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Why I like The Perfumed Court

post #1 of 24
11/13/11 at 1:10pm
Thread Starter 
Some have complained the decants are expensive but I like to buy samples there
as yes they are pricey but I can get a whole bunch, decide what I like and then look on the Crystal Flacon to see if anyone has decent prices on decants.

It is sort of an all stop shopping place. If I had to hunt down samples from different individuals, they might be cheaper but I would have to pay for shipping from many different people and that would get expensive.
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post #2 of 24
11/13/11 at 2:49pm
If you like the service and the products you order - that's all that matters.
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post #3 of 24
11/13/11 at 3:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hednic View Post

If you like the service and the products you order - that's all that matters.

I really like that place.
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post #4 of 24
11/13/11 at 5:27pm
i was going to order from there, how are the decants sprayers?
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post #5 of 24
11/14/11 at 10:34am
I'm a regular. At least with them I know what I'm in for. I once bought from CF & the supplier (a big eBay seller) sent me sealed & opaque silver 10 ml decants, one of which ran out after a few sprays. Needless to say, I felt cheated...
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post #6 of 24
12/29/11 at 8:32am
The advantage of The Perfumed Court is that there is a huge selection of samples that you wouldn't find anywhere else. They're also trustworthy: I was happy with all of my orders.

The disadvantage is that their samples are pricey and have a flat $5.95 s/h rate. This sucks for me because I usually order one sample at a time. So if I buy a sample for $8.99, I'd have to pay another $5.95 for shipping. So it wouldn't really be ideal for me.

Their shipping is also slow (at least from my experience). It usually takes about 2 weeks for me to receive my shipment. When I order from eBay sellers, I usually get my shipment within a week.

What I do now, is that I first try to buy my samples from eBay. If I really want a sample that isn't on eBay, I can either wait until it does get there, or buy from The Perfumed Court.
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post #7 of 24
12/30/11 at 11:43am
Thanks for sharing, worth considering
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post #8 of 24
12/30/11 at 11:55am
This is why I like the perfumed court.



Oh, and the candies they send are awesome too.
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post #9 of 24
12/30/11 at 1:18pm
Where are you going to get extraits of Gulerlains, or the urn perfumes from Caron? If you shop strategically, meaning make a wish list and pounce when they announce a sale, you can get stuff for an affordable price.
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post #10 of 24
12/30/11 at 3:52pm
They provide a service that few others do. I think there are 3 owners that work there. One of them is great--providing more than generous samples that are well-packaged and cared for. Another does a decent job. And there is one employee that consistently provides the bare minimum.

Overall, it's a good place. And we are at their mercy, in a sense, because there are few other businesses that do what they do.
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post #11 of 24
12/30/11 at 5:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buysblind View Post

Overall, it's a good place. And we are at their mercy, in a sense, because there are few other businesses that do what they do.

I agree that they have a huge selection that can't be beat. However, there are other places that offer cheaper prices, like eBay, Beauty Encounter, and Lucky Scent.

Lucky Scent has a lot of niche samples at a cheap price. I've never ordered from them before, but plan to do so soon.
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post #12 of 24
12/31/11 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliDude View Post

Lucky Scent has a lot of niche samples at a cheap price. I've never ordered from them before, but plan to do so soon.

From LuckyScent you only get small vials, no spray samples, so be warned. You don't get the full impression of a scent by dabbing from a vial.
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post #13 of 24
12/31/11 at 9:13am
Perfumed Court has a very good selection, excellent packaging and also have sales at times. They also do packages, which is nice when sampling fragrances from 1 house, I've always gotten my samples within a week and I like that they offer different sizes. Luckyscent samples are usually .7ml vials, so you have to use your own atomisers, but they are good as well. CF and eBay are OK for larger decants, but no individual seller will have the selection of PC, which means you will pay more due to shipping in the long run.
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post #14 of 24
12/31/11 at 9:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by furrypine View Post

From LuckyScent you only get small vials, no spray samples, so be warned. You don't get the full impression of a scent by dabbing from a vial.

Yep, I know. Ever since I found out about decanting, I don't mind getting vials. I simply pour it into a spray decant and then can spray it from then on. I also did notice that the LuckyScent sample is only .7 ml, so I was planning on getting two.

For example, I'm eyeing on purchasing samples of Amouage Jubilation XXV from LuckyScent. If I were to get two .7 ml samples (1.4 ml total), I would pay $8. According to the website, s/h for samples is just $4. Thus, for a 1.4 ml sample, I'd end up paying a total of $12.

If I were to get that same fragrance from The Perfumed Court, a 1.5 ml spray vial costs $11.50. There's also a flat s/h fee of $5.95. Thus, the total would be $17.45.

So on one hand I'd pay $12 (from LuckyScent), and the other hand I'd pay $17.45 (from TPC). Unless, there's some negative aspect of LuckyScent that I don't know about, to me, it's a no-brainer to go with them for my samples.
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post #15 of 24
12/31/11 at 12:44pm
I love the perfumed court. In fact, they, in effect, jumpstarted my wardrobe. When I first started out, you good people would suggest perfumes based upon my interests, etc. I would order many at a time from TPC. And those three sweet ladies (who live in different citites) always include little candies nice organza bags (as an aside). Anyway, no one else (that I know of) has the selection that they have. However, now that I order perfume EVERY MONTH from Luckyscent, and they give free samples with each purchase, I haven't had to go to TPC for a while. However, I have spent hundreds of dollars with them in the past, and will again, on the samples that Luckyscent doesn't carry. Yay to the perfumed court!
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post #16 of 24
1/10/12 at 2:58pm
Hi. New to basenotes and fragrance-collecting. About 2 months in I already have 18 samples, with 10 more coming, most from TPC. Love TPC, but hate wrestling to open 1 ml vials, and am too cheap to get 1.5 sprays, (so far, about 60% I either reject outright or am pretty "meh" about, and this first phase seems to be about educating myself anyway). Someone mentioned transferring to sprayers. Where do you get 'em (TPC has sprayers, but big 'uns), and can they be cleaned adequately and reused? TIA for any help. P.S. I've already visited the "addicts" forum. More fodder for my OCD tendencies...
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post #17 of 24
1/10/12 at 5:46pm
Thread Starter 
@1dita I don-t think you can adequately clean out those samples vial and reuse them.
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post #18 of 24
1/10/12 at 6:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1dita View Post

Hi. Someone mentioned transferring to sprayers. Where do you get 'em (TPC has sprayers, but big 'uns), and can they be cleaned adequately and reused?

Welcome to Basenotes!

I buy 2.5 ml plastic atomizers with a snap-on sprayer from Accessories for Fragrances. I see they have 3 ml ones with screw-on sprayers on special, also a pretty good deal. I don't reuse them because they retain the smell of the previous perfume. Glass atomizers can be cleaned, but the sprayer part still has plastic components which retain the odor.

Some say they clean them with grain alcohol, but so far nothing has really worked for me. But you can try it. Perhaps they need to soak a longer time. But grain alcohol is also not free, cleaning them is a bother and the atomizers are cheap enough that I'd rather just buy them in bulk. Sooner or later we use them; in fact I just ordered more a couple of days ago.
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post #19 of 24
1/13/12 at 1:39pm
Thanks "smoke" and "roses." Great resources and info.
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post #20 of 24
1/13/12 at 4:24pm
Too expensive for me.
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post #21 of 24
1/13/12 at 5:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliDude View Post

For example, I'm eyeing on purchasing samples of Amouage Jubilation XXV from LuckyScent. If I were to get two .7 ml samples (1.4 ml total), I would pay $8. According to the website, s/h for samples is just $4. Thus, for a 1.4 ml sample, I'd end up paying a total of $12.

If I were to get that same fragrance from The Perfumed Court, a 1.5 ml spray vial costs $11.50. There's also a flat s/h fee of $5.95. Thus, the total would be $17.45.

So on one hand I'd pay $12 (from LuckyScent), and the other hand I'd pay $17.45 (from TPC). Unless, there's some negative aspect of LuckyScent that I don't know about, to me, it's a no-brainer to go with them for my samples.

I need to quibble that your calculation assumes that you're only getting one thing from TPC, and it ignores the cost of providing your own sprayer. If you got several spray samples from TPC, thus spreading the shipping cost among all the samples, there are scenarios where you end up ahead with TPC.

But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't use LuckyScent - I love LuckyScent. LuckyScent is my place for a first sniff of currently available niche perfumes, and for buying the occasional one that I love enough for a full bottle. TPC is my place to get decants of the ones that I don't love quite enough for (or don't have enough money for) a full bottle, my place for getting bits of vintage when I don't know enough to brave the wilds of eBay on my own, and also my place to get a "research" sniff of things that are hard to get, to see if I want to make the effort to get them.

And when I'm ordering anyway, it's not that rare for me to get a spray sample from TPC even when I could have done the two-samples-and-my-own-sprayer thing from LuckyScent cheaper - sometimes it just seems worth it to save me the trouble of prying open lids and puttering with sprayers and writing labels, and I think supporting a resource as valuable as TPC is worth it in general. I don't fume about how high their prices are, I worry about how low they are, because I'd hate for them to decide, bleah, it's just not worth it any more.
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post #22 of 24
1/13/12 at 10:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1dita View Post

Hi. New to basenotes and fragrance-collecting. About 2 months in I already have 18 samples, with 10 more coming, most from TPC. Love TPC, but hate wrestling to open 1 ml vials, and am too cheap to get 1.5 sprays, (so far, about 60% I either reject outright or am pretty "meh" about, and this first phase seems to be about educating myself anyway). Someone mentioned transferring to sprayers. Where do you get 'em (TPC has sprayers, but big 'uns), and can they be cleaned adequately and reused? TIA for any help. P.S. I've already visited the "addicts" forum. More fodder for my OCD tendencies...

I get them from ebay. Seller is seattle_4: http://www.ebay.com/sch/seattle_4/m.html

The seller is legit, bought from her a couple times without any issues. I heard about the seller on a Youtube review. I bought plastic decants from her, and she sells it a pretty cheap price.
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post #23 of 24
1/26/12 at 9:57am
I like the idea of The Perfumed Court, but Luckyscent's customer service is SO MUCH BETTER. If I order samples from Luckyscent on Monday I'll have them in hand no later than Thursday (shipping from LA to Atlanta). I've routinely waited over a week to receive samples from The Perfumed Court. I'm just not a fan of TPC but they will get continue to get business (not mine) because their inventory is so vast.
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post #24 of 24
1/26/12 at 4:12pm
Calidude, your ebay supplier is the same as 30roses' Accessories for Fragrance. I ordered from them and would recommend: they were fast, allowed me to switch same-priced items after I'd placed my order but changed my mind, and when one of the items I paid for wasn't available, they refunded more than the cost of the item! I love my new roller-ball 1.2ml bottles, which I use for the samples I've tried enough to know are definite or possible thumbs-ups. I like to use minimal amount of scent, so sprays are only for weaker juice, or for my husband 'cause of his chest hair! Though it's not the very cheapest way to test scents (adds over $1 once you factor in shipping), it beats a daily wrestling match with those wicked vials, especially when I have unscented moisturizer left on my fingers. I think the teeny roller-ball bottles will also work great once I work my way up to the expensive pure parfums.
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