The Start
It was 2021 and my interest in fragrances got a massive boost and I started my journey that I’m still walking today. I was just like most people – only having the bare minimum at my disposal to smell and sample from my local Macy’s and Nordstrom but feeling like I was suffering from a severe level of fomo. How are all of these people smelling these amazing fragrances and I can’t??
Where my interest got piqued was with Creed Aventus. Yes, I know, the fragrance that usually is on everyone’s minds and on their wish list. Starting out with only having fragrances like Jean Paul Gaultier, Acqua di Gio and Bleu de Chanel become limited over time and eventually you REALLY want to branch out and try new things. This was everyone’s thought with Creed Aventus. Everyone sees this as the “ultimate” fragrance that you should own, and I often questioned if it was a status symbol or if it really was as good as they say it was. I was determined to find out but not spending $400 on a bottle level of determined. No chance Bubba.
My friend and I went into a local shop in the mall that just so happened to have Creed Aventus in their store for sale, and we asked the question – “can we smell it?”. Their response was yes, but we couldn’t spray it (basically…sniff the atomizer and that’s all). They were uber strict about this. My friend and I naively just sniffed what we could, but it wasn’t the same. We thought that it was so expensive, that one spray must be THAT much money that the store just didn’t want to lose those precious dollars. We left the store confused, empty inside, and just wanting to have the ability to smell what we want, when we want with no restrictions.
So, I went out on an adventure to find a place that let you smell the fragrance for what it is, without just smelling the atomizer. I wanted full access to a fragrance to spray wherever, however and whenever I wanted for a reasonable price. This did in fact lead me to Decant House.
My first purchase from them was a small order and it wasn’t really anything special but was more importantly fragrances that I really wanted to sample and had zero access to in my area. I placed my first order and received it fully surprised that I paid only $13 for two high-quality fragrance samples shipped to my door, and they were mine. A piece of an expensive unattainable fragrance was now in my mini collection. I was hooked on decants.
My journey only continued from there. My first order of two then turned into orders up 10 or 12 fragrances at a time – all fragrances that you simply could not walk into a store at that time and sample. And this, my friends, is why shopping for decants of fragrances is so important.
The Increase
If you take a look at the economy today and where we are with pricing of things, there are at least two fragrances that really stick out to me. One of them is Bleu de Chanel and the other is Louis Vuitton. Bleu de Chanel was one of my first high-end purchases from Macy’s and I remember the price of a 3.4ml bottle of the EDP was $120 plus tax. That same bottle now is priced at $165 plus tax. Louis Vuitton prices have gone from $300 for 100ml up to $350 for the same bottle. Now, luckily these fragrances are easily attainable for you to smell them before you buy them, but there are more fragrances out there like Fragrance du Bois, or Initio Parfums, or even Parfums de Marly that aren’t as readily available to most people, and where do you turn to sample these? Do you just buy the bottle outright and push your luck? How about watch a YouTube video or two and see what people think?
I’m seeing more and more people blindly buying fragrances based off of hype and not off of preference. The cost of goods are too high for you to be playing Russian Roulette with your fragrance buying decisions. You need to do the all so familiar “try before you buy” method. Maybe a few years ago when fragrance prices weren’t as high a decision like that was not that big of a deal, but when you spend upwards of $1500 for three fragrances that could turn out to be a total flop isn’t worth it.
Going off what other people think and what other people smell are not real-world results. Everybody’s skin and oils are different, so what a fragrance may smell to one person will in no way smell the same to another person. You may be at a restaurant and smell and wonderful fragrance on someone and ask what it is and then try it out for yourself and the result will almost never be the same result. Don’t get me wrong though, I LOVE watching people’s reactions on YouTube to see what they think of this fragrance and how they really love that fragrance and try to describe to the viewer what it smells like. These are good, but don’t let this be your green light to buy.
The Play
If you want to have a collection of cohesive and perfectly curated fragrances, it’s without a doubt the best move to start relying on decants. Even if it’s a fragrance that you had zero interest in trying or smelling – give it a try. The prices of decants are so much lower than the full-bottle risk that it’s just a no-brainer. You never know, you may find something that you really like but everyone around you hates. Or you may find something that some would strongly agree is your signature scent. But you’ll never know unless you try them out.
Don’t waste your hard-earned dollars on full-priced full-bottled fragrances without grabbing a decant first. The worst thing you can do is have buyer’s remorse and the way to avoid that is to just flat out avoid it altogether. Go to a store, smell what they have, do your research, find someone to bounce ideas off of, try a fragrance on your skin, don’t use test strips, try other concentrations of the same fragrance to see which is best for you, and most importantly of all – have fun with it. Don’t let it be a gauntlet or a competition of whoever has the most bottles wins. Curate a perfect collection for you, your situations, and your interests – but start with decants. Trust me, you’ll thank me later.
