandemic and procures all its beauty and fragrance products from Baccarose Perfumes & Beauty Products Pvt. Ltd. But it’s not surprising given Parcos is Baccarose’s own retail brand.
Parcos is better in terms of bringing you closer to fragrances because I have also found a few brands over there which other e-commerce companies didn’t have, for example, The Merchant of Venice perfumes
It’s a little tricky. Many would ask you to stay away from Amazon when buying perfumes. It’s because Amazon is an e-commerce marketplace, and there are endless sellers there. So when you find a perfume on Amazon, the seller behind the product can be anyone – it can be an authentic seller who sells 100% original perfumes or a fraud seller who is selling fake products.
Amazon sellers also have their own refund policy – one type of policy doesn’t apply to all.
But some sellers on Amazon do sell 100% genuine products, and sometimes, you might find perfumes which you cannot find anywhere else. RK World Infocom Pvt Ltd is one of the biggest sellers on Amazon, which is also trusted by perfume enthusiasts, and I have good personal experience with this seller.
Other Sellers Online
These websites can offer you better deals than the e-commerce companies sometimes. While I cannot personally vouch for their authenticity as of yet, I wanted to share because the Indian fragrance community trusts these sellers a lot. If you are going ahead with them, you have to take your own precautions.
- Belvish: A very trusted seller in the Indian fragrance community, and offers considerably low deals as well. If you are not sure about their service or authenticity, you can test it out by buying something comparatively less expensive. If you are satisfied, you can continue to shop from them.
However, I am not sure where they procure their products from.
- Scentoria: Reportedly offers some of the best deals, but also not very good with communication or customer service. But I haven’t heard much about problems with the authenticity of their products. So if you can relax, and don’t care much about whether the customer service is good, this website sounds like a good option.
Personally, I would like my queries answered when I am buying from a seller which is not authorised.
Things To Remember While Buying Perfumes Online
- Review of the perfume: If you have already owned this perfume or even a decant of this perfume, and you want it, then I guess looking for reviews doesn’t serve much purpose. But if not, you are blind-buying it. So looking for its notes and its suitability for occasions, and general reviews is important. Perfumes are expensive products, and you don’t want to spend your money on something which you will not use later. I made many such mistakes.
- Review of the product on the website: While these reviews will mostly talk about the scent of the perfume, what I am talking about is the authenticity of the product. Reviews on sites like Amazon will also help you with insights if you are paying more than the retail price.
- Look up the return/refund policy: If you are buying from an Amazon seller, you will have to look at the return/refund policy of the seller. When it comes to Myntra or Nykaa, beauty products can only be exchanged if you receive a damaged, or expired or if you receive something that you haven’t ordered.
- Record unboxing video: With many online purchases gone wrong, it is very smart to record a video when you unbox your expensive perfume. This way, if you get the wrong product or tampered product, you can have the video as a piece of evidence.
While these websites are recommended for buying or exploring perfumes, some of the websites I avoid are Flipkart, and Instagram sellers which are not vouched for by anyone. A simple rule to follow is that if the deal looks too good to be true, maybe avoid that deal altogether.
Some of the other websites to look for are Shoppers Stop, NNNOW Sephora, etc.
