If you're new to buying perfume online in Bangladesh, three words will come up constantly: original, decant, and first copy. They get used loosely, sometimes deliberately to blur the line. Here's what each one actually means.
Original (full bottle, sealed or unsealed)
A genuine bottle, produced by the actual brand or their licensed manufacturer. "Sealed" means unopened, still in factory cellophane. "Unsealed" or "tester" means the box seal is broken — sometimes because it's a tester unit with no cap, sometimes because a previous owner opened it and decided to resell. Unsealed doesn't mean fake; it just means someone else opened it first.
Decant
A small amount of a genuine fragrance transferred from a larger bottle into a smaller vial — usually 3ml, 5ml, or 10ml. Decants exist because full bottles are expensive and buying 100ml of something you've never smelled is a real risk. A legitimate decant seller owns (or has access to) a genuine full bottle and portions it out. This is a normal, respected practice in the global fragrance community — it is not the same as a fake.
First copy / clone / inspired-by
A fragrance deliberately made to smell similar to a famous release, sold under a different (or suspiciously similar) name, at a fraction of the price. Some are sold honestly as "inspired by" alternatives — that's fine, as long as it's disclosed. The problem is when a first copy is sold *as if* it were the original, in fake packaging, to someone who doesn't know the difference.
How to tell which one you're looking at
If the price is 5-10x cheaper than the cheapest original listing you can find, it's not an original — ask directly what it is.
A genuine decant seller will usually show you the source bottle, or at minimum describe it clearly (batch code, where it was purchased).
Ask directly: "Is this original, decant from an original, or a clone?" A trustworthy seller answers this without hesitation.
Why decants are actually the smart way to start
If you're building a collection on a Bangladeshi budget, decants from genuine bottles are usually your best move — you get to try expensive, well-known fragrances for a few hundred taka instead of committing ten thousand to a full bottle you might not even like on your skin.
Every listing type on Cloud PerfumeBD is labeled clearly — intact, partial, or decant — so you always know what you're buying before you message a seller. Browse the full fragrance directory to see prices across brands.