The Surprises, the Samples, the Serge

Here’s my feedback on Patty’s, uh, little surprises, a section on samples, and the announcement for the winner of the Serge Sample Pack!

The Surprises — my feedback on Patty’s blind sample selections:

100% Eau de Slut (Paris Hilton) – I said it was crap. It was Paris Hilton. So I … guessed that one correctly.

Big Moustache (LV Garofano) – a big pat on the back to me for at least recognizing its similarity to Floris Malmaison (another carnation) in the drydown. I’m still waffling on this one, wore it again today. I wish it were a little more carnation and a little less rose at the opening, but man, the drydown is just stunning. Robin at NST suggested this as another carnation to love, and I may well end up doing so. Uh, Patty, you don’t have a bottle of this, do you?

Cheeseburger (Imaginal Beyond Forever) – I’m far more embarrassed about this one than the Britney. It’s just so pretentious and overwrought. Plus (sue me) it sounds like Vaginal. I don’t want to wear anything called Frenulum either. Or Prepuce. Or Cremaster – though, hey, that’d make a rockin’ name for a series of weird, art-house movies…

Daisy (Le Labo Fleur D’Orangeur) — I completely whiffed this one. I went back and re-smelled and I’m stunned. It’s clearly a very pretty orange flower, a bit soapy (which doesn’t especially bother me), a little green. I think I tried this one at the same time as the Doctah – maybe it just couldn’t fight with the Skank? Thanks, this is lovely.

Doctah Doctah (Le Labo Vetiver 46) – When Patty reviewed this awhile ago I commented “this sounds like the exact opposite of anything I’d ever like,” which illustrates how wrong I can be. This rocked me right down to my toes. A hole in my Incense Wardrobe I didn’t know existed. P — since you think it’s such crap, you should split whatever you have left and send it to me and Marina.

Gramma (Le Labo Rose 31) – Rose? Are you sure you sent me the right juice? You didn’t pop a contact out and then accidentally mix it up with that manure tea you keep under your sink, decanting at 2 a.m.? I thought about re-applying to see if I could get any rose at all, but life’s too short to smell that again.

Hotel California (Missoni) – too bad, the bottle is really cute. I think I was pretty close with my Escada Summer scents.

Low Rider (Britney Spears Curious) – well… you could buy a lot worse stuff than Curious or Fantasy (Baby Phat Goddess comes to mind). They are both professionally done, decent fragrances (Curious is a little less sweet and the more interesting of the two). My horror of Britney and the fact that I am decades (eons?) away from being the target audience for these perfumes doesn’t change that. The only part that surprises me was what a hard time I had registering its smell; subtle it ain’t.

The Samples

There was some discussion in the comments section regarding where to get fragrance samples. Here’s my Two Cents, which you can skip if it’s not a topic that interests you:

When I was a nascent scent slut, I started lurking the fragrance blogs, reading about the different lines, trying to understand the categories and terminologies and export designations, and eventually it dawned on me that a lot of people were buying samples of the fragrances, not the whole bottle. Oh. Well, okay, that makes total sense. But … where?

eBay is a great place to start; Sellers on eBay have samples of rare, discontinued, vintage or non-export fragrances that you probably aren’t going to find anywhere else. You can buy samples using Buy It Now rather than bidding (FYI, in case bidding drives you crazy), plus a lot of them throw in freebies of other stuff. I like to order several scents from one house (The Different Co., L’Artisan) because that’s the way my mind works. This is also where I’ll violate the Blogger’s Code of Ethics (hah, yeah, right!) and point out that my blogmate Patty is a Professional Scent Slut who sells fabulous niche stuff on eBay, including sample sets of the really cool non-export Shiseidos I reviewed recently. There’s a link on the left side of our homepage or click here. (And yeah, Flora, SL Tubereuse Criminelle should be illegal in the lower 48. A LOT of great stuff probably should be illegal. The DEA’s going to show up any day and take away my Jicky parfum and my Bal a Versailles.)

You can buy samples from a number of online niche perfume stores like Aedes, Luckyscent, or Luscious Cargo for nominal amounts of money ($13 gets you 8 samples plus a couple of freebies from Luscious. Okay, once they sent me somebody else’s order, but they fixed it right away when I emailed them, and I got to keep the 8 mistakes, so I was happy.) Some of the niche perfumers also have their own sample programs.

Where to start?  Just start … anywhere.  Pick something you’ve read about.  Or sample your way through a particular line, if you’ve found one scent there that really appeals.  Or pick a note you like (rose, incense, vetiver?) and sample some of those.

If you already own a bunch of stuff, and you want to trade it for different stuff, check out Basenotes or MakeupAlley, both of which have active swap programs and interesting discussion boards.

Of course, making friends among the other perfume nuts online also leads to endless rounds of share-the-love freebies, particularly if your fellow blogster (not naming any names here, P) happens to own the equivalent of Fort Knox in niche perfumes…. but that’s another story.

Well, now I feel good and a little bad, because there were so many of you and only one set of samples.

The Winner of the Serge Lutens Sample Set is … Jenny! (#11) Congratulations! Email me your address (use the Contact Us) and I’ll get it in the mail. The rest of you: keep trying, Patty’s now threatening to Bust Loose her Mother Lode, and I’m going to have some other giveaways, so far I’ve come up with S-Perfumes, I Love Incense, Out of Africa, Skank Me, Shiseido, Malle…