Affording Your Favorite Fragrance

I love to buy new perfume. I buy a new brand almost every season change, and have a few favorites that I rotate in and out. Because I like to have a variety of different scents to wear, I don't ever purchase a large bottle at full price. If I love a perfume and know I will wear it often, then I will purchase a normal size bottle, but will almost never pay full price for it. Here's how I purchase my perfume:

1. If it's a scent that I have smelled but not really worn to see if I like, I will buy a sample off ebay. Usually you can find vials of just about any scent you are looking for. They can be shipped in an envelope and don't require much postage. If you don't like the scent, you didn't waste your money on a full size bottle.

2. If you like a particular scent, see if you can find a tester for sale on Ebay. This will be a bottle that may have been used as a tester in a store. It may be full, or have a bit missing from the bottle. Either way, testers are usually sold without a box, sometimes with a "Tester" sticker on them, and for a less expensive price than you would pay at a department store.

3. Try finding a miniature in the scent you want to buy. Some perfumes will put out miniture copies of the full-size bottles, and these are much cheaper to buy.

4. Sometimes on eBay you can find someone who will dram the perfume out for you, and sell it to you in a much smaller bottle. It is the original perfume, only put into a spray or roll-on bottle to be sold at a cheaper price. Search for your fragrance, then look for listings that come in an 1/8th oz. or a 1/4th oz. size. I wore Just Me Paris Hilton for a while, out of an 1/4th oz. bottle I purchased this way. (In case you are wondering, this perfume really is very nice! It smells like a very clean-smelling shampoo to me.)

5. Don't EVER buy your designer perfume full price in a department store! Not if you can help it, at least. There are frangrance stores like fragrancenet.com that will carry many popular brands of fragrances at prices lower than what department stores charge. Ulta carries designer fragrances and also sells gift sets at great prices.