I have another perfume confession to make. Decants.

This slightly sheepish parasaurolophus is clutching a sample of my beloved bogue MAAI, but that’s because I am always reluctant to show and write about a perfume I only have as a decant. Not because the haphazard atomisers and vials are ugly–though some truly are–but because there is an awkwardness to the whole arrangement. 

It’s guilt, mainly when the scent is from a smaller company or independent perfumer.

I can imagine some perfume makers and retailers getting very tense around the shoulders right now –as each of those shared bottles could maybe have been a sale.

I pass on a few ml here, and many more ml there because I’m enthusiastic about a fragrance and want other people to experience it. I have more perfume than I can use in a lifetime, and if I know I’ll never use a whole bottle of something, I’d far rather it gets worn and loved by more than one person.

Writing about perfume can catch someone’s interest and send them on a hunt for a sample, but not all of us live in places with specialist shops or have access to free-range sniffing beyond department stores. So we share our discoveries and our treasures.

I’ve got a stash of perfumes decanted by friends, from tiny dabs of precious extraits to generously sloshing portions of bottles, and I signed up to Bloom’s Nose Club when it launched. With some scents, that 5 or 10ml decant will be enough, more than enough. But sometimes it’s the right amount to bond with a perfume, convince me I want it in my life for years to come. Of the twelve from my year-long Bloom subscription, I’ve bought six. So far. It would have been seven, but there is no more of Vero Kern’s Mito voile to be had anywhere*.

And there will be a full bottle of Gardoni’s masterful MAAI this summer** because these last couple of millilitres are not enough for something so bloody gorgeous.

Do you share or buy decants? Have you discovered any true loves from this more casual dating?

(This sample was a gift from Bogue sent with the bottle of 0,7738 that I bought)

* while we lost Vero Kern, some of her work is still available via a limited re-release
** of course I bought the bottle. It was my birthday present to myself that year.

originally posted 19 May 2019, footnotes December 2025