r/colognecheck

Hi all,

I recently placed three large orders from a European grey-market fragrance site. After looking more closely at the pricing and some mixed online reviews, I wrote to the seller before dispatch asking them to confirm authenticity, condition and sourcing.

Their response was that all products they sell are 100% authentic, sourced from verified European distributors with fully documented supply chains, and compliant with EU cosmetics regulation. They also said that tester products are supplied without cellophane / retail packaging / outer seals, and because of the scale of my orders they proposed a smaller first shipment of 5 to 10 bottles of my choosing, with the rest refunded for now.

I am not trying to accuse them unfairly. If the bottles are real, some of these are excellent finds and I would be very happy. But I am a collector and I do not want dupes, refills, diluted bottles, altered stock or fakes. I want to choose the best bottles to test the legitimacy of the seller’s sourcing.

The full order included (around 3k euros total cost, already paid via credit card):

• Creed Millesime Imperial 100 ml
• Creed Green Irish Tweed 100 ml
• Creed Silver Mountain Water 100 ml
• Dior Fève Délicieuse 125 ml
• Dior Oud Ispahan 125 ml
• Dior Ambre Nuit 125 ml
• Nishane Ani 100 ml
• Nishane Karagoz 100 ml
• Tom Ford Soleil Blanc 100 ml tester
• Tom Ford Black Orchid 100 ml
• Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille 100 ml
• Tom Ford Jasmin Rouge 100 ml
• Tom Ford Costa Azzurra 100 ml
• Tom Ford Vanille Fatale 2024 100 ml
• Tom Ford Noir de Noir 100 ml
• Armani Privé Vert Malachite 100 ml tester
• Louis Vuitton Ombre Nomade 100 ml tester
• Louis Vuitton Matière Noire 100 ml tester
• Louis Vuitton Cactus Garden 100 ml
• Louis Vuitton Turbulences 100 ml tester
• Louis Vuitton Les Sables Roses 100 ml tester
• Louis Vuitton Apogée 100 ml tester
• Maison Francis Kurkdjian Oud Satin Mood 70 ml tester
• Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 70 ml tester
• Maison Francis Kurkdjian Ciel de Gum 70 ml
• Maison Francis Kurkdjian Grand Soir 70 ml
• Guerlain L’Art & La Matière Tobacco Honey 100 ml
• Guerlain L’Art & La Matière Cherry Oud 100 ml
• By Kilian Back to Black 50 ml tester
• Montale Intense Café 100 ml tester

My current idea is to choose these 6:

1. MFK Ciel de Gum 70 ml — rare / unusual item, important to me personally (I have MFK BR 540 extrait 70ml fo rteh bottle, but maybe vintage bottle is different and hard to check).
2. LV Ombre Nomade 100 ml tester — high-risk LV tester and useful stress-test.
3. LV Cactus Garden 100 ml — non-tester LV control item. (I have 2 LV from boutique maybe easier to check)
4. Guerlain L’Art & La Matière Tobacco Honey 100 ml — distinctive luxury bottle/presentation. (+ I am interested in that)
5. Dior Fève Délicieuse 125 ml — discontinued/old Dior Privée stock, useful test of the seller’s rare-stock story. (but I guess harder to verify?)
6. Armani Privé Vert Malachite 100 ml tester — popular/desirable, expensive, distinctive bottle/cap, and presumably harder to copy or refill convincingly than simpler bottles. (what do you think?)

Would you agree with these 6 as the best choices for a legitimacy check? Or would you swap in something else from the list — for example Creed Green Irish Tweed, Dior Ambre Nuit, Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, or MFK Baccarat Rouge 540?

I am especially interested in which items are easiest for the community to authenticate from photos and which are hardest for counterfeiters/refillers to copy convincingly.

Many thanks.