#i might get their 14 sample set i'm curious about some of them

[miserye]

under the cut

Okay perfume talk, I wouldn’t consider myself to be a serious fraghead but I’ve been in this for a couple of years maybe 3 or 4 so I’m not a novice either atp,, Every holiday season Sephora and ulta release a perfume/cologne set of tester samples that you can also use to redeem a full or travel size of perfume which is a pretty good deal because getting perf samples is a pain in the ass esp if you’re looking for more elusive perfume, usually goes around $4-6 on average so getting this collection of say (for this year, it varies per year I believe the average is around 7-8 samples for the travel pack and usually something similar for the full/mid size set) 8 samples for a value of 34 is really good plus you get a travel size on top of that for free because again, if each of those samples you’re eyeing are even just 4 bucks a piece, that’s still 32 and you’re out a travel size so these are really good value deals.

Now here’s the issue. Every single year without fail, there are the sample fucking scents EVERY SINGLE TIME yeah yeah cult classics or whatever but it’s fucking boring and it lowers the value of the set because we already tried them the previous year and if you just want to try like say three scents, it’s better to just go in store try them and buy a normal travel size, which are typically from $28-34 depending on the brand but this is a typical average for travel sizes. It’s always the most BORING scents they choose to re-use because we’re stuck in like 2015 or something idk but usually you can see D&G’s light blue, herrera’s good girl, Valentino bright crystal, ysl black opium AND libre, Viktor & Rolf either flower bomb or good fortune. Here’s the other issue with these sets, 90% of these scents are strong vanilla or heavy sweet floral which is fine EXCEPT that’s most the set. It’s just not very versatile usually, and caters to a specific group of people who enjoy more overpowering scents because, again, that’s what perfume is known as typically. Kinda strong vanilla (specifically vanilla base) and usually a floral like rose or peony.

ALSO my other issue with these sets is that I KNOW the other perfume in them are ass because I’ve smelt them before. The other ones they add in are not ‘indie’ perfumes per say but they’re not super popular such as Juliette has a gun which HAS GOOD SCENTS BUT they ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS put in not a gun which is a layering scent and is lame and is not for the average normal people consumer because most people don’t think to layer their perfume when they’re testing out new scents so I think it’s not great in these kinds of sample sets because people want to take each scent in as an individual.

Regardless, they always choose some of the most popular scents and some mid scents from other brands which are ‘trendy or people have their eyes on’ but typically smell mediocre if I haven’t mentioned that. That brings me to this year where they’ve really stepped it up. This year, they changed the typical line up to the ‘one off’ scents where a lot of big frag brands will create a ‘twist’ on their scents and sometimes it does make a difference, but sometimes not.

For example, black opium from ysl has like three iterations where there’s the classic, there’s one called over red, and there’s one called like illicit green or something WHCIH is not to be confused with edp, edc, and edt that’s different <- this is the strength of the fragrance concentration (side tangent, perfume is comprised of two main elements, the alc which diffuses the perfume and is the reason why when you first spray something it smells like alc and the actual fragrance oils, each of those have varying quantities of each, the strongest smell and amount of fragrance oil to alc concentration goes eau de parfum, followed by eau de cologne, then eau de toilette <- the toilette is a reference to the bathroom aka toilet, meaning you’re supposed to refresh this perfume when you go to the bathroom so it’s intentionally a perfume that doesn’t last).

Anyways. This year, the sample set from Sephora has more ‘new’ scents that step away from the cookie cutter cult classics and also have favored the new ‘twist’ perfumes on the actual classics, typically as a means of promotion for the new version of the scent which usually isn’t as well loved/recieved aka Herrera’s new version of good girl which is good girl blush. They also have included perfume oils which is really new and fresh because those have been increasing in trend recently and I really appreciate it. Anyways, there’s a new massive set for 95? That has 15 samples and includes a free MID sized perfume, it says full size but it’s actually the size in between full and travel, it’s usually around a two oz or so less which comes out to around 30-50 mL usually (depends on the brand, some do both 30 and 50 if they’re more expensive) compared to a full which is usually around 98sih mL. The line up was pretty good!! I was happy about the mix of older and newer scents that they chose, though I’m not happy about the appearance of Charlotte tilbury into the perfume world, I haven’t tried any but just looking at them they look cheap and gross in terms of scent. While the trend to cater towards sweet and floral hasn’t changed, I’m glad they started branching out of the usual mainstream scents and I really do think that even the smaller full and travel sets they came out this year are a lot more unique than usual.

In terms of ulta, they’re lacking a bit as per usual when it comes to these things, but they also included a new like diversity set so there’s one with all the cult classics and there’s a different one where most are relatively newer scents which I like, also the price point is crazy it’s like 17 and 14 scents (the sets have different # of scents, the classics is 17 the new one is 14) for 20 plus a 15 gift card so the ‘essentials’ they have is good for people getting into perfume and those that want the normal popular scents and the newer one are more relevant scents to 2022ish and while it’s still a sweet vanilla and floral set, I’m happier about the ones they chose to include. Though the thing with these sets is that there’s always a chance they’ll give you perfumes that are empty/half full just because this is something third parties put together. There’s less of a risk with regular sample sets that the brands put out because it’s from the brand, but Sephora and ulta have a history of having crappy sets with less than full bottles, however if you’re just wanting to sincerely try out a scent like once or twice, it’s whatever. Honestly I don’t need most of my samples past one use because I can tell when I like or hate something pretty easy. Anyways, that’s my thing about perfume LMFAO sorry this was long

do you guys want to see my literal essay i just sent to my coworker about perfume