Blind Buys - Are you a risk taker? Best + Worst Experiences
10 years ago
Every so often I feel the urge to blind buy a fragrance. I must admit I've been pretty lucky and have never ended up with something unwearable. Then again, I never go in totally "blind". I usually have one eye open and make the commitment based on listed notes, an agreeable price that I can afford to gamble with and, most of all, the endorsement of reviewers whose taste and prior opinions seem to align with my own experiences.
There is something about the thrill of anticipating the arrival of an untried fragrance that fills me with a spontaneous excitement. It's like receiving a surprise gift (which I necessarily and conveniently forget I have actually paid for). I know that I should methodically purchase from my wish list, compiled through sensible sampling; blind buys are never on the wish list! They are the rogue gremlins, the slot machines of the perfume world, that promise riches while snatching the cash.
When I sample things, I tend to be picky. Is it love, would I buy this? With blind buys, I tend to be more forgiving of the result - I'm stuck with it after all, so best to see the bright side...
My best (and riskiest, given it's niche) blind buy is Parfums de Nicholai "Le Temps d'une Fete" which came about when Mr Triffid visited Paris and I had no time to sample beforehand. This was a rare case of a perfume smelling exactly as I had wanted it to. "Miss Balmain" and "Ce Soir ou Jamais" have also been blind buy winners.
I've no total disasters to report but the disappointments fall on the side of wearable, but sub par, reformulations whose purchase was based on distant olfactory memory (Fidji and Givenchy III).
Are you a blind buy addict? Do you have a price point beyond which sanity prevails? What are your best and most disastrous blind buys, and have you ever cursed a reviewer who (unknowingly) inspired you to take a risk and invest in something that disappointed?
There is something about the thrill of anticipating the arrival of an untried fragrance that fills me with a spontaneous excitement. It's like receiving a surprise gift (which I necessarily and conveniently forget I have actually paid for). I know that I should methodically purchase from my wish list, compiled through sensible sampling; blind buys are never on the wish list! They are the rogue gremlins, the slot machines of the perfume world, that promise riches while snatching the cash.
When I sample things, I tend to be picky. Is it love, would I buy this? With blind buys, I tend to be more forgiving of the result - I'm stuck with it after all, so best to see the bright side...
My best (and riskiest, given it's niche) blind buy is Parfums de Nicholai "Le Temps d'une Fete" which came about when Mr Triffid visited Paris and I had no time to sample beforehand. This was a rare case of a perfume smelling exactly as I had wanted it to. "Miss Balmain" and "Ce Soir ou Jamais" have also been blind buy winners.
I've no total disasters to report but the disappointments fall on the side of wearable, but sub par, reformulations whose purchase was based on distant olfactory memory (Fidji and Givenchy III).
Are you a blind buy addict? Do you have a price point beyond which sanity prevails? What are your best and most disastrous blind buys, and have you ever cursed a reviewer who (unknowingly) inspired you to take a risk and invest in something that disappointed?