Dupe fragrance is very common. Now why?

In the following years, as the demand for perfumes in the market increased, dupe fragrances exploded in popularity, entering major retailers, collaborating with celebrities and influencers, and receiving endorsements in glossy magazines. And in the case of Dossier, the brand is now in the same category as the three-digit perfume store.

“One of the main reasons why the ‘dupe perfume’ culture has grown so much is because luxury brands have increased their prices so much,” said Sergio Tache, founder and CEO of Dossier Perfumes.

The brand was born at a time when the Covid Lockdowns were prompting consumers to find perfumes online, Tache added. “PerfumeTok blew up, and Reddit was there and it really educated consumers, based on what they should buy or not,” said Tache. Now you have educated customers, who understand what business taxes are.

Dossier entered Walmart in 2022. In 2025, it entered Target and CVS, opened its Nolita store and collaborated with musician MGK on its first celebrity fragrance. Alt. joined Sally Beauty in 2025. In 2025, MCo Beauty, an Australian brand known for fragrances and cosmetics, expanded its presence in the US by supplying 1,200 Target doors. In 2024, Allure named Dossier’s Sage & Black Tea Renew fragrance, from the Originals collection, among its Best of Beauty winners.

Lisa Payne, head of beauty at luxury consultancy Stylus, said: “Places like Target that have these brands, are for retailers who want to take a piece out of bad management. “The fact that these products are still there – and they are still successful – is a sign of a smart generation of consumers who understand, more than any other, where the value of the products lies, and how much the costs related to the marketing budget, with the packaging, with names and all that.”

Perfumes continue to surpass the long-standing designer’s copies and classics such as Dior Sauvage and Creed Aventus. Most of MCo’s fragrances come from new fragrances such as Kayali and Sol de Janeiro. According to Meridith Rojas, chief marketing officer for the Americas at MCo Beauty, MCo can take a product from concept to shelf within six months.

Rojas said: “Dupes were considered a dirty word for a long time. “The acceptance of ordinary people has made it possible for many types of fragrances – or that, like us, to focus on dupes throughout beauty – permission to speak more. We don’t need to hide. And we don’t need to live in the shadows.”

But despite the open acceptance of dupe perfume brands by major retailers and publications, within the fragrance industry, the term still causes hesitation – and in some cases, outright legal challenges. In 2024, Sol de Janeiro filed a lawsuit against MCo Beauty alleging false advertising, trade dress infringement and unfair competition. Both Sol de Janeiro and MCo declined to comment on the case.

Most of the fragrances on the market, from heavy to luxurious, are made by many fragrance houses, such as Givaudan, IFF, Dsm-Firmenich and Symrise; for some brands, advertising that their fragrances are made by perfumers employed by those companies is its own form of advertising. Dossier and MCo declined to share who makes the perfumes or if they collaborate with a specific perfumer.

“We don’t discuss the perfumers we work with,” Tache said. “It’s our secret, and it’s something that even makeup artists don’t typically, historically, feel comfortable sharing.” Dossier’s website, which openly lists it as one of the pillars of its brand, describes its fragrance as coming from Grasse.

Givaudan and IFF declined Glossy’s request for comment on the matter. Sally and Target did not make representatives available for interviews. When asked to comment, Dutch-Swiss perfumer Dsm-Firmenich shared the following statement:

“The perfume industry is increasing in strength and continues to change with new customer trends, shapes and products. In this situation, we evaluate where it makes sense to participate, and we do so with clear values ​​of creativity and integrity,” a spokesperson for Dsm-Firmenich shared with Glossy by email. “We value the originality of the creation and the trust built with the products and the main customers, and we will not pursue opportunities that would destroy that.”

Independent makeup artist Joey Rosin wasn’t surprised that big makeup houses would be wary of working with dupes.

“It’s great [comapnies] that make the perfumes that people fake also make victims,” ​​said Rosin, co-founder and perfumer Hoax Parfum. Of course, they will not say. But the world of perfumes is just big. And if you really take it, the big name that makes dupes, they go to big houses.”

As a makeup artist, Rosin has a different take on the ethics of makeup artists. Although some counterfeiters may offer a very cheap version of what appears to be a cheap formula, those copies can also erase the knowledge and skills that perfumers have to create such a fragrance.

“I think, actually, getting a good smell is a good thing.” And it would be a good thing for people to be able to enjoy the fragrance and express themselves through the scent, and to have the opportunity to find it when it is not easy to access because of the high price. “But if you stayed with me all the hours that you took to create the fragrance and the years that I spent working – and I’m at the beginning of my career – on the other hand, I would be praised, praised, and completely and completely disappointed if someone sold a copy of one of my formulas.”

Regardless of how makeup artists may feel about their work being copied, there is little protection outside of trade secrets to prevent their work from being plagiarized. Forms of infringement are not protected by copyright.

“When you think about copyright, trademark or copyright, fragrances are very difficult to protect because those laws don’t really provide visibility into what a fragrance is,” said Elizabeth Sbardellati, head of Greenberg Glusker’s Trademark Protection & Enforcement Group. “You can pretty much engineer anything that has chemicals in it. You can smell it yourself, have someone else in the industry — a nose or a makeup artist — figure out what’s in there, and look to make something similar.

There’s also nothing illegal about comparative advertising, a trick they use when they say their product is inspired by another brand, Sbardellati said. While Sol de Janeiro’s successful suit against MCo may prompt other brands to take aggressive tactics against counterfeiters, the case’s interpretations would not set a clear legal precedent.

“The thing about these types of cases, trade dress or tort, is that they’re always going to be very intense,” Sbardellati said. “At the end of the day, it really comes down to the potential for consumer confusion, the awesomeness of the copy, the consistency between the packaging, what’s being said on the website and how it’s presented.”

However, neither industry nor legal concerns seem to be affecting the growing public sentiment for dupes.

Dossier is the best-selling fragrance brand at Walmart and among the top three fragrance brands at Target, by brand. According to YipitData, Dossier has reached approximately $60 million in annual US sales by 2025 and reported annual sales growth of 120% as of February 2026. When MCo announced April 4 as “National Day” in 2025, it saw a 10,000% increase in sales. According to Spate’s property popularity index, social media and Google searches for Oakcha have increased by 268.9% year over year since January 2026. In the TikTok Shop, sales of this brand grew by more than 125% year over year to $6.2 million in the first half of 2025, according to data from Charm.io.

Dupes are also on the rise worldwide. Tache said Dossier plans to expand its retail footprint in Mexico with Walmart, Ulta and Liverpool stores. In February, MCo expanded into Canada with Walmart. And the demand for dupes is likely to increase only when consumers’ desire to buy perfumes exceeds their spending power.

“Millennials and Gen Z, who are the main target right now for [fragrance] in the market, there is less purchasing power. So they would like to have a good fragrance, but at the same time, they won’t spend too much money on it,” said Costanza Sofia Maset, chief editor and strategist at indie fragrance consultancy Nunotes.

Maset noted that it’s not usually diehard fragheads or sophisticated perfume fans who buy perfumes. But that won’t stop dupe brands from trying to improve their reputation.

If fast fashion has taught us anything, it’s this [the dupe sector] it will not stop. It will just try to advertise itself, to be recognized as better, as a higher quality,” said Maset.

As in fashion, where Zara recently signed former Dior and Margiela designer John Galliano for a two-year collaboration, dupe perfumes are trying to establish themselves as legitimate perfume designers. Dossier, Alt. and Oakcha now all offer “original” collections, or fragrances that are not clearly inspired by existing fragrances.

“At the end of the day, what we want to do is create a great fragrance.” “Whether it’s the Concepts or the Originals, we want to be seen as a fragrance house that creates beautiful fragrances,” said Tache. … We’re really excited about 2026 for The Originals.”

But still, it’s the dupes that drive sales. At Dossier’s Nolita store, best-selling perfumes such as Dior Sauvage and Le Labo Santal 33 get a front-table display. And the brand’s best-selling fragrance? Ambery Saffron, inspired by MFK’s Baccarat Rouge 540.