It’s hard these days to get free perfume samples – I always feel like I have to buy something, and you can’t get away from that counter for less that $50. Plus, most mall stores don’t carry scents except those from the big brands, and I am a dyed in the wool perfume snob.
If you are looking for a hard-to-find scent, one not carried in the mall stores but that you’ve read about in a magazine or on a blog, you want to visit luckyscent.com & theperfumedcourt.com. Both sites offer samples sizes of niche, haute & vintage perfumes.
Luckyscent specializes in cult scent brands, offering several perfume formats, body products and candles by brands like Le Labo, Santa Maria Novella, Heeley, Eccentric Molecules, Histoires de Parfums, Clive Christian, and so many more. Luckyscent has a super easy ordering process. – you click on SAMPLES and then pick those you want, each is $4-$5. Here’s a fun offer from them – a bag of the top 12 2013 scents to sample, plus a couple of bonus brand new 2014 ones.
On theperfumedcourt, choose from different size flacons to be decanted for you from what they have in stock. The selection at The Perfumed Court is a little less predictable, as it a much less corporate environment.    Like, I think it is a couple of girls who run this biz on their own, and they do a pretty good job at it. Plus, they have much better sales than luckyscent, and monthly subscriber discounts, and they often carry the vintage and original, not-remastered/reformulated scents from brands like Dior. Here’s what their Facebook “about” says:
The Perfumed Court is your ultimate destination for Niche, Indie, Vintage, & Mainstream perfume samples and decants from around the world. Serge Lutens, Frederic Malle, Ormonde Jayne, Guerlain, Chanel, Tom Ford Private Blend, JAR, and more.
I usually hit these sites up once in winter and once in summer, and for less than $100 a YEAR I get to dose on all sorts of new smells. This month, I treated myself to samples from Serge Lutens, By Killian, Eau D’Italie, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, L’Artisan Parfumeur, Heeley and some Rodin ollo lusso I have been meaning to test. See? How fun is that! If you give them a try, post what you buy below and later on we can compare fragrance notes.
