Your Fragrance Sampling Habits
Brothers, Iām curious about your habits when it comes to sniffing fragrances in person! How often do you swing by retailers like Ulta, Sephora, or department stores to sample fragrances? Are you mostly checking out new releases, exploring entirely new houses or fragrances youāve never tried, or just revisiting old favorites? Even if youāre almost entirely buying designer, or solely focused on niche/indie, are you still going and trying to sample the rest? I ask because, as passionate as we all are about fragrances on this board, Iāve noticed a surprising number of posts where people mention they havenāt tried some of the most accessible designer scents. For example, in a recent thread about the best designer fragrances of 2025, a ton of folks said they hadnāt smelled many (or any!) of the ones being discussed. It got me thinking: we spend hours here geeking out over notes and reviews, but how often are we actually getting our noses on these scents? I get that niche or indie fragrances can be tough to track down, especially if youāre in a smaller area. But most designer fragrances are pretty accessible at common retailers. For context, Iām currently in my hometown of 20,000 people, which has exactly one fragrance store: Ulta. Iāve seen some recent posts here about the new Valentino Born in Roma Ivory. I hadnāt smelled it yet, so today , on my way to the gym, I popped into Ulta for literally 5 minutes, asked if they had testers, and the associate brought out bottles of both Uomo and Donna to try. Now I can actually share my first impressions when it comes up instead of just saying, āSounds nice!ā It took me 5 minutes, I have no intention of buying anything at Ulta, or even buying the fragrance, but I was curious. I even asked if they had samples available. So, brethren, Iām also curious: ⢠How often do you visit stores to smell fragrances? Weekly, monthly, or only when youāre on a mission? Are you sampling only what youāre truly interested or are you sampling anything new or you havenāt tried before?