Tool
Batch code guide
The code printed on the base of a bottle usually encodes its production date. Here is how to read one — and what it cannot tell you.
What a batch code is
Most perfume houses print a short alphanumeric code on the bottle base, the box, or both. Its length and structure vary by house — two characters for some, ten for others — but it almost always encodes a year, and often a month or a production line.
What a batch code can tell you
- Roughly when the bottle was filled. This is the useful part: it lets you tell whether a bottle predates a documented reformulation.
- Whether box and bottle belong together. If the two codes differ materially, the pairing is probably not original.
What a batch code cannot tell you
- Whether the bottle is genuine. Counterfeiters print batch codes too. A code that decodes perfectly is not evidence of authenticity — it is evidence that someone printed a plausible code.
- How the bottle has been stored. Heat and light degrade a fragrance in a way no printed code records, which is why two bottles of the same batch can smell different.
- What the formula inside actually is. A code dates a bottle; it does not certify which version of a formula was used.
How we handle batch codes here
Per-house rules are published with a stated confidence level and a cited source. Where a rule is contested or the house has changed format over time, we record the change rather than presenting a single rule as universal. Entries we cannot verify are not published.
Being built
Per-house batch code documentation is being compiled against physical stock, with each rule cited. This section will carry 205 house entries as they are verified — published rules first, guesses never.
Practical checks that matter more than the code
- Print quality. Batch codes on counterfeits are often silk-screened in the wrong weight or in the wrong position relative to the original.
- Nozzle and crimp. The pump assembly is expensive to copy accurately.
- Bottle weight and glass quality. Genuine bottles feel and sound different.
- Colour and fill level. Age and evaporation change both, and consistently.
- Box printing. Typeface, stock and board thickness are frequently wrong on copies.
Code interpreter
Type the code from your bottle. This tool reads the digit patterns and shows you every plausible date reading, with the reasoning — it does not claim to know your house's format.
Know the house? The batch code checker applies that house's own verified rule — 54 houses covered, with the confidence stated.
Heuristic only — always verify against your bottle's other features.
Why we do not publish a definitive answer
Batch code formats are house-specific, and several houses have changed them more than once. A tool that confidently returned a single date would be wrong often enough to be worse than useless — particularly because a wrong date changes what the bottle is worth. So this interpreter shows its reasoning instead: which digits could be the year, which could be the month, and how confident each reading is. We publish per-house rules only once they have been verified against physical stock and a cited source, and we mark the ones that are contested.