Can Mitford’s affordable ‘cloned’ perfumes hit the right note?
At Mitford Road in Old Dhaka, perfumers can recreate luxury fragrances at a fraction of the cost. But while the prices attract thousands of buyers, experts warn of health risks associated with unsafe ingredients
Upon stepping onto Old Dhaka's Mitford Road, I was greeted by a mix of fragrances in the air — sweet, sharp and woody, all blending into a pleasant aroma.
Inside the shops, perfumers were busy pouring essential oils into glass beakers, adding fixatives with spirit or alcohol, along with what they termed "secret ingredients" to bring each fragrance to life. Within just a few minutes, a bottle of perfume was ready to be taken home.
Gucci Flora, Bleu de Chanel, Versace Eros, Dior Sauvage, Vampire Blood — clones of all popular perfumes are there for sale. And for the true connoisseur, custom fragrances are on the menu too.
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At Munzia Traders, Muhammad Mamun, bragged that he can make more than 300 kinds of perfumes, both clones of famous brands as well as custom blends.
Samir Sawdagar, a customer, stepped inside Mamun's shop. About three years ago, he received a 100ml bottle of Armani's Acqua Di Gio from his brother-in-law in Italy. Over time, he grew very fond of its scent. Though he used the perfume sparingly, the bottle is finally almost empty.
"The original perfume is too expensive. But I really like its smell, so I came here to see if they can make something similar," Saamir said.
Shop owners say this trade began around the '60s, when perfumes and attars from various countries first started arriving in the area. Over the decades, Mitford has become a hub for wholesale perfume trading, though retail buyers also frequent these shops.
But apart from perfumes and attar, Mitford has also grown into one of the country's largest wholesale hubs for industrial chemicals. From pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, toiletries, and garment products to food flavourings and colourings, almost every type of industrial chemical can be found here.
In every shop, rows of jars sit filled with menthol, glycerin, clove oil, acetic acid, liquid glucose, silicone oil, chlorite, and an endless range of fragrance oils and raw aromatic chemicals such as sandal, magnet, kancha beli, jasmine, and even the locally famous Gurudev oil.
According to the Bangladesh Chemical and Perfumery Association, there are at least 3,000 perfume shops in the area, making it the largest hub of its kind in the country.
When asked about the total market value of Mitford Road's perfume trade, Mitford Perfume Owners' Association President Md Fayzur Rahaman said he did not have a total estimate.
"But if I speak about my own shop, our yearly sales and transactions are worth around Tk20-25 crore," he added.
The art of 'cloning'
Mamun has been involved in the perfume trade since 2002. He said that replicating a fragrance requires careful analysis and a grasp of basic chemistry. Now 39, he mastered the craft with the help of a close friend in Dubai, who runs his own perfume store there.
As Mamun inhaled the scent from a bottle of Samir's perfume, he said, "You can't tell exactly what's inside just by smelling it, but you can guess most of it. And of course, it'll never smell 100% the same as a branded perfume. But it all depends on the customer's satisfaction. If the customer says it's right, only then do we make the full batch."
He then took three aluminum bottles from a shelf full of fragrances, mixed a drop from each onto a paper tester, and rubbed it gently on Samir's wrist.
"So, how does it smell?" asked Mamun. Samir first took a whiff of the freshly applied scent and then from his bottle. He looked a little surprised.
"It smells almost the same."
Mamun smiled, "This is just a sample. When you smell the final blend — once everything's mixed properly — it'll match even more closely." He immediately got to work.
In a small glass beaker, Mamun first poured in the essential oil — the base ingredient. It is relatively inexpensive. Next, he added "fixolite" with a dropper, a chemical that helps the perfume last longer by slowing evaporation.
The third ingredient is "galaxolide", another fixative compound that gives a clean, sweet, floral, and woody odour, adding depth, smoothness and longevity to the scent.
During the fourth step, Mamun added two drops of a clear liquid, refusing to disclose its name. "It's a secret ingredient that makes the perfume smoother and boosts its overall performance," he said.
The final ingredient was ethanol. The solution was then blended with a small hand mixer and poured into a spray bottle.
Mamun then pressed the bottle cap three times, sprayed it onto a tissue, and handed it to Samir. After a good whiff, he seemed satisfied.
A 50ml bottle of these replica perfumes sell for a mere Tk400-600, sometimes even less.
On pricing, Sheikh Omer Shahid, the owner of Lahore Perfumery House, explained, "Mainly, all the perfume oils you see here are inspired versions, not the original. We sell them at an average of Tk5,000 per litre. Though some high-end oils cost between Tk12,000 and Tk18,000 per litre, there's less demand for those, so we don't stock too much of it."
The oils mostly come from France, Germany, India, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. The quality also varies; markets offer A, B, C and even D-grade oils, with higher-quality oils commanding higher prices.
A trade passed down through generations
Shahid has been in the trade for nearly 40 years.
His journey in fragrance making runs deep, and his nose is said to be so finely trained that he can identify every ingredient in a perfume, from the base compounds to the fixatives that hold the scent together.
Asked how it all began, he traced his story back to his grandfather.
"You can't tell exactly what's inside just by smelling it, but you can guess most of it. And of course, it'll never smell 100% the same as a branded perfume. But it all depends on the customer's satisfaction. If the customer says it matches the original fragrance, only then do we make the full batch."
The city of Kannauj in India has long been famous for its attars and fine perfumes. From there, fragrances were shipped to Kolkata, where Shahid's grandfather began his perfume business in 1952, later joined by his father.
After nearly a decade following Bangladesh's independence, in 1981, the family moved their business to Old Dhaka's Chawkbazar. Then, after a few years, Shahid moved his perfume business to Mitford Tower.
"Today's perfumers have it easy; they can learn the craft from the internet. But in our time, it wasn't so simple. We didn't have this kind of technology," Shahid recalled.
Inside the shop, his son Omer was carefully mixing a fixative powder into a small glass beaker of perfume oil.
"I've been doing this for about 16 years," Omer said. "I learned everything from my father, but real skill comes only with experience."
Unlike Mamun, this father-son duo did not keep any secrets.
"We have at least 400 types of perfume oils," Omer explained. "We mix them with a fixative powder; it helps the scent last longer and adds a soft flavour to the fragrance. Finally, we blend it with spirit. But the real craft lies in understanding the scent — that takes years to master."
The results, Omer said, may not be identical to expensive branded perfumes, but they come very close and at a fraction of the price.
Like Omer, younger artisans are also joining this trade. Din Islam, 18, of Rezaul Attar House, has been learning perfume-making for the past three years.
"Alongside my studies, I thought I should carry on our family business. My father and uncle have been doing this for years," he said.
Health costs of counterfeit perfumes
Since these knock-off perfumes do not go through any safety tests, experts have expressed concerns about their effects once applied to the skin.
Sydea Sulatana Razia, professor of Chemical Engineering at BUET, said, "Locally processed counterfeit perfumes can contain toxic industrial chemicals like methanol, which can cause chemical burns and blindness if absorbed accidentally. Moreover, they can also contain industrial alcohols, antifreeze, benzene, or any other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which can be severely harmful when they come in contact with the skin or are inhaled," she added.
Shahid, however, argues that customers use his perfumes only on fabrics. He even hangs a poster inside his shop, which reads, "No skin! Use only on fabric."
He further mentioned, "There are some dishonest perfumers who use harmful chemicals like methanol and industrial alcohol, which can affect sensitive skins."
