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
I have way too many carded samples – I have taken to putting the ones I don’t want in a small bag to be included in one of my ” we’re downsizing and I mean it this time” bags for charity. Not sure what happens to them, but I hope someone enjoys them. Donating to women’s shelters or food pantries is also nice.
Of course sometimes I just use them up myself or send them with other packages to my sister or daughter in law.
The charities must LOVE them MaggieCat.
Bet your family does too.
Portia xx
That’s a great idea- one of those little things that can mean so much to people who are in need.
Hey Portia! I loved this post. Just tried to comment and it didn’t post. My thoughts are meaningless! I’ll see if this works.
Heya Pam,
HA!
I’m glad you tried again.
Sadly WordPress has glitchy moments. We suffer them too.
Portia xx
I haven’t gotten any recently (just StC samples recently) but the ones I don’t drain I will pour onto a cloth and just stick somewhere to scent the place.
This is a really good idea Tom. You and Maya are reading minds.
Portia xx
I didn’t talk about samples in my previous comment because I already mentioned what types of things I do with them, but I just now caught myself doing something I never mentioned. When I want to quickly freshen up the kitchen, I take a paper towel – ones that you can tear in a small size – and fold it a couple of times and pour samples that I like but don’t want on it……Now that I think about it, it would work other places too.
FABULOUS idea Maya.
Oh LORD the sample situation. We’d dialed it down for awhile — “let’s just wear what we have!” — but at the moment I have a bunch of them completely un-tried, and a big shopping bag I’ve been tossing them into randomly. If I can’t see them, I can pretend they’re not there 😀 Fior Fiore sounds like something I would love at this stage of my life.
HA HA HA HA HA!! I love that they are accumulating but you are completely ignoring them March. that is HILARIOUS.
Portia xx
Fior Fiore is GORGEOUS, especially if you like jasmine. I agree with Portia…so pretty.
Nothing to add re: carded samples. Simply dropping in to say how much I admire and adore your kindness and inclusiveness, Portia. You are the genuine article when it comes to rays of sunshine.
Hear, hear! What a lovely comment. Sometimes it feels like talking into the void, and it’s a pleasure to have thoughtful comments like yours.
Thanks, March. It feels (to me, anyway) that we live a lot of our lives online and, as a result, sometimes lose sight of the fact that behind the content we see exists another human being, just like ourself. Granted…I am no saint but part of my daily practice in life is making an effort at being mindful.
MzCrz. You have made my day even brighter. thank you.
Also, thanks for dropping in.
HUG
Portia xx
Very interesting about the Un Nuit Nomade. I like the name of the house but never got interested in one enough to try. You didn’t help. LOL. One is sensational, one is a great big NO, noooooooooo!
Just the name, Guerlain Oud Nude took me aback. I think of minimal with the “nude” part and the exact opposite with the “oud” part. I does sound like pretty nice perfume though.
Ah, samples. Where would we all be without them. I have an order in the mail now. PS, it includes NVC Neith!!!!
OOOOHHHH! So excited for you to try Neith Maya.
We now have an Australian etailer that has the brand.
VERY exciting.
Portia xx
I’m side-eyeing my own mountain of carded scents ( looking at YOU, Coty)… and I’ve been too distracted to even consider testing right now ( porch, garden and stalking ( other people’s gardens)
Often I’ll do a Posse giveaway, which is obviously easier for me bc USA!USA!
HA! We ALL have too many. We are creatures of the era of accumulation. Musette.
Portia xx
Portia,
What a fun project! And what a bummer the SMN L’Iris didn’t have any staying power. That one sounded the best to me.
As for my system of trying and storing samples, well, it’s a bit haphazard. I have a wee basket that I put current ones in, and that sits on top of two small chest of drawers that are only 29″ tall. They used to hold doll clothes in my daughter’s bedroom when she was a girl! Now they’re the perfect size for holding samples. The drawers are labeled alphabetically, and I file them by designer/house. If I’m making up a package of scent samples to send to a fellow perfume hobbyist, I’ll grab a bunch to add to the package.
WOW! That doesn’t sound haphazard at all DinaC. It reads like a very simple and effective arrangement.
Do any of the currents get used up or do they all end up in the drawers?
Portia xx
Yes, sometimes I do use up samples completely, and those end up going on my wish list (30 scents and ever-growing!). The ones I’m not so keen on get filed.
30 perfumes on the list sounds like a sensible amount. Do you order them by desire or discovery?
Those drawers sound FABULOUS!!!
And they’re very girly and “twee” as well. Painted white with blue and pink ribbons painted on them. And every drawer knob is a 3D rose. My mom found them in a thrift shop — bonus!
O M G! They sound utterly amazing. Lucky you.
Putting that Guerlain on my to try list just because it sounds like someone actually thought the composition through. Ie, not all oud has to slap you in the face.
This could definitely float your boat Cinnamon. If I didn’t already have a bunch of vanilla and oudh it would probably be on the To Buy List.
Portia xx
Yay! First comment goes to someone who is at best a sporadic commenter but a dedicated lurker 🙂
I just got some carded samples from my mom, who had received it with past purchases and had been holding on to- she would typically pack them into care packages to our relatives overseas but sending things has gotten chancey and spendy so she let me have my pick. I took away Chanel Chance Vive to play with, having decided that I need to explore this line which I had, in past, decried as too juvenile to bother with out of sheer (undeserved) snobbery.
I love to have random samples to sniff and give away during perfume get togethers. I also find samples very convenient to travel with – a forced way to use up something, an almost never event at home 🙂
AND… how did Chance Vive go Anna? Was it success?
I love to take samples and decants away too. Always a fun lottery.
Thank you for joining in. I can not even begin to express how happy it makes me when people share and chat.
Portia xx