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Where is the best place (store or internet) to get free samples or where to buy fragrance samples!

post #1 of 11
7/5/10 at 2:35am
Thread Starter 
Dear Basenotes community!

I am new to Basenotes community and i am very happy and proud to be one of you now. So, please be patient with me and with my posts - threads, because i have a lot to learn. I love fragrances and to discusse about them. I think that i have found a FRAGRANCE PARADISE here.

I dont own so much fragrances, only about 5 now, but i love to smell fragrances and appreciate them. I would love to become a wise fragrance collector one day.smiley:

I come from beautiful and small country Slovenia and work as librarian.

Hi to everybody here and enjoy your fragrances! smiley:

And here is my first thread and question:

Here in Slovenia is very hard to get free samples (mini fragrance testers) of certain niche and designer fragrances, like Frederic Malle, Comme de Garcons, Hermes, Guerlain, Chanel, Diptyque, YSL, and....... because i would love to test a fragrance before buying. smiley: And as i know, we dont have any(maybe i am wrong, so please help me) boutiques who sales this niche fragrances and sometimes is also hard to buy some certain designer fragrances, like Thierry Mugler and others. It is also very hard to get some free samples of designer fragrances in our fragrance stores. If you buy something , then you get one fragrance sample for free, but if you just ask for free sample of certain fragrance, then you are lucky to get some. I dont know, maybe i just dont have a luck with this things or i just need some different plan smiley:!

Macys and Sephoras stores, please come to our country smiley:! It would be great!

I have read a lot beautiful rewievs about Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur, Terre d Hermes perfume version, Thierry Mugler-Pure malt, Pure coffe, Comme de Garcons Man 2, and .......i would love to smell them one day, but here there is no store to find them smiley:.

So, please, i want to know, where is the best place (store or internet) to get free samples of certain fragrance and where to buy cheap some samples of certain fragrance.

Thanks!
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post #2 of 11
7/5/10 at 2:45am
I can't speak for everyone, but I paid for most of my samples. A great starting point is ebay. I don't know about shipping to your country however. Try to find stores in your country that have an ebay store. To help with shipping costs, it's not usually ecomonical to just get one sample. Sometimes certain ones can be had cheap though. Some sellers have bulk sample auctions that let you get an assortment of samples for about $2 each. However, I don't know your countries shipping costs, so it's hard to say.
For niche samples, try luckyscent.com. Gendarme.com sells samples of their products at a reasonable price. Who knows, maybe you'll befriend a basenoter and he can send you some homemade decants!
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post #3 of 11
7/5/10 at 5:30am
First off, Welcome to Basenotes! I think a good starting point for you would be TPC.
Luckyscent also offers samples for a few dollars each. You could also check out basenoters "off-site" sales. Good luck on your journey , look forward to lots of fun.
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post #4 of 11
3/18/12 at 10:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wooznib View Post

First off, Welcome to Basenotes! I think a good starting point for you would be TPC.
Luckyscent also offers samples for a few dollars each. You could also check out basenoters "off-site" sales. Good luck on your journey , look forward to lots of fun.

Luckyscent is a great online source and once you start buying full bottles for them they send you plenty for free. You can also buy decants from the Perfumed Court. I bought a lot of samples at first through Amazon.com, which represents a large collection of smaller on-line dealers. I think most of these places offer international shipping.
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post #5 of 11
3/18/12 at 10:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BurgundyMarsh View Post

Luckyscent is a great online source and once you start buying full bottles for them they send you plenty for free.

Yes they are very generous with samples when you purchase from them.
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post #6 of 11
3/18/12 at 10:46am
fragrancevials.com is my personal favorite.
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post #7 of 11
3/18/12 at 11:41am
eBay
Luckyscent
The perfumed court
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post #8 of 11
3/19/12 at 10:46am
fragrancevials.com has good prices but poor selection
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post #9 of 11
3/20/12 at 10:46am
aedes has high end samples, $15 for 7. Other than that luckyscent is kind reasonable. Sephora will make you decent sized samples.
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post #10 of 11
3/20/12 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by starshipvelcro View Post

aedes has high end samples, $15 for 7. Other than that luckyscent is kind reasonable. Sephora will make you decent sized samples.

Wait, what...I taught there prices varies by sample to sample?
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post #11 of 11
3/21/12 at 5:24am
Welcome ! Here you will learn very quickly if you read a lot. I am registered here for 3 months and when I talk with the vendors in perfumery, I am asked if I work in the industry. ;-)

For Europe, some online stores have pretty expensive shipping costs or do not sell.

My top 3 for buying samples:

1. ausliebezumduft.de (they have a large collection and usually sell samples of 1.5 ml / 2.5 ml)
2. Luckyscent.com
3. theperfumedcourt.com (sometimes very expensive)
4. myperfumesamples.com (good for designer)

Chanel Exclusive: Very hard to get, I had to write to the Director of Chanel Switzerland to get it. Try with Chanel Slovenia.
Frederic Malle: If you write to Frederic Malle, they will offer three 2.5 ml for 20 €
Hermes: Very easy. Request some samples in a Hermes boutique.
Annick Goutal: send a mail to goutal and request 5 samples, they send for free.
Knize: Same thing, writing a nice mail and they will send you some samples probably.

For samples in perfumeries or in department stores, it's a lottery. There is an independent perfume in my city where I buy the perfumes that are not cheaper on the web (Chanel, Serge Lutens, Guerlain ...). I can ask anything, they give me or fill a vial.
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Basenotes › Basenotes Forums › Fragrance Discussion › Just Starting Out › Where is the best place (store or internet) to get free samples or where to buy fragrance samples!