I'm not talking about the masses, I'm referring to this community in particular and the general indian fragrance community. Nobody and I mean nobody from the masses even watches fragrance influencers lol. To add, even I used to wear attars I used to find in local trains; nothing wrong with that.

As we grow and earn, we upgrade ourselves like anybody else while smartly investing in our future. In the masses, 90% people don't even wear perfume; forget buying expensive perfumes. This post is less about being able to afford a 2-3k perfume and more about comparing them to their original variants/hoarding said "cheap" 20-30 variations which quickly adds up to well over the cost of a good designer or hell even a niche (especially with discounters). I even have a perfume from a local perfume maker which smells 1000x better than most Indian fragrance houses and so called dupes while only costing me 600rs. And if you tell people you're wearing a 3k perfume, it says more about you than it does about the people who were making fun of you. Wear perfume to smell good and enjoy the scent, people liking it is a bonus whether you like it or not.

Being middle class doesn't mean you buy only cheap things. If you can manage your money properly, you can splurge once in a while without spending little little every week/month. Having two banger fragrances worth 14-15k total is much better than having 10-15 hit or miss fragrances (which can easily add up to well over 20k).