There’s one way to start with fragrances that you simply cannot get around: you have to smell things. I have spent countless hours sniffing around the fragrance department, or in some cases, the fragrance wall, but sometimes you just can’t win — certain fragrances will be unavailable to you, but you’ll read about them and lust after them, and contemplate buying “fbs unsniffed,” aka full bottles without smelling the fragrance first.
There is a page on a makeup site that I cannot mention (the first rule is that you do not talk about it, hint hint — if you know what I’m talking about, you know. If not, you don’t.) about sample sites; I’ve gone through the list and sorted out the ones that are still valid and not obscenely priced. So though I take credit for some of the effort put into this list, I can’t take it all! I am not affiliated with any of these sites, for the record, nor have I ordered from any of them… yet.
So: here are some sites that sell samples of perfumes. Happy shopping! Just another snippet about that site that cannot be mentioned before we get on with the list; the two most popular place to buy decants for the ladies there are definitely LuckyScent and The Perfumed Court, so take that with a grain of salt!
Not my image, obviously.
- Aedes de Venustas — seven 0.1oz glass fragrance samples for $15 shipped, or free with any purchase. Choose the samples yourself from the niche lines that they stock, or they’ll choose them for you.
- LuckyScent — samples only come in one size, 1/32oz glass vials, and not all fragrances are sampled, but LuckyScent carries many hard to find niche lines. Prices range from about $2-8 per sample, but most are $3-4 not including shipping.
- Sarah Horowitz Parfums — 1/32oz samples from $1.75 for single-note perfumes (parfum formula) to $3.00 for 1/2oz samples of the Sarah Horowitz crème perfume products. Prices do not include shipping, and I don’t see a limit for the number of samples you can order.
- Four Seasons — 1/6fl dram fragrance samples; $10 shipped for four samples or free with any order. (They also sample skincare, loose powders, and liquid foundations in 5 gram jars.)
- Parfums Raffy — glass vials of niche fragrances starting at $1 each, not including shipping. Vials are 1-3ml.
- The Perfumed Court — various sizes, types of vials, etc, of a ton of fragrances. This is definitely the place to be if you’re looking to buy a large variety of samples! They have everything from tiny glass vials to large rollerball decants.
- Sage Jewlery — 0.025oz glass sample vials available for $3.25 per scent, shipping additional.
- BPAL — easily the most popular “natural” fragrance line on the internet, the Black Pheonix Alchemy Lab offers a slew of scents, almost all of which are available in “imps ears,” or simply “imps.” Please see their site for more information!
