Tiny Luxuries
The €3 Thing I Never Upgraded
On Purol, expensive beauty and why better does not always mean more expensive.
4 min read
“I don't want my life to look expensive. I want it to feel like mine.”
There are products I discover, fall in love with and then enthusiastically replace with something even more exciting six months later.
And then there is Purol.
I have used the little stick for what feels like most of my life. It costs only a few euros. There is nothing particularly niche about it, no elaborate discovery story and no beautiful department-store counter involved.
I just like it.
So I keep buying it.
That sounds almost too ordinary to belong in a series called Tiny Luxuries. But I think that is exactly why it does.
Because the more I think about the things that make everyday life nicer, the less convinced I am that price has very much to do with it.
I like expensive things. That is not the same as believing expensive is better.
At the moment, I am accidentally disappearing down a niche-fragrance rabbit hole.
I bought Santal Austral by Matière Première for €170. I have Valaya Exclusif by Parfums de Marly on the way. I have even bought Bas a discovery set from Skins because apparently if I am developing an expensive fragrance habit, he is coming with me.
I can get genuinely excited about those things.
I also still use Purol.
One does not cancel out the other.
There is a strange assumption that once you start buying more expensive versions of things, the inexpensive products that came before them somehow become less desirable. As though taste is a ladder and you are supposed to keep climbing.
I don't experience it like that.
If the €3 thing works, feels good and has quietly earned a permanent place in my routine, I don't need to upgrade it simply because an upgrade exists.
Some things survive every new version of you
Perhaps that is what I like most about products like this.
They are not exciting because they are new.
They are exciting because they are still there.
Beauty drawers change. Tastes change. Budgets change. You discover new brands, become interested in different things and occasionally buy a Chanel highlighting fluid that promises a beautiful glow but makes you look like a disco ball when you get overenthusiastic.
And somehow the boring little product you have used forever keeps making the cut.
There is something reassuring about that.
I don't remember a dramatic first encounter with Purol. There was no blind buy, no recommendations from fragrance people I trust, no nervous moment before opening an expensive parcel.
It has simply been part of my life for a very long time.
And that kind of loyalty is probably a more useful review than anything I could write after using a product for two weeks.
I don't need everything to feel luxurious
Tiny Luxuries could very easily become a list of expensive things.
That would be missing the point.
I love a beautiful bottle of perfume. I love my completely impractical Christian Louboutin heels. I own different suitcases for spring and summer and for autumn and winter, which is perhaps all the evidence anyone needs that I am capable of spending money on things nobody strictly needs.
But I don't want my life to look expensive.
I want it to feel like mine.
Sometimes that means wearing a €170 fragrance while working from home in Miffy slippers.
Sometimes it means reaching for the same inexpensive stick I have reached for for years.
The pleasure comes from recognising the things that work for you, rather than assembling the most expensive version of everything you own.
Not everything needs an upgrade
There is always another version.
A prettier one. A newer one. A more luxurious one. One in better packaging. One somebody on the internet has declared a holy grail.
Sometimes the search is fun. I clearly have no objection to discovering new things.
But I also think there is something quite nice about being finished.
This works.
I like it.
I will buy another when it runs out.
End of investigation.
In a world that is very good at convincing us that the next product might finally be the perfect one, knowing that you already have your answer feels like its own tiny luxury.
The ordinary things count too
I started this series with expensive perfume because it captured something I strongly believe: I don't want to save beautiful things for a life I am not currently living.
But the reverse matters just as much.
I don't want to replace a perfectly good inexpensive thing merely because I can afford something fancier.
Both ideas come from the same place.
Use what you love.
Keep what earns its place.
Spend more when the more-expensive thing genuinely gives you something you value. Spend €3 when the €3 thing is still exactly what you want.
And don't make either choice more complicated than it needs to be.
There will probably always be something new on my bathroom shelf.
There will probably also be Purol.
Honestly, I rather like that.
The Tiny Luxury verdict
Purol stick
What it costs: Around €3
How long have I used it? For what feels like most of my life.
Is there a more luxurious alternative? Almost certainly.
Am I looking for one? No.
Would I buy it again? I already do.
Why it earns its place: Because after years of changing products, tastes and routines, I still genuinely like using it.
Keep Reading
Tiny Luxuries is about the small, sometimes unnecessary things that make ordinary life disproportionately nicer. Price isn't the point. Pleasure is.
Written by Esther
Esther is a photographer and storyteller, and the founder of Essy's Essentials - a seasonal home for stories, rituals, recipes and everyday luxuries.
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