Good perfume subscription box

October 29, 2019 12:20 PM

Have you tried a perfume subscription box? I have questions!

This is for a gift for a woman in her 60s. Things I'm interested in knowing:

1. Which service(s) you tried
2. How much perfume they sent in each box (e.g., 1 full-size bottle? 2 samples? As a perfume lover, do you prefer having more options or larger quantity?)
3. How long the subscription lasts
4. Cost
5. Your impressions of the service. I'm not a perfume-user normally so I really don't feel competent to judge.

Unfortunately I don't really know ahead of time what her preferences are for type of perfume (floral versus not, for example). It would be a plus if I can gift her the account and then she would be sent some type of survey? But not sure if that's an option.

From this older question it looked like Surrender to Chance could also be a fun idea....in that case I'd give her a gift certificate and she could order a pack she was interested in. Is that a better option?

posted by Bebo to Shopping (5 answers total)

I've tried Surrender to Chance, and given my daughters gift cards. It's a fun way to economically try new scents, and the customer service was outstanding. There was a glitch with my order and they corrected it promptly.

Their descriptions and grouping of perfumes makes it easy to choose things that you will like.
posted by LaBellaStella at 12:58 PM on October 29, 2019

i did scentbird, and i did the $25 level (which is 2? 3? samples a month). i felt like it was a good value, and the sample sizes are quite nice. it worked well for me because scents are odd for me - some only last like, 10 minutes for me and it prevented me from buying a whole bottle lest i be disappointed, but the size was good enough that if i really liked it, i had enough to carry me over for quite a while before i bought the full bottle - this made it way easier to test for the long term.
posted by koroshiya at 1:04 PM on October 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

My perfume interests are more on the niche/indie side, and a few years ago I did Olfactif. I discontinued it because I was getting the same samples from stores like Luckyscent and Twisted Lily, but it would be a great "set it and forget it" option if you didn't want to keep tracking down when sample packs are coming out from those retailers.
posted by matildaben at 1:57 PM on October 29, 2019

I also did Olfactif. As a perfumer lover, having more options was more important to me than having a big bottle of a single scent and the indie-ness of it was a big appeal. I enjoyed it and only stopped because I had so many options that I felt like I couldn't wear my faves and test new ones.
posted by dame at 2:33 PM on October 29, 2019

I haven't tried this yet, so maybe find reviews, but Indigo perfumery has an interesting sample program. There's a 2 ml sample of a new perfume, with lots of info about it and a smaller sample of an old favorite. But the cool part is they also send an unidentified mystery sample! If you can guess what it is by smelling it, you win a free bottle of it! I love the idea of a "blind tasting."

Otherwise, I like the idea of a gift certificate for one of the decanting sites like surrender to chance that has already been mentioned. It's a neat way to learn about some of the classics in a genera.
posted by SandiBeech at 3:35 PM on October 29, 2019