Upcoming: we'll hold another freebiemeet in January, a splitmeet in February, and the next swapmeet will be in March.
So, for those of you who participated in the 5th swapmeet, or the 2nd splitmeet, how did it go? Feel free to tell us what you got, and whether or not you loved it.
Note: top image is Orchid in Thirds [cropped] by timsackton at flickr; some rights reserved.
Unfortunately, the swapmeet was not happy for me this time — sent my bottle but my partner disappeared. It will be better next time; I still have so many good past experiences that this one cannot ruin it.
Seriously, you got swap lifted??? I am SO sorry. If you will send me the user name of your partner, I will make sure they do not participate again.
robin at nstperfume dot com
Same here. Of course, it’s also possible that something happened to her, such as an accident or illness… I guess I’d prefer to think there was one bad apple. Will e-mail Robin.
This was my first swapmeet andI had an overwhelmingly wonderful experience. I swapped miniatures and samples from my collection as well as some non fragrance items like teas, soaps, chocolates and such. In return I was gifted some very beautiful quality fragrance samples and decants.
I had exchanges with several different swappers. Each was gracious and generous and sent the items we agreed on along with additional gifts and handwritten notes. One swapper simply sent my requested decant as a gift and asked for nothing in return, she also included makeup and some other lovely fragrances I was so delighted to recieve.
There are new loves as well, thru these generous ladies I have found that I never want to be without Santal Carmin. Donna Karan and L’Artisan are two houses I will likely begin to purchase from regularly. Malle has exceptional silliage. Cuir Beluga is just as lovely and thick and comforting as the name suggests, Timbuktu delights as it is one of the few perfumes that actually ‘takes’ me somewhere. I feel like we are traveling thru the development. Rochas Femme is simply everything I thought it would be and I’m on the prowl for a bottle of vintage. Cuir de Lancome is a rich fine leather and makes me want to put on a silk blouse to wear it. Chanel 19 was the girl on the wall- I can’t believe I didn’t dance with her sooner, Jo Malone Orange Blossom showed me that I DO like cologne. a lot. I initially thought Versilla Vintage Boise del Forte smelled masculine, then as the hours progressed I was taken by waves and waves of forest and it is utterly beautiful. I can’t mention all of them but I am so very thankful. I could not have asked for a better experience.
Just to specify,I had excellent exchanges with the NST users-
Connie
Hajusuui
Poodle
HeatherF
Sapphire
CH
LaraHart
Sllat
CobraRose
Nemo
Kelly
Thanks allgirlmafia–both for our swap, which was such a wonderful treat, and for this helpful info on your good experiences! Great to hear.
My thanks go out to you as well, allgirlmafia! Your package was extra generous and I really enjoyed the non-perfume items as well (tea, chocolate, soap). So glad you had a great experience. I find exchanges with my NST pen-pals to be such a lift. Discovering new fragrances is amazing, but I also marvel at the generosity of others willing to hand pack and send thoughtful care packages to a strangers! Creating the packages is such fun for me too and why not increase our collective wealth of experience just by recycling samples?
I enjoyed swapping with you too. A girl can never have too much perfume, tea, or chocolate.
Allgirlmafia, you are a wonderful and generous swap partner and I couldn’t be happier about our swaps. Thanks again!
I really don’t have much to swap, but I am thinking ahead to the splitmeet. I think I want to obtain a variety of Iris’s, and splits might be the best way to do that!
I have had several swaps and they all went really well. I have got Madonna Truth and Dare which is hard to get now in Montreal, Kenzo flower and so on. I was very happy, I am looking forward swapping or splitting . Thanks for organizing.
Hera,
I have worn the Au The Rouge you sent me loads! I’m so happy that you made me discover it.
Thanks again for swapping!
I am afraid I had a similar experience as Morgana. I promptly sent my bottle but my partner has disappeared. Hmmm, I wonder if we had the same partner.
Robin, I will email you as well, if you do not mind.
Many thanks however for hosting the swap. It was my first unsuccessful one but I will continue to partcipate, choosing more carefuly next time around.
Please do!
And adding, sorry again and can’t believe this happened twice. Unless I’ve forgotten we’ve had very little problem to date.
I hosted a split for FM Eau de Magnolia that went off without a hitch–people paid promptly, Malle shipped quickly and I sent everything out as soon as it was received. I’d do it again if there is something I want that others do also.
I also made some great swaps during the swapmeet. My neglected bottles of Heure Exquise, Kalemat, Cabaret, Parfum Sacre, and 10 ml of Songes found new homes and in return I got Amarige Mimosa, Bois de Paradis, Cinema, Sacrebleu Intense, and Shanghai Lily, all received promptly and greatly appreciated. Just a note to those I swapped with–I felt badly that I didn’t include extras in the packages, but I had just moved house and had not opened the box with my sample vials. I’ll do better next time!
My experiences were wonderful and I’ll be doing swaps and splits again. Thanks for the opportunity, Robin–I’ve made many new perfume friends.
I had a wonderful experience with the swapmeet this time around. Both of the swaps went well and I have great samples and a bottle of Parfum Sacre that I keep coming back to as the weather has turned cold and the days darker. Thanks for setting it up Robin!
I had only two swaps this time, and they were both great–good communication, quick shipping, lovely people to deal with. Am I allowed to give their usernames here?
Yes…generally you can name names unless you’ve got complaints, for the simple reason that we have no way to “adjudicate” claims and I don’t want people publicly shamed.
Oh gosh, it’s terrible to hear folks got swaplifted. Hate to have such a nice thing turn bad like that; all of mine have been great this round, five done and one swap still in progress but it’s with someone I “know” (on the internet anyhow
) and we’re in touch so it’s no problem.
I’m wondering about how the logistics of avoiding this in the future would work. I take it, since neither morgana nor adanst had posted lists, that it must have been someone who advertised bottles on the swap page and then never sent them? So at least that won’t happen again. But there wouldn’t stop them from emailing those who post lists, right? That was striking to me this round–unlike previously, I was mainly contacted by people who weren’t visibly participating in the swap. I wonder if there’s any sense in doing it more like the splitmeet, where inquirers post one comment of interest then follow up by email? For transparency? Curious whether others think that would help, or just produce chaos in the comments.
The splitmeet doesn’t require actual negotiation, that’s why I set it up so that you had to comment to buy. With the swapmeet, it could create terrible congestion in the comments. Not sure if anything can be done — this is someone who has had a user account here for years.
But also think if you’re listing items for swap, there is nothing wrong with turning down deals from people you don’t know or feel comfortable with…nobody should feel forced to swap, even if an item off their wishlist is offered.
And adding…also think it’s fine to announce in your original comment that you’ll only swap with other people with user accounts, although in this case, wouldn’t have helped.
Yes good points, transparency wasn’t the issue here anyway. Gosh that’s really too bad :/
Just to chime in – I had my very first swap, and it was with C.H., who is just lovely. Thanks again!!
Oh, so nice of you to mention it–I was so delighted with our swap too! Azemour in particular has been a huge hit–may need a bottle! Thank you so much, let’s do it again sometime!
I would happily swap again with any of the women I made arrangements with, perhaps like Missionista suggested we should in our reviews make it a point to name the users we’ve had really great dealings with. Anyone looking to swap/split in the future could go back and see the people who swap regularly and without problem and then choose their partners accordingly
Of course not to publically shame, perhaps the usernname of swaplifters could be emailed to you as you suggested earlier. Just a thought.
I’ve never got a response from the person I tried contacting – even though I offered something from their wish list. It wasn’t the end of the world but surely would have been nicer if I had got a polite one line note saying that the person wasn’t interested or had swapped the item already.
I had four successful swaps and I always look forward to the swap and freebie meets. Thank you for hosting! Thank you to everyone with whom I’ve exchanged this most recent time or previously. In the past my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. Some people are more generous than others, faster to ship or better at communicating, but I figure, even if a trade goes totally awry, it always feels good to do the right thing on the sending end, craft a careful package and send it out in good faith. The worst thing that could happen is you end up with less “stuff.”
This was my first swap and it was a wonderful experience. Thank you Hera; I’m loving the Guerlain; and thank you for the samples as well. I look forward to swapping again next time.
I am happy you are loving it. Thank you for the Truth or Dare and I hope we can swap again.
I swapped with at least 6 people and all went well. Some I’d swapped with before, some I hadn’t. I got a lot of wonderful stuff. I had one swap fall through early in the game but that benefitted someone else who had asked about the same item on my list. So, no complaints from me this time. I’m sorry to hear some folks got swap-lifted.
So, to summarize…looks like several people (or more, maybe I have not heard from everyone) did not receive their end, but all were swapping with the same person, and as I said above, it’s someone who has had a user account here for years and has participated in swaps here in the past. I’m hoping she is ok, and sorry that this worked out this way.
On one level, this is very reassuring about the character of our perfume community. On another, now I’m worried about our missing community member. I hope we hear from her again before too long.
Life is uncertain – wear your best perfume first!
Robin, I was also swap-lifted and just sent you an email with the person’s screenname. I also hope she is OK. I saw a comment from her in another blog so I know that on Nov. 25, she had a way to communicate via the internet.
Same person! Thanks for letting me know.
The plot thickens…
It went wonderfully! Not only did I get lovely fragrance, but excellent extras as well. This is the best swap/sell/freebie place I know!
I swapped with 6 lovely ladies. All of them were wonderful and very generous! I agree about the character of people on here (mentioned above) … top notch!
Thank you all so much!
Hi Connie, waving to you from Seattle! I wrote in a post a few weeks back about my great experience with this swap. In the end I felt like I had been emailing with an old friend! Robin, thanks for the opportunity to participate in this fabulous event.
I had a very good splitmeet and swapmeet experience with the exception of the one swaplifter, noted above. I will continue to participate in future splitmeets / swapmeets and of course, the freebiemeets.
I would say that 85% of what I ended up getting via swaps were ones that were not on my Wish List but nevertheless plunged in because my curiosity was piqued with the offers! I have yet to go through the majority of what I got but one in particular was a happy accident – Tom Ford Amber Absolute is just divine and I am still on my search for more of the real thing, but most especially a FB of it (but I refuse to pay the eBay prices). If anyone comes across a FB and you don’t want it yourself, please please clue me in, pretty please?
The splitmeet went very smoothly. EVERYONE was quick to send payment and all let me know when they received their package. I will ask that future splitees make sure that the address they provide me is correct as I have no way of verifying that it is correct. Someone in NYC ended up with a surprise Blanche Immortelle package; if s/he liked it, I’m happy that the package got misdirected. Were it not for the fact that I had enough juice left over to send another package out, the splitee would have spent $s for nothing.
For those with whom I had swapped or splitted previously, you can contact me anytime if you see me raving (in a good way) about something I just got, wore or whatever. I am happy to discuss swaps, splits, and/or freebies privately but please let me know your NST username upon first contact.
Clarification – if we have never swapped, or if you have never participated in my splits or if you have never received a freebie from me, please include your NST username on first contact.
Hello hajusuuri!!
I have participated in a split with hajusuuri twice, and both went very well. Hosting a split is like baking cookies, you realize how much work it is only after you have done it. Thanks!!!
I didn’t have as much stuff to swap this time around, but all of my swap experiences have been good. No complaints here.
I hadn’t planned to swap at all, but I thiught I’d just read through the posts, and then the very first one wanted something I had and had something I wanted, so….
All my swap experiences were good-to-great, but one of my swapees was not so lucky, as there was major leakage of two items. She was very nice about it, but it’s driving me nuts wondering what went wrong. I thought I had a handle on proper shipping, but now I feel like it’s just dumb luck that everything else got to its destination intact. Is this just a thing that happens? What if I were to tape not just the area where you screw the bottle together, but also the spray orifice? What did I miss? (I know I’m late posting this, so I hope somebody out there subscribed to the comments.)
I just hope I didn’t forget to send someone something! I know they would bug me my email if I did, but I always feel like the worst splitter/swapper. I worry that secretly somewhere there’s a scorecard and I’m failing!
I did not get swap lifted, but someone claimed a split of Après l’Ondée and never sent me their contact info or payment, so I still have a split of that hanging around.
What a drag, sorry!
I will take that split of Apres l’Ondee unless it is totally outside my budget! Email me at my user name above at Gmail dot com with details. I am in the US.
I had a wonderful Swapmeet5 experience here, it was my first time on NST. My swap partners were communicative, patient and had great follow-through. I appreciate everything I received. Right now I am loving AG Un Matin d’Orage and Tambela Tea Olive. Robin, thanks for hosting this!
I swapped with gardeniagirl, eswift83, sllat