The Best Way to Buy Perfume.

So I have often seen these boxes of perfume samples on sale in Sephora but what I did not realise until I was idling around on the Sephora website recently is that they contain not only the samples but also a voucher for a full sized bottle of your choice of one of the fragrances in the box. How did I not know that? I decided to investigate.

 I chose the 'Favorites Fragrance Sampler For Her' which retails at $65.00 and contains 14 samples.

It also contains the following make up bag (handy for keeping your samples in!)

The bag is actually much nicer than it looks in both my photo and on the Sephora site. The back is plain black whilst the front is made up of a laser cut layer in an intricate flower design which is laid over a gold and black 'crackle' effect layer. It has a sturdy zip and is lined with black cotton, it's a keeper!

As I said before the set contains a perfume certificate to swap for a full size bottle and also a booklet that describes each of the perfumes* and contains their print ad on the adjacent page to the description/notes.

*Great for people like me who have a hard time describing perfumes beyond 'it smells nice, like flowers' :)

'Florabotanica' was the perfume that I intended to buy when I purchased the box but after trying it again just to make sure I found that it reacted oddly with my skin and disappeared without trace within 30 minutes...which was really saddening as I loved the scent...but at least I found that out before I purchased it thanks to the box. Luckily there was another fragrance in the box that I love which was this...

The box allowed me to get a 1.7oz Eau De Parfum spray. Look how pretty the bottle is!

Of course this being a Sephora mail order I also got to pick some samples.

I chose a Nude serum, a Dior primer and a Tokyo Milk hand lotion. There was also a promo code for Marc Jacobs perfume and a sample of Bulgari after shave thrown into my order.

And there was also a weekly free gift to choose, I opted for this

A cute Pucci like ziplock containing yet more perfume

samples!

Honestly, when I look at all of this I can't believe what a fabulous deal this is. I have a bottle of perfume that retails at $105.00, 20 perfume samples, my regular sample selection and a cute new make up bag all for $65.00.

I think this is a great idea if you want to try a new perfume for yourself and it's a brilliant idea for a gift. Why not take a look at these in Sephora or check them out on sephora.com, they have various sets containing different perfumes, they even have a male version.

Now if only there were a Diptyque sampler set I really would be in heaven!