Quitting Scentbird After a Couple of Months

Scentbird is a subscription perfume service that I had been wanting to try for a while. I love perfumes and the idea of getting a new one every month to test was just too tempting. The cost (including taxes) is $16.00. Each month. That sounded good for about 1 month.

Not worth $16 per month. Nope.

Including a freebie that I got because Scentbird messed up on billing once, I will have received 3 scents as of this month. I have only (sort of) liked one of the fragrances. That was the Pink Sugar scent. And, I really just didn't hate it. Didn't love it though.

Each fragrance spray is meant to last about 1 month. If you like it, then you can purchase full-sized bottles. I haven't yet figured out how to purchase a full-sized but, no worries, I haven't liked any well enough to want to.

There is more though to why I quit Scentbird after trying only 3 fragrances. Lots more.

• It's expensive. $16 a month is not a crazy amount but paying that much for 0.27 ounces of EDP is. More on that in a moment.
• According to Scentbird their vials "equate to about 120+ sprays – enough to apply 4 sprays daily for 30 days." I did not find this to be true. Maybe if a fragrance lasts more than a couple hours for you but, the older you get... Just saying.
• It's kind of shady. Not all the scents listed on the site fall into the $16 monthly payment. For some scents, you have to pay an additional 5 or 10 bucks on top of the monthly amount. 
• You get a free case (to hold a Scentbird vial) with the first shipment - or if Scentbird is apologizing for an error. You have to buy any more after that at (currently) $12.95 each. As far as I know, only Scentbird vials fit these cases. At least, none of my other perfume vials fit the case I have. It's a plastic case. Not worth more than a couple of bucks.
• The site is okay as far as browsing the fragrances but lacks user-friendliness otherwise; the FAQs were seriously old and had no links to the info provided. 
• If you do love Scentbird and are trying to match to a fragrance you might want to try, the "scent quiz" they offer is limited and almost useless. You can't choose more than one Note, Setting, Season, or Mood. So you have to choose between wanting something floral or fruity; for the office or evening; only one season; and whether you feel flirty, sexy, classy, etc. It would be better if they offered a choice of listing scents you already love or just let you choose more than one option during the quiz. I had to keep re-taking the quiz to cover all my bases.

Now, let's get back to the price. That's really the main deciding factor for me. There is a guy who did a really good video breaking down the numbers in detail. You can check that out but all I needed to do was browse a couple of other fragrance sites to know that Scentbird is not worth it.

ScentSplit (which I have used in the past) sells decants of fragrances. Cost varies but if you know what you like but can't afford a full bottle, this is the real deal. By the way, just Google for similar sites for buying decants. 

FrangranceNet - Just pricing a couple of items, I realized that I could get a 0.33-ounce rollerball of Viva la Juicy Gold.for (currently) $14.99 or, with a coupon $9.74. There is also Perfumania where I can get a 1.7-ounce bottle of Jessica Simpson's Fancy for $19.95. And shut up. I happen to like Fancy.

You can also shop Perfumania, FrangranceX, Fragrantica, and even find sellers on Facebook or Reddit. It kind of depends on your taste in perfumes. Or, you can always scope out Amazon, Overstock, etc. If you are into niche perfumes (a boutique or artisanal perfume, not usually with a lot of retail presence), try finding more sites like Fragranceline. I've not used them, but I did sample a box from Olifactif, which was another pricey and not-worth-it (in my opinion) subscription service. With Olafactif, you can find codes to try them on the cheap. I got to try 3 niche scents and didn't like any of them.

There are cheaper and smarter ways to get hold of perfumes - even if you just want small amounts to test. If you shop online at places like Ulta, Macy's or Sephora, you can usually request perfume samples. If you actually go into such a store, you might walk away with enough samples to last a while. I once hit it off with a Sephora sales clerk and left with a $10 product I bought and 4 small bags stuffed with samples of lipsticks and perfumes. They made great stocking stuffers that Christmas.

The bottom line for me is, if I want to get something in the mail on a regular schedule, I can throw my money at Scentbird. It's just kind of a ripoff, in my opinion. I mean, kudos to the chick who owns it because she has a money-maker, for real.

I don't get to spoil myself often so I need to be picky and price-conscious at all times. Scentbird is for people who can afford to pay a ridiculous amount of money for teensy amounts of fragrances. Matter of fact, let me just post that video of the math dude. It's an older video but still made sense to me. As far as numbers make sense to my brain.

Even if Scentbird sweetened the pot with, say, a free case included with every order, I wouldn't stay. What I have figured out is how to just shop cheaply for what I want when I want it. I don't have to tie myself to a gimmicky subscription fee once a month. Now, if someone came up with a sub for buying full bottles of perfumes at a discount - either because they are overstocks or returns - I might look at that.

Peace
--Free

P.S.: I recently used a gift card to get a Vica la Juicy Gold 0.33 ounce rollerball from FraganceNet for $15.00 and used a code to get free shipping. Adding in tax, I paid a total of $16.04. Now, I won't be committed to spending another 15 or 16 dollars next month unless I just want to.

**REVIEW** Scentbird

Everyone who knows me knows that I love a good fragrance. I don't care if it's a body perfume, a hair mist, a candle, essential oil or room spray.

Recently, I found and tried out a couple of different places to get perfumes. The first one I will review is Scentbird. I am doing this review over several days so that I can go over the experience without forgetting anything from signing up, perusing the site, to tracking the package. Forgive the bad continuity. Here goes.

Signing up was pretty easy. 

I was only tempted to sign up because I found a promo notice that I could get a Glossier sample with a new subscription. Then, because I wanted to pinch a few more pennies, I used the Honey extension to get the normally $14.95 sub for a one-month promo price of $10.39 (including tax). It's one of those cancel-at-any-time deals (more on that later).

If you do sign up and want to use me as a referral use this link: 

https://www.scentbird.com/r/d/scentbirduser7955018

I have loved Glossier's You fragrance since I got a tiny sample in another sub box. The full size is around $60 bucks. The $20 solid (that I did buy and get refunded for) is a total waste of time and money. So, basically, I got sucked in by the Scentbird offer of a Glossier sample - and I was hoping that the sample would be one of the 30-day sizes and not the teeny lose-in-your-purse size I had before.

I actually did lose this for a week in my purse

Anyway, for a month or so I've been thinking that since I quit smoking and am still losing weight by eating less, I can do $15 for a couple or three months to try some perfumes. That's the plan anyway. If I love the service, I will re-work my food budget to keep the plan for a while. As for canceling the plan "at any time", I have heard the usual stories about problems in doing so. I will talk about that shortly.

Perusing the site and choosing fragrances is kind of easy.

As soon as I did sign up, I got an email with this prompt:

Select your first fragrance, skincare, or personal care product here in the next 12 hours. If you don’t make a selection, you'll receive our featured  perfume of the month! 

Okay. Of course, I went into this knowing that I wanted a 2nd Glossier You but since I was already going to be getting a sign-up sample, I decided to choose something unknown for the first month.

By the way, the site is set up so that you can search fragrances by note (musk, citrus, etc), brand/house (DKNY, Gucci, etc),  or type (eau de toilette, solid, mist, etc). Some fragrances are considered "premium" and will cost you an additional $5 or $10 over the usual subscription fee (one of these is My Burberry Blush). You can also add additional fragrances to your cart, outside your subscription for around $17 each.

Setting up your fragrance queue...

or not

You can set up a queue of up to 12 months of scents to be delivered on your subscription but you can't choose the same scent more than once every 6 months. (I think it's 6 months. At any rate, you will get a prompt if you try adding a repeat too soon.) If you don't select a fragrance, you get whatever the "featured" perfume is for that month. This would be fun for me but only if Scentbird would let users set up a more detailed profile of scent types you prefer.

The profile is a quiz.

The profile is, in my opinion, awful because it's developed from a "quiz" that's very limited. You only get to choose ONE answer for each question such as your preference for fragrance type. You have to choose either to be "woody", "floral", "sweet", "spicy", etc. If you look at the perfumes I currently like, they are a mix of spicy, citrusy, and sweet. I want to discover more scents in that arena, not get locked into just a sweet or floral type or whatever else.

Anyway, I did add this new and unknown scent to my queue for the first month. More on this coming up.

Gucci's Envy Me

A friend who knows that I used to wear Shalimar as my signature scent but now love things like Viva la Juicy, You, and By Invitation (I hate that name!) told me about Envy Me. From there, I referred to that delightful fragrance database, Basenotes, to check out similar scents. Of course, Scentbird does a great job of listing notes in the perfumes. I will get to that in a moment...

Of course, I do have a preferred fragrance type - now that I can no longer wear almost anything well... Getting old and having moody hormones changes everything, ladies. At any rate, I noticed that Envy Me and You share some fragrance notes, but not Viva La Juicy.

no Pink Pepper??

So you can see what I mean by wanting to explore more than one type of fragrance.

You can re-arrange your queue

A great thing about the queue is being able to alter it from time to time. For instance. after changing my mind about 20 times, I switched out a lot of things I had set up for the next 3 months until I currently have ended up with this.

I am already thinking of exchanging a couple for some more lemon-noted fragrances. (Update: I have already swapped out at least 4 choices.)

The waiting

Once you do select your first fragrance, you can be assured that the first billing has hit your payment method. For instance, I subscribed on midmorning of the 13th and within half an hour, my bank showed the billing. I got the tracking number on the 17th and, I guess because I live close to where it shipped from, I expected to have my package by the 18th or the 19th because the item was already in the state on the 17th when I got the tracking notice. (Update: I got the package on the 18th. That was fast.)

The goodies  the verdict

Okay, this is what happened... What a saga!

My package arrived but only with the Gucci scent. There was no sign of a Glossier sample. (Either I misread the promo or there was just a mixup. The promo was over by this time so I can't get a screenshot of it.)

At any rate... I went on a little tirade and was really rude (I am ashamed to say) to a customer service rep. After some minor squalls, things have been resolved. (Actually, the service rep had more than resolved things in my favor, but I was in such a mood, I wasn't listening. Yes, I am very ashamed.) I will be getting a sample of Glossier sent out to me separately right away and my next order will include a case of my color choice.

(Just to explain - not excuse - my temper tantrum: I've been struggling with worse than usual fatigue and depression so I think that's why I went off on the customer service lady. She was super nice - nicer than I would have been - and accepted my apologies. This does not excuse my nasty attitude, I know.) Lesson learned? Scentbird customer service is stellar.

Anyway, this is what came in the original parcel.

Notice that there is no Glossier sample anywhere...

There is the card highlighting the notes of the fragrance I chose for the month.

But no Glossier sample. Not even one of those little foil stamp samples you sometimes see.

That case is super cute and it's a good thing they provided directions. It's basically a twist-up case. The vial of perfume will lift enough that you can spray it without removing it from the case. See? Cute.

see how the silver part raises to spray?

I have to say that I dig the little perfume compact. That's super cute and is going to be so handy for on-the-go. And it's also nice that they threw in that little cloth bag. But where the heck is my sample??? (As you know from my recounting of "the saga", I will be getting a free case of my choice with next months' scent and Scentbird has already sent out a sample of the Glossier. Can't wait to get it because... I do not like the Envy Me.

This is the vial pulled out of the case.
The inner vial is labeled

As you saw, the perfume comes with a card detailing the fragrance notes and a list of ingredients. I am not thrilled with the scent. It's a nice fragrance to sniff but it's just not great on me. Because of it, I have gone back in and rearranged my queue. This one was more reserved and serious than I like. For next month, I plan to try one of the  I think I need scents with a little more of a floral touch to go with the bitter ones. My sis-in-law will be getting this one to try...

By the way, when I got mad and wanted to cancel, it was easy enough to do. You just go into your account, your subscription choice and look for the Cancel link (instead of changing to a different plan). The one sneaky thing is that CANCEL is in very light-colored font and there are a couple of are-you-sure prompts. Also, there is an option to Pause a subscription which is nice for those thin budget months.

Overall, I am happy enough with this first month to hold on to the subscription for a minute. If I hate the next fragrance, I will add Glossier to the next month or spend the $17 on it as an extra and be done.

I want to mention again that the customer service is stellar. I acted a little bit crazy and the rep was never anything but nice. I don't know how she dealt with me and kept even the thought of a smile on her face...

 Once again, if you do decide to give Scentbird a tryout, you can help me by using this referral link:

https://www.scentbird.com/r/d/scentbirduser7955018

Either way, I would like to know which fragrances you try.

Peace
--Free




I am not in the mood for music today so enjoy a funny guy I watch every now and then to give myself a laugh. This young dude reminds me SO MUCH of one of my nephews that it's scary. His facial expressions are everything. And this "man weave" situation... wow.