So, for those of you who participated in the 1st freebiemeet, how did it go? Feel free to tell us what you got, and whether or not you loved it.
Should we do this again, and how often? Once a year, twice a year? Is there anything we should do differently so it will run more smoothly?
There's a "regular" poll coming along shortly, and a quick reminder: our next swapmeet will be Saturday, March 15.
Note: top image is Viola "Milfull" @Mon jardin [cropped] by ai3310X at flickr; some rights reserved.
I had an absolutely wonderful experience with the freebiemeet. Two years ago I left my full-time, decent-salary job and went back to grad school. One of the things I have been missing most about said salary (in addition to, like, meals that are not ramen) is the ability to occasionally buy a new fragrance or even a sample! So this was heaven for me and I am so very grateful to the incredibly generous Janice and 50_Roses for hooking me up with bottles of Dark Amber & Ginger Lily and Magie Noire. I am wearing the former all the time and the latter when I am feeling dramatic – I confess to also putting some in the bath when I want a Dramatic Bath.
Did anyone have the same sort of weird game-theory problems that I did? Only being able to dibs two choices (which was totally the right call) made it both fun and stressful. I put in my first choice almost right away but dithered forever over the second – what if I burned my last dibs and someone posted, like, an FB of Silver Factory or something else I’ve been dying to own? I ended up being very happy with both of my choices. Thank you to everyone who made this possible! Please keep doing them so I can pay it forward in a year or two when I (knock on wood) have a normal job again.
Yes — not sure how to deal with that problem though!
Oh, I used the word “problem” but I really shouldn’t have – I actually thought that was kind of a neat aspect of it, and it was interesting to watch my own thought processes trying to decide when to “pull the trigger”! Two apiece seems absolutely right to me.
The alternative — no limits — would obviously be worse!
Hi Robin,and thank you anngd for the generous sample package that arrived safely here in South Africa!I’ve used up the SL Ambre Sultan and went for a fb just yesterday!So gorgeous!Unfortunately the other dibs didn’t work out,as I’ve had no response to several mails to said poster.Aww well…lol.Very glad that there are people willing to ship to South Africa from the US,and had no customs issues.Thanks again Ann,and I think this should be a regular feature!HAPPY WEEKEND!
So sorry that happened! Hope some of the “givers” will chime in, I wonder if they were overwhelmed by the response.
Johano you are so welcome! Glad you like the Ambre Sultan. Shipping samples was an interesting experience. I think our post office guy knew what I was up to but he let it pass. Not very good at dissembling 🙂
Haha!So glad he understood it was URGENT!Love the samples(and your generous add-ons you included!)Slowly working my way through them,I’ll mail you a progress report asap!
I offered several things for grabs and packages went out all over the world (Italy, USA, South Africa & Spain) and hopefully, all arrived well (haven’t heard of some). I even received a nice thank you note with samples in return! 🙂 I’m happy that I was able to make somebody’s day. I didn’t call dibs on anything, but maybe next time.
Hello Robin and fellow followers! My experience was positive as I was introduced to the gorgeous Cuir Ottoman, which I’m wearing today. Thanks to Ula for her generosity and fantastically fast despatch. The other fragrance I called dibs on didn’t appear – in fact, the giver never showed signs of life; don’t know what happened there, perhaps it was a misunderstanding.
Anyway, I’m happy and grateful for the experience and hope it will be repeated sometime.
My pleasure 🙂
Oh you’re Ula. So sorry, I didn’t realise. Thanks again : )
I think our negative experience was with the same person that posted from Malaysia,I just hope she is OK though.
Same here. I had emailed her about a decant and never got a response. I just figure at least it was a freebie and I’m not out any money for it.
You’re both right. My experience was with the same person. Perhaps it was more expensive than she had imagined to mail from Malaysia.
I’m so glad to have an opportunity to share about my experience with the freebie! I had been admiring the bottles of Bond New York for a while now, so was eager to call dibs on No. 9 West Side after reading a quick review of it on NST. I love having a cozy, amber/vanilla in my repertoire. I wear it on the coldest days when I want to smell sweet and fuzzy (if that makes any sense).
I was so excited to try Bvlgaria Crystalline, my other dibs, because the original Omnia is one of my favorites and one of my first purchases after I started to read NST regularly. I don’t see the similarities to Omnia just yet but have only tried it a couple times. I plan to give it a go again when the weather warms up. Meanwhile, my daughter admired it on my last wearing, so if it doesn’t work for me I will surely pass it onto her.
Thanks so much to Janice and Hajusuuri for their generosity, quick shipping, and including tracking numbers!! It was so nice to email with both of these lovely NST-ers. Despite my offer to sending them a gift of local sundries in return the both refused – saying the pleasure for them was in the giving. I look forward to paying it forward some day soon!
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
I both offered and received during the freebie-meet and had no trouble whatsoever. It was such a pleasure to both pass along things I thought others might like and to receive other people’s generous offerings.
Thanks again to Hajusuuri for the Guerlain Nerolia (I love it, heady is right up my alley) and CobraRose for the Malle minis (both lovely). I hope both ncmyers and eswift83 are enjoying the sample packs I sent and have found new scents to love.
I had a very good experience, no complaints. I was able to find new homes for two items and found a new favorite fragrance through a generous giver of 31 Rue Cambon — since then I’ve purchased a nice sized decant 😉
Hope we can do this again! thanks..
Almost all of my offerings were grabbed (5 packages in all), but it took me much longer to send things out than I anticipated (weather, health stuff, etc.) I was still well under the month deadline, but I felt bad! I also couldn’t locate one of the samples I had put up, but the recipient was gracious about my error and I gave her a lot of extra goodies to make up for it. I’ve only heard from one recipient, which is fine. I like to assume if the packages hadn’t arrived I would have heard. 🙂
And I forgot how nervous I get packaging perfume for mailing, I go a little overboard with the boxing and wrapping, but I hate the idea of anything breaking or spilling.
Hi Robin,
I had a great experience. I posted my samples to give away sort of late in the game, and never got anyone climbing “dibs” on NST, but I did get two e-mails directly about them. The e-mails came in on the same day, so I had to go by timestamp to figure out who asked first. And huge kudos to First Asker, she was really community minded. When I told her what happened, she said she was already getting a freebie from someone else, so go ahead and send it to Second Asker! So I did, and S.A was thrilled to end up with them.
I’d definitely do this again–I think once a year would be fine, no more than twice a year.
I thought it was fun, and I’d do it again. I sent out all my packages within a week or so, and they all made it safely to their destinations. Just yesterday I got a thank you postcard from one person I’d sent a sample package to, which was nice. I didn’t receive one thing I called dibs on, I suspect from the same poster that 2rista and Johanob mentioned above.
I loved the freebiemeet. Thanks so much Robin! I totally had the same thing that Regina mentioned. When the meet started I was taking care of an elderly client, so couldn’t participate and it was driving me nuts to know that there were goodies to be had but I had to wait till work was over. Then it was the waiting game to see if something came up that was interesting. I wound up with two things I absolutely love (Nuits de Hadrian and Ambre di Nepal) and offloaded a couple of things that other people appreciated. The people I sent things to sent me back “thankyou” sample goodies.
Thanks so much to Cazaubon. She sent me a 7.5 ml spray vial of AC mistral patchouli. I love it and at the rate I use fragrance it should last me a few years. Also, I really appreciated seeing a Canada only listing. I don’t think I would have had a chance otherwise.
I would love to see this event twice a year. Thank you Robin for hosting this. It was a great experience.
Hi Robin and thank you for the great opportunity for the freebiemeet. I put dibs on just one item, as I thought that going for two felt a little greedy of me, as I wasn’t offering anything in return. My thanks to Lady Murasaki for the VCA First, and her swift dispatch, I had my package in my hot little hands in a few short days. It would be a good idea to make this an annual event. I would love to offer something in the next one, but checked with post office and got a flat out “No” on sending any liquid, paste or cream in any airmail package. Though if it was sent by courier instead (at massive cost) that would be ok. Surely couriers use same air carriers as the postal service carriers? It is soooo frustrating. Any other Irish readers out there with an idea on ways to get around this?
I thought the format made sense and the calling dibs and limiting it to two made it work well. I would say that twice a year would be good. I think you kept it open longer than originally planned which was great. Did you end up keeping it open three weekends?
I managed to send out all packages except for one which I expect will go out next week and will actually have more things than originally “advertised”. Some of my freebies had not been rehomed and I will try to do so again next time and will have more to add.
I received freebie packages from CobraRose and bookgirl (with whom I had swapped before!). They were both lovely, timely and generous. Thank you.
Nope, it was only open from Saturday through Friday. I think people did continue to email after the comments were closed though.
OaklandFresca and Aswalls2000 a huge Heartfelt Thank You. Your carefully packaged samples arrived when I was depressed and suffering with shingles. The lift I got from your thoughtfulness helped me to get better sooner! I loved the samples and can see full bottles in the future of Scent On Canvas Noir De Mars and Olympic Orchids DevOne. Thank you for helping me find new fragrances to love! I hope that next time around, I can make someone else as happy as you made me!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the samples! I would love to do the swap meet again…twice a year for sure :).
Thanks aswalls2000 from me too — you are awesome!
Yay!!!!
What was sent to me has not yet arrived, but I have learned to be patient as things have taken longer than 6 weeks before! I was glad to hear that what I sent out did arrive – and in a relatively good space of time, so yay for that!
Everything sent to me in the past has always arrived, but sometimes taking a ludicrous amount of time – so I doubt anything has gone missing. Please don’t be discouraged – I will let the relevant people know when the parcels arrive!
I missed out on this unfortunately but I thought it was a great idea! I guess part of being fragrance obsessed is the tendency to hoard samples… I have so many that I would’ve loved to pass on to new owners. Generally I just give them out to friends but I’m pretty sure they don’t appreciate them as much as other readers here.
I liked how people were grouping samples. I thought it was a great idea.
Maybe I can offer freebies at the next swapmeet or would that not be allowed anymore?
Sure, it will still be allowed!
I thought it was great- and just happened to pop on the net pretty soon after the thread was posted (but not soon enough to snag that CdG Daphne!). I dibbed a 15ml Passage d’enfer- something I have been wanting a large decant of for a long time! I did not offer anything up myself this time around (bc I was a few weeks away from delivering my daughter- who ended up coming 2 weeks early!- and I knew I might have a hard time coming through)- but I do want to pay it forward the next go round! And the perfume arrived while I was in the hospital, a sweet gift awaiting me when I got home 😉
And many thanks again to Paula!
I thought this whole event was amazing and am so glad it came at such a glum time of year! I truly marvel at the kindness of fellow perfume lovers to select, pack and send samples/decants/full bottles or anything at all for free to perfect strangers. That is a really delightful truth.
Thank you to Janice for the Laura Mercier Ambre Passion Elixer oil. Terrific for the extreme cold we’ve had this winter. Helped me through to smell something warm and cozy!
Thank you to Sweetgrass for the plentiful batch of samples! I am still working my way through them and taking pleasure in the experience.
Perhaps twice a year would be good: the doldrums of winter and the dog days of summer?
Thank you for proposing and hosting this event.
I appreciated the generosity of my freebiemeetists … it’s a wonderful way to learn about a person from what they are willing to share, and what they’ve decided is not for them! Interesting! I just hope they like what I’ve reciprocated … thanks, Robin, for the opportunity.
It was wonderful, and I second the comment that it was the perfect time of year for it. Thanks to the generous nancyg and Cobra Rose, I got two amazing perfumes I would have had difficulty getting my hands on otherwise. Both are beautiful, and the Badgley Mischka in particular may inspire me to change my hermit-like ways, as the public deserves to experience how great it smells on me. I sent thank-you notes but not samples, and now I’m wondering if that was rude. I’m quite new at this, and the etiquette is a bit of a mystery still. My apologies if I’ve offended anyone.
I was a bit disappointed that nobody claimed my lot, but I did post later in the weekend, and I’ve already acquired a couple of things to sweeten the pot, so I hope I’ll have the chance to try again.
Gosh, no, I sent to 3 people, all 3 sent me nice emails and that was absolutely all I expected or wanted! This is not meant to be a swap.
I called dibs on two items and received them both in good time and let the ladies know they had arrived. I can’t thank them by name on this forum at this point because I clear out my email inbox regularly when all business is completed. I sent out all five of the items I listed and heard back from three of them (and thank all three of you for that!). I never heard from the other two, but according to the DC#’s they were delivered so I’m not gonna sweat it! I did enjoy the experience and hope to participate again 🙂
It turned out to be much more fun than I expected. I enjoyed being able to give something away that someone wanted, and then lo and behold in the next week got two wonderful packages of samples and minis that I am still working through from two generous NST participants. Good communication all around so I know everyone I mailed to received their items, and I touched base with the folks who mailed to me to let them know my treats had arrived.
I hope it is an event NST sponsors again.
What a lovely experience – I’m still pretty new to the fragrance game and I was able to receive a bottle of Comme des Garcons Jaiselmer – I wish my bubblehead could remember her screen name – which is something I sure can’t afford! Funny thing…she put a piece of black tape over the nozzle to prevent leakage, and to my eyes it appeared as if the nozzle had been burnt! I even wrote to Puig asking how to get it repaired (and they very graciously offered to replace it!) . Anyway, all’s well that ends well – my only gripe would be that I really didn’t see any GUY stuff and I know there are lots of mens around!
I received Aoud Gourmet which I knew I liked but which I probably would never have bought on my grad student budget so I was pretty pleased
I had a wonderful experience with The freebiemeet! Thank you so much to Cauzabon for your generosity:) I received a reply from Cauzabon as soon as I posted and received the package swiftly. The SL Chene arrived in pristine condition and I am so happy to be able to smell a perfume that is not available in my area. I also really appreciated that someone offered a freebie in Canada! I think the format worked perfectly and Robin – thank you for hosting.
Just wanted to say that everything did finally arrive – it seems that the post was just very delayed. Yay!
My suggestion is to try a “dollarmart” too, which means the person who wants the item pays shipping costs plus a dollar, the idea being that this might free up a whole lot more stuff, and it would be better for those who give. All participants should offer out at least two items if they want to receive something (not sure what your rules for the freebiemart are so I’m just throwing some idea out there). Thoughts?