In our post called ” How to know if your perfume is authentic?” we talked about decoded perfumes and so many of you asked me to tell you more about this so I gathered more information and took some photos to help you understand this better. I am including the original paragraph here for those of you who did not read that blog post.
If you receive a decoded perfume don’t assume that it is fake. Many suppliers/wholesalers remove the code from some of the designer fragrances because they do not want the manufacturer to find out which country these items are coming from. The code on the box shows the region a fragrance comes from and from what distributor. This does not mean item was used or altered in any ways.
Also, some brands like Viktor & Rolf, Thierry Mugler have unique codes inside their fragrance boxes that can be registered on their website to receive free samples or gifts. Registration number or code is only available if you pay the full retail amount. If a customer is buying at a discount price, the code will not be available to them most of the time. Again this does not mean the items are not original!
Now let’s talk about what decoded perfumes are?
When a part of the fragrance box is removed by the distributor that fragrance is call decoded. This simply is in many cases for the internal use of the manufacturer to be able to track its products and the performance of its distributors. This is the same reason that the code gets remove by some distributors before selling the product.
Why this should not concern you?
This code, unlike the batch number, is not used to prove the authenticity of the product. Therefore you as a customer will not need this code for any reason. As mentioned above, there are some brands with promotional codes that can be used by customers but to receive the code you would have to buy the perfume at the full price.
Also, the products are not tampered with during this process. The quality of the perfume remains the same and this all happens under the supervision of the supplier.
Where is the code located?
The placement of the code varies from batch to batch. As shown in the picture even the same perfume might get decoded differently.
Hope this helps.
