Hidely ho, y’all!  There is a regular post from me coming later this evening.  Not doing a Note this week because next note is a BIG category that has required some time to acquire, as well as a ton of time to test.  Lord, I reek, and I’m not even kidding, and it’s NOT from my Frankenperfume.  

Just so you know what to expect – The Comprehensive Note guides will be posted every other week just because logistics and the time it takes to write them are sorta, um, you know, time consuming.  If we are on notes with not that many perfumes in the category, we may go to every week. 

 

Check back for something fun later this evening  

Let’s get the winners of the amber sample sets out of the way first.  BTW, I count all comments here, all shares from inside Facebook (can track Facebook Shares if you click on the post, just be sure to tag facebook.com/perfumeposse in it and Tweets, make sure you do a @perfumeposse in the tweet and I’ll count those too as entries!), all comments on the Facebook pages I post it to.

• Mary Ann Deveto
• Irina

Click up there on Drop Us a Note, send me your mailing address, name, remind me what you’ve won, and I’ll send you a quick confirm back that I got your e-mail, and we’ll get this sample set out to you. Congrats, and I hope you both enjoy them.  

If you don’t and you have some of them you really, really hate, guess what?  You can swap them!!  It’s been over six months, and it’s time for a return of…

 

Perfume Posse Swapmania!

That’s right, it’s back!  

Mark your calendars to play in the Fall 2012 Perfume Posse Perfume Swap Swapmania – starting late afternoon Friday November 2, 2012.  

Want to unload some clunkers before the holidays for something that smells great?  Been looking at that drawer of decants and samples you never wear and just ready to try something completely outside the box  – just go wild for a change!  Now is the perfect time to do it with Perfume Posse Swapmania.

Missy March isn’t here to run things this time, but we are going to use her rules, and I’ll post them below for people that are new to this or just those who want a reminder.  You can also go read the first Swapmania Rules and post as well,  

Don’t start yet!  The post for the Swapmania will go up about 5 p.m. Mountain time on Friday, November 2, 2012, so hopefully everyone will have time to play over the weekend. We will leave the comments open for swaps until the following Sunday November 11, 2012, and then they will close – so please make sure you have all exchanging of addresses and e-mails done by then.  

Our Facebook page will also be open for you to list swaps on, just make sure you start a new post on our Facebook page. I know this will leave out some people who don’t do Facebook, but you can post them in both places. 

The Swapmania Rules!

When the post goes up, if you have something to swap, please include: 

• a brief description of the item you’re offering – such as oz/ml size, concentration (EdT, EdP), and any other info you think might be of interest (vintage/partial/used/boxed…) like 

“60 ml bottle vintage Djedi extrait, first issue, not the reissue, full, sealed, in beautiful green box, have great-grandmother’s receipt, want only a small bottle of Pink Sugar in return.”

 or whatever other fantasy you’re harboring, Cupcake. That one is mine.

• If you have several items, please list them as a separate comment. Trust me, it will be much easier to keep track of it.  
• If you want to swap a bunch of samples, just list them all at once as a group in one comment and try and get someone to trade you for samples you don’t have all at once.  If you want to list them separately, you sure may!
• Do NOT refer to a MUA or Basenotes swap list.  Many people here are not members of that community and don’t want to run down some extensive list.  Just copy and paste your list in if you must.  If you can narrow it down so you paste in just full bottles or decants or samples, depending on what you want to swap for, that would be better!  Or exchange those lists by e-mail.
• the country you live in (so people can take that into consideration for customs and shipping expense) and
• whether you are open to receiving NON-PERFUME ITEMS in exchange (see below) or whether you really would prefer only other perfume items.
• You can also say if you are looking for a particular bottle of something(s) –hope springs eternal! 

What can people offer to swap in exchange for your perfumes?  Other bottles/partials/minis/samples etc., or things – see Karma Swap below.   

This will work best if everyone keeps an open mind – let us practice and presume honesty, good intentions, and respect.  

 

PLEASE READ THE FINE PRINT: 

1) Caveat swapper. This is NOT the place to list your bell jar of Iris Silver Mist in exchange for some vintage Joy extrait.  The bottles you list here should be things that, if they’re broken, damaged, consumed by drunken trolls or confiscated by the postal service, you’ll shrug and move on with no massive hard feelings.

 1a)  If you ignore advice in 1), please exchange swapping credentials on other sites or note your user name on MUA or BN so people can check before they agree to swap for a beloved item. If one person has no swapping credentials and the other person has a lot, person without swapping credentials has to ship first (insured and signed for if it’s expensive and irreplaceable), and the other person will ship their end once they get everything and are sure it’s as advertised. It’s just the swapping rulz, sorry.  If you ignore these rules and send an expensive parfum or bell jar or limited edition of something to someone you don’t know, sorry, we can’t do anything about it.  

 

You wuz warned.  

2) Newbies: it is generally illegal to ship fragrance through the US Postal Service (Update: unless you specify parcel post and meet their packing requirements.)  Just pointing that out (we do it anyway). Wrap tight and seal, word your description carefully on customs forms (I go with “cosmetics”), and spend that extra 75 cents for tracking/delivery confirmation on your USPS packages.. If you mail Priority, delivery confirmation is included, I believe.  Buying insurance is largely pointless because – hey, you aren’t supposed to be shipping perfume, remember?  They won’t pay up, and the scents you’re shipping for this swap shouldn’t be worth insuring.  If they are, ship UPS or FedEx and see 1a) above. 

3) I/we will NOT be mediating disputes. I am neither King Solomon nor your mother.  Again, caveat swapper.  If anything went horribly wrong in any Swapmania, we never heard about it.  I think most everyone had a blast.  But if something goes wrong with your swap, that’s between you and the other swapper.  Perfume Posse and I are not responsible or liable. 

4) Make sure the entire swap is complete and both parties say they are happy before you open and start using. 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.”

5) Your swap is not complete until both parties have agreed to it and exchanged contact info. You and your swapper are responsible for figuring out a way to get in touch with each other to exchange details (mailing address etc.)  Many of you already have gravatar IDs that link to your websites, etc.  You can use MakeupAlley (MUA,) FaceBook, LiveJournal, email, whatever.  PLEASE DO NOT type your email addresses into comments; they are collected by spambots.  If you do so, spell it out:  chris dot smith at hotmail dot com  

6) When you have completed a swap, please go back and mark your item as TAKEN.

7) Please remember to behave yourselves; often, two or more people are making offers for the same bottle of Cuir de Russie, and only one person is going to get it (unless the owner wants to split.)  Last time there was some fairly intense competition on certain bottles, and that’s the way it works.  Let’s treat our fellow swappers with kindness and respect.  Once you’ve agreed to a swap and exchanged mailing info, etc., please don’t back out if you suddenly see something pop up that you’d rather have. 

 

If you have bad swap karma, Little TinkerSwapFairy will make your bottles evaporate faster, and  turn all your Guerlain into vinegar.

8) Send your swap in a timely fashion. Once you’ve agreed to do this, send your side of the swap promptly – within three days optimally.  If you’re not going to be able to do so, you need to tell your potential co-swapper ahead of time, hopefully when you post your item for swap or you offer to swap. Transparency on what you can and can’t do is key to great Swap Karma Dust.

9) You can offer NON-PERFUME items in exchange for a listed scent – candles, costume jewelry, stationery, something from your Etsy site, whatever.  To me that makes it more interesting; you’d be amazed at what you might get back.  Exercise caution when swapping cosmetics/foodstuffs with strangers.  

I will be scouring through a lot of things around here and starting off Swapmania on Friday with nonswaps that I’ll post throughout the days it is open, first person responding will take whatever it is I’ll e-mail you for your mailing address and give you mine  – doing the same thing March did years ago –  random bottles/decants/samples that I have and don’t know what to do with to the first taker, who can send me whatever they want in return that is not perfume – I have more than enough, and I wouldn’t be getting rid of stuff if I didn’t have so much.  I love handmade anything – soaps, lotions, baubles, decorated notebooks and journals, as well as stationery, hankies, notecards, vintage stuff, knickknacks you don’t want/like anymore, kitsch stuff, interesting teas, chocolate, trinkets, cute notebooks, pens – seriously, my amusements are many.  If I don’t get something back, no harm, no foul.  If anyone else wants to play this game and offer up a Karma Swap, feel free.

7) In December I will invite everyone to comment about what they got, how the swap went, if we need to change any rules, do it just once a year or whatever!  

 

Okay, so start making those lists, and be ready on Friday!