WHAT WOULD YOU PAY TO SMELL LIKE ONE IN EIGHT BILLION?

One bottle can run tens of thousands of dollars and take months to make. But for luxury fragrance connoisseurs, bespoke scents are well worth the money.

- BY SABLE YONG

Let's say you won the Mega Millions You may go on an extravagant vacation, buy a sprawling home, or set up trust funds for family members-you know, something practical. But at a certain eye-watering tax bracket, these become been there, done that moves. The ultimate luxury may be one not necessarily seen, heard, or held-only smelled. For the ultra rich, creating a one-of-a-kind fragrance has become an increasingly popular way to signal one's wealth.

While you or I may scoff at spending a month's rent on a luxury scent, that is but a fraction of what a bespoke perfume may cost. And for the promise of a scent that cannot be replicated, imitated, or duplicated, money, time, and resources is no object. There are many perfumers in the world who offer personalized services, but there are only a handful from fragrance houses with centuries of heritage.

"People want the story, the history, and they want the legacy," Ben Krigler says. He's the fifth-generation nose of the house of Krigler, which his great-grandfather Albert Krigler established in Berlin in 1904. "People [used to] buy jewelry as a show of wealth. Now, to have something that is hidden and not really viewable is actually the new luxury. For [my clients], it's not only a perfume, it's a lifestyle. They want something that nobody has. They want something that [means], Krigler has created this perfume especially for me; this is my production. It's haute parfumerie-there are no limits for cost of ingredients or rules in terms of marketing."