In these millennial times, the beauty industry has now been known as a billion-dollar empire. Numerous brands of make-up, soaps, and even perfumes have been birthed worldwide and has emerged with each enticing claim.

Given this competitive battlefield of brands and its blinding price tag attached to it, other makers made adaptations of these products and sell it at a relatively cheaper price. Some have different business schemes-- makers offer to refill your perfume bottles and assures you that it's the same as the original, or you customize your own scent, making sure that the base ingredient is authentic elemi oil or essential oil used in perfumes to help prolong its scent. It may sound great, but if you think about it, are you really getting the quality you were guaranteed with these imitations with the price you've paid for?

Aside from knowing your go-to brand by name and specific scent, here are five ways to determine if you are purchasing authentic perfumes.

1. Check the packaging

In any product, you can initially determine its quality from how its wrapped and packed. For perfumes, the minor details count. The cellophane wrapping of authentic perfumes that is wrapped tightly around the box. If the cellophane is messy or moving around the box, it's a sign that it can be fake. The adhesives in the packaging is also one factor. If there is a lot of tape or glue inside the perfume box, or on its exterior, the perfume is probably a fraud. Upon opening the wrapping, check the box as well. Any high-end brand and manufacturer will use high-quality paperboard when creating the box for their product. Thin packaging signals a fake.

2. Examine the labels

Reading the brand labels in the packaging and the bottle itself isn't enough to determine the perfume's authenticity. Keep a keen eye and check if the print of the brand or label is even. Uneven brand name or any misspelling on the packaging may mean that it's a fake. You should also be cautious about the fine print details; barcodes for authentic perfumes should be at the bottom of the box. The barcode also shows where and when the perfume is produced (the same perfume may be produced in different places and thus may have different barcodes). A few examples of such, perfumes made in France have barcodes that start with 30-37, in England starting with 50, and the German ones with 400-440.

Also, be mindful of the print if it's faded or not; you might be a victim of decoding. Perfume decoding is when the information showing where the perfume is intended to be sold to has been erased. This usually is shown where the batch number and where usually a sticker with the perfume’s country of origin is shown. When you are sold decoded perfume, you may be sold perfume that is more expensive than where it is intended to be distributed. The chance for such a “decoded” perfume to be a fake is close to zero as perfume decoding of a fake product doesn’t make any sense.

3. Feel the bottle

By feeling the bottle in your hands, you can determine the quality that has placed into the product. The bottle's surface should be smooth, with no bubbles in the glass, the inscriptions should be precise, and as the box, there shouldn’t be any smudges on the texts and logos. The cap should also stick tightly to the bottle and it shouldn’t come off easily if turned upside down.

4. Observe the perfume

Before spritzing the perfume, take a good look at its contents. Check if the contents appear to be clear. Authentic perfume is always clear, without sediment or unusual discoloration. Cheaper perfumes tend to have a sweeter scent compared to other perfumes for it is designed to be suited for younger people. More expensive perfumes, on the other hand, are more likely to have several levels of fragrance. Essential oils used in perfumes are divided into top notes, middle notes, and base notes. The top notes you can smell immediately and can last about half an hour, mid notes develop after half an hour and last for two to four hours, and the base note is what is left on your skin at the end of the day. Fake perfumes prosper and are much cheaper to produce because they replicate the top notes of a perfume and at times, the middle notes. To compare a real perfume with a cheaper one, see how it both smell on your skin after two hours, four hours and six hours. A cheaper perfume may smell bad or have no smell at all.

5. Research your go-to perfume

It's still best if you will be researching on what components, notes, longevity, and other important factors on your perfume. Not all of the aforementioned examples apply to all perfumes. One known expensive perfume brand for example, is a single-note fragrance, but it is not cheap. It is also possible to make a sophisticated and nonsweet fragrance that is cheap. You can always look up your preferred brand's website or trusty blog sites that does reviews on your preferred brand. When checking the authenticity of a single note perfume, pay attention if the scent smells strange and if the scent matches up with the description listed on the manufacturer’s website.

Always be careful with what you purchase. It's best to research first on your preferred brands, observe the minor details before you buy your go-to perfume, and buy perfumes from trusted sellers.