Clive Christian No.1 Perfume
The World's Most Expensive Fragrance
If you have a spare $2,350, then why not splash out on a bottle of the Guinness Book of World Records holder of the Most Expensive Perfume title.
Ever wondered what the most expensive perfume in the world is? In the opinion of the Guinness Book of Records it is Clive Christian No. 1
Clive Christian No. 1
For a one-ounce bottle of Clive Christian No. 1, you could expect to part with $2,350. To put that into context, imagine a can of soda. That can holds 330 ml of liquid, which is approximately 11 fluid ounces. So your $2,350 will buy you an eleventh of a can of soda worth of perfume.
Still not expensive enough? You can pay extra for a customized bottle. Elton John got his fluid ounce in a piano-shaped bottle and reportedly paid around $250,000 for the privilege.
It was released at Harrods in London and Bergdorf Goodman in New York. Only 1,000 bottles of the men's version and 1,000 bottles of the female version are released each year.
The uncustomized bottle is impressive enough, but the limited edition version of the fragrance goes one step further. The scent, named Imperial Majesty, is in a Baccarat crystal bottle with a five-carat diamond and an 18-carat gold collar. Only ten were ever made, of which five were released for sale and five were put in Clive Christian's personal archive. The limited edition scent is valued at over $200,000.
The Scent Itself
So what was the brief for the perfume to surpass all other perfumes? To make the best possible perfume mankind has ever known using the best ingredients regardless of rarity or price. As some of the ingredients used are increasingly rare, the perfume bought this year may not even be possible to produce next year as one of the ingredients may no longer exist. This will undoubtedly mean that those precious bottles in the perfumery's archives will skyrocket in value each year. The two most expensive ingredients are natural aged sandalwood from India and Tahitian vanilla.
The 2008 version of the fragrance has top notes of pineapple, plum, mirabelle and peach, heart notes of jasmine, ylang ylang, orris and carnation, and base notes of vanilla, benjoin balm, tonka seeds and cedarwood. It comes in the classic lead crystal bottle with a diamond set in a gold collar.
Who Is Clive Christian?
Clive Christian is an English millionaire and exclusive furniture maker whose stores can be found worldwide. In 2000 Clive Christian bought the Crown Perfume Company. The company was first opened by an American in London as a corset maker whose most famous client was Queen Victoria; hence the crown emblem. Around 1870 the company produced a lavender scented smelling salt, used at the time to revive ladies who fainted (probably as a result of the corsets bought from Crown in the first place). They then expanded into perfume. The company was bought out by the Lever Brothers and then in 2000 by Clive Christian.
If you are interested in perfume you may also be interested in the history of Chanel No 5 and Guerlain.
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