We’re officially declaring 2025 the year of finding your signature scent. Waking up, doing your morning routine and spritzing on your favorite perfume before heading out the door is sure to set your day up for success—but we hear you, what if you don’t have a favorite perfume? Whether you’re new to the perfume world or are just looking to switch up your scent, finding a fragrance you love can seem daunting in an industry where the market is oversaturated. To the rescue? Perfume sampler sets. Not only are they great for picking out a new perfume, but they’ll also save you money by preventing you from splurging on a perfume you ended up disliking. Keep reading for the benefits of perfume sampler sets, a few of our favorite brands and more.
How often do you try a new perfume?
What are perfume sampler sets?
Perfume sampler sets are essentially just what the name suggests: a set of fragrance samples you can test out before committing to a full-size bottle of perfume you aren’t familiar with. Many different perfume and beauty brands have taken to creating their own perfume sampler sets, especially as online shopping continues to grow and consumers are shopping less in-store, which makes it more difficult to test perfumes.
Sometimes, brands will create different “themes” for their perfume sampler sets. For example, a floral perfume sampler set or a sweet and cozy sampler set. Other times, it may just be a set of some of the brand’s most popular, best-selling perfumes or newly-released scents. These sets typically cost less than one full-size perfume, and sometimes, sets may even include a voucher you can redeem for a full-size bottle of your favorite scent from the sample set.
Benefits of perfume sampler sets
Aside from the obvious benefit of helping you find a scent you love, perfume sampler sets are great for several reasons. A huge benefit is that they help you prevent wasting money and/or product. Blind buying a perfume, aka purchasing a perfume without smelling it beforehand, is risky and may leave you with a dent in your wallet for a scent you don’t end up loving. Since so much is bought online nowadays, it’s smart to get a sample perfume set first to ensure you like a specific scent on you. Just because a perfume is trendy on social media doesn’t mean you’ll like it on your specific skin when it mixes with your pH.
Also, perfume sampler sets allow you to expand your perfume palette. You may have thought all your life that you’re strictly a vanilla perfume wearer—until you try an amber fragrance in a perfume sampler set and fall in love. You may have never tried the amber perfume unless you tried the sample set. Plus, perfume sampler sets make great and fun gifts for the fragrance lovers in your life.
Lastly, those little perfume samples are great for on-the-go use. Their smaller size make them so easy to fit in even the tiniest of bags for a fragrance touch-up whenever you may need it.
Where to find perfume sampler sets
If you’re convinced to try a perfume sampler set, it’s time to discover the best places to buy them. A great place to start is at your favorite beauty store, like Sephora and Ulta. They both have great perfume sampler sets for affordable prices, and most include a voucher to redeem a bigger size of your favorite fragrance. You can also find perfume sampler sets in-store and online at many department stores, such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.
There also are discovery sets for some of the most well-known fragrance brands. Let’s say you’re obsessed with the wildly popular Phlur Missing Person perfume, for example, but haven’t tried any of the other Phlur scents; You can try the brand’s discovery set of their other fragrances that you may fall in love with.
Some other popular perfume sampler sets are the Snif Sample Set, By Rosie Jane Fragrance Discovery Set, Maison Margiela Sampler Set and Dossier Discovery Set. Additionally, there are also perfume sampler subscription services that send you sample sizes of fragrances to test out each month. A few notable companies that offer this are LUXSB, Luxury Scent Box, Scentbird and Scentbox.
