Review: Decant Shop.

Hi lovelies!

One day to go to Mother's Day! What are you doing with/for your mum? I sent mine flowers, it's been quite nerve-wrecking waiting for them to be delivered!

Another thing I often give my mum is perfume; we both adore it and love trying new scents, which brings me to the topic of today's post! There's nothing worse than buying a perfume that smells great on a tester card, only to find that it smells completely different on you because of your body chemistry, or worse, finding that it completely disappears on you after a while. That's why I love getting perfume samples to try out, but they can often be hard to come by for the scents that you're specifically looking for.

Imagine my delight when I browsing the forums on one of my favourite websites, BeautyHeaven, and came across a mention for a site called Decant Shop. Decant Shop are quite a new company; based in the US, they specialise in selling hand-decanted, original perfume samples. They are a great way to try out a new scent you've been eyeing for a while or to get a scent that you already own so you can pop it in your bag for touch-ups. I thought I'd share my experience with them as there wasn't much information out there when I placed my order, and I thought my experience might be of use to someone planning on making a purchase with them.

I ordered four large samples in various scents, as listed below:

Tom Ford Black Orchid 5 ml
Thierry Mugler Alien 5 ml
Gucci Guilty Intense 3 ml
Chanel Coco Noir 3 ml

I ordered Black Orchid because it's quite a luxury fragrance, and I wanted to be sure I really liked wearing it often before I decided to purchase a full-sized bottle, which is why I got a generous 5 ml sample. I got Alien because I own a full-sized bottle, but couldn't decant it into my Travalo (as I normally would), due to the design of the bottle, so I decided it would be handy for my handbag. I can attest that the scent of the sample is exactly the same as the one from my bottle, so you know it's original! Gucci Guilty Intense and Coco Noir were scents I was curious about, so I selected a 3 ml sample of each. All four samples arrived in cute and handy spray vials with clearly marked labels, which is perfect for spritzing on the go. I have to confess that I'm not a big fan of miniature perfume bottles because you always have to pull off the lids and dab them on, I much prefer a spray! Each vial also comes with a lid to keep it secure.

These samples cost me approximately $45 USD, plus an additional $5.99 for shipping and handling, but due to a 15% off promotion at the time, I paid just under $45 for the whole order, which was shipped using USPS First-Class Mail. Decant Shop were also kind enough to throw in a few samples (these were packaged in little vials with a stop-cap), which were:

Creed Millesime Imperial 1 ml (always wanted to try it but Creed are so hard to get in Australia!)
Gucci by Gucci Premiere 1 ml
Guerlain Shalimar 1 ml

I ordered my samples on March 21st and received them on April 3rd, which is just under two weeks (pretty good for international shipping, I reckon). My samples were packaged prettily in a little purple bag, and well-padded to prevent breakage.

Customer service was also really delightful; the site is run by Roy and Adriana, and Roy, in particular, was a pleasure to deal with, he actually emailed me a couple of times to see if I'd received my order yet! Great customer service is always a delight, it gives you a lot of faith in a company and ensures repeat business besides.

Overall, I was really pleased with my experience, and I will definitely be purchasing more samples in the future! I've fallen completely head over heels with Black Orchid (and have already put in an order for a full sized bottle), and Millesime Imperial is also a stunning, unique and long-lasting scent that I'm thinking of buying!

Best of all, lovelies, Decant Shop are offering a 16% discount on all women's and unisex fragrances in conjunction with Mother's Day (sorry gents, but stay tuned, they have discounts quite often)! All you have to do is enter code MD16 at checkout, and your discount will be automatically subtracted from your order, but hurry, as this sale ends tomorrow night at 12 am (US Central Time Zone)! You can visit their site by clicking here and stalk them on Facebook by clicking here. They have free shipping for all US and Canada orders over $50 (lucky things), and for international orders over $75!

Happy shopping, lovelies!

Do you think you'll be checking them out? Are there any perfumes you're lusting after now that you think I should check out?

Much love,
MM.
x


Note: I have not been compensated for sharing this post in any way, but am choosing to do so solely at my own discretion.  For more information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.