Body mist or eau de toilette: which should you launch?

The main differences

	Body mist	Eau de toilette
Fragrance oil	Low; about 3 percent in our catalogue mist	Commonly several times higher
Usual size	100ml to 250ml	30ml to 100ml
Bottle	Plastic or glass	Usually glass
Price point	Lower	Higher
How it is used	Sprayed freely, layered, reapplied	A few sprays, lasts longer
Where it sells	Beauty aisles, fashion stores, near the till	Fragrance shelf, gift season

Concentration figures for eau de toilette are industry convention rather than a legal definition. Your brief sets the level for your own product, and we confirm it with a scent sample before a full sample is made.

When body mist is the better start

• Your shoppers are younger, or buy on impulse.
• The price needs to sit well below a perfume.
• You want a large, colourful bottle on shelf. A body mist range in counter displays is easy for a store to place.
• You sell online and want an alcohol-free version that ships without dangerous goods rules. Our Body & Hair Mist is alcohol-free, for skin and hair.

When eau de toilette is the better start

• The range is a gift, or will be sold in the fragrance section.
• The scent should last on skin.
• The bottle is part of the brand. A glass bottle with a heavy cap says perfume in a way a mist bottle does not.

Launching both

Many of the ranges we make pair the two: an eau de toilette or eau de parfum as the hero, and a body mist in the same scent at a lower price. Babe Power for Missguided, launched in 2017, sits in this pattern with perfume and bath and body lines; see the case.

Plastic bottles

If the mist goes into plastic, the alcohol is brought down, because high alcohol and some plastics do not sit well together over a shelf life. It is a formula decision, made at the start.