What is a perfume decant? How to try Arabian perfume in 10ml

Buying a full bottle of perfume on the strength of one sniff in a shop is a gamble. A scent can smell wonderful on a paper strip and quite different on your skin an hour later. That is why we sell Arabian perfumes in two ways: as full bottles, and as 10ml decants.

What a decant is

A decant is perfume taken from a full bottle and poured into a smaller bottle, usually a spray atomiser. It is the same fragrance in a smaller quantity. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away. You simply pay for less of it.

A 10ml decant is small enough to be gentle on the budget and large enough to wear properly. Depending on how many sprays you use, it can carry you through a good number of wears, which is plenty of time to decide whether you love it.

Why try before you buy

Perfume reacts with skin. The same scent can turn sweeter, sharper or softer depending on the person wearing it. Weather plays a part too: a fragrance that feels right on a cool Ruiru morning in July may feel heavy on a hot afternoon in February.

A decant lets you find this out at home, in your own routine, before you commit.

How to test a decant properly

A single spray at the counter tells you very little. Give the scent a fair trial:

• Wear it on skin, not fabric. Spray the inside of the wrists or the side of the neck, where skin is warm.
• Do not rub your wrists together. Let the perfume dry on its own.
• Smell it at three points. Straight away, after about an hour, and late in the day. Arabian perfumes often change a great deal as they settle.
• Wear it on different days. Try it at work, at church, on an evening out. Notice how it feels in each setting.
• Ask someone close. Others smell your perfume more than you do once your nose gets used to it.
• Test one scent at a time. Wearing two new perfumes together makes it hard to judge either.

Signs it is the one

After a week or so, ask yourself a few honest questions:

1. Do I reach for it without thinking?
2. Do I still like it at the end of the day, not just in the first minutes?
3. Does it suit the places I actually go?
4. Would I be sad when the decant runs out?

If the answers are yes, the full bottle is a sensible next step. If not, you have spent a fraction of the price and learned something useful about your taste.

Looking after your decant

Keep the small bottle upright, capped and out of direct sunlight. A drawer or cupboard is better than a sunny windowsill or a hot car. Heat and light are the main enemies of perfume, whatever the size of the bottle.

Then commit to the bottle

The idea is simple: try it in 10ml, keep it in 100ml. Browse our decants and full bottles side by side, and if you are unsure where to start, ask us about a scent. Shop decants and full bottles.