Corinna Chang has a unique obsession with decorative trinkets that smell - and
appreciate in value. The director of Klassique Music, a music school in
Corinna Chang with her collection
Balmoral Plaza, collects solid perfumes - scents that come in waxy, balm-like
consistency - for the high prices that the eye-catching metal cases they come
in can fetch.
Such perfumes are made by only a handful of cosmetics houses such as Max
Factor, Shiseido and Estee Lauder. Going by its client list, Estee Lauder
estimates there are about 200 solid perfume collectors in Singapore. Its most
avid collector, Ngiam Su Ying, deputy director of a statutory board, owns 300
solid perfumes.
But Chang, who is in her 40s, has a cache of 500 solid perfumes made between
the 1950s and today, singling her out as someone most dedicated to the
acquisition of these collectibles.
These solid perfumes are prized because their containers are often made of
high-gloss enamel, studded with rhinestones or intricately carved from ivory.
Chang hopes to reap a substantial profit from her collection one day as solid
perfumes, when kept in good condition, appreciate in value over the years.
Similarly, perfumes in collectible bottles, like those from French glassware
brand Lalique also appreciate, making them good investments for magpie-types
with penchants for decorative bling.
Chang has already earned an "attractive little sum" selling about 20 of her
solid perfumes through online auctions and via her personal website,
www.rubylane.com/shops/my-delightful-vanity. She usually sells them for about
40 per cent more than what she paid for them.
"Solid perfumes are very valuable and luxurious because they are pretty,
handmade, produced in very limited quantities and never repeated," says Estee
Lauder Singapore's brand general manager Jo Yong.
Online marketplaces, like Yahoo! Auctions and eBay, sell solid perfumes for at
least 30 per cent of their original sale price. The price tag can go much
higher, up to 200 per cent of the original, if the piece is particularly rare
or in high demand ? or, better yet, both.
Some of the most avid collectors, like Chang, willingly fork out US$1,700
(S$2,606) for a particularly exquisite or vintage solid perfume case. That is
how much she paid on eBay for the Estee Lauder Oriental Princess (left), the
rarest piece of the Oriental collection, which comprises nine trinkets of
carved ivory.
The Oriental Princess is a good example of how profitable a business collecting
solid perfumes can be. When it was first sold in 1981, it cost US$35. Now,
according to Chang who has monitored some recent online auctions, it is now
worth up to US$4,000 ? a whopping 114 times the original price. Imagine selling
10 of those for a profit of US$3,965 each. What a windfall.
Says Ngiam, 45: "The asking price for solid perfumes in online auctions is
sometimes more than double the original cost. It's crazy."
Another Singaporean collector who has been collecting solid perfumes for
possible monetary gain is 47-year-old homemaker Veronica Goh, who has a
collection of 50 solid perfumes worth about $10,000.
"I started collecting them more than 10 years ago simply because I liked the
design of the cases. Over the years, I found out from other collectors that
these things go up in value, so I now collect them for investment," she says.
Collectors say particularly good solid perfumes to invest in are limited
edition ones. These include those sold exclusively at posh department stores in
New York and London, like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Harrods, and
special collaborations with American evening bag designer Judith Leiber and
American homeware designer Jay Strongwater.
A popular model is a gold, glitzy, perfume coffret-sized model of Harrods
(above), which Chang, Goh and Ngiam all own. It cost roughly S$1,200 and can
only be expected to be worth a lot more a decade from now.
Chang began collecting solid perfumes in 1987 when she first saw them in Saks
Fifth Avenue department store in New York. Her first purchase was a green
enamel turtle from Estee Lauder that cost US$60 then but is worth US$200 on
eBay today.
She has spent "easily a five-figure sum" that is "nearer to $90,000 than to
$10,000" acquiring them. One day, she hopes to reap a "six-figure sum" from
selling them.
"Otherwise, what's the point of this painstaking effort?" she
asks.
Part of that effort entails keeping the scents in "mint condition" - meaning
there is no change in the colour of the scent, and the seal and original
packaging are both intact - so they will fetch a higher price.
She keeps her collection in an air-conditioned room, covered and away from the
sunlight. She estimates that her monthly air-conditioning bill is probably 10
to 20 per cent higher than usual because of this. Her "best pieces" are stored
in an air-conditioned warehouse for safekeeping.
Chang, who has a seven-year-old daughter, says her dream is to set up a perfume
collectors' convention here so collectors around Asia can meet to trade tips
and socialise. She believes that more Singaporeans may start collecting too.
"Some Lalique bottles go for £10,000 (S$30,760) to £20,000 at perfume auctions.
But since they're so expensive, many will go for the next best thing, which is
solid perfume."
