Decant pricing looks confusing from the outside because the same size can be $8 or $80. It stops being confusing the moment you see what sets the price. This is the plain version, with the numbers from our own library.
What sets the price of a decant
The bottle it came from. A decant is priced on the cost of the juice. A $120 bottle that holds 100ml works out to about $1.20 per millilitre before anyone has touched it. A $380 bottle that holds 70ml is over $5 per millilitre. Decant the two side by side and the second one is always going to cost more. It is not a markup, it is the perfume.
The concentration. Eau de toilette, eau de parfum, extrait. More perfume oil in the formula means a higher bottle price, which flows straight through to the decant. It also means you need fewer sprays, so an extrait decant lasts longer than its size suggests.
The size you pick. Bigger decants cost more in total and less per millilitre. A 10ml is never five times the price of a 2ml.
What it costs at Sip & Sniff
Every fragrance in the library comes in the same four sizes. These are typical prices across the whole catalog; designer scents sit under these numbers and rare extraits sit above them.
| Size | Starts from | Typical | Roughly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2ml | $6 | $13 | 20 sprays, a solid week of testing |
| 3ml | $7 | $17 | 30 sprays, two weeks |
| 5ml | $8 | $25 | 50 sprays, about a month of daily wear |
| 10ml | $11 | $45 | 100 sprays, a season or more |
Spray counts assume the usual 0.1ml per spray from a standard atomizer, so treat them as a guide rather than a promise.
Think in sprays, not millilitres
Millilitres are abstract. Sprays are what you actually use. Take a 5ml decant at $25: that is 50 sprays, or 50 cents a spray. At two sprays a wear, you are paying a dollar every time you smell good. A $300 bottle at 100ml is 1,000 sprays at 30 cents each, which sounds cheaper until you ask whether you will use all 1,000 before you move on to something new. Most people won't. The decant is the cheaper way to find out which bottles deserve the full purchase.
Where the money goes
Each vial is filled by hand from a sealed, authentic bottle, labelled with the name, concentration and size, capped, and packed so it arrives without leaking. The price covers the perfume, the glass, and the care. What it never covers is dilution; there is none.
How to spend less
- Start with 2ml. It is enough to know. Size up only on the ones that stick.
- Buy 10ml for occasional scents. The per-spray price drops and a 10ml of something you wear monthly can last years.
- Watch the concentration. An extrait at a higher price often lasts longer on skin than an eau de toilette at a lower one.
- Sample the brand, not just the hit. Houses like Parfums de Marly, Nishane and BDK have quieter releases that cost the same to try and get far less attention.
Ready to run the numbers on something specific? Open the full library, pick a size, and the price is right there on the card.