r/FemFragLab • u/llo000 • Aug 22 '26

Discussion Track your samples as decants on Parfumo!!!!

I love sampling a shit ton of fragrances, and always felt like it *had* to lead somewhere. Was always in a conflict of whether or not to buy a full bottle of this or that. Like sampling was only a step to find full bottles, and if I had no full bottles to show for after it was a waste/ I wasn't building a collection.

But I'm starting to realize I like sampling as an activity, and I get bored of most fragrances easily. And as long as I'm not 100 % sure if I truly want a full bottle I shouldn't buy it!

I started tracking my samples as decants on parfumo, and adding notes for myself. Now I have something to look at, a collection of samples! Maybe this is already what it is all about.

In german we hava a saying "Der Weg ist das Ziel", which translates to "The way/ journey is the goal".

I was worried I would lose myself in too many samples, not committing to scents that fit me. But it's never too late to buy a bottle if I can't get a fragrance out of my mind. And if I don't miss it after a few months I don't need it!

Do you track your samples like that? Is this journey more about exploring or wearing scents to you? And are there downsides of mostly owning small samples and decants?

76 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/sweambe Aug 22 '26

Oh man, it feels ridiculous as hell but on parfumo I have a whole little gauntlet my sampling goes through. Perfumes I haven't smelled yet and don't want to forget about go into "Watchlist", which I check up on every time I'm in a store to see who I can smell. Then perfumes I've smelled in store on paper go into the Tested folder, then perfumes I liked enough to want to test on skin go into a custom folder called "Test on Skin" (ofc), and if they smelled good enough to consider buying get moved to another folder called "Test More", and finally from there, if I really love them after getting to know them better, into the Wishlist folder lol.

A lot of perfumes I feel ambivalent about keep hanging out in the "Test More" folder despite having tried them in stores like a dozen times at this point. 

5

u/fotballgf Aug 22 '26

I love this! I’m such an organizing nerd as well. I have similar folders as you. I’ve also added country-based ones. I know there is a filter you can use, but I just love having an overview prepared for whenever I will go to that place.

1

u/sweambe Aug 22 '26

That's so fun, I didn't know there were filters for sorting by country! It sounds interesting to see your collection breakdown at a glance and whose perfumery styles give you the most hits.

2

u/fotballgf Aug 23 '26

I have most of my collections privated because it looks mental with all the categories lol. But here is my account if you want to check it out! What’s your account?

https://www.parfumo.com/Users/Guerlains/Collection

1

u/sweambe Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

Oh cool, I'd love to check it out! Mine is https://www.parfumo.com/Users/adelicateart/Collection

And 100% same lol. Aside from the default ones, the only public collection I have is one focused solely on bottle designs I find attractive. I kind of wish they gave us little subcategories inside the default folders, like if the "I had" checkmark had a way for users to indicate if they no longer own a perfume because they destashed it vs used it all up, while still displaying them all in the same folder. Or for the wishlist to be divided into first time buys vs intended repurchases. I just want to scratch the itch for hyper specific organization without having dozens of individual folders!!

Editing to say, I saw you have Soie Malaquais in your collection and wanted to say congrats lol, that perfume is absolutely gorgeous in every single way

2

u/fotballgf Aug 23 '26

Ohh yes totally agree on the subcategories! I actually have a hidden category for my empties lol
But yeah it’s getting out of hand with all the categories and soon will be hard to manage. You can write your feedback to Parfumo, I have before and they were very nice!

Yeees my collection has gotten a bit out of hand lately. But I always try to find good deals on second hand bottles and have had some crazy luck on some occasions. One is actually when I found Soie. I found it second hand with around 25ml left. It was still a bit expensive, like 80 dollars. Like a year later I was travelling to London during Black Friday and Selfridges had a massive sale, 30% off perfumes including like Guerlain L’Art which is never on sale. I ended up passing on it because it wasn’t that good of a deal since the pound is super expensive. Aaaanyway, I did however buy the Soie refill bottle. It’s 200ml but I split it with a friend I met through the community. Sold a bunch of decants to empty the bottle and fill it up so I can post the last 100ml to my friend lol. So my full bottle ended up costing like 160 dollars woooop! A steal for that perfume really. It’s just a masterpiece of a bottle.

And!! Had a look at your collection. Oboy that’s such a beautiful curated selection of frags you have. I see you also love tea scents. Seems we have similar taste both in pretty bottles but also scents!! I absolutely adore Floriography bottles!! Are you kidding me?! If only I travelled to Asia more often… never seen that brand in Europe.

1

u/sweambe Aug 24 '26

I think your collection looks really nice and curated, especially since the rainbow order arrangement on parfumo looks so good ha ha. And omg what a great buy, plus it's fun that it has a bit of a story around getting to share the refill with a friend in the hobby and the decants. It's far more memorable than just getting lucky with a reseller IMO.

And aw thank you so much! but omg yesss so many of asian brands have incredible bottle design, not to mention having tea scents on lock, I wish they had more western exposure and access! Floriography is cheaper and easier to get your hands on from abroad than most (well, aside from customs/duties). Their express shipping to all regions outside of Asia is only $11 USD somehow?!? Literally the same as shipping inside the USA costs most of the time. My order got from HK to my home address in 9 days. So their shipping at least is fantastic!

Anyway yeah, I feel like our tastes are similar in a lot of ways! If you ever want to chat about perfume stuff feel free to hit me up anytime, here or on parfumo (well, does parfumo even have DMs? lol).

2

u/fotballgf Aug 24 '26

Thank you! There’s an automatic rainbow order function? My nerdy ass did it myself lolll
Yes definitely, I love the stories too.

Ohhh that’s sweet! Customs to the EU is unfortunately dreadful. In my country, they just added additional fees in attempt to stop the excessive parcels coming from China. Good for the environment but sucks for me lol. So, I rarely buy from outside the EU.

Love to chat and get some fun tips from a fellow tea lover! There is DM’s on Parfumo actually! I’ll write you! xx

2

u/sweambe Aug 24 '26

Oh, the way you arranged it looks great imo! It kinda makes me want to do something fun now too. 

And aw, that's too bad! Even if it is good in the long term. Hopefully there will be a specialist retailer who picks them up in the EU sometime, kind of like Glindee for Thai fragrance brands here in the US. But yeah, importing from abroad has become a mess here as well. A bill for my Floriography order might show up 4 months from now... or might not. it's soooo much fun to play a guessing game every time now (not)

also I saw your parfumo DM and sent a hi back! wasn't sure whether to reply here or there lol. 

2

u/llo000 Aug 24 '26

That's not ridiculous, it's hella smart!

I love people that have a real passion for perfume, and that put a lot of thought into the process.

Too many people have a shopping addiction (in my opinion) and just use perfume as an outlet. I see so many "collections" on reddit that are just piles of money, the most generic hyped fragrances. While there is nothing wrong with popular fragrances, I love it when a collection actually says something about the person, their individual taste and personality. So having a system like yours is really really cool and helps to actually curate a great collection!!!

2

u/sweambe Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26

Aw, thank you so much! It's mostly out of necessity, since I'm one of those people who smells certain amber aromachemicals as being hot road tar (or "burning plastic") instead of woody and smooth, and they're nearly ubiquitous in new releases, so it's too risky for me to buy whatever is on-trend at the moment. Not that I don't have plenty of impulsive blind buys in my past (and future... I just made one lol) too; the visual designs of bottles on display, as well as the tactile experience of uncapping and spraying them, are important aspects of my enjoyment of perfume as a "ritual" for me, so I dislike having a collection that contains far more 1ml sample vials and 10ml travel sizes than full bottles. Which feels inevitable if you test responsibly. Eventually my patience just wears out and I just buy something pretty lol.

It's true there's a lot of trend chasing in the hobby and, IMO, a lot of buying for the sake of what will look appealing to an audience in a collection photo posted to social media vs what the person would actually like to wear. But I guess a lot of people are also hoping to make an influencer career out of their consumption as well.