In her recent guest post Brigitte… I mean, Pickles asked about unusual perfume bottles in our collections. That made me think about bottles, caps, boxes…

Saturday Question #108:

Are You Willing To Pay More For “Full Presentation” vs. Tester?

Having a choice of a less expensive “tester” version of perfume that you want to get, would you buy it? Or would you prefer a real bottle with all “bells and whistles” even if it meant paying more?

My Answer

In my pre-perfumista years, if I could find a cheaper version at one of the discounters, I would gladly buy and use it. It didn’t really matter to me then since my bottles were done within a couple of years.

But as my collection grew, I discovered that I prefer to keep my bottles in their boxes. So, I usually prefer perfumes in original bottles and boxes.

Two years ago, I decided to buy a bottle of Cierge de Lune by Aedes de Venustas. I found it on Totokaelo website. It was going out of business, so they were selling everything. Discount wasn’t that great at the moment, but since it was one of the last places on the web that has this perfume (I didn’t know then that Aedes would re-launch it repackaged), I decided to buy it before it disappeared.

When the bottle arrived, I discovered with a surprise that, first of all, it was in a wrong box (from Grenadille d’Afrique), and in addition, it had a “Tester” engraving on it (if you look closely, you’ll see it on the back side of the bottle in the photo below).

I was conflicted: clearly, it wasn’t a brand-new bottle, and they inadvertently mixed the boxes, but I did want that perfume, and I couldn’t get it from anywhere else… So, I contacted the site, and we agreed on the fair additional discount. I’m glad that I have this bottle – even though perfume has been re-released. But bar situations like that, I would pay more for the “real deal.”

Are You Willing To Pay More For “Full Presentation” vs. Tester?

I remember that I promised to share more details on the operation “Moms’ Evacuation,” but I’m still dealing with too much to finish the story – I will. Meanwhile, let’s talk perfumes – shall we?

Saturday Question #106:

What Spring Perfumes Do You Look Forward To Wearing?

I know that it’s not Spring yet in many places. But it is getting warmer, and you can feel at least a promise of Spring. Unless you’re in the different hemisphere – then you’ll have to wait a little bit longer.

Are there any perfumes that you rarely wear in different seasons but enjoy wearing specifically in Spring?

My Answer

Our weather suddenly went haywire: it was quite warm for the last week or so (21C/69F), so we were in our Spring already; tomorrow it promises to be much cooler (13C/56F); and by Tuesday they promise almost summer (24C/76F). I was preoccupied with… life, so I missed the change of the season. And now suddenly I realized that I might not get that much time to wear all those perfumes that I love wearing specifically in Spring.

Chanel No 19 extrait and EdT – both are Spring perfume for me. I can wear them all-year-round but usually don’t.

Guerlain Chamade extrait is also one of those that I prefer wearing that time of the year.

Sonoma Scent Studio Wood Violet smells great on my skin in Spring, and I almost dislike it in all other seasons.

What Spring Perfumes Do You Look Forward To Wearing?

We had an extremely stressful week. Tomorrow I’ll publish a detailed account of the events not to keep doing it again and again in private emails to those who were asking me about the situation. But today I decided not to skip the Saturday Question and instead use what has happened as an invitation to discuss the topic.

* * *

With the aggressor bombing Kharkov, the city I was born and grew up in, at some point it became clear that we had to evacuate my vSO’s mother.

Talking on the phone, I was helping my MIL to pack her things for the trip. Since she has not traveled in decades, she didn’t even have a suitcase. So, for the (most likely) one-way trip, leaving everything behind forever, we had to figure out the absolute minimum that she could take with her in a largish bag she had, as a “single small luggage item” she was allowed. It is still winter in Ukraine, so she needed to bring some warm clothes, as well as medicine, water and food for the road. So, there wasn’t much else she could take with her from her previous life. I suggested taking a couple of pictures of her late husband and any jewelry with sentimental value. She isn’t a perfume lover, so the question of perfume didn’t come up.

I tried to imagine what I would have done in this awful situation. Having very limited space, leaving everything behind and running for my life, what one bottle from my collection, if any, would I have taken with me?

Saturday Question #105:

What Single Perfume Would You Take With You?

Hoping to never find ourselves in such circumstances and not playing our usual perfumistas’ games of creative counting or sneaking in some extras, being brutally honest: having 5 minutes to decide and extremely limited space, knowing that you would never get back, do you think that you would have taken with you any one of your perfumes? If yes, which one and why? If not, why?

My Answer

Even without having to move, I was so busy coordinating the evacuation and under such enormous stress that for several days I didn’t even think about perfumes. But once my MIL got to safety, I immediately went back to wearing perfumes. This tells me that my love for perfume is very deep, and even in such a horrible situation, not having anything with me at all, once I had calmed down a little, would have added to my unhappiness. So, if I had a chance (and not all people in Ukraine do – some have to leave their houses to hide just to come back to the black hole in the building where their apartment was), I would have taken with me a small bottle of my all-time perfume love, Climat by Lancome. Probably not even to wear, at least initially, but to be able to smell something that I loved back when my previous life wasn’t shattered by the crazy egomaniac.

How about you?

What Single Perfume Would You Take With You?

There are almost no doubts when it comes to full bottles. I say “almost” because I could never figure out how to classify 10-15 ml bottles of pure parfums. But other than that, it’s clear. Travel bottles are also self-explanatory. But what about decants?

Saturday Question #102:

What Do You Consider A Decant?

Clearly, any amount of perfume transferred from the original brand’s bottle into a generic vessel is a decant by definition. But on your personal scale, where does the demarcation line go between a sample and a decant?

My Answer

When I tried to answer my own question, I realized that my logic isn’t that straightforward. In my perfume database, everything under 2 ml I classify as a small sample; 2 ml+ is marked as a large sample; 5ml and up is a small decant; and everything 10 ml and above is a large decant.

But when talking to others, I consider 2.5 ml and below as a sample, and everything larger is a decant (terminology-wise, I always try to talk in ml).

Is it important? Not on its own, though from my experience I learned that when dealing with others, it might be useful to establish a common ground. I remember how many years ago I was swapping perfumes with another perfumista. It wasn’t a formal swap but rather a friendly exchange of perfumes one of us had and another wanted to try. So, we didn’t do any usual dance people do for a formal swap. We just discussed what we would exchange, the word “dacant” was used during email communications, and then packages went to their destinations. It was one of the first few perfume exchanges I’d done ever. So, I carefully decanted and packed several 4-5 ml spray bottles with perfumes we discussed and was eagerly awaiting for the package with treasures for me. Back then, my collection was much smaller, and I was regularly wearing perfumes from samples/decants. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I unpacked 4 or 5 half-full 1 ml dabbers. In my swapping pal’s defense, she was coming from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab World where, as I know, it was customary to exchange 0.2-0.3 ml (since those were oils sold in small bottles to start with).

Since then, I always talk milliliters, even though now if I exchange anything with anyone, it’s with people to whom I don’t mind sending samples/decants without getting anything in return, so terminology is immaterial. Ironically, these days I prefer getting 0.7-1 ml samples for most perfumes I want to try and rarely 2.5-3 ml decants of those that I consider buying but want to wear a couple of times first.

What Do You Consider A Decant?