Perfume Samples Snippets #1

This is my first edition of “sample snippets”, where I share some very brief thoughts on perfume samples I have been trying. I do seem to have amassed a rather large perfume samples collection and I want to start working my way through them. To me sampling perfume is a fun way to just experience and learn, without necessarily having the intention to buy a bottle of anything (although inevitably that does happen sometimes!).

I did cover these very samples in my recent video,

However, if you are a reader more than a social media follower then I suppose a bit of an introduction to this is warranted. It’s pretty self explanatory of course, this series will be predominantly about my initial impressions of samples that I try (hopefully weekly).

Like most perfume enthusiasts, I have accumulated quite a collection of perfume samples, and unless I smell them they will likely evaporate or simply be given away. Sadly, the FOMO character trait insists that I must aim to at least sniff them before I pass them on. I would hate to let go of something only to find out that it was super amazing

These snippets will be brief and not overly descriptive but I will aim to give you enough information to understand whether or not you wish to try sampling them yourself!

Let me know in the comments if you have smelled any of these and what you thought of them.

Dior Poison Girl (Dior)

Poison Girl opens like jelly lollies, maybe orange snakes, and then the tonka and vanilla starts to overpower and it transforms into a sweet tonka gourmand. It reminds me very specifically of a smell from my past but I cannot quite put my finger on it. Basically, very sweet, very vanilla like but it does retain that sugary jelly lolly sweetness as well but the vanilla dominates. 

Overall this is very much like an almondy custard vanilla to which grated orange peel has been added. To me it is cloying and sickly to wear but I don’t dislike smelling it out of the atomiser.

Poison Girl was released in 2016 and the perfumer is Francois Demarchy.

Forever Amber (Technique Indiscrete)

Forever Amber is a very sweet, boozy amber.  Too sweet for me I’m afraid.  Dries down to be like sweet shampoo, kind of like the shampoo my mother used to buy for us as kids, except with a hefty dose of dark liquor (eg rum) thrown in.  If you like boozy ambers though, I definitely recommend checking this out. Though I do love me a good amber scent, when they are overlaid with liquor notes they can be a bit much for me. Perhaps I need to revisit this one in the cooler months.

The perfumer behind Forever Amber is Libertin Louison.

Batucada (L’Artisan Parfumeur)

Batucada opens almost citrusy with white florals, but very soon develops a hint of skankiness haha somewhat like a slight underlying tone of “BO” . This slight animalic note makes me feel like I am on a tropical holiday, where have been frolicking around in the hot sun and sea all day long – and then I head straight to the beachside bar to be served up some kind of lime infused cocktail. The white florals are lovely, but the salty and indolic notes don’t really work on me. Although, I feel like on the right skin this could be a really interesting, classy fragrance, with a level of maturity that can be hard to find in this “tropical fragrance” kind of category.

I also feel like I may want to revisit this in future, I have a niggling feeling I may one day suddenly love it. Worth checking out, but not a safe blind buy.

Batucada was released in 2011 and the perfumers behind this fragrance are Karine Vinchon Spehner and Elisabeth Maier.

Sorcery (Oakcha)

Sorcery is a very sweet, caramelly fragrance in which I get a lot of the white florals.  Interestingly, it immediately reminded me of Classique Intense by JPG which I have been wearing a lot in the evening the past few weeks, even though they are very different fragrances.   When I spritzed the JPG on my other hand and compared them side by side, the JPG seemed a bit “thin”  and a hint of extra sugary sweetness (in normality, I would never describe Classique Intense this way!). 

Sorcery, was darker, and a lot denser, which I think comes from the rose.  I think I am leaning towards the Oakcha as my favourite of the two but it is SUPER powerful- it completely drowned out all other perfume samples I had spritzed that day. At first I didn’t think I could detect the ambergris at all, but on the second sampling I could definitely pick it up. My conclusion after that second wear was that this perfume is too much for me. Any more than one spritz and I would likely have a raging headache for days…and who else feels it is kind of dissatisfying to only apply one spray…or is that just me?

Sorcery was released in 2020.

Night Dose (Vertus Paris)

Night Dose opens as a lovely amber with a prominent saffron note. It reminds me a lot of an amber oil that I have from Lux Oud in which saffron is also prominent (Night Dose is not as strong on the benzoin though).  The dry down however is interesting, it reminds me of the smell of hair. Not overly shampooey per say, but rather a freshly washed hairbrush, which is perhaps more of a mix between shampoo, hair and plastic.  Sounds weird but it works! Apparently I like the smell of my own hair! Lol.

Definitely worth checking out, but for me, my amber oil fits the bill and I don’t need this. However, I am looking forward to sampling more from this house.
Night Dose was released in 2015.

What perfume samples have you been testing lately?