Buying perfume in Andorra, and getting it home

Perfume is one of the purchases people most often plan a shopping stop in Andorra around, and the honest answer to whether it’s worth it has two halves. Yes, it can be, because the tax is far lower. But nobody publishes official prices, and what really decides it is the price of your bottle in a particular shop. Here’s what the sources do say, and how I’d go about it.

Why the numbers can work

It comes down to tax. In Andorra, perfume carries the IGI, the general indirect tax, at its general rate of 4.5%, according to the Andorran government. Only food, water, books and newspapers get lower rates, and perfume isn’t among them. In the UK the same bottle carries standard VAT at 20%, according to GOV.UK.

The tax gap is genuine. What isn’t guaranteed is that the whole gap reaches the shelf price, because each shop sets its own margin. So I won’t quote a percentage saving, since it would be made up. What I’d do instead is save the UK price of your usual scent on your phone before you travel and compare on the spot.

Getting it home

There are two borders on the way back to Britain. Leaving Andorra into France or Spain, Andorran customs and Spain’s tax agency allow each person 75 g of perfume and, on top, 37.5 cl of eau de toilette. Creams and make-up don’t have their own line in those tables, so I’d count them within the €900 limit for other goods.

Arriving in Great Britain it works differently. GOV.UK has no separate perfume allowance, and perfume counts towards the £390 limit for other goods, alongside anything else you bought. Two good bottles and a ski jacket can take you over. Both sets of figures are side by side in Andorra duty free allowance.

Where the perfumeries are

Andorra Turisme says perfume and cosmetics shops are probably among the most common kinds of shop in the country’s commercial areas. The biggest cluster is The Shopping Mile, the stretch of more than a kilometre and a half made up of Fener Boulevard and Avinguda Meritxell on the Andorra la Vella side and Avinguda Carlemany in Escaldes-Engordany. Close by, Riberaygua i Travesseres mixes national chains with independent shops and beauty salons.

Away from the centre, Pas de la Casa is known for its large number of perfumeries, alongside sports shops and some of the biggest shopping spaces in the country. If you’re driving in from France, it’s the first place you’ll pass. For opening times and the rest of the shopping districts, see shopping in Andorra.

A tradition that goes back to 1939

This isn’t a recent fashion. Andorra Turisme credits Júlia Bonet i Fiter with starting it all, when she opened a shop in Escaldes-Engordany in 1939, and perfumeries spread quickly after that. In the upper part of Escaldes you’ll still find one of the country’s oldest, a few steps from the Roc del Metge fountain, where thermal water comes out at between 68 and 71°C.

If you’d like something you can’t find at home, there are Andorran brands too. The tourist board mentions Pocions de lluna nova, a natural cosmetics lab using mountain plants, handmade Kalunae soaps and the ranges of Júlia Bonet, Caldea and TU by Roser Miró.

How I’d do it

I’d note the UK price of the perfume I want, compare it in two or three shops on The Shopping Mile and aim for the sales, which Andorra Turisme says begin before those in France and Spain, in late June and late December. And I’d keep an eye on the £390 total for the flight home. For other things that are worth buying, see what to buy in Andorra.