PerfumesForABuck.com June 2012 What I Got

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 PerfumesForABuck.com June 2012 What I Got Jul. 4th, 2012 at 8:44 PM Wednesday, July 4, 2012 Sunday, July 1, 2012 This my second blog entry about the subscription I started in June with PerfumesForABuck.com. Here I give a more in-depth look at the actual perfume samples I have received. The first entry was about my general experience with and concerns about the company. A subcription to PerfumesForABuck.com is $12.99 a month + $1.00 for 5 perfume samples, which comes out to $13.99. Do not be fooled by the introductory offer of $1.00 for 5 perfume samples. I was billed the $12.99 within 72 hours after I signed up. The samples look like they are each about 1ml, or 1/5 of 1 teaspoon. 1 teaspoon is 5ml. 1 tablespoon is 15ml. I think a regular size bottle of Visine eyedrops is 15ml. These samples are very small (I cannot stress that enough). I was thinking a regular perfume sample is 2ml or 2.5ml. That is what I expected to receive. I cannot find anywhere on the PerfumesForABuck.com website where it says how big the samples are. They look like 1ml or 1cc samples. They are about 1/2 the size of the Taylor Swift perfume sample I received in my June Birchbox. The sample of Green Tea by Bulgari is in a tiny sprayer bottle and it says "Sign Up for a Premium Membership and get these bigger 2ml spray bottles." It looks like there's 1.5ml in that bottle, so my guess is the smaller ones are 1cc or 1ml. Let me be up front. The little sprayer bottle looks like it's 2cm tall and has 2ml of space inside, not counting the sprayer nozzle, which adds about 1 centimeter to the height of the bottle. It is 1/4 empty. I have not used it yet. I have not opened it. I have only taken it out of its little bag to get a closer look. All of my first 5 samples from PerfumesForABuck.com are from the DKNY Be Delicious line. Or that's close enough to the name of the line that people know what I'm talking about. Anyway, they all smell like Apples of some sort. First Set 1. Be Delicious Candy Apples Sweet Caramel 2. Be Delicious Fresh Blossom 3. Be Delicious Silver Edition 4. Golden Delicious 5. Red Delicious Second Set 1. Bulgari Green Tea for Men or Women 2. Bulgari Omnia 3. Bulgari Omnia Crystalline 4. Bulgari Omnia Green Jade 5. Bulgari Omnia Amethyst (Note that the website does list them under Bvlgari with a V, not a U.) The 1ml samples come individually attached to a little 2 inch by 2 inch card with a sticker listing the name of each sample. Im my opinion, the cards are very cute, with the PerfumesForABuck.com logo, the sample name, some fancy scrollwork, and a pretty denim blue border. I'm afraid to take more than 1 sample at a time off the cards because they all look the same, except the Candy Apple one is a little green, and the Golden Delicious one is kinda tan. The rest are clear. The vial of Be Delicious Fresh Blossom is full almost to the top with a very small air bubble. The other 9 samples have an air bubble that extends at least 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch down from the top of the vial when they are standing upright. As I said, the 2ml spray bottle is only 3/4 full. I am moderately pissed off that the sample I was most looking forward to is 1/4 empty, but it does appear to be a 1.5ml sample in a 2ml bottle, while the rest of the samples look like 1ml, so I am happy to have the bigger size of Green Tea by Bulgari anyway. I have not tried any of the samples yet. I haven't even opened the little vials to smell them because they are the plug-top type of vials which always spill when I open them. They are hard to open. There is a little plastic stick on each cap which is inserted into the bottle and I guess supposed to aid in easier application of the perfume. Being the cynic that I am, I also think it's there to take up space in the bottle so PerfumesForABuck.com does not have to provide a larger sample. I mean, if the stick wasn't in the vial, then that space would have to be filled with perfume, not the stick. They do have a little tab on the side of each cap that is put through the little hole in the card so they stay put during shipping. I would be kinda mad if they were taped to the card or something. How would I attach them back to the card so I knew which one was which? My samples came neatly arranged inside a small white box which is about 3 inches tall by 5 inches wide. There is a little square of quilt batting in the bottom which exactly fits the dimensions of the box. The perfume samples' cards are tucked 1 under the other with the second sample resting on the first sample's card and so on in a row. The little 2ml spray bottle is in a tiny plastic bag by itself. There is a MyPerfumeSamples.com card underneath the samples. Apparently they are owned by Blueberry Corporation, too, so it's an advertisement with a discount code for the other website. The box was inside a padded white envelope. Fortunately, none of the samples were broken. The box seems secure and sturdy enough that they won't get crushed, and the bubble mailer padded envelope is definitely a good idea, but the samples are not secure inside the box and they do move and jiggle against eachother. I am happy enough with PerfumesForABuck.com that I am planning to stick with it through August. Although I am disappointed that the perfume samples are half the size I was expecting, I can understand that perfumes are extremely expensive. Here's my take on that. I got a 30ml bottle of Orange Sanguine by Atelier in April. It cost $55.00. That is full price. If I wanted 5 samples of that perfume that were 1ml each from PerfumesForABuck.com, I would be paying $13.99 for 5ml. If PerfumesForABuck.com paid $55.00 for the bottle of Orange Sanguine, and they do 1ml samples times 30, the calculator says that would come out to $83.94. Based on that, PerfumesForABuck.com is making a profit of $28.94 on that one bottle of Orange Sanguine. Shipping is Free, so I do have to take that into account. My guess is it costs about $1.50 to ship each box of samples. They use stamps.com. The shipping label on the package has the stamps.com logo in the upper right hand corner, which means they print their own shipping labels, but they pay the USPS via an account they have online at stamps.com. Overall, PerfumesForABuck.com seems worth the trouble, and I am looking forward to trying out the samples I have paid for so I can decide which fragrances I like well enough to buy full-size directly from the companies that make them. Tammy ThePeridotCricket Current Location:Council Bluffs, Iowa, IA, USA Current Mood: curious