Sometimes the most unexpected things occur to me.
Although, I probably shouldn’t call them unexpected. It’s just the fact that they haven’t occurred before that makes them unexpected but then again, every idea anyone has could be called that. ๐
Basically, I realized I hoard my samples and decants.
Especially decants.
They are rather small to begin with (compared to bottles) and are either 5 or 10 ml of perfumes I like, and would like to know better (so I can review them).
But that same size makes them rather fleeting, when compared to bottles, so I’m scared of using them, in order not to use them up before I get the chance to write about them.
I realize it’s rather stupid, because if I wore them, I’d have a better chance of actually talking about them than now, when I’m hesitating of wearing them in order not to use all of what I have.
That is also why this winter I’ve been rotating 5 bottles I have in order not to spend any of the decants I have. Which I guess contributes to the winter blues I’m experiencing, but hopefully, now I’m aware of my perfume hoarding tendencies, I’ll be able to combat them with spraying decants with abandon. ๐
After all, they are a legion. ๐
Does this happen to anyone else?
All I am - a redhead 
I absolutely have a tendency to hoard decants! I hate finishing things — even samples, I always want to save just a little drop, unless I know it will be easy to come by more. But I'm running out of storage room for decants and samples so I'm trying to get over this.
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I can relate to this with certain of my smaller decants, definitely – say the ones with 3-5ml in them. I don't use a lot of them because I am afraid of them running out. However, why I also ignore the bigger ones ranging from 8ml – 30ml I can't explain, as I am not realistically going to run out of them any time soon. I routinely take out my boxes of bigger decants, pulling out half a dozen or ten of them at a time to remind myself of what I have, before sticking them straight back in the box again. You may have put your finger on something quite odd there…
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I only seem to hoard the last wearing or two – before that, I'll happily use a decant/sample if it's handy.But the "if it's handy" is the difficulty. All of my samples are currently in two nice little cardboard storage boxes, so I have to get a box down and dig through a drift of little plastic envelopes to find one. It occurs to me that I should take out a random five or ten and put them in a shot glass among the full-size bottles. Maybe I'd use them then.
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That is why I don't particularly like decants, I don't use them for fear of not having enough… I can totally relate. ๐
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Elisa, exactly!I hate not having a little left for future comparing purposes and like you, I'm running out of space (since a lot of goes to my books). ๐
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He, he, Vanessa, I tend to ignore my larger decants too. I'm guessing it's the same reason, they are just not as big as a bottle. I'm planning on taking out several decants at a time, and placing them in front of everything so I'd wear them and get to know them better (they are all decants of stuff I like so why not?).
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ChickenFreak, my decants are relatively handy, in a large open box where I can take them out. But the problem is it's a large box and I need to pull each one out in order to see what's in it and then I usually can't find the one I'm looking for. :)So, that's why I'll rotate 5-10 in front of everything.
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Olfactoria, I find decants both more economical and practical as I would never ever use up bottles of every perfume I like if I owned them. But now it seems I like them enough not to want to use up my decants. :)I'll work on my hoarding tendencies…
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For those in the US, Container Store (maybe there's a European equivalent?) sells a lipstick holder, a clear lucite step-down with around 20 compartments. It's perfect for the 5 ml decants. They also sell one with bigger compartments which is perfect for the larger ones. It's pictured in the blog entry I wrote Feb. 7. I find that I'm using my decants more this way than I did when they were in a box.
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Olfacta, I just went to check the pic on your blog and that would certainly make it easier to see what decant contains what (and be handy).Thank you for the suggestion! :)I just have to find now the place that sells these – we don't have an exact container store but I'm guessing it could be found someplace else.
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Maitre et Gantier. Ja patim za Pafum d'Habit. koji je tvoj najdrazi?Juraj
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It's interesting! I need to investigate more – since I have the field in the database where I track the type of the container (FB, travel bottle, large decant, etc.). Probably I can do it for my monthly Stats post – thank you for the idea! ๐
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Juraj, nisam to probala, ali M et G su linija koja mi se ฤini izrazito zanimljivom.Za kojim patim? Teลกko pitanje. :)Vjerojatno za vintage verzijama Vent Vert, Chanel 19 i Shalimara.
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Undina, I would love to see you track this. ๐ I wonder what we'll be able to glean from your statistics.
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Interesting question! For me, I think I'm more likely to hoard smaller amounts of perfumes I really like, rather than it specifically being related to samples or decants. The number of perfumes I feel I am hoarding is pretty small in general. So why do I have so many, I wonder? ๐
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He, he Natalie, I wonder too. :)I must say, I did what I said I would and yesterday took in front decants I am now going to wear and test. Now, to see how successful I'll be with that…
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i do this too! sounds like we are all alike here!
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He, he Christi, it does sound like once you fall down the perfume rabbit hole, perfume hoarding becomes standard practice. ;)I can't help it – there is so much to smell and love…
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