I think I have a couple of giveaways to catch up on.
First, the six winners of the Harvey Prince fragrances, and I’ll send these out randomly just by grabbing one from the box: Lisa S, Suzy Q, bookhouseshell, tika, Antje and rosarita. Just click on the Contact Us over there on the left, send me your address, remind me that you won one of the Harvey Prince minis, and I’ll get it shipped out to you!
Then I had 4 Cartier Convoitee samples I was giving out from the week before. So same instructions as above for these four commenters: Fearsmice, Cheryl, Barbara and EileenS.
I know y’all are getting ready to do that SwampMania thing. No, I didn’t spell that incorrectly. It’s just not for me. I used to swap on MUA and BN years ago, but the bad experiences and volume of people wanting to swap run of the mill department/discount perfumes for hard to get, expensive, never discounted scents was just daunting. Worse yet, I had specific things on my wishlist that I wanted to swap for but continued to get the “hey, look at my list and tell me what you’d swap for your ridiculouslypriceddiscontinuedraredoblisdawemesqueirisgris thing.” I’m too nice for swapping, I hated to say no, but to get even close to the correct value, I would have needs a couple of body parts in addition to their ENTIRE swaplist just to make it come out somehow.
So I gave it up and shut down all swapping forever. Then there was the splits. Most of the time, they went great, and I’d probably do one again if anyone could ever get us a cheap bottle of one of those Guerlain rarities that comes in large vats that begs to be split. My favorite split story was a Caron split, and I got a message back that one of the splitters really didn’t like the fragrance and wanted to return it for a refund. Huh. Well, no.
No SwampMania for me, but I admire y’all that do that. Now, I am going to add a note that March probably covers, but someone e-mailed me about. If you swap for a fragrance and for some reason the fragrance you were sending in the swap becomes unavailable because of breakage or something wrong with it, don’t guilt your swappee into taking something they don’t really want so you can keep The Precious. If you want it that bad, and they don’t want something else you have, just offer to pay them the going rate for it or send it back and cry yourself to sleep over the loss. If you’ve been using it with wild abandon and have to send it back, do offer to compensate them for what you have used if it’s beyond just a couple of sprays. The best rule I have, make sure the entire swap is complete and both parties say they are happy before you open and start using.
But I started thinking, if I were to swap, what would I want and what would I swap some of my most precious lovelies for, like the Parfum Sacre extrait and Chaos parfum and Doblis? Some of that latest uber-dollar Guerlain thing that was in that gorgeous big bee bottle (shaped like a bee, not their normal bottle they call a bee bottle) that I sniffed in Paris in November. More Quand Vient La Pluie in the parfum. I have some EDP, which is great, but I looooooved that parfum. I’m sure there are some other rarities out there that I’d swap for, but not that many.
I remember when I first swapped, I was delighted to trade off my unloved bottle of Fracas for a teeny sample or decant of Serge. Those were heady days, the thrill of the hunt. Tubereuse Criminelle was the most elusive. I think it was Marina or Victoria (Perfume Smellin Things and Bois de Jasmin) that were the saints I got that from. I would stalk the MUA lists daily, looking at what they had, what they wanted, working deals to get something they wanted, just to get a sniff of it.
Don’t judge, you know you’ve been in that jonesin’ perfume gutter with me. So your most valued treasure, what would it take to pry a small amount of it out of your hands?
Am I too late to post on this thread? Is anyone else looking for a Gobin-Daude – specifically, Jardins Ottmans? I may be able to help. Just sayin’…
i have tons i have no desire to swap – i *am* a hoarder. feel free to picture me the evil dragon, curled around my treasure. rawr. some stuff that i love that i have plenty of, though, i love to share (i’ve lost count of how much vintage no. 5 i’ve sent around – though that’s not hard to get one’s mitts on). i still haven’t smelled anything close to everything, and stuff i get in swaps is almost all new and delightful to me, so i’m easy to please! i feel guilty, though, giving away something that didn’t smell that great to me and getting something for it that smells fabulous. as if there were an objective standard of smelling value.
I love swapping – have only done it seriously the past couple of years, but I really enjoy it!
I like to share/swap my special stuff with appreciative people, including vintage, but some things are off limits – nobody gets their mitts on my vintage Le Galion Tubereuse extrait; I don’t think I will ever get that lucky again. However, I have accumulated enough Parfum Sacre vintage EDP to share it. (The Extrait is another matter – I have never even SEEN it let alone smelled, so I know how Patty feels! If I ever get any, it ain’t goin’ nowhere!)
What Sweetlife Said. 😡 Swapmania ‘should’ be fun – early on, when it was first conceived, we stressed that you shouldn’t be swapping your Doblis for Daisy – but that went the way of the emu pretty quickly – and I was one of the biggest culprits (hey, it’s not my fault that I simply cannot wear Apres l’Ondee)! Whatever folks want to swap is fine, imo, as long as everybody’s on the same page. Swapmania is like a super-fun version of Musical Chairs, imo – I got into a frenzy last time and swapped for a hat (which I’m still wearing, thanks jen) and cookies and Floyd knows what else. The thing that works for me in this is my laissez-faire ‘tude and I can only swap with folks who approach it similarly. Otherwise it gets to be too much like woik! /:)
but that wasn’t your question, was it? :”> My most valued treasure(s)? Prolly my vintage Mitsoukos. The only thing I think I would swap them for are other vintage Mitsouko, which cancels out the equation, yah? 😕
xo >-)
I lurve swapping, and find it quite magical to send and receive packages from all over the globe, but I find it works best for me in situations like the Posse swap, where it all happens at one crazy time and the community is on the smaller side. Either that or in random little side conversations on the blogs. I’ve been very well treated by MUA people, and like to think I’ve made a few happy in return, but I just don’t have the right stuff to keep a current wishlist, swaplist etc.
Keeping up that list was daunting. I do have to admit that was probably the part that I just couldn’t do. And looking through other people’s lists was the other part i just couldn’t do. That’s why I’d be short and sweet on what I was looking for specifically, but then I think I just sounded mean and sorta angry if I said don’t bother contacting me if you don’t have one of these items, but, you know, that’s what I wanted to say because clearly people thought I wanted Estee Lauder Beautiful for stuff.
MUA has also lost most of the more interesting perfume swappers, the ones that had the deep perfume closets full of things you dreamed about. It’s a shame, but I think just the number of requests I’d get that had no possibilities of working out became just such a time drain, I couldn’t look through one more list full of eyeshadow, skin care and nail polishes just to see what perfumes they had, if any.
I’m really glad that you and Ann have taken the time to encourage us to think about the swap fest coming up–It’s given me the push to consider swapping again. I enjoyed swapping a lot at MUA and never had a bad experience, but then my interest in acquiring new and more stuff waned, and it’s rather difficult to swap high-end for other high-end things (the circle of persons swapping just gets smaller, that’s all).
Right now, I have a small stash of Baccarat Les Larmes parfum (2 bottles in reserve) and a stash of Mona di Orios BNIB that are very precious to me. BUT I would think about sending something to a new home for Cartier XIII. I wore the Cartier in the gardens of Paris this past holiday, and I fell in love. My leather jacket still smells of it. Swoon.
OMG, you do not!
you know, I think having a short-ish list in SwampMania may net you the thing you want – more likely than having it up on MUA or BN, I’m thinking. Our readers cut a wide swath – from people pretty new to perfume to those that have been collecting for years/decades and have an extensive collection. And enough people haven’t been in love with the XIII that someone somewhere is probably willing to swap it or buy it and send it to you for someone they really want.
and if not, well, you get to keep your things, and you can try again.
I may even be tempted to throw out my short list and see what happens.
It was “someone” here in this beautiful world you created via this blog who introduced me to Cartier’s Les Heures collection. Let’s just say, “I Blame Musette.”
All right! So I’m game (plus I’m in town that weekend–which wasn’t meant to happen–so swap on). I think a small list is the only way I could handle it. Too many things (either way, in haves or wants) is just too much for my brain to think about.
Catherine –
It’s fun! Really. You just have to not take it very seriously. When I win, it’s killah! When I don’t, it’s okay, too.
Last year I had a great time, swapping for all sorts of non-perfume things…so much fun!
xo >-)
Woah–non-perfume things?
I just brought in five-plus kilos of tea from Paris, and I have other tea I need to “share” besides.
Hmmmm.
:)
I adored the first swap here, and can say with complete confidence that I was by far the happiest participant, as I was blessed to find a dear lady who reached clear across the world to find that Estonian Christmas chocolate for 3 newly adopted little girls.
And naturally, me being me, I managed to honk up my end of it, but I hopefully made it all come out right in the end! (My partner was also one of the unbelievably generous ones, I got so many extras!)
I especially love it when I am able to send someone something they have been lusting after, and since I only swap things I no longer love, I could care less if it’s an equal swap. I am like you in that I definitely have one thing I probably wouldn’t trade off ( a few mls of Caron Voeu de Noël from TPC!) but anything else I am happy to share. (Not that I really have anything all that great!)
The only thing I am really jonesing for now is a sniff of that vintage Caron Violette Precieuse (sp?) I have been unable to get it off my mind since you gave samples away awhile back!
e-mailed you, dear.
I love hearing the success stories, and I know March does too since she started and perpetuates this thing. I think it was a brilliant idea, and I think it’s even more fun because it only happens every so often.
but I also think our readers are truly outstanding, generous, kind people.
Hi Tammy,
You sent me the most amazing little care package a while back. Garofano and Kenzo Elephant now being much loved scents I found because of you! I have the little gold cardboard box you sent them in still and it serves as a reminded of how good people really can be.
I have a sample of the Caron, (Sorry Patty…it was from you I think. One of your draws. Just doesn’t work on my skin.) Tammy I’d be happy to mail it to you. :)
Joanna, are you sure? How awesome, THANK you!
I sprung for a bottle of Garafano last month and have been meaning to send you a good decant of it; I find it’s a little different when sprayed, and I think you need to try a spray before you buy.
Don’tcha just love this place???
Tammy I am so serious! I’ve been meaning to send you a lil’bit of scent love. I don’t have your email anymore. I’m onyxpaw at hotmail.
More Garofano? That’s like winning the lottery as far as I’m concerned!
hi tammy,
one of the few things i have to swap is some pre-reformulation violette precieuse, so unless patty already set you up, let me know if you’d like some!
i agree with you, the people who did the first swap here at the perfume posse were so nice, so generous. I always feel bad because i haven’t been as generous (or as good at packing) as they. but if i have stuff others want i’m still greedy enough to give swapping another go – there always seems to be just *one more* thing out there that someone else has that I’m *dying* for….
Yayy! I won a Harvey Prince mini, thanks so much!!
I love, love, love swapping. Especially since I realized that:
1. I already own more mls of perfume than I can wear in a lifetime
2. I’m fickle, what was a 5 star, just gotta have last year, could be a 2 or 3 today
3. I’m new enough at this that I want to try EVERYTHING!
4. Since I want to always keep trying new things, 5-10 mls of even much-loved frags would be enough for a long, long time
5. I seem to prefer run-of-the-mill fragrances from 20-50 years ago even to a lot of current (and ridiculously expensive) niche.
What I wouldn’t give for some more Norma Kamali incense and a decant of SL La Myrrhe!
That’s such a great place to be. I really am pretty envious because I remember it. It’s not that I’m not wide open to everything, but when you’ve smelled so much of it, there’s just less you are really seeking. I still have a few things or things that I had and would love to have a teensy bit more of – well, let’s be honest, I truly want a vat of Seve Exquise, but unless one of the Gobin-Daudes shows up here with their personal vat they have in their basement that they want to finally get rid of, it probably isn’t going to happen.
I, too, get more pleasure out of just giving friends a sample of something I love rather than trade it for something ordinary. But I love to read about the swaps!
I live vicariously in the swaps too. Not for me anymore, but I know how much pleasure people get out of trading in something they don’t love anymore for something they really love, it’s a cool thing to watch.
The only things would not swap are the minis as there is so little in them,and samples, for the same reason.
I am willing to decant any of my perfumes. I don’t have a lot of rare stuff, but would send vintage My Sin and vintage No.5 without a qualm. I don’t have delusions of immortality for me or the perfume.
Oh, I agree. But would you do a swap with those two for something you didn’t want, or would you need it to be something interesting for you? Maybe I didn’t frame my question very well, but that’s what I was aiming for. Not that anyone wouldn’t be willing to swap their treasures, but what would it take for you to swap it? Not that it would have to be something rarified, sometime people will swap for something that’s readily available, but they just would rather swap for it than go buy it.
Ooh, I’m so excited to win one of the samples of Convoitee! Thanks so much for your generosity!!!
As for swapping, I’ve never participated in one before — but then I don’t have anything rare to be lusted after. What I do have, I’m happy to share, just as the other commentors above have said.
Congrats on that!
Are you going to play in this one? If you haven’t ever done it, I really encourage people to try it. I agree with others, normally perfume people are so generous and sweet, and it’s just a pleasure to talk to them and work out some trade. I think my problems were really doing it on MUA where you would get nonperfume people that primarily came on for makeup or fashion, they’d hear about a perfume, not really know how hard it was to get ahold of and offer to share their Tommy Girl for it. Nothing against Tommy girl, but I’ve smelled it approximately 7800 times and still haven’t bought it, so I’m pretty sure I don’t want it. 🙂
That’s what I get most miffed at on MUA – I am not a makeup person at all so no thanks on your 100 colors of MAC eyeshadow, and didn’t you see that it says wishlist only? But I have no problem saying no thanks, which I do all the time.
yeah, that’s exactly it. A budding perfumista that is working so hard to get ahold of things, I never could resist and would usually make a swap that wasn’t really what I wanted, but it made them so darn happy.
but I’m a sucker like that, so I just had to stop because I can say no, but not when it is accompanied with such hope of finally getting the thing they really, really, really want to smell that’s been out of reach for them, and if I did, I’d just feel bad, and I don’t like feeling bad. Ack, I clearly have personal issues I need to keep working on. 🙂
I have three collectible perfumes–Secrets de Sophie (which there’s only about 1/4 bottle left), the bisque bottle of MDCI Promesse de l’aube and a 2009 Guerlain Muguetl–that I wouldn’t want to trade, except for something else collectible like an exclusive Guerlain, maybe Attrape Coeur or Plus Que Jamais or Quand Vient la Pluie…you know, collectible stuff.
Everything else I agree with Darryl; sharing is more fun. As the swaps go, I only post unloved things I’d be happy to find another home for, and I’m not particularly concerned with what I receive in return (though I honestly have been just OVERWHELMED by the generosity and kindness of perfumistas in the past two swaps! You will be hard pressed to find a more generous and loving group than the folks here at the Posse!!)
I think I have a bottle of that Secrets de Sophia around here somewhere. I need to try and find it and smell it. 🙂 I bought it from someone else like a year ago, I think, and then I promptly forgot about it sorta.
If you run across some Quand anywhere, let me know.
Agree totally on sharing is better, and most things, as long as it’s not discontinued, I would swap for something else, as long as it was something I don’t have and have some interest in smelling, but for me that list is getting really short, which I think is part of the problem. I feel like breaking out in some fragrance modified version of “Dead or Alive” that goes “and I’ve smelled them all!”
Well, I’m not into swaps either. I tried it a couple of times and though the experiences were not bad, I think the anxiety -will she get my fragrance, will hers be lost in mail, will I like the perfume I got, will she be honest about the exchange (I had to send first and wait for her to get it, as the other person had more points)- plus the whole time the exchange took (over a month), made me put an end to swaps. I decided recently to prune my perfume collection and the best way I’ve come up with, is to give my unwanted perfumes to friends. They get happy and I feel less guilty when buying more:)
I wouldn’t mind sending samples of my perfumes though, I just haven’t convinced myself to go out and buy decanting bottles. My only ‘rare’ to find perfume is after all a 100ml bottle of Cashmere Black that, on the other hand, is not a big favorite of mine. I’d be a little reticent in sharing my Cadjmere, but for the right perfume I’d do it. I wouldn’t share my Ambre Fetich though, as I have only a little left and since I don’t see myself buying a new bottle(it’s the only perfume my husband actually comments negatively EVERY time I wear even though I adore it), I’m trying to hold on to it as much as I can.
I think it was the anxiety for me too. That and the crappy labeling, getting things where the label was soaked and unreadable. or where the swap had to be for the exact dollar. I’m completely fine with anyone who wants to swap that way, but it’s just not me at all.
I’ve got a couple of small vials of super-rare treasures around that have maybe a ml or less in it. For some reason, they haven’t evaporated over the years, and I only keep them for reference, and there’s not enough in there to even split it into two drops. 🙂 I just go stick my nose on them every now and then so I remember what they smell like. Seve Exquise is one. I think there is all of one drop that’s in the form of mist inside of that bottle, but as long as it is closed, I keep thinking I’ll be able to smell it forever.
Oh, I would totally swap something super-rare for Seve Exquise or ANY of the gobin daudes. How could I have forgotten that! I’d even try to split the unsplittable drops to get them.
Ahem. I might be able to help you out with the Seve Exquise thing, and a couple other GD’s Patty. Shoot me an email.
*swoons* e-mailed you! Let me know if you don’t get it.
maybe I should play in SwampMania?
=))
no.
Here’s the thing: I adore my favorite fragrances beyond reason, but I have yet to find one that I daren’t spare even a few mls of just to spread the word and share in the joy of it. The stuff I love, in all areas of life, I hate keeping under a bushel all for mine own. I want to shout from the rooftops how gorgeous Perfume X is, and I want to dab some on your wrist and see your eyes roll back into your head just like mine did, and I want the whole vial to go around the circle so we can all experience this fabulous sensory pleasure. What’s the point in hoarding? Does it really make you feel better than sharing would?
I guess I didn’t really make that clear. Favorite fragrances are one thing, and I’ve shared a ton of samples of my most favorite scents with my friends over the years and given away things that are beautiful but don’t really suit me.
i was really talking about the treasures that you have teeny amounts of and you’ll never see again, like Iris Gris and Doblis, etc. I’ve shared those with friends too, and I give away my own scents on the blog regularly to people I don’t know at all, but I was thinking specifically of swapping with persons unknown for something else and thinking of the things you would entertain swapping them for.
yikes, I must have come across as the most awful miser! I’m not an advocate of hoarding perfumes at all, but I also wouldn’t swap a ml of parfum sacre extrait for a decant of Daisy, much as I like Daisy.
so, really, if you are asking me if hoarding makes me feel better than sharing, I think you don’t know me at all. I also don’t make judgments about how people share or don’t share their perfume. If keeping it when it is something they love makes them feel good, then I think they should. If giving it away makes them feel good, they should do that. It’s their collection, and they should define for themselves how they get the most enjoyment from it.
but I completely get that everyone feels differently and embraces their own view with the most passion.
Oh, gosh no! I’m jumping in here to say that NOBODY who knows you, even in the slightest, could think of you thus. You are one of the most generous people I know!
But I get what you were asking – it’s why Swapmania works so well, imo, if everybody enters into the spirit thusly. You are NOT going to swap Doblis for Daisy, unless (drumroll please) the Doblis-swapper really HATES Doblis, doesn’t want to sell it on the eeeB and just wants it out of their house. I’ve seen it happen. I have gotten some true gems on the ‘mania (and swapped away a few meself) just because I wanted it to go to a good home.
xoxo
Oh, sure, I know. And if you know any Doblis haters that want to dump their juice, send them my way.
I just don’t want someone reading that has problems letting go of some of their rare, precious, impossible to replace things to feel bad because they are picky about what they get in return.
sharing is really cool, but unless one is independently wealthy, you can’t really afford to give away samples of something costing 1200 and up for a 50 ml bottle and going up every day because it’s discontinued. Friends, sure! Useing it up on myself, absolutely! But I wouldn’t swap it unless it was for something I was fairly desperate to get.
The one thing that I cannot find and am convinced no longer exists is a Russian perfume I wore in the 1970s called Laila, which I found in a gift shop that had exotic imported things – from beautiful jewelry to a wave machine (a lucite rectangle filled with biphase liquid, with the lower phase tinted blue, tilting back and forth to make a wave) to a mummified cat. They also had Judith Miller Bat Sheba, but that’s not hard to find. I’ve searched assiduously on ebay and never seen Laila.
Not that Geir or whatever Laila, I assume? I’ve never heard of it!
I know the brand you mean – Geir-Ness. No, this was Russian and came in a rounded bottle with a pointed black top – like the top of an onion dome, I think. I only saw it in that one shop and never again since the 70s.