Clone vs Designer: The Real Cost Per Wear

A spray delivers roughly 0.1 ml, though real atomizers vary from about 0.05 to 0.15 ml. So a 100 ml bottle holds about 1,000 sprays. If you wear three sprays a day, one bottle lasts about 333 days.

Those figures are the same for a designer bottle and a clone bottle of the same size, so the whole difference comes from the price.

Both are 100 ml, and you wear three sprays a day.

Clones often last a little less than the original, so you might use more sprays to get the same effect. Say you need five sprays a day instead of three. The clone then costs about $0.15 a day, and a bottle lasts 200 days. It's still six times cheaper per day than the designer bottle at three sprays.

The reverse can happen too. Some clones are concentrated EDPs that outlast a designer EDT, so you use fewer sprays. Our concentration guide explains why.

Bottle sizes differ. Many designer fragrances come in 50 or 75 ml, and many clones come in 100 ml. Price per ml removes that problem.

Cost per wear assumes you'll finish the bottle. If a clone sits unused because you didn't like it, its real cost per wear is the whole price divided by very few wears. That's why sampling first, or starting with a high-scoring pick, saves more money than hunting for the cheapest bottle.

It also ignores the cost of the original if you'd have bought it anyway. If you love the designer fragrance and will wear it daily, buy it.