Love a designer dupe? Well, look no further than Poundland’s perfume range…that’s right, perfume for a pound! With most designer perfumes ranging from £50-£100 and made from ingredients that can cost as little as 20p, it is no wonder people are thrilled about this bargain. So, I decided to take a closer look at their ingredients and put them to the test…

Lily Petals vs. Marc Jacobs’ Daisy

Like many others, I am a fan of Marc Jacobs’ Daisy and the whole range of Daisy perfumes and so it is a scent that I have memorised, and Lily Petals did not disappoint. Lily Petals smells almost identical to the Marc Jacobs version. If you compare the ingredients between the two Lily Petals has 52.94% of the same ingredients as Daisy, with the addition of the cheaper oil, Hydrogenated Castor Oil.  Ingredients not included in the dupe include Acrylates/Octylacrylamide Copolymer (microplastics), Benzophenone-3 (absorbs UV and can cause allergic reactions), Benzyl Benzonate (used to treat lice), BHT (used to treat Herpes), Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate (absorbs UV and can disrupt glands), Ethylhexyl Salicylate (absorbs UV)¸ Methyl 2-Octynoate (synthetic fragrance), and Hydrolyzed Jojoba Esters (used as an emulsifier). Considering only one of these ingredients is contributing to the fragrance it is unsurprising that Lily Petals smells so similar. Also, as Lily Petals seems to lack a lot of the UV absorbing ingredients, I would recommend keeping the bottle away from direct sunlight. That being said, it appears that the £59 price tag for 50ml is mainly down to unnecessary ingredients, a fancy bottle and branding. I have to say I do miss the beautiful Daisy bottle, but £1 for 100ml is pretty convincing. I also decided to test the longevity of the perfume; I put Lily Petals on each wrist at 10am and although the scent was weak for me, my boyfriend said he could still smell it at 8pm.

Rating: 3/5

Fleur Bloom vs. Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb

Flowerbomb is another personal favourite of mine, but as it is £78 for only 50ml it is definitely not one for a student budget. Though Fleur Bloom does smell extremely similar to Flowerbomb, it only has 35.29% of the same ingredients as the original. Fleur Bloom has the additional ingredients of PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, D&C Yellow No.11 and FD&C Yellow No.6 and these colour ingredients do make the perfume look a lot more yellow than the original. Ingredients that are not found in Fleur Bloom include Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate and Benzyl Benzonate – both of which were not included in Lily Petals – along with Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane (absorbs UV), Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate (an antioxidant), Benzyl Alcohol (fragrance and human neurotoxin) Citral (natural scent), and many colour ingredients (Ci 19140 / Yellow 5, Ci 60730 / Ext. Violet 2 Ci 17200 / Red 33). In terms of ingredients Fleur Bloom does not match up to Lily Petals, but it is still a good dupe nonetheless and I find the scent to be exceptionally similar. I tested the longevity of Fleur Bloom; I put it on my wrists at 11am and amazingly the scent was still strong when I went to bed! So, although Fleur Bloom loses against Lily Petals on ingredients, it is a clear winner for a long-lasting fragrance.

Rating: 4/5

Next up I’ll be testing Poundland’s perfume Black Dusk, a dupe for YSL Black Opium…