Best Affordable Perfumes in Dubai Under AED 40

MOJ perfume	Reads	Original UAE price	Gender	30 ml (AED)
Scandal W	Jean Paul Gaultier Scandal	AED 470 / 50ml	Women	26
1 Million	Rabanne 1 Million	AED 310 / 50ml	Men	26
Pour Homme Men	Versace Pour Homme	AED 365 / 50ml	Men	32
Crystal Noir	Versace Crystal Noir	AED 450 / 50ml	Women	32
Black XS	Rabanne Black XS	AED 385 / 100ml	Men	32
Afternoon Swim	Louis Vuitton Afternoon Swim	AED 1,440 / 100ml	Unisex	32
Bitter Peach	Tom Ford Bitter Peach	AED 1,485 / 50ml	Unisex	32
Coromandel	Chanel Coromandel	AED 1,140 / 75ml	Unisex	37
Devotion	Dolce and Gabbana Devotion	AED 540 / 50ml	Women	37
Delina	Parfums de Marly Delina	AED 1,490 / 75ml	Women	39

What affordable means in Dubai

In this city the word covers two different things. A cheap perfume on a marketplace is usually a designer bottle sold below the retailer's price by a seller who cannot say where it came from, and the risk is yours. An affordable perfume in the sense this guide uses is an original composition, made and labelled as MOJ, that reads a designer fragrance closely enough that you recognise it, at a price where a wrong choice costs AED 26 rather than AED 470. We sell more than 200 of them, and the ten below are the ones where the original is expensive, famous and worth knowing, and our 30 ml is at or under AED 40 and available today.

Two rules on the originals. Their prices are taken from product pages at Faces, Ounass, Bloomingdale's or the brand's own UAE site this week, and they change, so treat them as the ballpark. And the perfumers and years are stated only where two independent sources agree, because the people who built these scents deserve the credit and the internet gets them wrong constantly.

The ten, cheapest first

1. Scandal W

The honey one. Jean Paul Gaultier launched Scandal in 2017, an eau de parfum by Daphne Bugey with Fabrice Pellegrin and Christophe Raynaud, and the house describes it as a gourmand chypre of gardenia, honey and patchouli, the bottle topped with a pair of legs in the air. It is loud, sweet and built for evenings. Faces and Ounass list the 50 ml at AED 470, and the 80 ml at AED 595 was unavailable at Faces when we checked. Our Scandal W follows the honey and gardenia heart over beeswax and caramel, and the 30 ml is AED 26, the cheapest women's bottle in this guide. All three sizes are available.

• Top: Blood Orange, Mandarin Orange
• Heart: Honey, Gardenia, Orange Blossom, Jasmine, Peach
• Base: Beeswax, Caramel, Patchouli, Licorice

2. 1 Million

The gold bar. 1 Million launched in 2008 as an eau de toilette by Christophe Raynaud, Olivier Pescheux and Michel Girard, and Rabanne lists blood mandarin, frosted grapefruit and mint over woody cinnamon and rose, on leathery amber and patchouli. It is the men's fragrance that half of Dubai wore to their first job interview and it still sells. Faces lists the 50 ml at AED 310 and the 100 ml at AED 490, the 100 ml unavailable when we checked. Our 1 Million keeps the mandarin and cinnamon over amber and leather, the 30 ml is AED 26 and the 50 ml AED 49; the 100 ml is unavailable at the moment. For the whole house, our best Rabanne perfumes guide covers Invictus and Black XS as well.

• Top: Blood Mandarin, Grapefruit, Mint
• Heart: Cinnamon, Spicy Notes, Rose
• Base: Amber, Leather, Woody Notes, Indian Patchouli

3. Pour Homme Men

The clean one. Versace Pour Homme launched in 2008, an eau de toilette by Alberto Morillas, and the house lists bergamot, neroli, citron and bitter orange leaves over geranium, clary sage and hyacinth, on oud wood, mineral amber and cedar. It is the office fragrance that offends nobody and gets asked about anyway. Faces lists the 50 ml at AED 365 and the 100 ml at AED 472. Our Pour Homme Men follows the citrus and hyacinth structure with tonka and musk in the base, as the retail copy for the original also lists, and the 30 ml is AED 32. All three sizes are available, and the rest of the house sits in our best Versace perfumes guide.

• Top: Lemon, Bergamot, Neroli, Rose de Mai
• Heart: Hyacinth, Cedar, Clary Sage, Geranium
• Base: Musk, Tonka Bean, Amber

4. Crystal Noir

The dark gardenia. Versace launched Crystal Noir in 2004, credited widely to Antoine Lie, first as an eau de toilette and later as an eau de parfum, and the house lists cardamom, pepper and ginger over gardenia, peony and orange flower, on amber, sandalwood and musk. It is a night fragrance for a woman who finds most florals polite. Faces lists the eau de parfum 50 ml at AED 450 and the 90 ml at AED 558, the larger size unavailable when we checked. Our Crystal Noir follows the spiced opening and gardenia heart with coconut in the middle, and the 30 ml is AED 32. All three sizes are available.

• Top: Pepper, Ginger, Cardamom
• Heart: Coconut, Gardenia, Orange Blossom, Peony
• Base: Sandalwood, Musk, Amber

5. Black XS

The praline one. Rabanne launched Black XS in 2005, an eau de toilette by Olivier Cresp with Rosendo Mateu, and the house lists Calabrian lemon and kalamansi over a praline and cinnamon accord, on black amber and patchouli. It was re-bottled in 2018 and Rabanne has not announced a formula change. It is sweet, dark and young, the fragrance for a man who wants to smell like dessert without smelling like a woman's perfume. Faces lists the 100 ml at AED 385, unavailable when we checked, and no approved retailer had a 50 ml. Our Black XS keeps the lemon and sage opening, the praline and cinnamon heart and the amber and patchouli base, and the 30 ml is AED 32. All three sizes are available.

• Top: Lemon, Sage
• Heart: Praline, Cinnamon, Tolu Balsam, Black Cardamom
• Base: Patchouli, Brazilian Rosewood, Black Amber

6. Afternoon Swim

The expensive orange. Louis Vuitton launched Afternoon Swim in 2019, by in-house perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, in what the house calls its Cologne Perfume format, a cologne built at eau de parfum strength, and the house lists bergamot, mandarin, orange, ginger and ambergris. That is the whole formula and it is enough; it smells like a glass of fresh orange juice on a boat. Louis Vuitton's UAE site lists the 100 ml at AED 1,440, which is why a reading of it at AED 32 for 30 ml is the best value on this page. Our Afternoon Swim follows the house's short list almost exactly, mandarin, Sicilian orange and bergamot over ginger and ambergris. All three sizes are available, and the other eight Vuittons we read are in our best Louis Vuitton perfumes guide.

• Top: Mandarin Orange, Sicilian Orange, Bergamot
• Heart: Ginger
• Base: Ambergris

7. Bitter Peach

The Private Blend for AED 32. Tom Ford launched Bitter Peach in October 2020 in the Private Blend line, an eau de parfum with no perfumer named by the house, and Tom Ford lists a peche de vigne accord, blood orange, davana, labdanum, Indonesian patchouli and New Caledonia sandalwood. It is a boozy, fleshy peach that wears like a cocktail, and it is unisex in practice. Faces lists the 50 ml at AED 1,485 and the 100 ml at AED 2,030, the larger size unavailable when we checked; Bloomingdale's had the 50 ml at AED 1,515. Our Bitter Peach follows the peach and blood orange opening with rum and cognac in the heart, and the 30 ml is AED 32. All three sizes are available, and the rest of the house, Ombre Leather included, is in our best Tom Ford perfumes guide.

• Top: Peach, Blood Orange, Cardamom, Heliotrope
• Heart: Rum, Cognac, Davana, Jasmine
• Base: Vanilla, Indonesian Patchouli Leaf, Tonka Bean, Sandalwood, Benzoin, Cashmeran, Styrax, Labdanum, Vetiver

8. Coromandel

The Chanel that smells like money. Coromandel launched in 2007 in Les Exclusifs de Chanel, by Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake, as an eau de toilette, and the eau de parfum replaced it in 2016. Chanel describes it as an amber composition of patchouli, vanilla and benzoin, named after the lacquered Chinese screens in Gabrielle Chanel's apartment, and it is the fragrance in this guide most often mistaken for something far more expensive, because it is. Chanel's UAE site lists the 75 ml at AED 1,140. Our Coromandel follows the patchouli and benzoin structure with white chocolate and incense in the base, the reading most people know, and the 30 ml is AED 37. All three sizes are available; the house's other Exclusifs and its mainline are in our best Chanel perfumes guide.

• Top: Bitter Orange, Citruses, Neroli
• Heart: Patchouli, Orris Root, Rose, Jasmine
• Base: White Chocolate, Benzoin, Amber, Olibanum, Incense, Woody Notes, Musk

9. Devotion

The newest. Dolce and Gabbana launched Devotion in September 2023, an eau de parfum by Olivier Cresp, the same perfumer as Black XS above, and the house lists candied lemon, orange blossom and Madagascan vanilla, in a bottle wearing the brand's Sacred Heart in gold. It is a lemon-pastry fragrance for a woman who wants sweet without heavy. Faces lists the 50 ml at AED 540 and Ounass the 100 ml at AED 725, the larger size unavailable at Faces when we checked. Our Devotion follows the three-note structure exactly, candied lemon, orange blossom, vanilla and musk; the 30 ml is AED 37. All three sizes are available.

• Top: Candied Lemon
• Heart: Orange Blossom
• Base: Vanilla, Musk

10. Delina

The rose that costs AED 1,490. Parfums de Marly launched Delina in 2017, an eau de parfum by Quentin Bisch, and the house lists bergamot, lychee and rhubarb over Damascena rose and nutmeg, on cashmeran, musk and vetiver. It is the rose a whole generation of Gulf women adopted as a signature, and the brand's UAE site lists the 75 ml at AED 1,490 and a 30 ml at AED 965 that was unavailable when we checked. Our Delina follows the lychee and rhubarb opening and the Turkish rose heart, with incense and caramel in the base, and the 30 ml is AED 39, the most expensive bottle in this guide and still about a fifteenth of the original per ml. All three sizes are available, and Layton, Haltane and Althair sit beside it in our best Parfums de Marly perfumes guide.

• Top: Litchi, Rhubarb, Bergamot, Nutmeg, Black Currant
• Heart: Turkish Rose, Peony, Musk, Petalia, Vanilla
• Base: Cashmeran, Incense, Cedar, Haitian Vetiver, Caramel

Why the 30 ml is the smart first bottle

Because a 30 ml at AED 26 to 39 is a test you can afford to fail. Perfume behaves differently on skin than on a card, differently in a 42 degree car park than in an air-conditioned mall, and the only honest way to know whether Coromandel's patchouli or Scandal's honey is yours is to wear it for a week. A 30 ml is about 300 sprays, which at two sprays a day is five months of wearing, and if you love it the 50 ml is AED 42 to 54 and the 100 ml never more than AED 88. The designer houses know this too, which is why Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana and Parfums de Marly all make a 30 ml, and why almost none of them is stocked by the approved UAE retailers; the small bottle is where the margin is thinnest.

On where to buy: the ten above are in our best-selling perfumes collection online with delivery across the UAE, and in every MOJ store, where you can spray before you pay. If you are buying an original instead, Faces, Ounass, Bloomingdale's and the brand's own UAE site are the retailers whose prices we quote; a listing far below those prices on a marketplace is a reason to ask where the bottle came from, not a bargain. For what an inspired perfume is and is not, our explainer on what inspired perfumes are covers it in plain words.

How to choose between the ten

For a woman buying her first bottle, Scandal W if she likes sweet, Crystal Noir if she likes dark, Devotion if she likes clean, Delina if she wants the rose everyone recognises. For a man, 1 Million for evenings, Pour Homme Men for the office, Black XS for the man under twenty five who wants both. For either, Afternoon Swim in summer and Coromandel from October to March, and Bitter Peach for the person who already owns the first six and wants something nobody at the table can name.

On weather, the two citrus readings, Afternoon Swim and Pour Homme Men, survive a Dubai noon with two sprays; the gourmands, Scandal W, Black XS and Bitter Peach, are evening and winter scents here and turn loud in heat; Coromandel and Delina sit in between and are best after sunset from May to September. Those are rules from character, not longevity figures in hours, and the best long-lasting perfumes guide is where the endurance question gets its own answer.