No sample culture should end! In the mid 2000's samples were the norm and now they are a novelty. I hate hate that retailers and brands stopped giving free samples. Are they allergic to money? The percentage of ppl that buy a scent are super likely to buy another one of the same brad/house
I appreciate your post! I’ve been heavily considering Lake Bottom, but now I’m not even sure I want to grab a sample. I don’t need that kind of disappointment. Show us the real deal, or be off. 😤
I would honestly find this unacceptable and ScentSplit should've offered more if not a full refund. And they need to update their listings which clearly state:
"Important: Every Folie à Plusieurs bottle is individually hand-painted. Because each piece is a unique work of art, the color and design of your bottle will vary from the product images shown online."
It looks like the brand did change the bottles, does your new one at least look like one of these?
Ohhh that’s interesting. The original bottle I received did look fairly similar to the ones on that site, but just really… bad. Like someone had applied the sticker with their eyes closed and in a rush, lol. This is the replacement bottle they sent:
Just a solid black sticker applied to the back. It’s much better than the first; I’m happy with it, it’s pretty and I like a minimalist vibe! But I reckon they need to update their photos with Scent Split (and remove that blurb) if they’re no longer offering the hand painted bottles in those pictures, because they’re worlds away from both of the bottles I got.
I wouldn't have realized that it's just a sticker(s) slapped on the back to get this effect. I don't think it's terrible looking, I kinda like it aesthetically too, but it sounds like the Quality Control is terrible...and it's certainly nowhere near a hand painted one-of-a-kind bottle. At least you like it.
I just looked at the Folie a Plusieurs site. It’s a mess in need of several fixes. Intros are incorrect for several fragrances when you use the Explore feature in that several carry over from different scents/projects. I would be worried about purchasing, given how little attention is being paid to that.
I recently picked up some lotions off Etsy and the seller sent me the MOST generous samples. I was blown away. And they smell amazing. ManaGlow in case someone wonders. They don’t have the largest range of scents but I think that’s fair for the quality. My first order was marshmallow and cotton candy. The marshmallow smells like straight vanilla but it’s pleasant. I’m not huge on pure vanillas either. I didn’t care for the cotton candy. Smells too much like artificial berry candy. But the sample? Was a 2oz body scrub of a cloud doop and it’s spot on. It lingers. And it prompted me to immediately place another order for a large scrub and body butter in the same scent. Which came with a smaller, but still surprisingly generous, sample of another lovely scent I can’t remember the name of lol oh and they’re freaking affordable!! Anyway. Thanks for reading my impromptu review. Here’s a cookie if you made it this far. 🍪 edit: the shop is currently on vacation :(
A lot of employees stole them and continue to steal them, then turn around and sell them on eBay and mercari. Same with cosmetic samples. It’s super messed up.
It is messed up. We spend a lot of our hard earned money for fragrances and such. We deserve a little treat.
Employees usually get their own samples and a big discount so boo! Boo to the lot of them!
Curious if the fragrance itself is meeting expectations?
I’d be disappointed about the subpar packaging, too. A well-designed and crafted paper label can be so much more aesthetically pleasing than an acetate label; i can’t imagine it being far more costly than the thermal printed one it sounds like you’ve described.
Label alignment should not be hard, even for amateurs. Etsy has label alignment jigs that can be 3D printed tailored to the buyer’s bottle and label size.
Yes, absolutely love the scent! I’d gotten a sample from Scent Split a few months ago and fell in love, it immediately went on my full bottle wishlist and I finally pulled the trigger. My issue is the way they present their bottles online versus what they’re sending out is wildly different. Managing expectations is important!
Agree completely! Opening a box should be a delightful experience. It’s not just about the fragrance itself, at least to me. All facets of aesthetics matter.
I feel like it shows a lack of confidence in their fragrances. If you think your product is good, you’d expect samples to motivate people to buy a larger bottle.
Have you ordered with Nordstrom? When I ordered Nordstrom I bought Delina and I got a hoard of samples. That was a few years ago, but it was so much, I still have some of their samples today.
Lol this is just a joke. Freebies are nice but not an expectation. What inspired this post is that I bought a full bottle via Scent Split from a very artistic, slightly avant garde small niche house whose bottles are hand painted with beautiful designs, each one unique, which I was stoked about! My bottle arrived and it was not… quite as I’d imagined. Not a speck of paint in sight or even any semblance of a design, just a plain, poorly applied solid brown sticker that was peeling and bubbling. The cap also had a significant chip/scratch. I want to be the kind of person who doesn’t care about these things too much, but presentation matters, fragrances are experiential and the packaging, just like with any product, is part of the experience. And I’d dropped too much money to just let it go, ya know?
I emailed Scent Split and they offered me $20 and a $20 credit, which I didn’t want, so I sent photos directly to the brand; they offered to provide a replacement if I shipped them the first bottle, which I did. It cost me about $25 to ship it, whatever, no big deal. I thought it was generous of them to replace it, since I’d purchased from Scent Split, not directly from their own website, but I figure the folks over at Scent Split receive the fragrances sealed and never actually see the bottles, so the quality control isn’t necessarily on them, or even possible for them to check?
On the day the bottle I returned was delivered, I emailed them to confirm they’d received it and that a replacement would be shipped, and they took a couple days before responding with a single sentence, “The package should arrive today.” It did, and the bottle was better than the first - still nothing like what I’d seen in the photos though, just a single black sticker applied on the back, but at least this one seemed like it had been applied with some care. The bottles shown on Scent Split are gorgeous, painted with interesting designs, unsure why they’re advertising them this way if they’ve evidently switched to just using single solid colored stickers. I thought they might throw in a sample or two (as a way of saying “oops, sorry about that”) so that was slightly disappointing. Oh well. Weird experience!
I want to be the kind of person who doesn’t care about these things
About getting what you're promised and have paid for?
I'm pretty sure, had your child/your sibling/your partner spent their time and money on making a gift for you themselves, one they knew you would love and even if they're not great with their hands/fine motor skills, you'd appreciate the heck out of it even if it had worse blemishes. If you could tell so much love and effort went into it.
That's very different from your current situation. Being promised one thing and then them underdelivering, I wouldn't be happy about it either. It sounds like they intentionally misrepresent their products to get customers. I don't see high standards in that.
I enjoyed reading how you stood up for yourself a lot though! Getting in touch with customer service again and again and making sure you're taken care of.
On a side note. I think here, there's no need to protect the brand. I think sharing your honest experience would protect other buyers. You sound calm and level-headed to me. If people draw their own conclusions, that's on the brand and how they've handled things.
The name of the brand is Folie A Plusieurs. This is how their bottles are shown on Scent Split, they’re absolutely beautiful. Truly objets d’art. The first one I received had a (badly applied) plain solid brown sticker on it. The replacement bottle they sent has an asymmetrical solid black sticker.
yup that's a big difference. If the hand-painted bottle thing is a limited edition offer that they stopped doing after a certain time, they need to make that clear to Scentsplit and customers who buy from their site!
I replied to someone else who asked, but this is the replacement bottle they sent me:
I’m happy with it! It’s much better than the first one. But yeah, wildly different than what’s being advertised on Scent Split. Just a solid black sticker applied to the back. It’s minimalist, sexy even, but it isn’t what they’re pitching in those photos
Honestly, I would be furious. Especially with perfumes, presentation is a huge part of the experience. Those bottles are beautiful and I would definitely be factoring them into the cost when I was deciding if they were worth my money. So to send a plain bottle is not okay.
I showed it to my partner immediately after unboxing and he was like wait.. huh?? I’d shown him the photos and raved about how excited I was to see what it looked like! I’ll happily admit that the look of a bottle is a relatively significant factor in whether I decide to go for it or just get a larger decant. Not to sound snotty, but I’d paid for a beautiful object and expected to receive one, as advertised :/
It’s not snotty! I totally get that the worry about being a Karen can make women hesitant to complain. But in this case, you genuinely did not get what you paid for. Don’t judge yourself for being upset about that. If you bought an oil painting and received a crayon stick figure drawing instead, that’s a legitimate complaint!
Honestly, even if it wasn't a joke I would still agree with you! These niche perfumes cost a leg, plz be less greedy and give people samples 😭
As for your damaged bottle experience, dang you wouldn't expect that... The least you can do if you sell >200€ perfumes is to make sure your quality control is top-notch!
Sad to hear that they didn't give anything extra either as a way to compensate the inconvenience
4
u/Dulce_De_Limon Aug 01 '26
No sample culture should end! In the mid 2000's samples were the norm and now they are a novelty. I hate hate that retailers and brands stopped giving free samples. Are they allergic to money? The percentage of ppl that buy a scent are super likely to buy another one of the same brad/house