I belong to a couple of different fragrance enthusiast groups on Facebook, and I am a big fan of the website Fragrantica.com. The groups on FB and the reviews on the Fragrantica are a terrific way to find out about new scents, particularly ones that are out of the mainstream.
Have you ever done a blind buy for a fragrance you heard about? I have, and more likely than not, it doesn’t work out. I try not to do it for very expensive perfumes, but I have and it isn’t usually a good idea.
Back in the old days of brick & mortar stores, I used to be able to get a free sample at a department store perfume counter. Although Macy’s sometimes still gives out samples, they tend to carry more mainstream scents. And even Macy’s is less generous with samples than they used to be. Barneys was my favorite place to try luxury or indie fragrances, but the SAs there were stingy with samples unless they knew you. Nevertheless, I would remind the SAs that I buy my fragrances at Barneys, and I could sometimes get them to part with a sample or two. But now Barneys is going out of business. 😥 Sephora used to make me samples, and sometimes I can find an SA who still will. But I have noticed that Sephora, at least the store near me, has dramatically decreased the number of fragrances that they carry in the store. Boo.
In spite of the decreased availability, samples are still the best way to try out a fragrance. You can’t beat taking home a sample and wearing it a few times. Fragrances can change dramatically after the dry down, so spraying yourself and just walking around a store (if you can find an actual store) often isn’t enough time for me to determine whether a scent suits me, whether it lasts long enough or whether it projects enough but not too much.
Over the past few years, I’ve become a regular sample shopper on a variety of websites. Online retailers who sell decants (samples made by decanting or pouring fragrance into a sample vial) are a boon to a fragrance lover like me. Although I’m not thrilled about having to pay for fragrance samples and also for the shipping, it still is the very best way these days to try before I buy.
Perhaps the best way to try is through Scentbird., that started out as a monthly fragrance subscription. Now it has changed. But still for $14.95 (if you’re a subscriber or $16.95 for a non-subscriber purchase), they let you choose the scent you’re interested in, and they send a large spray vial with a 30 day supply. That is a real bargain.
Although Scentbird has begun to carry more niche brands in addition to a somewhat mainstream (i.e. designer and celebrity) line up, I find that they still often don’t carry the luxury and more obscure or vintage scents that I’m looking for.
So lately, I have been purchasing small decants from other online retailers. Most recently, I tried out The Perfumed Court.
You can choose the size of the sample you wish to buy, usually from 0.5 ml to 15 ml. The tiniest samples often come in a vial with a plastic dropper, while slightly larger samples come in spray vials. I prefer the spray vials when possible, since I prefer to test and to wear perfume that has been sprayed on rather than dabbed on. So I bought 1.5 ml spray vials for each.
There were two fragrances that I learned about in one of the FB groups that I wanted to try:
- Hermes – Hermessence Ambre Narguile – priced at $10.99 for 1.5 ml: sweet, warm spicy, cinnamon, honey, balsamic – “A gorgeous Oriental blend of amber, benzoin, labdanum, musk, vanilla, caramel, honey, sugared tonka bean, grilled sesame seeds, cinnamon, rum, coumarine and white orchids.”
- Maison Martin Margiela Jazz Club – priced at $4.50 for 1.5 ml: sweet, tobacco, rum, vanilla, woody – “It features top notes of pink pepper, Primofiore lemon and neroli oil; middle notes of rum absolute, clary sage oil and Java vetiver oil; and base notes of tobacco leaf absolute, vanilla bean and styrax resin.”
Interestingly, the two scents have several attributes as well as ingredients in common, though they smell different from each other. Both are gender-neutral, spicy, oriental eaux de toilettes. In addition, they both were inspired by smoky atmospheric places:
- Hermessence Ambre Narguile: from the creator of the scent “recreating the ambiance of those lively places where tobacco – blended with the smells of fruit, honey and spices – is smoked in nargiles, or water pipes, and where swirls of smoke diffuse a sweet sense of intoxication.”
- Maison Martin Margiela Jazz Club: Inspired by the cocktails and the smoky ambiance of a Brooklyn jazz club
So far, I like them both, though I’m not ready to buy a full size of either one. I think I have a preference for the amber-scented Hermessence Ambre Narguile, but it is much more expensive than Jazz Club that I can buy in a rollerball at Sephora for around $20. I guess I’ll see if either one makes the cut in the future as I continue to experiment with them both. The nice thing about buying decants is that I can continue to buy these snack sizes before shelling out the big bucks.
I was very pleased with the service from The Perfumed Court. The shipping cost $3.95. The package arrived quickly, and the company did a nice job packaging the vials. The vials themselves were taped so they wouldn’t leak. They were placed in a plastic, padded mini-envelope inside a pretty gold jewelry-style box on top of cotton.
And they included a coffee-flavored hard candy. Nice!
So I am satisfied with my decant purchases. Did I mention that as a new customer I got 15% off? A good thing.
Do you buy decants before buying a full size fragrance? If so, which online retailers do you buy your decants from?
This is such a smart way to test expensive fragrances!
Some day I need to try some Aftelier fragrance samples, if she sells them
I didn’t know there were online retailers who provided this service. Probably because I don’t wear fragrances that often. They can trigger headaches and allergic issues for me. With that being said I may check into these retailers.
I wasn’t familiar with paying for fragrance samples either, Sandy, till that FB fragrance group mentioned that Luckyscent sold decants in addition to full bottles. After that, I think I may have googled fragrance decants of specific fragrances and I found out about Fragranceline and The Perfumed Court. I have also bought decants on eBay. …With regard to headaches and allergies, I have been told by some women that if they use 100% natural scents they do OK with them. For others, there are certain scents they trigger headaches. I’m sorry to hear that you have that problem 🙁
My husband is addicted to those coffee candies. He buys huge bags of them from Amazon.
I think its great that you can get samples like this since no scent is exactly the same on two people. I used to be friends with a counter manager at Saks and she’d give me dozens of samples of fragrances every time I went in. My friends loved the largesse since I don’t wear fragrance. Too bad she retired.
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I forgot about Saks! There isn’t one near me, but next time I go to Boston, I will hit them up for some samples
I love perfume but it is so expensive that samples are a must. That plus each scent smells different on everyone.
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I gravitate towards vanilla fragrance. Is it detectable in any of the two?
Not so much, Kathryne. I’d say there are many other fragrances that are more straight up vanilla. Vanilla provides balance in these two spicy scents
I love fragrance decants, that’s why I’m still subscribed to Scentbird. That’s such a great idea to be able to try some very special fragrances!
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I was just lamenting about the days that you could get a fragrance sample easily from a SA and how they have become so stingy! LOL! And what completely IRKS me is when you look on a, ahem, certain auction website, you see the PLETHORA of samples for sale. Just WHERE are these Sellers getting ALL of the fragrance samples from? Hmm.. kinda makes you wonder…are the SA’s being stingy with the samples because THEY are the ones selling them?? Food for thought… LOL!
I agree with you, Courtney! I miss the days when I could go into Barney’s and try samples of fragrances I was curious about or considering buying. I haven’t been to Saks in ages, however, and now I am wondering if they stopped sampling??? I have been buying samples from The Perfume Court, another site I can’t think of now, and occasionally LuckyScent that have worked out well. In fact, I ended up buying a bottle of vintage L’Heure Bleue on eBay recently because I bought a sample of vintage juice at The Perfumed Court recently. But who knows, you could be right in your hypothesis.