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Cologne Question Whats a Decant?

Not sure where to put this, but...

What's a decant?

I think of a decant as where someone buys a bottle of a scent, sometimes a very large bottle, and "decants" some or all of it into smaller bottles, vials, or whatever, that are likely smaller than the smallest bottle the manufacturer sells of the scent (the B&B C&S 88 travel size special of 15 ml being a welcome unusual offer from the manufacturer), to sale to those that either do not want to shell out for a larger bottle of the scent, or that want to try a scent with more to work with than the standard 1 to 1.5 ml samples.

Samples usually come from the maker of the scent. Decants are generally from freelancers.

Splits are generally larger decants, that may be arranged ahead of time. That is, say A, B, C, and D go in on a 200 ml bottle of C&S Neroli and split it 4 ways, 50 ml a piece. But split can refer to a larger decant sold after a purchase, too.
 
Okay, so, decanting or wine can enhance the taste. It airs it out so to speak so as to rid some of the bitterness. Or something like that. I have to check my wine black book.

Does decanting frags have any ill or positive effect? Or in this case is it simply "rebottling" so to speak?

We had a company near where I live that did that for years. Would sell 1/2 oz optimizers of fragrances. Worked out good, you could try a frag before shelling out for the big bottle and not liking it.
 
Okay, so, decanting or wine can enhance the taste. It airs it out so to speak so as to rid some of the bitterness. Or something like that. I have to check my wine black book.

Does decanting frags have any ill or positive effect? Or in this case is it simply "rebottling" so to speak?

We had a company near where I live that did that for years. Would sell 1/2 oz optimizers of fragrances. Worked out good, you could try a frag before shelling out for the big bottle and not liking it.

Decanting a wine can be done for a number of reasons, such as leaving seditment behind or the what I think of as a modern concept of aeriating a closed up wine to enhance the flavors, or o let off aromas blow off. I do not know about bitterness per say. Maybe it lessens the tannins, which would cut the bitterness.

Decanting frags is not intended to enhance them as far as I know, although some folks decant Pinaud Lilac Vegetal AS along the lines of wine to get it out of a plastic bottle, which some folks think hurts it, and to let what are perceived by some as off odors blow off. But I think most decanting referenced around here is just rebottling into smaller bottles. I suppose folks try to accomplish the transfer process with the least agitation as possible to avoid damage, loss of volume, etc. I suppose theorectically the less exposure to oxygen/air the better, But I have never had a decanted fragrance that seemd to be hurt by the process.

<We had a company near where I live that did that for years. Would sell 1/2 oz optimizers of fragrances.>

That would be a wonderful thing! I have heard of Sephora doing that, but I sure have never seem it discussed in any Sepora materials. The scent companies apparently take a dim view of this. Ebay bars sales of decant and does Basenotes.

I would consider 1/2 oz (15 ml) a nice decant size.
 
Thanks for clearing that up. Bitterness is not what I was thinking of..rather what you'd said. I'm an ignorant wine drinker. But love it.

The company here would take say YSL M7, crack open the 3.4oz bottle and rebottle it into the 1/2 ounces then sell those for anywhere from $10-$15 each. Depending on the original cost of the frag. M7 would be at the 15 mark.

I think the onset of fragrance oils/ roll on's and imitation colognes put a damper on this type of thing.

It may have it's place, however building credibility would be the hard part. Who's going to trust you have what you say you have in there? That you didn't use a fake?

Additionally, shipping costs put a damper on anything.

Say you did a 1/2 oz spray optimizer for $10, add $5 for shipping that's $15. Well, they can get the 3.4 oz for $50 and $15 for just a 1/2 ounce isn't making sense.

Or maybe I'm overthinking it too much?
 
Check out perfumedcourt.com. They always get cited by folks around here, and they seem to be doing a good business. They seem rather expensive to me. I would trust them completely though to provide what they say they are providing.

More reasonable is badgerdecants.com, although Chuck does not seem to be in business these days. I think part of it is folks buy more different scents and spread the shipping costs, and buy smaller decants than 1/2 ozs. I sure miss having Chuck around, although I do not find myself too tempted by Perfumedcourt. Also many of the scents are more than $50 for 3.4 oz. Sometimes I would really rather have an oz of something for say $25 than 3.5 oz for $50. An oz is a lot of most scents to me.
 
Sweet! Now that you mention these, I do remember seeing them talked about. I'll def have a gander at those sites. Now that I know what a darn decant is!
 
G

gone down south

"Decant" literally means "to pour off", ie pouring a liquid out of the original bottle into a new container.

Anyways, skim through the frangrances section of the board here, there are 3 or 4 different companies who regularly sell decants and have good reputations. For me, the value they bring is that I can get very small samples of a fragrance without having to shell out for the whole bottle. Generally, I like maybe 1 in 20 colognes I try so it's a good way to check things out first. Also, they sell prepackaged "theme" sample packs - "beginners intro to fragrances", "5 great sandalwoods", "classic French edcs of the 19th century", stuff like that, makes it fun and easy to compare and contrast similar fragrances.
 
"Decant" literally means "to pour off", ie pouring a liquid out of the original bottle into a new container.

Anyways, skim through the frangrances section of the board here, there are 3 or 4 different companies who regularly sell decants and have good reputations. For me, the value they bring is that I can get very small samples of a fragrance without having to shell out for the whole bottle. Generally, I like maybe 1 in 20 colognes I try so it's a good way to check things out first. Also, they sell prepackaged "theme" sample packs - "beginners intro to fragrances", "5 great sandalwoods", "classic French edcs of the 19th century", stuff like that, makes it fun and easy to compare and contrast similar fragrances.

Well-said. Prices seem to vary a lot, but part of that is dependent on how good a price/size bottle the seller is able to get of the particular scent, the quality of the decant bottel/atomizer, how careful they are with shipping, etc.

Completely agree that there is no way of deciding whether one really likes a frag without living with it more than 1 ml sample usually allows for. But also, 3-4 ozs is way more than I generally want of any one frag.
 
A decant is a small pouch, used in medieval times, to carry magical herbs and remedies, and usually made from the scrotum of a giraffe.
 
Anyways, skim through the frangrances section of the board here, there are 3 or 4 different companies who regularly sell decants and have good reputations. For me, the value they bring is that I can get very small samples of a fragrance without having to shell out for the whole bottle. Generally, I like maybe 1 in 20 colognes I try so it's a good way to check things out first. Also, they sell prepackaged "theme" sample packs - "beginners intro to fragrances", "5 great sandalwoods", "classic French edcs of the 19th century", stuff like that, makes it fun and easy to compare and contrast similar fragrances.
Besides Perfumed Court, what others are there?
 
A lot of scent freaks sell decants to feed their hobby. There's a lot of lists on BaseNotes, or try the forum "The Crystal Flacon"
 
Besides Perfumed Court, what others are there?

Luckyscent.com out of L.A.. I usually get about a half-dozen a month from them. Amazing selection, lots of weird stuff, blazing-fast and cheap shipping.

And unlike theperfumedcourt which has a ridiculously sliding scale on prices, most things at Luckyscent are the same $3 or $4.
 
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a shot of "decants" from Lucky Scent and The Perfumed Court, along with a standard 100ml bottle.

Lucky is more consistent with their pricing of $4 or so for a 1ML vial. But personally, I find I need to give a frag a better test than that little vial offers.

I'm not a true fragrance "expert" yet, but nothing seems to be lost in the "decant" process. In my experience, both places turn things around pretty quick.
 
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Those Luckyscent "samples" are quite small and cost a few bucks each. TPC offers a range of options.

"Come back Chuck/Rorschuck, come back to us now, tear your eyes from paradise and raise again somehow . . . ."

There has got to be a cheaper, better way of going about this than Lucky Scent and/or Purfumed Court! I have not tried the other decanter but I was sure happy with badgercecants when it was up and running!

Hope Chuck is okay!
 
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