Photo of decant vials & bottles.  Click here to view larger version.

CURRENT SCENTS IN MY COLLECTION

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Amouage Epic Woman

Amouage Gold (ladies)

Amouage Jubilation 25

Amouage Lyric Woman

Amouage Opus I

Amouage Ubar

Byredo Green

Caron Parfum Sacre
 
Caron Tabac Blond

Caron Yatagan

Cartier IV: L'Heure Fougueuse

Chanel Chance

Chanel Coromandel

Chanel Egoiste

Chanel No. 22

Coty Chypre
  (Vintage 1970s)

Creed Fleurs De Bulgarie

Deneuve

Donna Karan Black Cashmere

Estee Lauder Private Collection

Frederic Malle Bigarade Concentree

Frederic Malle Carnal Flower

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monsieur

Geoffrey Beene Grey Flannel

Gucci L'Arte di Gucci

Hermes 24, Faubourg

Hermes Eau Des Merveilles

Hermes Hiris 

Honoré des Prés Vamp à NY

Jean Desprez Bal A Versailles

Jean Patou 1000

Jil Sander No. 4

L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse

L'Artisan Parfumeur Tea for Two

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Absolue Pour le Soir

Molinard Habanita

Mona Di Orio Les Nombres d'Or Vanille

Montale Black Aoud

Montale Boise Vanille

Odin 04 Petrana

Parfumerie Generale Un Crime Exotique

Parfums de Nicolai Sacrebleu

Parfums Delrae Amoureuse

Pascal Morabito Or Black

Profumum Roma Acqua Viva

Profumum Roma D'Ambrosia

Robert Piguet Fracas

Robert Piguet Visa

Serge Lutens Arabie

Serge Lutens Borneo 1834

Serge Lutens Chene

Serge Lutens Chergui

Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan

Serge Lutens Un Lys

Serge Lutens Vetiver Oriental

Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb

What Is A Decant? 
Decanting is a method of transferring the contents of a larger container into a smaller one.  A fragrance is decanted from its original manufacturer’s bottle into either a small glass sample vial or atomizer bottles of various sizes by one of several methods: either by transferring with a sterile pipette, or by pouring the perfume through a small metal funnel, or often by directly spraying the contents into the smaller container. Each fragrance is freshly decanted just prior to shipping or delivery.

Why Decant? 
The reasons are many: it allows perfume aficionados to sample scents that aren't available in their area, or to "test drive" a fragrance and prolong the purchase of a full bottle until they know whether it clicks with them.  Decanting allows a person to buy a small quantity of a pricey perfume that is otherwise unaffordable – and it’s great for the person who only wants, say, a quarter-ounce of a fragrance rather than a huge amount.  For the truly scent-obsessed, decants make it affordable to have an entire perfume wardrobe and to enjoy sniffing a little bit of everything!

Image: 5-ml glass spray decant bottle (left side of photo) along with 1.5 ml spray sample vials (foreground and left) and packaging materials, including gift bag. Original manufacturer's bottles are in the background (these are the bottles I decant from). Photo by Suzanne Keller.

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Read the latest in Suzanne’s Perfume Journal 

Amouage Opus IV: All That and More

Gonna tell you a story that you won’t believe
But I fell in love last Friday evenin’
With a girl I saw on a bar room TV screen

Well I was just gettin’ ready to get my hat
When she caught my eye and I put it back
And I ordered myself a couple o’ more shots and beers

….

She was five foot six and two fifteen
A bleach blonde bomber with a streak of mean
She knew how to knuckle and she knew how to scuffle and fight

And the roller derby program said
That she was built like a ‘fridgerator with a head
Her fans call her “Tuffy” but all her buddies call her “Spike”

               —lyrics from Jim Croce’s song, "Roller Derby Queen" †

It’s really not fair of me to preface my review of Amouage Opus IV with the lyrics to Jim Croce’s “Roller Derby Queen.” Not fair to the perfume, that is. Opus IV is opulent and classy, and of all the perfumes in the opus series, this is the one that smells like the very place you’d expect to find an opus: it smells like a grand library, one with floor-to-ceiling bookcases constructed of rare hardwoods that have been polished to a high sheen with lemon oil, housing rare manuscripts printed on parchment and vellum, and where reading tables hold deep vases filled with roses. Or at least, that’s the way I imagine a very grand library to smell. My actual experience in that regard is somewhat limited. The grandest libraries I’ve ever been in have all been university libraries (which mostly means that they were large), and the most fragrant library I’ve ever encountered was in a monastery in Switzerland, where the books were all bound in leather and the parquet flooring was polished to a high sheen but creaked every time a step was taken across it. It was the noisiest wood floor I’ve ever encountered and I remember it well, because the monk who was giving the tour would address the American tourists first, in English, and then address the other tourists in German and French. As soon as the monk finished speaking in English, all of the American tourists began walking around the library, either not noticing or not caring that their movements made it impossible for the other tourists to hear. It was rather embarrassing to be among the Americans that day. »Click to read article in its entirety