For years I keep repeating that more brands should release their perfumes in perfumista size bottles – 10-15 ml. Of course, for somebody who has a signature scent or alternates 2-3 perfumes in their day-to-day life, 50 ml, 100 ml or even 200 ml bottles might make more sense both economically and logically. But for anybody who has been “into perfume” for at least several years, not too many perfumes warrant the vats, in which most perfumes nowadays are sold.
Sure, big bottles are great for splits; and decants are nice for getting to wear something without committing your heart or money to a full bottle. But even the best decant – with well-made labels and a good sprayer – is still not as good as a real bottle. And I suspect that, as a rule, it has a shorter shelf life, even if you use parafilm or electrical tape to prevent evaporation: the act of spraying perfume from the original bottle into a smaller receptacle introduces additional oxidation to the juice, which cannot be healthy (should we add a blueberry or two?).
For all these reasons for anything more than 3-5 ml I would rather pay extra price per ml but get a travel bottle from the brand – if the brand has that option.
Surprisingly, when it comes to niche brands, those that offer smaller sizes are still rather an exception than a rule. So I decided to put together a list of the brands that offer smaller (perfumista size) bottles of their perfumes. I won’t include links since those change but it’s easy to find them through a search engine.
The following brands have single bottles for all or most of their perfumes (bottle size is given in parentheses):
- April Aromatics (15 ml)
- Frederic Malle (10 ml)
- Hiram Green (10 ml)
- Histoires de Parfums (15 ml)
- Le Labo (15 ml)
- Sonoma Scent Studio (4 ml & 17 ml)
- Jul et Mad (5 ml & 20 ml)
- Cognoscenti (5 ml)
- Dame Perfumery (5 ml)
- DSH Perfumes (multiple sizes)
- EnVoyage Perfumes (15 ml)
- 4160 Tuesdays (9 ml)
- Roja Dove (7.5 ml)
- The Different Company (10 ml)
- Puredistance (17.5ml)
Several brands have smaller sizes just for some of their perfumes:
- Atelier Cologne (12 different perfumes in 7.5 ml at Sephora)
- Juliette Has A Gun (4 different perfumes in 7.5 ml at Sephora)
- Ineke (15 ml, Floral Curiosities line only)
More brands recently have introduced the “travel” option – probably as a response to the air travel regulations. Unfortunately, those come in sets either of single perfume or of pre-selected (or all) perfumes from the brand. Single perfume sets are easier for friendly splits. Mixed sets defeat the purpose: how often does someone like all the perfumes in the set? I also found two brands that offer customizable mixed travel sets.
Single perfume sets:
- Neela Vermeire Creations (2 x 15 ml)
- Ormonde Jayne (4 x 10 ml)
- Amouage (3 x 10 ml)
- By Kilian (4 x 7.5 ml)
- Byredo (3 x 12 ml)
- Maison Francis Kurkdjian (3 x 10 ml)
- Aedes de Venustas (3 x 7.5 ml)
Customizable mixed sets:
- Hermès (4 x 15 ml sets for both their regular line and Hermessence)
- Tauer Perfumes (3 x 15 ml)
Pre-set mixed perfumes sets:
- Viktoria Minya (5 x 15 ml)
- Maison Francis Kurkdjian (8 x 10 ml)
- Miller Harris (3 x 14 ml and 2 x 7.5 ml)
- Aedes de Venustas (3 x 7.5 ml)
If you know any other brands that offer small bottles in one of these categories, please share in comments. And if you agree that more brands should have perfumista size bottles, keep repeating that whenever you publish a review on your blog or comment on perfume reviews and discussions on blogs, forums, FB or Twitter. Somebody might be reading…
Updates from comments:
- Maria Candida Gentile (7 ml and 15 ml single bottles)
- Zoologist (11 ml single bottles)
- Parfums MDCI (5 x 10 ml customizable set)
- Memo (3 x 10 ml same perfume set)
- Imaginary Authors (14 ml single bottles)
- Maison Anonyme (10 ml single bottles)
- Olympic Orchids (5 ml and 15 ml single bottles)
- Soivohle (10 ml single bottles)
- Ormonde Jayne (10 ml single bottles if you call)
- Profvmvm Roma (18 ml single bottles for some of their scents)
Images: my own
Undina's Looking Glass 