If you’re anything like me, the scent of a particular fragrance can take you back to a specific time and place in your life. Because I’m a bit of a sentimental “pack rat,” I still have with me a little vial of the perfume I was wearing when I graduated college – and I was on a serious mission to find it. That’s when I came across Scentbird.
Let me begin by telling you this is in no way a sophisticated fragrance. Truth be told, nothing could be plainer: Sephora’s Sweet Almond Eau de Toilette is really all I could afford in my early 20’s with my minimum wage job and student hours (and I could really only spring for the $18 purse spray). But it was the memory I couldn’t part with – that feeling of being 22 and thinking I knew something about the world.
I searched the internet over and finally ended up at MakeupAlley where I learned that, like many others’, my search was hopeless (Sephora confirmed it’s been discontinued). But a little more searching led me to Scentbird, part perfume roulette, part guided search to help you find a signature scent based on your preferences.
Think of it as the Warby-Parker of perfume in that it allows you to try on 3 scents at home (each comes with a free sample), keep what you love, and return the rest. It eliminates the risk of shopping online for a scent you may not love, and, really, the only way to sample and discover a fragrance is to wear it for a few days and see how it wears on you. So Scentbird will give you up to 5 days to try it out before you have to send back your scents with free shipping and returns, hassle-free. And they’ve been generous enough to offer you, my readers, $15 to spend on their site (scroll down for the code), so you can try it out and let me know what you think.
As for me, I’m having too much fun with this, so I’m still in the process of narrowing down my selection (so many amazing options!) but the Scentbird recommendation engine has me pretty much figured out (science!). There’s also a really fun (and scarily accurate!) zodiac sign based perfume finder if you’re into that sort of thing.
If you do check it out, let me know how you like it. AND, if anyone has any of their personal favorite recommendations for almond-based perfumes, leave me a comment! I’m a nostalgic gal on a mission. 😉
