Following great tradition started by two wonderful bloggers, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) and Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies), once a week I or one of the guest writers will keep the lights on in this virtual leaving room, but I hope that you, my friends and readers, will engage in conversation not only with me or the other host, but also with each other.

Last week we had 135 comments, and the winner chosen by random.org is: rickyrebarco (it looks like it’s your lucky month – maybe you should consider a lottery ticket purchase?). Please contact me before the next SQ post with your e-mail and your choice of a decanter/samples site for the gift certificate.

Saturday Question #2:

What Do You Do With Samples?

It isn’t a question of getting, storing or categorizing samples. I’m curious about what you do once you got them and tested at least once. Do you only spot-test them, or do you give them a full wear? Do you finish samples? If not, how long do you keep them?

My Answer

In my pre-Perfumeland life, when I managed to get mainstream samples (usually with purchases or from store perfume events), I would either finish them using as my perfume (if I liked them) or share with friends and family.

When I started buying samples for niche perfumes, I kept wearing those perfumes that I liked until I would finish them or buy a bottle, but those that didn’t work for me would go into the “Library.”

Later, as my collection grew, I realized that I wanted to wear perfumes that I owned already instead of those that 9 out of 10 times I woudn’t want to add to my collection. So, after testing, I would wear and maybe even finish only those perfumes that I liked enough to consider a bottle purchase. Then there would be a handful of samples that I would mark as “Nice, will use what I have” – and then not really reach for them. But the majority of the samples banished to the “library” would stay there until many years later I’d discover that they either turned or evaporated (while being perfectly safe in those ammo boxes).

I still struggle with letting samples go, even when I know that I wouldn’t want to wear that perfume. To help myself, I’m getting the smallest possible samples to either finish them quickly or at least not to waste too much perfume. And if anything worth sending is left in my tiny samples, I’m trying to pass them on.

How about you? If we get to 100 comments, there will be a prize: 10 perfume samples of your choice from 20 that I’m ready to part with.

What Do You Do With Samples?

Disclaimer: this blog doesn’t use any affiliated links or benefit from any of the G-d awful ads that some of you might see inserted tastelessly by the WP engine inside the post and/or between comments. Encouraging readers to post more comments does not serve any purpose other then getting pleasure from communicating with people who share same interests.

Since I came to blogging from forums preceded by chats, out of all possible types of blog content, weekly free-form discussions always seemed the most attractive to me. But when I started my blog, Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) was already doing Monday Question series, and since the circle of my readers was mostly a small sub-circle of hers, it would have been strange to start a similar feature here. Over the 5 years, Birgit ran it 222 times, collecting on average 66 comments per question (ranging from 4 on her very first one to 169 comments on the pick of her blogging venture).

Almost two years after the last Monday Question on Olfactoria’s Travels, Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies) picked up the idea and successfully ran Saturday Question series for another 2.5 years, which translates in 132 posts with 103 comments on average (min 26/max 241).

With the same idea behind the two series, Portia’s implementation – a live chat/dialog between participants, often not involving the host, had an even stronger appeal to me. But, again, why would I try to compete with a place that many of my virtual friends and readers and I myself frequent? But when Portia announced the closing of the hospitable virtual APJ saloon, I decided finally to give it a try.

So, the question in the title is not the one I’m going to ask as the first question of the Saturday Question series on Undina’s Looking Glass. I am trying it, and by your participating in it or not you’ll let me know how the water in that river on the third time is.

I know that whoever participates in these posts does that not for any tangible prizes, but to honor the tradition and celebrate the pilot episode of the series, if the post gets 50 comments (I’m being reasonable), there will be a prize: a random draw for a $25 (or equivalent in pounds or euro) gift certificate to a decanter service of your choice.

Saturday Question #1:

Do You Know How Big Your Collection is?

Forget decants, minis, samples and even travel bottles. We’re talking big. I mean, full bottles. Not asking you to divulge the actual number of those bottles (unless you want to, of course), the question is: are you aware of that number? Do you know how many bottles you have?

My Answer

Since, as many of you know, I track my perfumes in the database, at any moment I could tell you exactly how many bottles of any kind, decants or samples I have (though, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I can easily locate all of them). But knowing that most of my readers do not have a formal filing system, I tried to guess first and only then checked.

If not to count some “stray” bottles that joined my collection not by my choice (novelty-type gifts or relatives’ cast-offs I couldn’t refuse) or almost empty pre-rabbit-hole bottles that I never plan to finish but keep for sentimental reasons, my estimation was not that far off: I guessed my full bottle collection to be just 7% smaller than it actually is. But even if I were 100% correct, it still would have been a number that does not make any practical sense. And yet, I don’t think I’ll stop completely any time soon.

Do You Know How Big Your Collection Is?