05 Jul 2007, ST, Urban
Solid perfumes come in pretty little packages, smell good and can make you a tidy profit
Corinna Chang has a unique obsession with decorative trinkets that smell - and appreciate in value. The director of Klassique Music, a music school in Balmoral Plaza, collects solid perfumes - scents that come in waxy, balm-like consistency - for the high prices that the eye-catching metal cases they come in can fetch.
Such perfumes are made by only a handful of cosmetics houses such as Max Factor, Shiseido and Estee Lauder. Going by its client list, Estee Lauder estimates there are about 200 solid perfume collectors in Singapore. Its most avid collector, Ngiam Su Ying, deputy director of a statutory board, owns 300 solid perfumes.
But Chang, who is in her 40s, has a cache of 500 solid perfumes made between the 1950s and today, singling her out as someone most dedicated to the acquisition of these collectibles.
These solid perfumes are prized because their containers are often made of high-gloss enamel, studded with rhinestones or intricately carved from ivory. Chang hopes to reap a substantial profit from her collection one day as solid perfumes, when kept in good condition, appreciate in value over the years.
Similarly, perfumes in collectible bottles, like those from French glassware brand Lalique also appreciate, making them good investments for magpie-types with penchants for decorative bling.
Chang has already earned an 'attractive little sum' selling about 20 of her solid perfumes through online auctions and via her personal website, www.rubylane.com/shops/my-delightful-vanity. She usually sells them for about 40 per cent more than what she paid for them.
'Solid perfumes are very valuable and luxurious because they are pretty, handmade, produced in very limited quantities and never repeated,' says Estee Lauder Singapore's brand general manager Jo Yong.
Online marketplaces, like Yahoo! Auctions and eBay, sell solid perfumes for at least 30 per cent of their original sale price. The price tag can go much higher, up to 200 per cent of the original, if the piece is particularly rare or in high demand - or, better yet, both.
Some of the most avid collectors, like Chang, willingly fork out US$1,700 (S$2,606) for a particularly exquisite or vintage solid perfume case. That is how much she paid on eBay for the Estee Lauder Oriental Princess (left), the rarest piece of the Oriental collection, which comprises nine trinkets of carved ivory.
The Oriental Princess is a good example of how profitable a business collecting solid perfumes can be. When it was first sold in 1981, it cost US$35. Now, according to Chang who has monitored some recent online auctions, it is now worth up to US$4,000 - a whopping 114 times the original price. Imagine selling 10 of those for a profit of US$3,965 each. What a windfall.
Says Ngiam, 45: 'The asking price for solid perfumes in online auctions is sometimes more than double the original cost. It's crazy.'
Another Singaporean collector who has been collecting solid perfumes for possible monetary gain is 47-year-old homemaker Veronica Goh, who has a collection of 50 solid perfumes worth about $10,000.
'I started collecting them more than 10 years ago simply because I liked the design of the cases. Over the years, I found out from other collectors that these things go up in value, so I now collect them for investment,' she says.
Collectors say particularly good solid perfumes to invest in are limited edition ones. These include those sold exclusively at posh department stores in New York and London, like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Harrods, and special collaborations with American evening bag designer Judith Leiber and American homeware designer Jay Strongwater.
A popular model is a gold, glitzy, perfume coffret-sized model of Harrods (above), which Chang, Goh and Ngiam all own. It cost roughly S$1,200 and can only be expected to be worth a lot more a decade from now.
Chang began collecting solid perfumes in 1987 when she first saw them in Saks Fifth Avenue department store in New York. Her first purchase was a green enamel turtle from Estee Lauder that cost US$60 then but is worth US$200 on eBay today.
She has spent 'easily a five-figure sum' that is 'nearer to $90,000 than to $10,000' acquiring them. One day, she hopes to reap a 'six-figure sum' from selling them. 'Otherwise, what's the point of this painstaking effort?' she asks.
Part of that effort entails keeping the scents in 'mint condition' - meaning there is no change in the colour of the scent, and the seal and original packaging are both intact - so they will fetch a higher price.
She keeps her collection in an air-conditioned room, covered and away from the sunlight. She estimates that her monthly air-conditioning bill is probably 10 to 20 per cent higher than usual because of this. Her 'best pieces' are stored in an air-conditioned warehouse for safekeeping.
Chang, who has a seven-year-old daughter, says her dream is to set up a perfume collectors' convention here so collectors around Asia can meet to trade tips and socialise. She believes that more Singaporeans may start collecting too.
'Some Lalique bottles go for £10,000 (S$30,760) to £20,000 at perfume auctions. But since they're so expensive, many will go for the next best thing, which is solid perfume.'
Solid perfumes come in pretty little packages, smell good and can make you a tidy profit
Corinna Chang has a unique obsession with decorative trinkets that smell - and appreciate in value. The director of Klassique Music, a music school in Balmoral Plaza, collects solid perfumes - scents that come in waxy, balm-like consistency - for the high prices that the eye-catching metal cases they come in can fetch.
Such perfumes are made by only a handful of cosmetics houses such as Max Factor, Shiseido and Estee Lauder. Going by its client list, Estee Lauder estimates there are about 200 solid perfume collectors in Singapore. Its most avid collector, Ngiam Su Ying, deputy director of a statutory board, owns 300 solid perfumes.
But Chang, who is in her 40s, has a cache of 500 solid perfumes made between the 1950s and today, singling her out as someone most dedicated to the acquisition of these collectibles.
These solid perfumes are prized because their containers are often made of high-gloss enamel, studded with rhinestones or intricately carved from ivory. Chang hopes to reap a substantial profit from her collection one day as solid perfumes, when kept in good condition, appreciate in value over the years.
Similarly, perfumes in collectible bottles, like those from French glassware brand Lalique also appreciate, making them good investments for magpie-types with penchants for decorative bling.
Chang has already earned an 'attractive little sum' selling about 20 of her solid perfumes through online auctions and via her personal website, www.rubylane.com/shops/my-delightful-vanity. She usually sells them for about 40 per cent more than what she paid for them.
'Solid perfumes are very valuable and luxurious because they are pretty, handmade, produced in very limited quantities and never repeated,' says Estee Lauder Singapore's brand general manager Jo Yong.
Online marketplaces, like Yahoo! Auctions and eBay, sell solid perfumes for at least 30 per cent of their original sale price. The price tag can go much higher, up to 200 per cent of the original, if the piece is particularly rare or in high demand - or, better yet, both.
Some of the most avid collectors, like Chang, willingly fork out US$1,700 (S$2,606) for a particularly exquisite or vintage solid perfume case. That is how much she paid on eBay for the Estee Lauder Oriental Princess (left), the rarest piece of the Oriental collection, which comprises nine trinkets of carved ivory.
The Oriental Princess is a good example of how profitable a business collecting solid perfumes can be. When it was first sold in 1981, it cost US$35. Now, according to Chang who has monitored some recent online auctions, it is now worth up to US$4,000 - a whopping 114 times the original price. Imagine selling 10 of those for a profit of US$3,965 each. What a windfall.
Says Ngiam, 45: 'The asking price for solid perfumes in online auctions is sometimes more than double the original cost. It's crazy.'
Another Singaporean collector who has been collecting solid perfumes for possible monetary gain is 47-year-old homemaker Veronica Goh, who has a collection of 50 solid perfumes worth about $10,000.
'I started collecting them more than 10 years ago simply because I liked the design of the cases. Over the years, I found out from other collectors that these things go up in value, so I now collect them for investment,' she says.
Collectors say particularly good solid perfumes to invest in are limited edition ones. These include those sold exclusively at posh department stores in New York and London, like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Harrods, and special collaborations with American evening bag designer Judith Leiber and American homeware designer Jay Strongwater.
A popular model is a gold, glitzy, perfume coffret-sized model of Harrods (above), which Chang, Goh and Ngiam all own. It cost roughly S$1,200 and can only be expected to be worth a lot more a decade from now.
Chang began collecting solid perfumes in 1987 when she first saw them in Saks Fifth Avenue department store in New York. Her first purchase was a green enamel turtle from Estee Lauder that cost US$60 then but is worth US$200 on eBay today.
She has spent 'easily a five-figure sum' that is 'nearer to $90,000 than to $10,000' acquiring them. One day, she hopes to reap a 'six-figure sum' from selling them. 'Otherwise, what's the point of this painstaking effort?' she asks.
Part of that effort entails keeping the scents in 'mint condition' - meaning there is no change in the colour of the scent, and the seal and original packaging are both intact - so they will fetch a higher price.
She keeps her collection in an air-conditioned room, covered and away from the sunlight. She estimates that her monthly air-conditioning bill is probably 10 to 20 per cent higher than usual because of this. Her 'best pieces' are stored in an air-conditioned warehouse for safekeeping.
Chang, who has a seven-year-old daughter, says her dream is to set up a perfume collectors' convention here so collectors around Asia can meet to trade tips and socialise. She believes that more Singaporeans may start collecting too.
'Some Lalique bottles go for £10,000 (S$30,760) to £20,000 at perfume auctions. But since they're so expensive, many will go for the next best thing, which is solid perfume.'
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