Beauty / news
The Collector Saving the Oversized Perfume Bottle From Obscurity
Sudhir Gupta has spent over three decades amassing more than 3,000 oversized perfume bottle replicas known as factices, now displayed at his New Jersey museum. The once-ubiquitous retail staples have largely vanished in the digital era.
Gupta’s 2,500-square-foot The Facticerie museum in Hackensack, N.J., houses nearly 4,000 of the rare bottle replicas, which he describes as “pieces of history.” By day, he is the founder and chief executive of beauty wholesaler Eau de Luxe, but his passion for factices began more than 30 years ago.
His first acquisition was a Nina Ricci L’air du Temps factice, which he encountered as a graduate student working at a Canal Street perfume shop in the 1990s. He saved up $2,000 to buy it. “All my money goes into these bottles,” he said.
The collection includes nearly every high-heeled Carolina Herrera Good Girl flanker, as well as variations of Chanel No. 5, Dior fragrances, Jean Paul Gaultier creations and many other brands. Gupta sees factices as historical artifacts, akin to cave paintings, revealing the evolution of fragrance marketing and design.
Once a staple of perfume counters and window displays, factices have all but disappeared as digital retail took over. Gupta hopes his museum will keep the craft and history alive for future generations.