OK Posse! There have been dozens of carded samples on or around my desk for ages. Some of them may have been sitting here for years. Yes, that is the kind of messy MoFo you’re dealing with. Today I thought we could go through a few of them. I’m going to sniff them of blotters first, the top three of the blotters will get a proper wear. Then I’m going to take the remains to work one night and give them out. Hopefully that will be a win for all concerned.
At the end I’d like to read about what you all do with your mountains of carded samples in the comments please. We LOVE it at the Perfume Posse when you comment. We PROMISE to reply to every one in as timely a manner as humanly possible. Half the fun for us writing perfume is the conversation that builds around our posts and the human connections we make.
ALSO, I’d like to let you know that this post has taken about three weeks to create. I’ve spritzed and sniffed as time allowed.
Carded Samples Portia Sniffed August 2026
Adam Levine Man
Considering how fabulous and modern the women’s sandalwood heavy fragrance from Adam Levine is this is surprisingly banal. It’s not bad, very 1970s retro. This is what I expected the grandfathers to be wearing then. Totally barber shop with sharp woods and citrus. It doesn’t smell at all like the notes list and I’m a bit bummed about it.
Eau d’Italie Fior Fiore
Fior Fiore translates as Flower Flower and it is as described. A clear clarion call of white flowers, angelic and pure, with the merest traces of greenery. It’s so beautiful and would make a perfect wedding scent. Like putting your head into a bunch of flowers and breathing deeply.
Giorgio Armani Si EdP (STC Samples)
I’ve always been a bit sneery about Si, not sure why. The squeaky sweet opening is fun and pretty, heavily rose in my nose. The trajectory is very nice too. Jammy rose water cakes and some scratchy woodsiness, is there pepper in here? Apologies for all my sneering. Si is not bad at all.
Guerlain Oud Nude
Guerlain has done some very interesting oudh fragrances. Oud Nude has a really good hit of nutty goodness and a bakery style vanilla pound cake accord. The oudh is restrained and veers only minimally towards Band Aids and a little leather tack room. Here is an oudh for people who like to smell modern and a little edgy but without being punched in the face with oudh all day long.
Michael Kors pour femme Absolu
Can we talk about how fabulous the bottle is? WOW! I want to hold one. The fragrance is OK. I don’t seem to smell whatsoever in the note list. Sure, I get some high pitched berries but they seem to be backed by vanilla woods. Actually, now I’m in the heart I quite like it. That woodsy vanilla with the florals is nice, a little bit tropical even. No groundbreaker but solid effort.
Montale Orient Extreme (STC Samples)
On the market since 2005, Orient Extreme seems to be available in very few online stores. It’s good. Spicy roses and warm metallic woods drizzled over a lovely minty resinous woods base. Warning, it’s nearly eternal and lasted on the tips of my fingers through an afternoon and evening with my regular hand washing and a bath.
Santa Maria Novella L’Iris
Tried this originally at the launch here in Australia. Sadly it doesn’t live on my skin anywhere near as gorgeously as it does on a blotter. On the card it is a cold and frosty, rooty, cardboardy iris with peony petals and soft greenery over a pretty musk. On me, for the few minutes it’s anything, I get an ultra sheer waft of walking past a florist. Then gone. Very annoying
Un Nuit Nomade Murmure des Dieux
I had sincerely high hopes for this after how sensational Chemin d’Amande was. Sadly, this has an accord that reminds me of binge alcohol drinking vomit in the 1990s. Just sniffing it made me queasy. Obviously YMMV, and I feel like a shit panning a smaller niche house. For me a hard no, a hell no.
YSL Libre EdP (STC Samples)
Libre is very nice. Kind of girls wear boysy scents. Though it’s not my style right now it does smell beautifully blended and I like aromatic florals. This could so be a gents fragrance, in fact there’s probably a dozen or so with very similar scent profiles. Libre does it very nicely. I can smell why it’s been popular.
These are not my bought Surrender To Chance samples, every one of the perfumes talked about today has been a GWP or friend passed on to me.
Now it’s over to you. Have you scored any carded samples lately? What do you do with them once you’ve sniffed and rejected?
Portia xx