# Is perfume a bargain at the airport

Fragrance is the category travellers buy on impulse and regret on arithmetic. The beauty hall is the brightest part of the terminal, the bottles are the most familiar objects in it, and the saving is the hardest of any category to judge standing at the counter. It can be a genuinely good buy. It is also the category where the shelf most often flatters itself.

## Duty comes off fragrance more lightly

Excise duty is what makes the airport strong on spirits and tobacco. Fragrance carries no excise in most countries; what comes off is the sales tax, and only that. So the reduction on a bottle of perfume is roughly the local tax rate, not the dramatic gap you see on a litre of whisky. Against a department store at full list price that is still a saving. Against a discounter, an online specialist or a seasonal sale at home, it frequently is not.

## Compare the concentration, then the size

The same name covers several strengths. Eau de toilette, eau de parfum and parfum carry increasing concentrations of fragrance oil, wear for different lengths of time and are priced accordingly. Two boxes side by side with the same name on them are often not the same thing. Check the strength first, then the millilitres, then work out the price per millilitre, exactly as you would work out price per litre on a bottle of spirits. Gift sets make this harder on purpose.

## Travel sizes and travel exclusives

Airport ranges include sizes and sets that are not sold on the high street, which is a real reason to buy airside and also a reason the comparison gets slippery: there is no home price for something that is not sold at home. Where a set is simply the standard bottle plus a miniature, price the standard bottle and treat the miniature as worth what a miniature is worth to you. [Browse the travel exclusives](/exclusives).

## What actually changes the number at the till

Loyalty tiers are widespread in airport beauty, and the member price is the one on the receipt rather than the one on the shelf edge. Where you are flying can change the price too. And paying by card in the shop's currency rather than your own invites a conversion rate you did not choose.

## The way to decide

Look the exact bottle up where you would normally buy it, including its current promotion. Convert both to price per millilitre. Then check what the airports on your route ask for it, since fragrance prices vary more by operator than most shoppers expect. [Perfume prices, shop by shop](/beauty/perfume), each dated. If the airport wins, it is a good buy. If it does not, the bright lights were the only thing on offer.