No industry on earth is as shrouded in secrecy as the world of perfume.

The world of perfume is big business, but it’s based on preferences, noses, tastes, and the ability to protect your formulas.

There is no legal protection for a perfume formula. If I mix a bunch of ingredients and get a wonderful perfume, anyone who can crack my recipe is free to market the perfume. Actually, there is a small chemical sub-industry that is doing just that, trying to imitate perfumes with drugstore knockoffs labeled “Smells like white diamonds” or “Smells like eternity.”

To protect formulas, perfume experts rely on an ancient and a modern technique. The ancient technique is the secret. You could probably get the formula for Coca-Cola more easily than you could dig up the ingredients for a hot new scent. The “noses”, the people who invent the scents, work in secret and often lead extremely discreet lives even though they are highly sought after professionals.

Another secret of the perfume industry is a nice “open secret”. It’s obvious to most perfumers, and it should be to people who buy perfume, even if they don’t really think much of it. Here it is: the people who give perfume its name are not the ones who invent it.

Coco Chanel didn’t invent her legendary No. 5 in a Paris apartment; it was invented in the 1920s by one of the world’s great “noses”, a Russian living in Paris named Ernst Breaux. Today’s celebrity perfumes may be created with minimal to moderate input from their spokespeople, but the actual creation of the fragrance is done by someone else. What this means is that when you buy a fragrance from J Lo, Beyonce, Liz Taylor, or Paris Hilton, you’re buying a product that they’ve agreed to endorse. So don’t be too freaked out by a celebrity on the label.

Good old-fashioned secrecy about perfume formulas still works very well in the perfume industry, but that doesn’t stop copycats from trying to steal the formulas. The modern technique to help prevent perfume piracy is making perfume incredibly complicated.

Way back in 1920, the same approach was taken with perfumes like Chanel No. 5, Youth Dew, and Evening in Paris, using dozens of ingredients in precise proportions. Even if he could figure out what most of the ingredients are (and Chanel No. 5 has over 100), he could spend a lifetime in the lab experimenting to get the balance right.

Today’s perfumes are so extremely complex that it is difficult to copy them.

There are two types of perfume imitators. The first is legal. These guys find a best-selling perfume and then create a knockoff version. It may or may not be a good imitation, but at least it’s in the ballpark. They then package their product in a plain box and advertise it as a scent that “smells like perfume X.”

This is legal, but it’s actually not a good thing. First of all, it probably smells vaguely like the original, but it’s doubtful that a “nose” that can steal the exact recipe for a perfume will work for one of these copycat labs. You’re dealing with an approach, and that’s on the best day.

Second, this type of “smells like” scent is marketed solely on the basis of price; are bargain fragrances. This means you can expect much less fragrance and much more alcohol, smaller bottle sizes, and generally cheaper development and production. Most people I know who have tried a knock-off product are disappointed because it just doesn’t measure up to the real thing in terms of quality.

The other type of perfume pirate is a counterfeit producer. These guys don’t just create knock-off perfumes, they put them in original or “counterfeit” bottles and containers and try to pass them off as the real deal. What they are trying to do is fake an original and still be able to sell it for a lot less (price is the only draw card for these guys).

Don’t count on these things for purity, high production standards, or to stay out of trouble. Yes, you can get in trouble if you buy counterfeit products. Also, these guys are stealing a legitimate product and trying to pass it off as their own. Don’t get mixed up in it.

Of course, many would-be perfume lovers find the cost of their perfume addiction prohibitively expensive. However, there are plenty of good reasons to stick with the real deal. Perfume makers put their reputation on every bottle; they tend to make scents that are smooth, nuanced, with premium ingredients, carefully packaged, and safely delivered to market (particularly online). Imitations and counterfeits seek to profit from a cheaper product; these guys take shortcuts and not always in places that can be seen. From missing or substandard ingredients to weaker solutions, higher alcohol content, and dodgy marketing, knockoffs are really just after your money and counterfeits are crooks.

Imitation perfumes often have less “texturing” and are less subtle than the real thing. While some people may not notice much of a difference, perfumers can often smell and distinguish an imitation of the real thing.

The real thing will also have more “depth” and the blend will create a scent that will last longer on your skin. Buy perfume from reputable places, including major department stores, perfumeries (if you’re lucky enough to have them in your area), online websites with a solid reputation, or the website of the manufacturer or designer. If you have the slightest doubt that your perfume may be a fake, examine the packaging. Counterfeiters often get careless there.

Finally, remember that perfume is a luxury and that luxuries shouldn’t be two for a dollar at the discount house.