Femme Economics: Fragrance, Free!
Never buy perfume or cologne again.
I love to teach people how to enjoy cosmetics without contributing to the destruction of the planet. I also love to convince people why they should stop putting chemical-filled cosmetics and toiletries on thier skin. Unfortunately, I do have one habit which I haven’t kicked. Perfume.
I love smells, the associations with smells. Part of the “high-femme drag” of my particular performance of gender includes “wafting” in and our of rooms and smelling myself when I toss arm in the heat of conversation. But good perfume, aside from being unhealthy and hated by some sensitive noses, is the most expensive cosmetic.
In the book of smart Femme Economics these days, there are two choices: Be Fragrance Free and save some people from an allergy attack, or if you must have your scent, at least Get Your Fragrances for Free and save yourself some money!
Getting your fragrances for free (samples), means that you will have to start using a little less which will hopefully lessen the plight of the smell-sensitive in the elevator a bit anyway. I have never in my life used an entire bottle of perfume. A little goes a long way if it’s good perfume or cologne. If you have to use a lot, it is probably not of good quality. Perfume usually comes in glass bottles which you cannot travel with (especially with TSA these days!).
Now this could be a part of a post for our “Sleeping with Money” section, but I usually find a brand new fragrance each time I enter into a new relationship. This winds up meaning that I have had, shall we say “a few” almost full bottles sitting around which I will not use any longer because they remind me of people. A year ago it became apparent to me that I was dating too much to keep buying full bottles of perfume and so started my relationship with every Nordstrom fragrance counter. I love to stop into Nordstrom or Sephora for a sample vile of my favorite scents or to try a new one and I make sure to do it when I am traveling out of town- just so that my hometown ladies don’t catch on.
In all fairness, somebody got to this topic before me. Now Smell This Perfumista wrote a brilliant blog on the art of smelling nice for free.
She gives you the options of:
1: Carded samples from the counter, just ask if they have the one you want.
2: Hand-poured samples at Nordstrom and Sephora if they are out of what you want.
3: Bring your empty glass vials and make your own! (she says “If you have no shame. And why have shame?”)
Well, I guess I don’t have any shame at all because I can take that one step further:
Nordstrom sells a very nice and easy-to-fill one ounce “atomizer” for about twelve dollars. This truly lasts me a month. When the fragrance salesperson isn’t looking, I can just use the sample bottle to fill myself up. You can do the same, if you have no shame. It’s easier not to feel guilty about this if you have already needed something from the store and have a shopping bag already in your hand.
This repetitive sample-taking might be thought of as “stealing”. I can see that angle. But the real moral card in my head is that I do not want to contribute financially to the companies which make these chemical-laden products and charge ridiculous amounts for them. As a feminist, I’m only stealing from a industry which tells women we aren’t beautiful unless we spend all of our money on this crap. It’s my embarassing vice and so I need to be a little sneaky about how I fulfill it. I am certainly not going to pay for it.
If you must know what I’m wearing these days, it’s “Narciso Rodriquez” in the black bottle, the sample of which is valued at seven dollars on Ebay but is free with a purchase at sephora. It’s a strange combination of musk and peaches and it’s not for everyone. I also love Guerlain’s “Insolence” which smells of sickeningly sweet uber-femme Parisian violets and is perfect for those vintage dresses.
P.S. I am very interested in the experiences of those lovely-smelling femme men in getting fragrance for free.
Wow. I’m a long-time reader, and just wow. This is unethical and hypocritical. How about buy a half-used bottle on eBay and fill your atomizer? How about buy from that site that sells the testers with no caps and such? I have no shame and will show up with the misprinted coupon, but this is just stealing.
Sample bottles in stores are expected to be used for spritzing on yourself in the store or on a sample card only.
Swiping perfume because you’ve brought an empty atomizer seems just wrong— why not just swipe the sample bottle? You are on a slippery slope of ethics in my opinion. I would never do such a thing!
Here’s another possibility to consider: natural perfumes, done by niche perfumeries, rather than mass marketed mainline stuff. We’re out there – do a search under “natural perfume” and you’ll turn up a host of stuff.
The advantages are pretty good: most of what causes an allergic response in commercial perfumes comes from the use of synthetic materials used to imitate natural fragrances, so you exponentially lower the chances of giving someone an attack. Because it’s usually a one-three person business, you aren’t contributing to massive deforestation, and most natural perfumers design with an eye towards long term sustainability.
The scents aren’t always necessarily cheaper – you get what you pay for, and natural materials do not come cheaply. Still, most last longer than commercial variations, are better for you, and help you build a micro-economy.
Some other ideas might be: it seems like another point of free samples is to have people be walking advertizements for the perfume anyway. So many of the spritzer samples are thrown away, when people get them with another purchase. Barely used testers are considered to have no value to the department store. The company gives the store many bottles for the purpose of testing, they are not paid for and perfume has a shelf life, it needs to be used.
It’s not thought of as stealing, it IS stealing. I respected this site…but if they promote this kind of unethical activity I’ll have to rethink my stance. How disappointing.
I have to disagree with this one too. Frugality is not just about getting it the cheapest/free way; it still needs to be fair to everyone.