Traveling Sample Box (Europe) : Next Round

Our European perfume box is ready to make another round. Below, Hamamelis is including her sampling notes and the list of perfume samples in the box. So, if you are in Europe and would like to participate, here is how you can do it.

How does it work: To enter, please answer these questions: 1) are you in Europe? ; 2) do you agree to pass the box onto someone else (add a couple of your own samples and share your sampling notes with the rest of us)? and 3) what perfume are you most interested in trying? The thread is now closed. The next person to receive the box is Anka.

When a winner is ready to pass the box onto someone else, they should get in touch with me. Please include the list of samples and your sampling notes (what you’ve discovered, what you’ve liked/disliked, any observations you care to include).

To check the progress of our boxes, please click on the Traveling Sample Box tag. Shipping restrictions and customs fees make it hard to send perfume in some countries, so if you’re interested in having a sample box within your region, please let me know.

In the Travelling Sample Box were:

Atelier Cologne Silver Iris
Atelier Cologne Mistral Patchouli
By Kilian Forbidden Games
By Kilian Vodka on the Rocks
By Kilian Apple Brandy
Chanel Bois des Iles
Chanel Coromandel
Comme des Garcons Bleu Santal
Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire
Grossmith Amelia
Grossmith Betrothal
Grossmith Diamond Jubilee
Grossmith Floral Veil
Grossmith Golden Chypre
Grossmith Safron Rose
Hermes Eau des Merveilles
Lab on Fire What we do in Paris is secret
Neela Vermeire Ashoka
Neela Vermeire Bling
Neela Vermeire Mohur Extrait
Neela Vermeire Mohur
Neela Vermeire Trayee
Rouge Bunny Rouge Cynefin
Rouge Bunny Rouge Embers
Rouge Bunny Rouge Sylvan
Serge Lutens Douce Amere

I kept Chanel Bois des Iles, Vetiver Extraordinaire and Neela Vermeire Mohur Extrait. I added Ormonde Jayne Osmanthus, Bottega Veneta Knot, Hermes L’Ambre des Merveilles and Serge Lutens Feminite du Bois.

Atelier Cologne Silver Iris
A gorgeous silvery uplifting iris, fresh and sparkly with a faint incense/smoke ingredient. Lingers on and on, like a cool silent shadow. On my wishlist.

Atelier Cologne Mistral Patchouli
A transient watery patchouli cologne, very nice. It has the mouthwatering scent that some geranium leaves give off, which I can only describe as juicy, watery and green. Refreshing and earthy.

By Kilian Forbidden Games
This starts with lots of peach, but not fresh peach, peach as in a peach flavored candy. Very sweet, I smell rose, banana, vanilla. It smells a little flat, not much radiance, a bit like a heavy creamy peach and rose mousse with vanilla sauce. For me this would work as a dessert but not as a perfume.

By Kilian Vodka on the Rocks
A bit too masculine for me. It starts really icy cold, like Vodka with lime. It dries down into an ordinary aftershave like smell, nice on a man, not on me. I scrubbed it off with coconut oil, but it was tenacious!

Chanel Bois des Iles
Bois des Iles has a radiant typical Chanel aldehyde start, which I have come to love. It progresses into a creamy jasmine, orange blossom and ylang ylang and sandalwood note, very soft and caressing. As if the traces of the day scents of a tropical island still linger into the evening. I find it very elegant, soft and refined. It dries into a soft, warm, ambery and faintly white flowery scent. Very beautiful. At some point it smelled for a few seconds like my all-time favorite natural hamamelis scent…but maybe I was projecting! On my wishlist. I kept the sample.

Chanel Coromandel
A very earthy, medicinal but plush and very chic scent. As if a chic and elegant, string of pearl wearing woman dressed in a cashmere jacket, is working in her woodland garden without gloves, getting her hands dirty and not minding that at all. I like it very much. I can still smell in on my wrist at the end of the day.

Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire
A very lovely, mouthwatering and invigorating vetiver, with lots of cedar in it. No bitter notes, just mossy, wet stones, as if you are in a temperate rain forest, standing on a small wooden bridge over a stream following a waterfall, in and you smell the water springing form the rocks. Absolutely dogwalking appropriate  and on my wishlist, or for my husband! I kept this sample.

Grossmith Amelia
I smell lots of orange blossom, herbal/spicy peony and jasmine. It is beautiful but also a bit empty or young to my nose, like a too pretty face that hasn’t lived a lot. Lots of musk in the dry down. Probably suitable for a young pretty girl.

Grossmith Betrothal
I smell lots of different flowers, carnation with a very strong clove note, peony, ylang ylang and iris. To me it is a bit standoffish. In the first hour or so I would not associate this with a wedding perfume, unless the bride wants to keep the guests at a distance (which maybe the then Kate Middleton wanted?). The dry down changes a lot, into a soft and bridal skin scent.

Grossmith Diamond Jubilee
This started with a tinge of camphor, which turned into clove. I think this springs from the carnation. Later I smelled green herbs and iris, much cooler. Then I smelled jasmine, and mint, and later a powdery violet. I found it a very beautiful and dignified and ‘together’ scent. Befitting the person in whose honor it was made, but certainly not stuffy or old fashioned. Formidable!

Grossmith Golden Chypre
A burst of punchy citrus, very nice, ‘old fashioned’ (=good in my book!) classical perfume start, which a few months ago I would not have liked, and now love very much. Becomes very radiant and slightly sharp aromatic, a very soft carnation or clove note in the background and orange and cardamom, and later some vetiver. A real character, would definitely fit one of the more mature Downton Abbey characters (and their budget I am afraid!).

Neela Vermeire Ashoka
I had sampled this before and it is lovely. Creamy cardamom, some fig, woody notes, warm enveloping and comforting. As if you carry a safe quiet place with you wherever you go.

Neela Vermeire Bombay Bling
A happy smiling mango! Saffron, orange, yellow saris comes to mind. A big smile in a bottle.

Neela Vermeir Mohur Extrait
This was love at first sniff, I just applied a tiny bit (no spray) as so far I am not so good with rose perfumes. To my nose this is not an Indian scent like Bling or Ashoka, but much more English. It started a bit Ormonde Jayne like (which I love), it seems a slightly marzipan note. Then it just smelled like a room full of rose petals, different kinds. It showed many different rose facets, sometimes it was a bit sweet but that disappeared, then again a very fresh note. As if different kinds of roses are all part of this. Very longlasting and lovely dry down, less English beauty, more Oriental. Very beautiful. I kept the sample. If ever I win the lottery…

Neela Vermeire Trayee
Is this how an Indian spice shop would smell, or maybe better a large Indian spice market? I smell something sweet, bitter and dry, ginger, cinnamon, apple (or is that because of the cinnamon?), cardamom, vetiver, even something minty. Some incense as well. Drying down I smell some soft leather. On the surface of my wrist where I put a few drops of Trayee it smells different wherever I put my nose, with a different accent. It is like one of those toy kaleidoscopes, when you turn them you see a different picture. Very unusual, beautiful and mesmerizing.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Cynefin
This started nice and fresh with lots of green notes, but it came across as somewhat incoherent. The dry down to my nose is very similar to Un Jardin Après La Mousson.

Serge Lutens Douce Amere
This is very lovely, bitter and sweet, and fresh. I smell tiare (now very familiar since Andy’s Monoi article!). It is buttery but not greasy, exotic but not sultry actually very fresh. I have no children, but I have smelled my sisters babies, and the dry down smells like baby skin. Exquisite, on my wishlist.

It was a wonderful experience to smell the samples. Many of them I wouldn’t have smelled if wasn’t because of the Travelling Sample Box. It has given me hours of pleasurable nose time. Thank you Victoria!