Today's poll is simple: tell us about your best perfume bargain or incredible find.
Your host today is Tama, who says she has found a few good deals of her own lately. If you haven't met, let me introduce you to Tama:
We're still looking for a few more regular readers who would be willing to host a poll once or twice a year. If you're game, send me an email at robin at nstperfume dot com. You don't have to answer all the comments, but of course it helps if you like to participate in the lazy polls.
Note: image is 2148 Blue skies and fuschias [cropped] by crabchick at flickr; some rights reserved.
I just ordered Cuir de Lancôme for… $5.32! Including shipping! Had a few coupons on Amazon, so that is perhaps cheating.
Other than that, I think my best bargains have been Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant for $30, and L’Artisan’s Les Epices de la Passion coffret for about $18.
Nothing wrong with coupons! Good score!
Coupons work for me! Nice scores – I don’t know about that coffret but sounds interesting!
F, that is awesome! I love Cuir and AG’s E.F.
I’m envious! 😉
Cuir is Good Stuff – whatta deal!
My best find was a Baccarat bottle of vintage Shalimar extrait ….full and sealed for $15.
*faints*
That’s awesome!
Tussah, that exact experience (Shalimar vintage extrait in dusty old shop for a trifle) is what I call “The Find” and I’ve been dreaming of it for ages. I’m glad it happened to you! 🙂
That’s fantastic!
WOW! That is a serious dream find. I actually do have thrift store dreams!
I am now a sickly shade of green..a combo of shock and envy. Give that Shalimar a good home- please!
Now, all these bargains are making me sooooooo envious!
But yours is just too good, I’m all grumpy in my corner pretending not to care.
No but really, Shalimar extrait? In the baccarat bottle? For a song?
Waiiiiiling!!!
Does winning count too? I’m a terrible bargainer, but I am lucky at draws, my lastest prize was a full bottle of blu mediterraneo – mirto di panarea, which I surprisingly like, even if I’m not a cologne girl, anyway it was on my summer rotation
Winning counts for me – that is how I have two Andy Tauers and a Roger and Gallet.
It’s bad enough you won one AT, but did you have to win two? *sigh*
I know – and it was during the same advent draw, too – everyone hated me. But Andy said it was a testament to true randomness.
That’s a great reaction– he’s right!
Bee, I am a complete disaster at bargains too!
But recently I hit the jackpot with a creative competition for winning one Amouage attar, among the 18 in their range: my poem was selected and I really couldn’t believe my chance!
The problem then was how to choose the attar I wanted: they only sent out 18 mouillettes for testing (the only two attars I already knew-homage and tribute- I disliked).
At the end I chose Ayoon al Maha… I am so impatient to receive it!
I hope I made the right choice… Has anyone here smelled it?
Zazie, show us the poem please
Oh, would you share? I’d love to read it!
It’s in Italian! So I have a very good excuse for not showing it!
(I don’t like it that much, in fact, that’s the only reason why I’m so discreet 😉 )
I’ll rather show off my attar here, if/when it arrives!
sniff right here on nst would be so appropriate.
no problem Zazie, next life i want to be Italian, and then i will ask you again : )
Italian would only make it that much better IMHO!
Zazie,
I am Italian American and love the Italian language. You should post your poem. Even if one doesn’t completely understand it, I’m sure it is beautiful.
That’s amazing! To win one of those attars writing a poem! What talent!
Congratulations! And do share your thoughts when you receive it!
Tama, this is a brilliant idea, but I may just have to stop reading as I am beginning to turn green with envy already, and who knows what I will look like (the Incredible Hulk, maybe?) as more jealousy-inducing comments come in!
Not my idea, just my choice. But I think we’ll all be a little sick by the end of the weekend!
Well, it IS inspiring me to make more of an effort to stop by neighborhood yard sales whenever I see a sign!
My best fragrance bargain was finding a FULL and completely unused 3. 4 oz tester of vintage Magie Noir at a boring old slightly rural location for a Macy’s. It was just sitting there! I kind of couldn’t believe my eyes b/c it was totally full. So, I began to work my magic on this very young and nice (gullible?) SA who told me they put it out even though they had no stock and she didn’t know anything about it at all. The nozzle was broken which is why it was full – it wouldn’t spray at all. To make a long story short, she agreed to just give it to me, but of course she still wanted credit for a sale. It wasn’t on their stock list so she couldn’t even ring it up! And to make matters even BETTER she had 2 full vintage MN body lotions!! And they weren’t in the stock list either! So… she rang me up for 2 bottles of Magnifique body lotions, and then gave me the 2 Magie Noir lotions AND the full bottle of Magie Noir for free!!!
Dang!!! lucky girl! ….and eyes sharp like an eagle too! Good job spotting that MN…..and good job shmoozing fragrance AND lotion…I want to shop with you….
Thanks Daisy! It would be so much fun if we could fragrance shop together! I am not always so good at bargains normally, but I am really good at finding things!
I feel like a little girl reading a fairy tale. Nice find!
Thanks – I think my bargain fragrance high lasted about 3 or 4 weeks after that! I hardly wanted to talk about lest I jinx myself for future luck.
You’re lucky – my sister tried hard to convince an SA to sell her a tester for a discontinued fragrance, but no dice. She said they would probably just toss it at some point, so my sister even tried to get her to say which trash can and where! (Trish McEvoy 8 Citrus Petals if anybody knows where I can score some for her)
Hey, Tama, I know very well someone who has nearly 4 oz of Citrus Petals, and just about went on a rampage to find the very last bottle they had in stock at Nordstrom. 😉 Send me an email I’m sure we can work something out!
As far as the SA – it was a very slow day and I could tell she was bored – I must have talked to her for at least 20 minutes before I started going on and on about how rare MN is and how much my mom likes it (white lies help!), and then I also proceeded to find out where she is going to college talked about where she was from….. it was sure magical luck that I swayed her to the Noir Side! She was totally looking around to make sure no one saw and moved the items out of range of the security cameras…. She was a real hero that day!
Sneaky! lol. I still don’t understand how she got credit for the “sale” of Magnifique lotion if you didn’t buy anything, but I don’t need to understand…
Yes, sneaky, lol. I think she was feeling rather anti-coporate that day. I did end up “buying” two bottles of Magnifique so she could key something in. But she put the Magie Noirs in the bag, under a lot of tissue paper, instead.
WOW, Ann! Great haul – congrats! But you deserve it. 🙂
Thanks – I do indeed treasure that deal!
Ah…memories. May aunt gave me a bottle of magi noir when I was a teenager (in the 80s) and I tried to love it but I was more interested in Loves baby soft, Jean Nate, Babe or Chantilly at the time. Need to call mom and see if that vintage bottle of MN is still in my old bedroom because my tastes have certainly changed. 🙂
CM – you should! I need to nag on my sister who has an ancient bottle of Samsara that she never wears…
Hi CM
Seriously, MN from the 80’s is really good stuff! You should revisit it-it’s really wonderful stuff (I’m prejudiced because it’s one of my hg scents…..) 🙂
AnnS, are you kidding me?????????????
Luckyluckygirl! Wow, that is so great, I am happy for you that happened.
It never happens to ME but it’s out there isn’t it? 😀
Yes, Tamara & Mals – I was a super lucky girl. Stuff like that doesn’t normally happen to me. Once in a lifetime is good enough for me! I am pretty good about charming people though, lol, if I need to turn on the charm. Normally you just have to talk about something they care about to charm someone. Commiserate about how boring whatever she seems bored about is…. voila!
Oh, Ann! Fabulous find! And how smart of you to sweet-talk her into making it happen.
I mentioned these before but a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a sale rack of assorted fragrances and picked up
The Different Company Bois d’Iris box of 3 x 10ml travel refills for £8 (retail over £30)
TDC Osmanthus in aluminium travel bottle £20 (retail £85)
LAP La Chasse Aux Papillons 100ml for £15 (retail over £70, I think?)
I’ve also have a money off voucher for Liberty so will be finally getting SL Bois de Violette and RP Bandit with that.
This quarter damage poll will be…. interesting
I kept a spreadsheet this time and am very sorry.
Tama, keeping a fragrance spreadsheet is like writing in a food diary-very sobering!
Yes, too sobering – lol. I don’t know if I want to do it again!
It WILL be interesting. I caved on a partial bottle of La Myrrhe (ouch. I mean, gorgeous, but ouch).
A spreadsheet! That’s a brave move 😀
I don’t need a spreadsheet. Most quarters my grand total is exactly zero so several bottles in such a short time just feels like a binge.
Bois de Violette was one of my splurges last quarter. Full price, too–it is not supposed to be one of the regular export line, and I was afraid the “limited edition” would go away if I waited too long, and since I can’t just fly over to Paris anytime soon…I really love it, though, and would have kicked myself if I had waited too long. This quarter I have focused on cheap thrills from eBay–more bottles than last quarter, but a MUCH lower $ total.
Congrats!
I’m not quite sure what the deal with one is either. It’s not widely available (in UK, at least) and it’s more expensive than the rest of the SLs in the square bottles. But it’s gorgeous and I drained my sample in no time so…*sigh*
50 ml EdT Chanel No 5 for Eur 12,90 incl. shipping
Good deal!
Nice!
I hate you all! *off in a huff*
Don’t hate us because we smell good for cheap! LOL!
Oh, Bela, your find is out there waiting for you!
Bela : DDDDD
Bela – eventually something will pop up for you. I say know what you really want, be familiar with past and present bottle styles, and keep those eyes peeled! You never know when a fragrance bargain is just hiding behind something else on a shelve or unnoticed on evilbay, etc. Be ready to pounce!
Can I come and sit in the corner with you, Bela? I NEVER find deals either!
Don’t $9.99 Fendi’s count? 🙂
OOoopps!! Got you confused with Smokeytoes — sorry for the confusion! My brain is getting old before it’s time!
Whew! I was going to start looking for my lost bottle of Fendi!
🙂 That 9.99 sale has your name all over it!
Once in Toronto I stumbled across a perfume/candle shop that was closing, and everything was at least 50% off. As I was a bit broke at the time I only walked out with a Diptyque Baies candle for $20.
I hate finding an awesome sale like that and having no money!
I know!! Those always happen when I am broke.
That happens to me a lot on evibay too – I’m watching something really good and its a great price.. but that particular day I’m broke….
I just got the “Bill Me Later” thing for just such emergencies.
Tama: Oh, that must be something new. Could be dangerous! 😀
Wow, some positively AWESOME finds!
Mine aren’t ‘aal that’ but I was delighted none the less.
1. Kouros Eau de Sport (not sport cologne)
2. Roger & Gallet Marque Noir
both for less than $20 each.
Anything under $20 is a steal in my book (as long as it cost more than that to begin with!).
Ok, I do actually have a “good deal” comment—-it’s about storage.
My perfume cabinet was jam-packed…bottles sitting on top of other bottles (thank goodness for the occasional flat bottle top) Things completely inaccessible unless they were either on top or right in the front….CEO said “just go buy something!” (apparently I was whining a little….ok: all the time ) so I go shopping around all the furniture stores in town…I told one salesman I needed something with lots of shelves for my perfumes—he says “I know just what you want” and leads me to an ALL GLASS curio type cabinet and proudly announces “…and look : every shelf is LIGHTED!” arrggg!
So I ended up taking a quick trot thru the “clearance center” of a large store—and found two perfect end towers for an entertainment center: Natural oak, beautiful! They were identical to a set I had seen in the showroom for over a grand….the SA says to me “the doors don’t have knobs but you can get those inexpensively at any hardware store….” But I could see that in each hole there was the head of a screw….suspicious indeed!…..I scurried back into the showroom to pay $399 total, FOR THE PAIR….then I showed her what I had suspected all along—every door had a knob–but they were installed on the INSIDE. Her mouth dropped open, we both shook our heads and said “men!” at the same time and started laughing! 5 minutes at home with a phillips screwdriver had all my knobs on the correct side of the doors of two perfect condition cabinets for less than half price….needless to say: I went and purchased myself a congratulatory bottle of perfume. 🙂 (wouldn’t you?)
It’s true: I’m a dyed-in-the-wool-glassy-eyed-perfume ho…..but I’m a dyed-in-the-wool-glassy-eyed-perfume ho with new perfume cabinets!! woohoo! 🙂
Cabinets, huh? I imagined you had an entire room dedicated to perfume 😀
lol … I have a computer and some lava lamps in this room too 😉
That’s okay, then. I keep telling myself that a hobby/collection is not an issue until you have a whole room dedicated to it 😀
why only one full bottle? you have TWO new towers 🙂
I agree! You deserve at least one new bottle for each cabinet.
ooooo….I LIKE the way you two think! But, it was a bottle of L’Artisan Fleur de Narcisse (an ebay win…but still scary-spendy stuff) …..and the mortgage company still expects me to make a payment this month (the bastards!) 😉
My sentiments exactly!
Good deal. And you now have an excuse to buy more perfumes as you have 2 new cabinets now 😀
heheheheh I wonder if the CEO would fall for that one….
Glad you found something that works!! Lighted cabinet, indeed. Hmph.
I know! I think my eyes almost rolled back in my head! It was all I could do not to beat him about the head and shoulders for even suggesting someone expose their fragrances to all that light! J just stared at him like he was the biggest idiot….I could tell she was barely holding back the scathing comments.
“thank goodness for the occasional flat bottle top”…
LOL, Daisy, your comments always make my day!
I am the queen of the piling-up technique, I tend to build nice pyramids out of anything: perfumes, clothes, books… Of course, since I’ve got no Egiptian know-how (yet), my pyramids tend to fall down every now and then: the perfume samples ones make a lot of mess!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one-only all of mine are a mess.
You know, I am trying to figure out an organizing system for my samples, I even read Robin’s post on the subject for tips, but somehow I don’t “see” how I can solve the problem!
😉
Well, apart from the mess and the occasional pyramid mishap, I always seem to know exactly under which pile, and at which depth, each sample is located! So at least I deem my pharaonic constructions efficient!
I have always had a similar system for papers, books and magazines. I never have enough shelf space, so many of them are in piles. I usually know which pile each one is in, and at what depth. so I actually can find what I want. I refer to it as “organized chaos”. The sad thing is that every once in a while I will get motivated to clean up, throw out the junk, and put everything else away neatly, after which I can’t find anything!
ah, another pyramid builder….I do that too…my daughter is an Egyptian Master Builder reincarnated, I’m certain of it…..she will construct a pyramid out of any pile of objects left sitting for more than a few moments…..then of course no one is allowed to touch the pyramid…but I was going to use those….do you need to use them NOW?? sigh…..
Daisy, now you’ve got me thinking I need to add an addition to my perfume cabinet. (Except I can’t fit any more furniture in my house…) The other day I caught myself thinking I would just start sneaking bottles into the back of B.’s one, lowly shelf in the perfume cabinet. I went to root around to see how I could pull it off, and found out I’d been doing it all along. There were probably about fifteen bottles stuffed back there. Well… crap. 🙁 So much for that idea.
your “secret stash” is even secret from YOU….dang, you *are* good. Maybe what you need are floor to ceiling shelves….or….it’s time to move! “I’m sorry, I’ll need a larger home to accommodate my perfume collection…”
Daisy, first I thougth your husband said if you couldn’t access a perfume from the pile just go and buy another one….
LOL —if only!!! nah, he’s more fond of saying “don’t you have enough?” or “maybe that’s a sign you should stop buying more bottles…” when it’s pretty obvious to me that a stacked cabinet is more a sign that one needs a BIGGER cabinet!
That’s great ! Other people’s mistakes are often the source of most bargains! I’m waiting very patiently for a jelly cupboard type thing to store my frags when my parents bring it over in the next year or two.
OH! a jelly cupboard would be perfect —the shelves would have to be reinforced to hold a heavy load of jelly jars! And it would have doors to cut the light! Nice!….do you have a spot picked out to put it?
No, but that won’t stop me, lol.
Is there any room left in them??? 😉
a little….oh, stop yer snortin’ ! 😉
Giggle…. chuckle….. SNORT!
A local boutique clothing store was moving, I went in on whim, and walked out with brand new bottles of Monyette and Kai oils for a grand total of 10 bucks.
Yowza!
I’m seriously jealous of that one. You smell verrrrry tropical!
Good morning, everyone! I’m happy to be your host today.
My SOTD is Patou Nacre, which was my most interesting deal lately – $7. It was unsniffed, but I figured what the heck, I like Patou in general and it might at least be interesting. It is not groundbreaking, but for $7, no regrets.
Other deals: Eau de Joy EDP for $24, 10 oz of Mugler Cologne for $40, Eau Premiere for 1/2 price, vintage Bal a Versailles EDC for $40, vintage Patou Sublime gift set for $30.
I’m late for work, so I’ll be back shortly to see what you all are up to!
Thanks for hosting Tama!
Yes, thanks, Tama! I love weekend polls. 😀
Hi Tama! thank you for hosting. I love the weekend polls —I spend most of the weekend either working my fanny off outside or rushing around doing errands …or like this afternoon: avoiding the living room because I really can’t watch another John Wayne movie interspersed with a bunch of channel changes to car racing, old football games, and a show with a fascinating discussion of carburetors…uh-huh, maybe it’ll get really exciting and they’ll start talking spark plugs. 🙁
I’ve been having a great time!
Tama, this is an awesome idea for a poll! I feel quite proud of my “steals” and “deals.”
SOTD: Carthusia Via Camerelle, which I picked up yesterday at the Perfume House (was not a deal, but hey, gotta support the locals!).
Steals:
100mL vintage no. 5 EDT for $12.00, 30mL DK Gold for about $4.00, 50mL vintage L’Heure Bleue EDT & 7.5mL vintage Shalimar parfum for $75, 100mL vintage L’air du Temps for $2.99.
Deals:
100mL of Aoud Queen Roses for $130, 50mL SL Sa Majeste la Rose for $79
You did very well, Dee! Hard to beat $2.99 for the l’Air du Temps.
Not my poll idea, but it is a good one!
Dee – your “steals” are gobsmacking!!
Let’s see – my bargains aren’t as good as some of these, but I did get my bottle of Eau Premiere (the giant one) for $40, and 30ml bottles of Coco, No5, and Cristalle edp for $14 each on the ‘Bay. Oh – and all my vintage Emeraudes were $11 or under.
Oh, I did score vintage bottles of Chloe, Shalimar, and Dune for free – a friend was “cleaning out” her cabinets and found unopened bottles that she had received as a gift and gave them to me since I “like that kind of stuff”. My DK Gold was “free” as well – I won an auction for a bottle of Meteorites and the DK Gold was thrown in for free. Sadly, I don’t really care for Meteorites, but I do love the DK Gold.
Nice! Gold is under appreciated!
Vintage Emeraude? Sigh…
A L L your vintage Emaraudes?????
I’m still pondering whether to try it at all or not, since it is so hard to find vintage E…
Oh, it’s not hard. Srsly – it’s all over ebay, and not very expensive, either. (I have, um, six bottles, and the most I paid for one was $18.)
lol – all is probably deceiving. I think that I have 6 or 7 bottles and some of them are small or partial bottles.
Ami, send me a message on MUA. I have amassed more vint. Emeraude than I can count, and am happy to send you some. I’ve finally cut myself off. Well, aside from the two bottles from the 60’s that I have on the way…
miss Kitty, it would be sooo cool, but I live in Hungary. if it is not a problem for you, and can be arranged, I would be more than happy to have one of those. I’m not familiar with this MUA thing, my email address is bbiro at graphisoft dot com thankyouthankyouthankyou
I wanna come shopping with YOU.
I think that we shop the same place – eBay. Although I’m still regretting the vintage Worth Je Reviens that I passed up at $25 in an antique store, so I don’t always grab stuff that I should.
I have had a good run on clothing at the thrift store lately though – apparently, they have too much clothing right now, so they’ve marked everything down to a dollar each. I’ve been three weekends in a row and scored several pieces of designer clothing in mint condition for $1 each. My major coup? A Neiman Marcus cashmere sweater. I also found a Talbot’s dress with the tags still on it for $1.
What thrift store do you go to? The few we have around here seem to have mostly ugly polyester stuff that looks like it is from the 70’s, and anything nice is in size 6 (and I am most emphatically NOT a size 6!) I don’t think I’ve ever found anything nice in my size in a thrift store.
I go to the Katy Christian Ministries thrift store on Mason Rd. (in Katy, TX) – it’s a hit or miss, sometimes I don’t find anything and sometimes I find 10 things. The clothes aren’t always a $1, but they have been for the past month – apparently they have an avalanche of clothes and are just trying to clear some space in the back. While I was their this morning, they dumped out a giant bin full of clothes – I’ve seen stuff of all sizes there. You have to be prepared to dig though – they have some stuff hung up, but some stuff just piled up on tables.
I’ve heard that the Goodwill on Mason is decent – so I’m checking it out next weekend. I’ve always wanted to hit the thrift stores in River Oaks – but I’ll bet that there is a lot of stuff in sizes 2, 4, and 6 there and I’m not any of those sizes.
I’d say free was even better than the deals posted so far! Lucky you!!
I go to antique malls and festivals any chance I get. At one I found mixed in with the mini perfumes a mini of Nombre Noir for $5. I practically fainted. However this led to me buying a bottle of the parfum on ebay (which smells amazing) because I just HAD to smell it.
The I found an old bottle of a Chanel perfume with a glass stopper but the label missing for $10. It still smelled nice and a friend of mine and I determined that it has to be Cuir de Russie.
Then my favorite is Chanel parfum for $15!
OMG! that’s fabulous! Cuir de Russie parfum? who cares if the label is gone! woohoo! lucky, lucky girl!
So what do you think of the Nombre Noir? That one has achieved nearly legendary status, and is almost impossible to find. I have never even sniffed it, but am very curious to know what it is like.
The mini is EDP and the bottle is clear so it doesn’t smell too good. However, the parfum I tracked down on ebay, I placed the first bid assuming I’d be outbid and never was so $159 later I am the proud owner of of the gorgeous bottle. The parfum is lush, dark and gorgeous and still wearable. It’s a bit rosy mixed with plum to me.
Dixie – that’s an awesome score on Cuir de Russe!!! I have found that doing my research on the various vintage Chanel bottles has really helped me make some good scores on vintage No 5, etc. There was a really neat No 5 on evilbay the other week that was from a coffret set they’d have sold in the 30s or 40s. Pretty neat for a collector.
Geez…. I was thrilled to get the $25 off gift card at BG on my bottle of Cuir de Russie! Sob….
Hey, any little bit helps!
True dat!
… I just walked across the street to a moving sale, and scored two vintage Guerlain bottles: Eau Imperiale (sp?) in the 100 ml bee bottle, 1/2 full, and a vintage Shalimar EDT in the gold-refill bottle, for $0.50 each!!!
YAY!
Oh, huge congratulations, Dee! So glad you rescued those Guerlies!
WHOA!! Maybe the poll brought you luck!
I think it did! As we were walking away from the sale, my husband was like, “so, are you going to go brag about it now?” and I was like… “YES!”
Excellent rescue skills. I’m so proud (sniffs)!
Wow, that is wonderful, Dee! Enjoy them. 🙂
Dee – great score on the Guerlains!
Holy crap – you win.
Yep, I don’t think it can get better than this.
I wish I lived near people who bought scents other than the current celebrity sugar scents.
Jealous and impressed.
I really like tea or well done green tea scents. I once bought a 20ml of Masaki Matsushima Mintea from Sephora for about… 50 bucks or more. Yea for just 20ml of this juice! Well a few months later I walked into our local perfume store, only to find a 40ml bottle of Mintea for a whole… $12.50! When I asked the lady to ring it up, she said, oh this one I don’t realy know what this is… so it’s on;y 12.50 haha. Good for me, right?
Oh, good score! It’s always terrific when the people you’re buying from have no idea what they’ve got…
I’ve never had that Mintea but it sounds great – I have seen it around for pretty cheap, but not *that* cheap!
Ooooh, vintage Guerlains… That are the bargains I would like to make, too!!!
The one (and only) time I scored a vintage Guerlain extrait for a reasonable (mind you, not cheap!!) price, when the package arrived the juice had spilled out of the bottle, the label was destroyed, and the few ml left smelled completely off.
So, I am envious.
😉
Oooops!, this was supposed to be a comment to Dee above.
Zazie, I’m sorry that your vintage find was lost to shipping! Messege me on MUA (deeHowe) and I’ll hook you up!
Distressing shipment could be a whole poll someday, Zazie! I’m especially frustrated by a very old vintage Guerlain Vetiver that the seller decanted into an empty Caron Bain de Champagne screwtop bottle, which, of course, contaminated it with the unique and incompatible scent of BdC. Great idea to decant from the glass stopper bottle for shipment – terrible choice of bottle!
Sometimes it is a good idea to decant into a screw-top bottle anyway, as the stopper bottles sometimes do not seal well. I have had perfume evaporate from a poorly-fitting stopper bottle before.
I am appalled at the ignorant manner in which many eBay sellers treat their vintage perfumes, although perhaps I shouldn’t be. I suppose if they really understood and appreciated vintage scents, they wouldn’t be selling them in the first place, they would be using them themselves.
My own luck with eBay sellers has been much better, thankfully. My most recent acquisition was a bottle of Roger and Gallet Blue Carnation. I had to go through 5 layers of box, bubble wrap, paper, etc., all securely taped together, to get to the bottle, which had the screw cap also firmly taped in place. No way that bottle was going to leak!
Oh, yes, isn’t it terrific when someone packages responsibly?
It’s true, many sellers are great. I got one bottle so obsessively sealed with layers of tape and rubber bands that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to open it, LOL!
I guess 90% of more of the vintage perfumes I’ve won have arrived safely. I’d never seen such an old bottle of Vetiver, though, so that one is frustrating. I can still get an idea of how wonderful it was. It has a high proportion of sandalwood, which is very different from modern or even 60s/70s vintage (also very different from modern).
I can understand decanting in to another bottle of the same scent, e.g., decanting Chanel no. 5 extrait into a Chanel no
(please continue) ..Chanel no. 5 Edt bottle. They may not be exactly the same formula, but it would probably be OK. For someone to put one perfume into a bottle for another, completely different scent, that person must be one of those anosmics who thinks “all perfumes smell the same”.
I think Laurie of SSS is the queen of tape! I can never get into her packages, and then when I do, I can’t unwrap the bubble wrap for all of the shipping tape! But I’ve never received anything broken.
Knock on wood I’ve not had any bad ebay experiences yet. I did get two vintage Chanels that were pretty well turned. But they were so inexpensive I just put it aside – at least I have some cool bottles that I don’t have to stress about putting on display.
Before buying on ebay, I always check to see if the seller usually deals in perfumes – then I can be reasonably sure the packing will be effective. It may also be a male/female thing: I once had a male vendor send a GHLASS bottle of facila cleanser in a slighlty padded envelope, the type usually used for photos. This did not work well….
Hi Tama! My latest bargains Hermes Ambre Narguile 15ml for $28, Bond No 9 7ml Bon Bons- Littly Italy $12 and Astor Place $15.
Anything Hermes for $28 is a good deal to me!
I don’t remember the exact prices, but two of my most treasured and reasonable wins would include a huge, old boule of of vintage Shalimar EDT and a coffret of teeny vintage Lanvin extraits. Their beauty and deep deliciousness set me firmly on the vintage trail.
No wonder they’re treasured!
Good for you! Those Lanvin coffrets are adorable and hard to find. Congratulations. 🙂
Nozknoz- vintage scores are really the best kind b/c it is often the way to get into the classic fragrances without spending a fortune on them. I always wonder about the person who originally bought them or was given them as a gift. Lucky for us so many women received fragrances they didn’t like!
Hi Tama! How nice to see you hosting. And hello and happy weekend everyone! Wish I had more time to spend here today, but i have some stuff going on. I have a quick comment though. My best bargain recently is perfume *related*. A 2006 edition of Fragrances of the World for 12.95 from the ‘Bay. Quite a steal. Oh, and I won a vintage Joy parfum [in the little black bottle with the red dabber] from Ebay a little while back for $19.50! Not bad, huh?!
My Mom had that little black bottle of Joy – I think Joy started my perfume obsession. I would love one of those bottles!
I have one of the black bottles with a red top, but it’s a sprayer. It comes with a little matching black funnel, and the sprayer unscrews, so I assume it is a type of travel Joy? It’s neat.
Congratulations, Rustic Dove!
Those little Joys and vintage Arpege are the best deals on the ‘bay, IMO. I guess back in the mid-century every man dutifully bought one or both of them for his sweetie, and the women all tucked them away for a special occasion. It’s interesting to reflect on a time when such high quality perfumes were so popular and SAs were proudly recommending them!
I recently won a bottle of vintage Revlon Intimate (40 oz. bottle, about 2/3 full) on eBay for $11.00. It is labeled as a “cologne” but comes off closer to an EdT or even and EdP. It is really potent stuff, so I am waiting for cooler weather to really test it out; that is, cooler than 90 degrees anyway. It is a no-holds-barred animalic chypre of the type no one makes anymore. I consider any classic chypre to be a real find these days. Unfortunately, chypres were about the last category of perfume I learned to appreciate, and about the time I started to like them they began to disappear.
Aargh! I am having technology problems today! That should say “4 oz.”, not “40 oz.”, although if it were 40 oz., that really would be a bargain!
40 oz of anything would be pretty hysterical!
and it’d probably be 4711……
I read somewhere that in Spain, they sell liter-sized bottles of eau de cologne all the time.
Congrats!
Oh, lucky you! Intimate was my signature fragrance in high school and maybe my first year of college. People used to stop me on the street to ask what I was wearing. I haven’t smelled it in decades and just ordered it this week via Amazon, as reviewers say it is still the same formula even though Revlon no longer makes it. I’m hoping I still love it.
I am a little bit new to being a perfume addict and have not had much time or experience to do much treasure hunting, but I fell into absolute adoring obsession with a sample of Amouage Lyric but nearly died when I saw the full bottle price. Then I found on ebay a seller actually in Oman selling full unopened testers of Lyric for $2l9. Well, that is still scary-spendy-pricey, but it is amazing how one can feel after fretting over a $300 bottle to find one for $2l9!!! Everything is relative to something else and there is always a rationalization that can make one feel better about their insanity. Anyway, I now am the proud owner of my very own bottle of Lyric and I am in love, love, love.
I think 27% off on an Amouage is pretty nice! Most of the really big bargains seem to be on more mainstream stuff or vintage. Someone is either getting rid of an unwanted gift or cleaning out grandma’s stuff. There probably aren’t a whole lot of unwanted gift bottles of Amouage out there, and the brand hasn’t been around long enough to have generated a lot of vintage bottles.
The quality of Amouage is so high – they are truly worth the full price, and a hefty discount is a wonderful score. You earned it by taking a chance on a distant seller – congratulations!
That’s a great bargain: Lyric is lovely!
50 Roses is right of course, and I should take notes: focus on vintage, focus on vintage…
THat’s a great deal on Amouage! They are all indeed more like parfum concentration, and a bottle like that is an investment. I’ve been lucky to get in on some nice splits for Lyric and Gold for Men. Any Ammouage is a big invesment fragrance for sure.
Hey Tama, what a fun poll! I’m so happy to read of all the fab bargains on here, too. Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people. 🙂
I’m happy I’ve had some great bargains along the way, too, including a half full Imperial Decanter of Emeraude PDT for $15, including shipping!
But I think my best bargain (so far) has been the vintage wrapped and sealed 2 oz. box of Arpege Extrait. And now for the best part … after carefully unwrapping the box what do I discover? The famous boule noire … baudruchage intact and a metallic gold tassled ribbon around the neck of its raspberry petaled stopper cap … still full and smelling divine! All for $56.00, including shipping!
Happy weekend to all!
That Imperial Decanter is so pretty. Every time *I* see one on ebay, it’s $100 or more.
This is a fun poll! What a bunch of lucky devils we all are. That Arpege sounds wonderful.
That is one of the best scores ever! I was happy to win an empty raspberry stopper boule for under $50 – I just love how it looks and feels.
It is a beautiful bottle. I’m just so scared of the juice spoiling I never get to see it on display. I keep it inside its 2 boxes deep in the back of my linen closet. I decanted about 3mls of it into a little glass sprayer (also kept inside a drawer) to spray on once in a while before going to bed.
(Gee, she is so paranoid!)
You’re not paranoid – simply a perfumista who knows that light is the enemy!
Connie – Wow! God bless all those estate sellers who don’t know what they are selling!
Hi Tama!
I feel like bargains are getting harder to find sometimes, but I love the ebay bargains that can be snapped up sometimes!
My best scores?
– an almost full 100ml “man” bottle of Mandragore, on ebay for about $23 two years ago
– half-full 0.5oz vintage Vent Vert parfum for $10 at an antique mall (just dabbed a bit of this on… mmmm)
Just last week I was happy to win an auction of an 80% full bottle of PdN Fig Tea for $40 shipped.
Good luck all my fellow bargain hunters! Have a great weekend.
I have yet to try Vent Vert in any form or formulation. One of those things I hear about hear about hear about, like Bel Ami (which I finally smelled on a person – divoone).
Joe – let’s not forget your awesome e bay score on Noir Epices!!!
True, Ann. It was a pretty good score.
I gues that would be Lancome Trophee, vintage for 1.00 euro, scored through ebay
Well I don’t know the perfume, but the price is unbeatable!
A real trophy! I am curious about the scent, what is it like?
It’s a full bodied chypre, lots of citrus, basil and some salty accord. Marketed originally in 1982 as a men’s scent to celebrate a golf tournament. I love it for the summer and believe they reissued it in 2000 🙂
That’s the kind of deal that I go for even if the stuff might stink! What have you got to lose?
exactly! love such bargains 🙂
I love to haunt ebay for vintage stuff, and have picked up some really beautiful things for cheap that way. Some great deals, all including shipping: a nearly-full 1 oz bottle of L’Heure Bleue, sans label, for $35, a full 4-oz bottle of vintage Emeraude PdT in box for $15 (it wasn’t labeled as sealed but turned out to be), a full 7.5ml bottle of vintage Arpege extrait for $14, and a 100ml bottle of Mariella Burani for $23.
Best deal, though: barely used 1-ounce 1940’s Chanel No. 5 parfum with all its packaging, for $33. It is truly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever smelled.
Mals, those are some very nice deals;)
Good for you!
You got some EXCELLENT stuff!
Oh my, what lovely treasures indeed! The vintage rabbit hole is not good for my wallet … but so much fun when it’s a great smelling score. 🙂
Ah, vintage Chanel No 3 – that stuff is truly swoon worthy. I wish they could bring back that old formula!
1940’s Chanel No. 5?!? THUD!!!
wow, unbelievable! I’ve never had luck with vintage stuff on ebay though, too many buyers interested 🙂
Ahhhh, l’heure bleue….
I just bought the edt full price. Was that 1 oz bottle an
Oh, envy!
🙂
But I don’t mind, especially if you review your finds! 😉
Now, also this was supposed to be an answer to Mals.
Really, believe me, it’s not me messing up with the comments!!
It must be a sabotage from the “reply” function!
Or maybe I’m punished for my envy?
Now, that would be scary… 😉
I’ve mentioned these before but:
ebay 🙂 Jean Patou Vacances mini for $12, including shipping!!!!
CdG2 for $35, shipping included
l’Artisan Jour de Fete 15ml bottle for $8, shipping included!
My first ebay deal was a bottle of CdG2!
Vacances is one I haven’t tried yet, but since I seem to be on a Patou binge…..
A friend gave me a bottle of ’50’s vintage Bourjois Evening in Paris that she had inherited. It was nearly full, and fully divine.
That’s the kind of friend to have. I was given a bottle of Joy edt out of the blue – that can really make your day!
well, if those count too, than I’ll put in the nearly full tubéreuse criminelle I received from a friend (last year)
Hi all,
Best bargains of all time for me are:
*Shiseido’s Feminite du Bois, extrait, 1/2 oz , new box and original perfume bottle for $95 dollars.
*Fendi edt 1.7 oz for $9.99 (thanks to AnnS for spotting that one, the kudos belongs to her, actually).
*If free counts, a SA gave me a new full 1.7 oz bottle of Tom Ford’s Black Orchid, does that count?
Free is the best deal of all!!!
Free definitely counts!
Aw shucks, can I make my emoticon blush? 😉 … The best thing in the world is to see that scarlet “markdown” sticker all over the front of a bottle you want! My brains have all gone wonky today though: above I mistakenly thought it was Rappleyea that I found those Fendis for! OOPS!
I’m almost forgot this one, because I keep tucked away for special occasions. I received a 30ml tester of Mon Precieux Necter for free!
The SA at the Guerlain counter had let me sniff this saying it was a “new fragrance” coming out. I loved it. So I kept asking her about it. Turns out she was mistaken. She was thinking she had spritzed me with Bois Torride(or one of those that came out at that time).
I asked her to find out the name and the price of what she had spritzed me with. She told me it was going to be a lot more expensive, perhaps $2000. I told her to go ahead and get me information (as if). She called me back in near hysteria to tell me the name (MPN) and the price, $9000. A few weeks later, I had a message on my answering machine saying she felt so bad about the whole thing, that she got permission from her district manager to give me the tester! I couldn’t get to the counter fast enough!
I t pays to be on a first name basis with the SA’s!
Good Lord!!! Now that is truly money saved, in the best way possible! $9000 – gack!
Whoa, you win! My eyes just popped out of my head 😀
What does a 9K fragrance smell like, then?
You can see a picture of the MPN perfume fountain at the Neiman Marcus Guerlain trunk show….$9000 for a liter of perfume….that’s pretty darn scary!
30mls for free! Holy Moly! I can’t even imagine!
A litre of perfume has “ultimate split” written all over it! And price per mil looks almost reasonable that way.
that’s how I got my 10ml…..but even that amount in a split is pretty darn expensive. 🙁
Hey Daisy!
What are your thoughts on MPN?
MPN comes across as mostly a fruity-musky scent on me….I get some sort of a peachy-apricoty type note and something that reminds me a little of J&J’s baby shampoo…but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s a nice fragrance but really didn’t seem any more special than, say, the Guerlain L’arte et La Matiere line….which are spendy but NOT $9000 spendy (I don’t care what it is–no perfume is worth that kind of financial commitment!) I bought into a split unsniffed because I felt like I was getting a little chunk of Guerlain history…. If you read the write up at the Trunk Show, you’ll notice that it’s all about the fabulous BOTTLE….and there’s like one line about the fragrance itself. Personally, I like 180 Ans better. Not that 180 Ans is that easy to get your mitts on either! 🙂
I would say it’s in the vein of Quand Vient la Pluie in that gourmand meats delicate flowers.
Holy Cow! Wow! That’s so awesome!
Dixie – holy smokes! Now that must be the champion fragrance deal ever! Wow.
My goodness!!! As I said earlier, I am quite new to perfume addiction, but in my short time of sampling, buying and reading wonderful perfume blogs, my heart already feels very connected to Guerlain scents, Mitsouko and Nahema for starts. I had no idea that such amounts of money could be involved. I nearly had a heart attack just reading about the $9000. Well, what a wonderful experience of treasure hunting!!!
Wow-9k for a scent? If I’d been on the other end of the phone, they would have to call 911 to revive me! Holy Smokes that’s pricey…..
I’ve made some good finds on ebay – including this week’s Jo Malone Honeysuckle and Jasmine for half price. I was given a bottle of Fendi for ffree once, from a freind who was an SA at Nordstroms, but I ended up giving it to my mother – it gave me an instant headache (hence the Jo Malone, I guess). But I’m truly impressed by the deals in storage cabinets discussed above as my CEO is getting a bit miffly about the bottles and such everywhere. What I need is not less perfume but Better Storage. perfect!
I’m going to need better storage soon. Fortunately I don’t have a CEO to notice how bad it’s getting or make snide comments.
Maggie-I hear you, my collection was expanding to fit the storage I have (two armoires and a shed). Very scary how many bottles accumulated over the years.
The CEO is usually understanding but he finally put his foot down this year.
Perhaps a poll on storage is due. I need a perfume armoire in a major way!
I saw a gorgeous armoire while shopping….huge thing, had nice shelves and those cool double hinged doors….BUT —it was dark wood that had a pretty ripple-y grain (walnut maybe?) and some ornate molding around the top….so it didn’t go in this room at all (everything smooth clean lines and oak) and then there was the price tag $2,500+ .
yeah…sooo not in the budget! $2500 was so far from the budget that you can’t even SEE the budget from there!
Sounds gorgeous! I can’t afford my own tastes-especially with furniture!
yeah, I hear ya…..my tastes and my bank account don’t see eye to eye either.
if body cream counts, got the huge jar of jean paul gaultier ‘classique’ ‘la creme’ for 19.99! there was only one there and i grabbed it and ran to the cashier! saved at least $60…it was at winner’s, canadian version of tj maxx.
Perfumed cream definitely counts – nice find!
BARGAIN HAIKU
Hate to go shopping
Therefore I never find deals
I shouldn’t complain
But…. Robin *did* say best deals OR incredible finds, so I’ll list my incredible find, although it wasn’t much of a deal. I found a new bottle of Guerlain’s 180 Ans. And actually it was quite a bit less per ml. than what I had previously paid for my decant – still heart stoppingly spendy, but at least less than a mortgage payment!
I love your Haiku —it fits me perfectly 😉
There must be some fine, blurry line between hating to shop and being a hard core fragrance hunter, lol! I hate to shop too, but I love looking for fragrances to buy. Contradictions abound!
Only on Evil Bay for me. I *do* go to the huge local bookstore that we have here, but that’s it.
Daisy – my comment about 180 Ans should have fit you too! 😉
made me dash to the cabinet for a spritz!
It’s so hard to find—of course I LOVE it!
you know….when I think about it….so many of my “spendy faves” are all your fault….that’s right: I’m lookin at you Rapple!
Awww…. I take that as a compliment to my good taste in perfume! But you’ve done your fair share of damage – the latest is my decant of Iris Ganache. I had never sampled it and based on your comments at the time of your split, I was afraid to buy unsniffed. Boo recently sent me a sample (YOUR label on it – lol!) and I loved it!!
Hating to shop doesn’t compute for me. I find it very relaxing – you know what is weird? I especially find shopping at Costco of all places relaxing!!
I *love* to shop. It’s nice, non-emotionally taxing entertainment. But it’s depressing as all hell for me because I haven’t had any mad money in over a year. I can restrain myself at the mall and such, but it breaks my heart when I can’t afford something at a second-hand store and have to walk away from it, heartbroken. (And it’s just plain embarrassing when you can’t afford anything at, uh, Goodwill.) I was just at a second-hand store in Olympia, WA that only took cash, and I had an armful of vintage scarves and no cash. I made B. hand over the gas money to me (yes, really) so I could get them. I guess I should be glad they didn’t have perfume there, or B. would have had to drag me out of there crying and screaming.
I was in a period of extreme brokeness up until about a year ago that lasted 6 years or more – it really got to me after a while. I did learn to shop more intelligently (my wallet is snorting at me after last weekend’s perfume splurge – shaddup!!) and I still get my clothes at Ross and Old Navy even though I could afford more. So I hear ya, sistah!
Been there, done that too! I’m okay now except that I’m in an industry (Thoroughbred racing) that’s on life support. I’m getting nervous about my job, but at least I’ll smell good when I’m unemployed!
We’re down to one track in the Bay Area – hope it makes it – I love to go to the races now and again!
Best deal was today, actually:
Traded an old bottle of Lady Caron (not great on me, ech) in exchange for three hours free of charge at a perfume organ and 3.4 oz of my concoction. It was great fun, though I’m still not quite sure of my perfume…It’s getting much better as it wears though.
Notes: lemongrass, ginger, peach, rose, frankincense, sandalwood, vetiver, touch of dark vanilla.
Smells like Republic of Tea’s Ginger Peach, which I don’t mind!
what fun! Sounds to me like you made a great bargain!
I wouldn’t mind smelling like Ginger Peach at all!
Most of the synthetic aroma-chemicals don’t work on my skin and/or to my nose at all, but peach is one that does and i love it. This sounds fantastic! You may have a calling as a perfumer.
Not really a “steal”, but I still consider it a deal – I recently acquired a 100ml bottle of the infamous discontinued Comptoir Sud Pacifique Thè for $50.
Not perfume – but I also found Chandler Burr’s book “A Perfect Scent” for $1 at the Dollar Tree.
A few people are gonna be green that you even found the CSP The!
Actually, our resident enabler-in-chief found it for me – it wasn’t the only bottle and I’m pretty sure that she told Kevin about it too. Otherwise, I might not have even posted it, lol. I caused quite the stir at work when my package from Kuwait showed up too.
Ha! I’m sure my post office thinks I’m “up to something” with all the packages from Kuwait, Oman, Hong Kong….France, the UK…..then there’s all those little packets I send back out —all over the world….and I *look* so innocent too….. 😉
I haven’t had any great finds in a while, and can’t remember anything I’ve found in the past. The best score ever is still the friend that gave me bottle of Joy parfum that she got for $5 at a garage sale. I keep thinking I need to start garage saleing because that seems to be where all the really good deals are.
Me too. Thrift stores here in SF are tough, because everyone knows if anything is worth anything, for the most part. Then the antiques dealers snap up anything good as soon as the store opens. So, garage sales might be worth a look.
Some lucky lucky folks out there. My best bargain doesn’t really compare but made me happy. Used £80 worth of points accrued with Boots the Chemist here in the UK (took a year) to buy my coveted bottle of No 5 Extrait which is just the business… Now accruing points in the hope that they will start to stock Narciso Rodriguez….
Oh, but that is a great bargain. Since you used points, it was free, right? And nothing is better than free! That is how I look at anything I get with points, gift cards, or even money that I received as a gift. I consider it “free” money, and therefore anything I buy with it is “free”.
Absolutely! free No5 extrait is a heck of a bargain!
This is not a find, but a lucky winning of a draw and I am loving and enjoying it very much. It is a 1 ml sample of that very expensive, exclusive perfume from a company in Austria called Puredistance. It is a truly beautiful fragrance of basically extrait concentration, but at $225 for 17 mls, I don’t think I will be acquiring any of this any time soon. Oh well, I am enjoying my sample and my good luck of being one of the winners of the draw.
Congrats! What’s it smell like?
Its notes are: top-tangerine blossom, cassis, neroli bigarade; heart-magnolia, rose wardia, jasmine, natural mimosa; base-sweet amber, vetiver, white musk. I am actually surprised at how much I have grown to love this scent because it has somewhat of an elegant coldness – a chilly white floral and I am usually drawn to fragrance with more warmth. But it is exquisite and you can almost “feel” the high quality of the raw materials. The sillage is average, but the longevity is very good (I can still smell it faintly on my wrist after my morning shower, having applied it the evening before.) – and yet it is not a strong, overpowering scent even at the beginning. It has a fairly complex development, though I am not very good at describing the stages from initial to drydown. It is 32% perfume oil and so basically extrait strength. It is discreet and beautiful and not at all like what you would think of in terms of “white flower” scents. It seems deeply enchanted with abstract harmonies. Very feminine & sophisticated.
Sounds delightful! Glad you are getting to at least try it. Sometimes those really expensive perfumes, if you really love them, are worth every penny.
And see, if you wind up with lots of deals and steals, the expensive ones aren’t so bad if you average it out.
Nice description! I agree with Tama, though. If it’s a love and you will wear it, it’s worth the money!
OMG! A very kind person sent me some in a swap and I loved it. I had no idea it was so expensive! Figures!!
Wow! What great finds! My only one was the recent Bigelow sale (OK, I ordered 3x! it was great fun!)…but I have no luck at my TJMx for anything intresting…headed to fleamarkets in the next few weeks to see what is avail!
Awesome stories!
Yeah, but some of those Bigelow steals were fantastic, after all! Great prices!
Some lucky, lucky people!
I recently got a big box of random “old” perfumes for $60. I had no idea what would actually be in it and many were empty but there was:
– ball a Versailles parfum (near full)
– no 5 parfum (but I can’t get into it!!)
– no 19 and coco EDT minis
– mystere de rochas (full)
– really old shiseido zen which is miles apart from the more modern blck I have
– loads of others that will probably pay for my box once I’ve old them like safari, red door etc.
I was quite pleased with that gamble 😉
You really did get lucky, Lilybug! What a fantastic haul. I wore Zen a million years ago and loved it!
That was some nice stuff in there. I remember someone here having a trick for opening stuck bottles – hopefully they will pipe up.
I’ve tried the hairdryer to ungum it and ice to contract the glass and a knife to lever the stopper out but no luck so far. Still, I like knowing it’s there waiting for me 😉
I’m playing this game in reverse. I got an advertising thing in the mail from Guerlain with an offer to order fragrances and concentrations not normally available in Australia. The idea is that you order in Sept and pick up from a local dept store in November, your fragrance having been shipped ‘direct from Paris’. I noticed that Mitsouko EDP was a whopping $192 for 75 mls, and that was one of the cheapest items on the list. Chamade was there, as was Apres l’Ondee, and I forget what else.
I tossed it in the recycling; there was nothing there that could not be had for half those prices (or much less) online, either from a discounter or eBay. AND without a two-month wait. (What are they doing? Shipping it on the Queen Mary?) Guerlain must think we are living in the dark ages.
Everything seems difficult-to-get in the Southern Hemisphere… unfairly so, too. Maybe I should rethink the whole Retire-to-New-Zealand idea.
la collection of lancome… 4 15ml bottles,mille et une roses, magie, climat and sikkim for about USD 26.
free bottle of fracas edp and free bottle of osthmanthus (the differnet co) from SA. theo fennel scent for 20usd.
guys on friday i smelled and loved opus 1 and amouge memoir for man and woman…..lllllooooovvvveee
You got a couple of nice freebies there!
Home fragrances bargain – L’Artisan candles for $5 at a Bath and Bodyworks in Massachusetts two years ago during one of their semi-annual sales! I almost had a heart attack when I saw them, and I went absolutely nuts, filling two shopping bags with all I could possibly carry, while trying desperately to avoid drawing attention to myself. I needn’t have worried – I had absolutely no competition whatsoever. Everything was current, and on the shelves at the Madison Avenue boutique (now closed) at the time, and I scored multiples of Mure Sauvage, Invitation Creole, Interior Figuier, Mimosa Marin, Ile Bourbon, L’Ambre, and several others. I have no idea why LAP was at BBW – there were also Esteban room sprays and incense, for $2 – $3. Needless to say, I have thoroughly enjoyed my haul and have given some great gifts as well!
Hahaha!! I would have thought I was dreaming for sure, and then done the same thing!
Oh wow! I have dreams like that sometimes. Wereyou pinching yourself?
Three of my best bargains were a bottle of Le De (Mythiques version) for £7.50 on Ebay, new Tom Ford White Suede for £50 and Creed Love In Black for £75 (though I am not so keen on it now, so maybe it isn’t that much of a bargain after all!)
Nice deals, all! Maybe if you take a break from the Creed, you’ll like it again later.
Sadly, I don’t have any great bargains to brag about and life is quite bizarre here now. I just wanted to say how much I love coming here on a weekend and finding new stuff to read. Thank you, Robin, and everyone who has posted. I’ve enjoyed popping in and out to see what’s new.
Happy you could stop by!!
I’ve never been lucky enough to find a real perfume bargain, sadly- though I imagine my poor luck is partly due to not shopping on eBay. So many tempting things there, if I did set up a Paypal account I’d be bankrupt within the week.
But on the brighter side, while I was down at my local farmer’s market yesterday morning I was lucky enough to find a vendor selling big bunches of lovely tuberose for only $6 each. I’d never seen fresh tuberose before- it’s so not how I thought it was! The flowers are so thick and fleshy, far more like hyacinth than rose petals. So now I’ve got a beautiful vase of tuberose up in my bedroom and it smells absolutely heavenly. Cheapest room-scenting ever! 🙂
Pinkster, you’re smart, evilbay was my descent down the rabbit hole for sure…..
I adore fresh tuberose. I participate in Hawaiian cultural events quite often, and many lei are made with tuberose. What a spectacular aroma, and really not much like the perfumery version of it.
Hey guys, Believe it or not, but i got the armani prive boxset of 4 fragrances (bois d encens, ambre soie, eau d jade, pierre de lune)from ebay for 95 british pounds. i didnt like the ambre soie and pierre de lune, so i managed to sell them both for a total of 140 british pounds, which means i got 2 of the prives for free plus made 45 pounds profit!
Making a profit is definitely a great deal!!
Way to go!
For me the deal to end all deals was the sealed 1950’s era L’heure Bleue extrait for $8 from a thrift store in Rhode Island. I was lightheaded.
I also snagged a full size Mugler -A Traverse le Mirroir for around $14.
Since then I’ve been enjoyng the heck out of some $12 C.O Bigelow Lemon & orange Blossom EdP from BBW (75% off) and 1 oz of Joy EdP I found at Duane Reade for $20.
Holy moly! I’m lighthheaded too…L’Heure Bleue is one of my faves!
I haven’t met a Guerlain I didn’t like!
Finding l’Heure Bleu extrait would make me wanna pas out, too! I’d be holding my breath till I got out to the car, hoping they didn’t catch their mistake.
And how the heck did you find that Mugler??
The Mugler was a weird ebay fluke. The auction deities smiled on me that day.
Of course for every great catch there’s (at least) one that got away – the set of 9 vintage Patou minis including Colony that sold for the whopping sum of $28.
OW!!!!
i was in a perfume store when a lady came in and asked the Sales Assistants if she could give them her bottle of Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile, since she tried it a few times, but didn’t like it. she asked if the store would like to use it as a tester but they declined.
so i sacrificed myself and asked her if i may have it. and i did get it! 😀
a nearly full bottle of Iris Nobile. for free!
How lucky! It’s all in the timing…
Prism,
I admire your self-sacrifice 😉
Really – talk about perfect timing! Lucky you!
I’ve found that for every steal, I get a dud, but the best recent finds have been a .25 oz pure perfume spray of Hermes 24 Faubourg in the gold scarf canister on the bay for $33, Moment Supreme perfume in the glass dauber bottle (maybe ’60s vintage) for $20, and a mini bottle of Private Collection pure perfume for $3. The first 2 from the Bay and includes shipping while the last from an antique shop. All bottles nearly full.
Funny, I was just cruising the Moment Supremes today – I have never tried it, but it sounds fantastic (and since I am on my Patou binge these days).
I used to wear Moment Supreme when I was young. I loved it…it was a beautiful fragrance.
Essence over on Newbury St. here in Boston are absolutely awesome and have the pure perfume oils for a good 150 fragrances, as well as their own blends and single notes. I’m pretty new to the wonderful world of perfume so have no real great “steals” to report yet, but they did give me a 1 ml sample of the pure oil of New Haarlem for free, which I thought was incredibly awesome of them.
Oh, I can get lost in those essential oils places until I am queasy. Even since I read Patrick Suskind’s “Perfume”, (and even before), sniffing and mixing and prowling amongst the fragrant bottles has bewitched me.
Probably $5 for full bottle of Lanvin Crescendo from an eBay seller whose ad seemed to say that it was only the bottle itself that was for sale, which is not uncommon – I sent her a message and it turned out it a “new old stock” bottle and was unopened – and it was one of those cool metal canisters that kept it in perfect condition. I just about cried when I smelled it. 🙂
A close second would be about the same price for an unopened bottle of Ma Griffe extrait still in its wrappings -I took a shot not knowing what was under the paper covering, and yes there was some evaporation, but wow, it was otherwise perfect. Pretty sure I actually DID cry with that one! Unbearably lovely.
Ma Griffe! I haven’t heard that name in a long time! I don’t know either of those, but sounds like both were perfect.
I’ve only had one wonderful perfume bargain and it was a totally unexpected surprise. A year ago, I called my favorite perfume shop to order Amouage Epic Woman, a 100 ml bottle because I had fallen madly in love with it after sniffing it in the shop months before and knew I would wear it very often. The owner told me he was sold out but when he received it, he would personally deliver it to my home as I lived near a relative of his that he was planning to visit. This was a pleasant surprise, as I was physically incapacitated and it would have been difficult for me to pick it up.
I figured that he was doing this because I was a good customer (besides this purchase, I had in the past bought some LV a few times).
I asked him if he had some samples of some other Amouage scents I wanted to try. He told me he didn’t have any samples, but he would make some decants for me.
When he delivered my Epic Woman, he presented me with the “free samples” he had decanted. These are four large spray decants (I think 15 ml, but they could be 8 ml — not certain)! WOW!
Now that is service above and beyond one’s wishes! Sadly, I’ve just learned that the shop has closed. I was planning to order my
Lalique from him. Anyway, that was my one and only “bargain” and I’m still enjoying it, although Epic Woman is still my favorite!
What a sweet story! I’m so sorry to hear the shop has closed. Would that there were more businesspeople like that – it would be a better world.
Maybe it would be a better world, or maybe they’d all go out of business (from being broke, decanting perfumes for free!)
Anyway, I decided to try the store’s number one more time today and got the owner on the line! He told me he plans to start up in a different location in the near future and will keep me posted. I’m so happy!
Thanks for hosting this poll, Tama.
Oh, yay!
You’re welcome – it was fun.
Joy EDT at Marshall’s.
Not something you see every day!
Tama, great job with the weekend poll! I’m with the don’t-like-to-shop folks, so my “big” deals involve coupons for reputable online retailers. I did win a bottle of Gump’s Baroque Pearl right here at NST, and I was a BIG winner (five bottles!) in a recent Luckyscent Facebook contest. Those were pretty exciting!
i got penhaligons blenhim bouquet 50 ml edt for 26 pounds on ebay. also a 120 ml bottle of creed imperial millesime for 55 dollars, amongst many other bargains! i do love my bargains!
best bargain=
Givenchy v.irresistible fresh attitude 100ml for €38.85 -£31.40 Tenerife
best find=
Thierry Mugler Womanity 10ml for €14 -£11 Tenerife