How much perfume cost in the USSR: comparison with other goods and real wages

Now it seems to us that perfumes are expensive. Have they ever been cheap? Let’s see how much different flavors cost in Soviet times!

The legendary Climat Lancôme costs 40-45 rubles – and that with an average salary of about 100 rubles. A fabulous sum! Few people could afford such a luxury: they had to save for the precious bottle for almost years. But the pleasure of perfume was great – a chic perfume made me feel like a luxurious woman. No worse than in the movies!

The Lancôme La Magie Noire was sold for 45 rubles, but a small bottle of perfume (no eau de toilette!) Diorissimo Dior could be “snatched up” for 25 rubles. Too expensive, but already a little more affordable. True, the bottle was really tiny: but Soviet women “stretched” it for whole years of use.

Fiji Perfume Guy Laroche cost about 19 rubles, and they were also very popular in Soviet times.

But the “Red Moscow” of domestic production was much more pleasant: on average, its price was about 5 rubles. But it was also expensive in relation to the prices of products, for example: a loaf of white bread cost 20 kopecks, milk – 35 kopecks, a kilogram of pork or beef – about 2 rubles, carp – 80 kopecks, sugar – 1 ruble and buckwheat – 50 kopeks. A pack of tea costs 90 kopecks, and a can of instant coffee costs 6 rubles. And these are only suggested prices. In the real market, everything was more expensive – as, however, now.

Recall that the average salary in the USSR was 100-120 rubles. As you can see, perfumes used to be very expensive entertainment. But how without them?! No way 🙂 After all, scents are emotions that are actually priceless.

Read also: Why Soviet powder had such a strong smell – it’s impossible to forget!