What’s in your shopping cart: What are you THIS close to buying?

shopping cartI think we all probably do it from time to time. We see a great buy online on something, or decide to splurge on a favorite scent or product, and we put it in our shopping cart. Now whether we pull the trigger on the purchase or not depends.

I’ve only done this a few times, but when I have …. I’ve rarely been able to hit the button on the sale. Do I have cold (perfume) feet or what?

In fact, I think I have several sample orders sitting in my Luckyscent cart now, and I’m dithering on whether to go ahead and get them.

I’m usually pretty content with samples and decants for the most part, but there are a few scents I wish I had put into my shopping cart and gone through with a long time ago, like discontinued lovelies such as Guerlain’s Iris Ganache and Attrape Coeur.

And I wish, wish, wish that I’d gotten more than a teensy bit of the Roja Dove Roja as well (alas, a full bottle, if you could find one a year or two ago, could only have been mine had I won the lottery.)

Also, I ponder on and off about getting Hiram Green’s decant bottle of the lovely chypre Shangri-La. (A dear friend gifted me with the HG decant of Moon Bloom, so I’m well taken care of there.)

And my recent long-term 😉 love affair with Amouage Ubar has me sorely tempted, but then the good little angel on my shoulder says, “You know, you’re going to need new tires on your car soon; that is, if the poor old girl holds up a whole lot longer.” (She is — the car, not the angel — 11 now with over 220,000 miles.) Then I find myself praying that she will make it another 2 or 3 years at least and chastising myself for lusting after a bottle that’s in the ballpark of a car payment or several tires. And I’m not telling what the naughty angel on my other shoulder is whispering in my ear about it. See what a mess I am?

But for right now, I’m just making do with my samples and decants and enjoying them with a bit of restraint.

What about you? What items are ready to go in your shopping cart? Or what fragrances do you find seem to go in and out regularly, waiting for you to give the final OK? When you finally do pull the trigger, how do you justify it to yourself and/or your significant other? Do you treat yourself and splurge or do you save, save, save your pennies and then buy?

  • odonata9 says:

    Two things in my cart at the moment, both discontinued so I really should checkout! Annick Goutal Chevrefeuille and CSP Vanille Mokha. Neither is that pricey, but just can’t bring myself to get them since I have decants of both and really don’t need any more.

  • Tara C says:

    Well, I have very little restraint, and I have spent way too much money on perfume this month already, with more planned purchases for next month. I am praying for a good tax refund!

  • eldarwen22 says:

    You don’t even want to know what the hell I have bought the past couple months on E-bay. It’s not even funny the amount of vintages that I had bought even though I used up a bunch of decants. Since this month was a no buy for decants, next month will be a no buy for full or partial bottles. I have today and tomorrow to figure out my last blast for E-bay for the month. Every month, after I factor in bills, I figure out how much fun money that I have to spend. But if I have to factor in trips, it’s a whole lot less. Usually, I make an effort not to go over $100 on perfume but often times, I do go over that. Now, if I could decide on that vintage Mitsouko or that vintage Bal, I’d be happy.

  • Portia says:

    Hey there Ann,
    Maybe I’ve told you this before?
    I do this thing where I work out how much money I have to spend at the end of the month. I go to one of my fave online shops and put everything I want in the cart, sometimes 5 things and sometimes 50. Then I delete things until I get to how much I have to spend.
    Then I close that window and put all the money I have to spend on my Credit Card.
    Afterwards I feel as happy as if I’d shopped and my Credit Card Balance looks better too,.
    Win Win all round,
    Portia xx

  • Julie L says:

    I fuss and fuss over something but usually back out on a full bottle. I just don’t have too much extra $$. And all I want are the old, besties that are too hard to find such as …Theorema; Fendi Fendi; Vin Opium; Must; Perfum Sacre; etc. AND my Precioussss, Vintage Galanos!! Ijust did buy Galanos flanker because it was marked down. What a Huge Ugly mistake!! (insert tears)… The Serene is just a sandlewood musk bomb on me and, of course, a verry strong edP that lasted all darn day. I could hardly wait to scrub! I was heartbroken, thinking it would be a more available version of my love. Not AT ALL. Sandlewood is not my friend unless done perfectly.

  • Neva says:

    Oh Ann, why did you have to mention the tires of all things??? I need a new set of tires as well…ok, if it’s not the tires it’s something in the house that needs to be fixed, or my daughter’s college tuition, or, or, or….
    I do have a certain amount which I’m ready to spend easily, so I buy samples and say to myself: oh look how many toys I got for little money 😉 but actually I’m the type who rather buys a full bottle and bathes in a scent for a while. I actually save money first and buy a FB when I know it won’t hurt too much.
    In my shopping cart sits and waits a bottle of Amouage Epic and a bottle of Creed’s Imperial Millesime.

  • mikasminion says:

    I hate to pay for shipping, especially for just one little bottle, so I end up padding my cart until I’ve gone beyond my budget by a bazillion dollars. I then eye it for a week or so (cursing up a storm if my cart gets refreshed and emptied) and either remove the stuff I don’t need and hit “checkout” or talk myself out of the whole thing. Lots of times if I have had a full cart for long enough I will get a sale email or discount code and just figure it was meant to be 😉 I will admit to being a lot more willing to purchase samples and travel sets than actual full bottles. 100ml of most things is just too much to justify to myself (luckily my husband rarely comments about my problem…er…hobby).

  • Eloquaint says:

    I buy so, so many 1 mL testers, and they give me so much pleasure, that it’s become very hard to justify buying full bottles of anything. If I really lose my heart to something, I buy a 4mL rollerball. There are just too many wonderful perfumes in the world to spend serious money on a lot of just a few-I would rather have some of many.

  • KimB says:

    Coco by Chanel is the one that keeps going in and out of my cart – I never used to like it and tried it again about 6 months ago in a duty free shop because there was nothing else I wanted to try. I finally got what everyone has been talking about! Glorious, plush, fruity aldehydes that dry down to rich spices with rose and that wonderful Chanel jasmine. But I keep doubting myself since I disliked Coco for sooooo long – I still can’t believe I finally fell for it! So I buy another 2ml spray decant (I think I’m on my third), try it whenever I go through a department store or duty free, and keep sniffing in disbelief that I could ever have disliked this! But I’m getting close to splurging…….

    Justify? Well, it is cheaper and healthier than the standard vices as well as compared to numerous hobbies we usually associate with guys/DH;s (racing anything, flying anything, anything on/under the water……) so I have no problem justifying it 😉

  • FeralJasmine says:

    Ann, you are a much, much better person than I am. I need new tires plus several other vital things, but I still have perfume in two different shopping carts and will probably pull the trigger on one of them, just can’t decide which one.

  • Kate (probably a different Kate) says:

    I’ve been hoarding my sample of Matriarch Blackbird, and I was THIS close to buying a bottle (soooo expensive whyyyyy?) when I read Kafkaesque’s review of Slumberhouse Kiste. And now I can’t decide. Blind-buy Kiste? I THINK it will be okay (I didn’t like Zahd or Sadanne, but otherwise Josh is supernaturally keyed to my fragrance loves, and Kafkaesque and I are generally in agreement too) and it sounds so gloriously summery… and yet – Blackbird! I LOVE Blackbird. And I am NOT paying the ridiculous shipping fees to get another sample to tide me over, that’s ridiculous.

    So. That’s where I am, right at this moment.. I was actually just about to go and moon around the House of Matriarch site and thnk about it some more.