Rockinruby's samplers anonymous thread makes it evident that others can sample with abandon and I admire the ability to do that. What is your sampling method that fits into your lifestyle and perfume needs? The reason I ask this question is that I can't tolerate too many perfumes at once, except at designated times like sniffas or at times when I'm feeling restless about what I'm using.

I realize I can't sample perfumes quickly or one after the other. I keep my samples "in the wings" until such time as I feel dissatisfied with my available "stock" and nothing seems to work. Then my nose is ready to try new things and seek out new notes. If I'm happy with my perfume, trying new things is like sensory overload or listening to five radio stations at once.

The exception to this would be a sniffing expedition day, which is set out specifically for sampling. Then the sky's the limit and the coffee beans are scattered to the winds. In the recent sniffa with altodiva and besotted, I must have smelled and tested over a hundred perfumes and yet on that day when I got home, it was right back to Aromatics Elixir. (Well, I did make a brief detour into Tabarome and Baghari, but that was just on my wrists. I was still wearing AE at the time.)

Can you sample freely whenever you want or do you have to wait for special times to be open to new olfactory experiences?

I suck it up and convince myself its for queen and country and bombs away!

I know , I know , foolhardy , one might be stuck with a srubber , best to keep a stiff upper lip and some alcohol wipes handy.

If it's an official sniffa, then I can do a day-long blitz of sampling.

WRT testing something for a SOTD, I have to love or at least like whatever I'm sampling for the day. I can't go a whole day wearing something I don't care for, and usually know as soon as it hits my skin if it will work or not, so I do a pre-sample sample before I leave the house. (-: If it's not working right then and there I'll keep trying until I find something I like. Some system, eh? LOL

LOL! Nube, the Queen thanks you!


Pre-sample sample--righto!

I love these methods so far!

Oh, no! Sampling is agony for me and completely counter to my internal programming! I want something that is the 'perfect' scent for each day/moment/event. Choosing a sample out of a pile and putting it on blindly is amazingly difficult for me. This is precisely why I have HUNDREDS of unsniffed samples at my house. And that's why I had to make a concerted effort to commit to the sampling for awhile. I have to get through some of this backlog -- for good or ill!

You think this thread is frivolous fun, don't you? This is WORK, I tell you! ;-)

I'm with Nubs -- for Queen and country. Might at well, I'm sure not doing anything for the sake of the boob currently occupying 1616 Pennsylvania Avenue. I'll do it for Liz.

Liz gets my sampling nods over 24 Sussex Drive!



that thread is hard work indeed, I was to ashamed to tell you folks that with some meetings and things going on today , I could not be a big brave girl and sample , I had to wear an old faithful to get me through



also , I make sure my skin real estate is all clear before sampling

Don't forget Queen Liz likes perfume and soap!

Ruby, it is hard work indeed. That's my point. To sample properly you have to get into a certain mindset and concentrate your attention. I too have more backed up samples than you can shake a stick at. I feel for ya and applaud your noble effort.

BTW, that was meant to be 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. My fingers go faster than my brain sometimes...

I am quite certain that there is someone or something you refuse to scent yourself for at the other addy as well.

So what was your old tried-and-true today, nubs? You can tell us, your sisters in sampling, slaving away in the scented salt mines! (How's that for alliteration?).

Sampling is hard for me, too, because: a) I find I dislike most of the things I try; and 2) I can't get them off for an entire day, and hence have to live with them and them only. But I'm determined to winnow through them to serve the long-term goal of reducing and simplifying.

Given the proximity of the number, I'm picturing a woodshed out back, with something narsty in it.

Aw shucks Cath , this is embarassing .

Don't make me beg, girl -- we're all among friends here!

a delightful wee fume from Lagerfeld , shhhh

we won't tell anyone -- promise. Your secret's safe with us... ;-)

sun , moon and stars

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oh the shame , but its a snuggly blankie , am I going to get banned for this ?

Hmmm. Possibly. Our best hope is that no one else reads our posts anyway. So we have THAT going for us! ;-)

Did she say, Sun, Moon and Stars?[/size=5][/size]

OH Noes!



psst , see my sig ? oh what have I done ?

I have sigs turned off, did I come a cropper?

Such a pretty bottle!

I have to be in the mood to sample. But if I am, this is how I approach it:

1. Bottle sniff. Many don't make it past this point with me, for any of the following reasons:
a.) I don't like it
b.) I'm not impressed
c.) It smells too much "like" something else

2. If I like what I smell, I'll take a second sniff, breathing it more contemplatively, this time taking it all the way in. I'm looking for any of the following:
a.) The note or notes that are pique-ing my interest
b.) How I think it will react on my skin (this from experience)
c.) Whether I think I'd actually like to wear it, or if I just find it intriguing

3. Skin test. Not many make it to Level 3.

Then there are the ones I just have to have on my skin right now. That doesn't happen often, but when it does, the response is immediate. Then, I'm looking for it to bloom the way I hope it will, have sillage, and last. If a fragrance can deliver all this plus that indefinable magic feeling, I'm sold.

It is a lovely bottle indeed FiveO , and I fell in love with it upon release however , at first sniff ( oooh goody back to the original topic ) I though it to be a total and complete scrubber , hated it and never gave it a second thought.

Until.


This past summer, I had ordered Rumba from Imagination Perfumery and they threw in a samp of SMS , weeeel I'll be hornswaggled , either I changed , or it changed , but I loved it and ordered the full bottle sharpish!

Way to go!

We don't have much to sniff here in Baltimore, so if I'm not in NY, my sampling comes by way of post, in wee vials from Luckyscent, etc. Since I paid for those suckers, I apply them directly to my skin and hope for the best. I'll know pretty much immediately if I like it or not, notes be damned.

If the samples come in spray vials, I test them on paper first or try to pull the sprayer off so I can dab it on. Too many times have I sprayed and regretted (I find far more comes out in a spray than I want, so dabbing is my application method of choice). If the paper doesn't make me want to run screaming, then I spray it on myself.

If I'm in a store, I usually smell the bottle cap first, especially if I'm pretty sure I *won't* like a fragrance. If it passes muster, I spray it on paper. Then I usually beat a hasty retreat because by that point an annoying SA has descended upon me....

Oh, now she's calling it "SMS." Like we won't be able to figure it out or somefink.

As for me, I like to smash the sample vial while it's still in the envelope. Tells me immediately if I want it on my skin. Of course, it's too late then, which is the primary problem with this approach. (OK, I don't usually do this, but it happened this week and worked nicely.)

I do most of my sampling in the early evening, after my SOTD has worn off. Not right before bed, because I don't want to be stuck with it all night. And I put just a teeny bit on the back of one finger, or on the back of my hand. I wait a bit to see if it's truly worthy of something more. Sometimes it's not, and that's that. But if I'm not totally repulsed, I'll do a full sampling on the wrists. If I'm *really* intrigued, I'll put some on my throat, too, because that means I'll be smelling it constantly for a while.

If I end up sorry that I attempted it, I'll scrub off what I can and then apply some nice hand lotion before retiring, as opposed to my usual couple of spritzes of something to sleep in. The other night I sampled something that was just OK, so I wore Roma hand cream to bed. Worked just fine.

If I really, really like a sample, I'll then wear it as my SOTD the next day or so and give it the full treatment. That just happened with L'Ame Soeur. Next step: decant.

Of course, none of this applies to sniffa days. Those are another animal entirely.

I am gentle with myself. I sample something when I'm completely in the mood for a new experience - good, bad or indifferent. Unless another POLer specially sends me something..then I try to get on it right away to show my appreciation.

Usually, but the time I receive a sample order I am very anxious about it and end plastering my arms with 4 samples at once in different locations. Then I wonder why I've missed certain notes in the development. I'm gentle, yet neurotic with my samplings. LOL

I charge right in, like a bull in a china shop.

This is generally my approach as well. I'll also sample stuff on Saturday mornings, between waking up and going to the gym, because I shower after the gym. If something's offensive, I know I don't have to endure it for long in that case.

Sniff vial. If yes, move to next step.
Back of hand. Wait it out a bit. If yes, move to next step.
Wrists. Yes? No? Lovable or just livable? (However, if I'm going to adore it, I can usually tell by now. Go and purchase, in that case!) If lovable, move to next step.
Full on sample in the morning with several spritzes on wrists and decolletage. If lovable, go buy. If livable, repeat process with another scent on another day.

Well, I've got this all-or-nothing mentality -- I can't really get a proper sense of a perfume from a sample. I need a couple of good sprays. So my sample vials just keep piling up. That's one good reason -- the other good reason is what Jill said. I can't take a chance on being stuck with something that doesn't suit. It makes for the most miserable day! Especially on a work day. But then I find myself not wanting to take a chance on a weekend day either.

(snort, guffaw)

I apply in the evening, or in the morning before running. If I can still smell it post-run, over my normal post-run...aroma... then it's a keeper.

Oh, now she's calling it "SMS." Like we won't be able to figure it out or somefink

Actually I thought the Initials would make it sound all niche and snobby and cool , like.

I have to confess that though I am very brave with sampling as a rule there is one fume in this world that I have yet to put on my skin. It is Angels , I sniffed the atomizer once many years ago and recoiled , a few years laters I cautiously crept up to the sprayer again , same result . I few months ago I found myself feeling very brave indeed and actually managed to put it on a paper strip.
Than I made a huge mistake , I put it in my purse , where there was already laying in wait a paper strip of Youth Dew. I do not need to repeat to you knowledgeable folks what happened after that ! Horrifying does not cover it.

Ha! Gives me an idea for a horror movie.......The Sillage That Ate Cleveland!

Alto , it probably could do Cleveland in in a heartbeat , that handbag has never been the same again !

Okay, I'll admit my ignorance: What's SMS?

Sun, Moon, and Stars, hun.

Huh. I didn't know either.

I'm reading with amazement all of your sampling habits and rituals. I have none. Not a one. Boring, huh?

Well, Mary...I'm a boring soul, too.
No rituals.
I admit that I do have many samples set aside which I haven't worn, yet, but if there is one which I am curious about...I just jump in with both feet.
It's usually at night though. I'm working full-time, again, and my job requires I wear no scented products...so I'm limited to fragrance fun at night, right now...but I have always been more of an evening sampler. Just no rhyme or reason, no special moods or ambiance. Just...whenever -- when it pops into my head to try something.

Merci beaucoup!

This past December I got really, really brave and bought EL's Tuberose Gardenia unsniffed and Caron's N'Aimez Que Moi with only a bit of sampling from a half empty vial. As it turns out I absolutely adore them both, love the way they develop on my skin, but long experience has taught me to be far more cautious than that when sampling and buying.

I get scent-induced headaches quite easily and find that wearing, never mind sampling, more than one scent a day is a sure path to pain and suffering. When I want to sample something on my skin, it's the only scent I wear all day, just to be on the safe side. Also, I don't sample late in the day, or when I'm hot. Definitely don't apply samples in the car, never, ever again.

I've never updated to Perfumista after the board went through some changes a few years ago, mostly because people were so generous with samples a few years ago that I still haven't worked my way through all of them. If I were still swapping samples, my collection would have grown far beyond it's current size, and my collection of dust collecting samples would just keep growing, which seems kind of sad, and a bit pointless.

For general sampling, I don't have a set ritual, I guess it depends on whether or not I have access to a tester IRL.

If so, I take the cautiously sniff the bottle approach, then warily test on a paper strip, then perhaps try it on my skin.

If there's no way to test IRL, and all I have is a vial, I sniff it unopened first, just to be on the safe side, then opened, then on my skin.

Once in a great while, as with the Tuberose Gardenia, I'll yearn to sample something for a long time and then just buy a bottle, unsniffed, but that sort of thing is the exception that proves the necessity for the rule, LOL!

In person in shops my method almost always comes down to crazy smorgasbord, and I end up with one on each wrist, one on the top of each hand, stuff down the sleeves, which is never deliberate, always the result of wanting to try a bunch, and has an unexpected benefit - as each one develops, the little change distracts me and pulls me over to what is happening with that one. This method somehow allows a type of attention to detail that I don't have when sampling just one, in which case the specificity of the scent, to the degree that it can be circumscribed, takes a lot longer to identify. It's not only the principle of major contrasts, but also slight ones. Shaal Nur put on a great show under those circumstances and became THE scent of the bunch to buy. And if I get such a muddle that the one I really think I like was potentially tampered with, I go back and try it alone.

With samples at home I apply .25 to .5 ml on a staying home day. I prefer the smorgasbord, as the at home method creates a sort of retail-crazed impatience inappropriate to the surroundings, sometimes dab decants don't give "scent-true" results for me versus sprayers, and I do itch to try the second to tell me more about the first and so forth.

I want to sample more in general. I have always had a pretty good idea of what I like, so I seem to pick well, sample then buy, and miss the education in the vast rest, including many things that I may like and others that will teach things about note and family recognition, etc. I also need to kick my hesitation about asking questions and samples of SAs - because I know if I like it I'll buy it and will patronize their store.

Éprise, this method sounds like the perfume version of survival of the fittest. Coming to think of it, I have done this and sometimes there's one that stands out and you can say: That's the one!

I will and do sample at any time of the day and under almost any circumstances, but ideally: I sample one fragrance in the morning upon getting ready for work and then I take my shower at night and sample another at that time. I sometimes sample up to three at the same time but I much prefer to sample just one so that I don't get too confused.

I love to sample. In fact, if I never buy another full bottle of anything I won't be disappointed. I really love the variety and the mental images that I'm able to browse when wearing something new and unusual. I find myself surprised a lot and also, I think that sampling is improving my sense of smell because I'm exposing my nose to a lot more stuff than I normally would.

At the moment I am not sampling.

If I sample, I find one I like, and add it to the wishlist.
I don't want to add anymore to my wishlish.
It only frustrates me.

This year, well from this day on, I have a total ban on
buying perfumes. Yep, have to save for
something else, and will be scrimping to get there
by the end of the year.

I'll still be attending pol but it will only be a
place of temptation for me this year, although
I love reading your reviews and interests.

If I'm going shopping on a sniffa, then I spray everything everywhere (I try to wear a sleeveless shirt for maximum "real estate" for sprayage). After I have no bare skin left anywhere to sample, if I have more things to test I go to the bathroom, wash up to my armpits, and start over again (Victoria and I have done this many times in the Barney's bathrooms - I'm sure they think we are completely nuts, but hey, it's a long drive to get there and we can't be prissy).

If I am sampling at home, I do it before my shower in the morning. Sniff the vial, if it smells okay, dab on skin, wait 20-30 mins, decide if I like it, if something really strikes my fancy, I take my shower and then apply that scent as the SOTD.

The primo testing spot for me is on the skin inside my elbow - that gives the truest picture of the scent on me. I reserve that spot for the most promising frags.

Jicky, you did it before and you can do it again. All the best in this endeavour. I'm so glad you're sticking around.


Caz, inside the elbow--good spot! Emits warmth.

I generally do what most of you have said, spraying on various parts of arms, and trying to limit the number tried in one visit h so it's meaningful sniffing. But so much of the time, in stores things just don't smell distinctive after I've tried only about two scents. So I try taking home a sample or a strip, and testing it on on a weeknight, so I won't be conscious to be bothered if it's bad. It seems important to try the same scent on at least two different days, to be safe before actually buying, as my perceptions change so much from hour to hour.

I add samples to purchases, sometimes buy un-sniffed, sometimes buy after several samplings...sometimes I guess very well, sometimes a considered purchase is "the next great thing", sometimes a considered purchase is an expensive error. Every once and a while sampling has saved me from an expensive error.

I forgot to mention my absolute favourite mode of sampling , the mini! There is a local shop that carries minis and most of these I cannot find testers or vials for in regular department stores. I also love the fact that there is a bit more scent to give a good sampling session.

and the collection I now have is cute

Nubs,
I love my mini collection. Several of mine come from WalMart. Because of them, I got to try Oscar, (got the full size for Christmas 06) Organza, EA Green Tea, (got the full size for Christmas) Ralph Lauren Blue, (got the full size as a gift), and others I might not have had opportunity to sniff or buy.