Offering books published by Eiderdown Press & hand-decanted perfumes from the personal collection of Suzanne Keller
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!
Photo of Serge Lutens Chergui by Suzanne Keller
Original mfg bottle on left; decant in gift pouch on right.
Currently available scents in my collection: (Click here for descriptions/sizes/prices)Amouage/Gold (for women) EXPLORING DELICATE BEAUTY: HISTOIRES DE PARFUMS’
Amouage/Jubilation 25 (for women)
Bond No. 9/New Haarlem
Caron/Parfum Sacre
Caron/Yatagan
Chanel/Chance
Chanel/Coromandel
Chanel/No. 22
Coty/Ambre Antique (Vintage 1940s)
Coty/Chypre (Vintage 1970s)
Creed/Fleurs De Bulgarie
Donna Karan/Black Cashmere
Frederic Malle/Bigarade Concentree
Frederic Malle/Carnal Flower
Geoffrey Beene/Grey Flannel
Guerlain/Jicky
Hermes/Eau Des Merveilles
Hermes/Hiris 1 ml sample; 1.5 ml spray sample; 8 ml glass spray;
Ines De La Fressange/Ines De La Fressange 5 ml silver chrome purse flask; 10 ml glass spray.
Jean Desprez/Bal A Versailles (Not pictured: 5 ml glass spray.)
Jean Patou/1000
Jil Sander/Jil Sander No. 4
Kenzo/Jungle l'Elephant
L'Artisan Parfumeur/Tea for Two
Molinard/Habanita
Mona Di Orio/Nuit Noire
Montale/Black Aoud
Parfums de Nicolai/Sacrebleu
Parfums Delrae/Amoureuse
Pascal Morabito/Or Black
Robert Piquet/Fracas
Serge Lutens/Chêne
Serge Lutens/Chergui
Serge Lutens/Un Lys
Tauer Perfumes/Lonestar Memories
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Read the latest essays & perfume reviews in Suzanne’s Perfume Journal
VERT PIVOINE
and BLANC VIOLETTE
Last week, I was reading a John le Carré espionage thriller and layering scents to come up with a noir vanilla fragrance that conjured the scent of the novel’s heroine and its story of dark and dangerous liaisons.
This week I’m reading Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, thinking about the precarious lives of girls and women in nineteenth-century rural China, and sampling two soliflore scents that remind me of the exquisite delicacy of classic Chinese beauty.
Both fragrances are from a sampler set of twelve perfumes I received courtesy of the niche French fragrance house, Histoires de Parfums, a line that is best known for its series of date-named scents that capture the personalities of some of history’s most romantic and charismatic characters (Mata Hari, Colette, George Sand, and Casanova, to name a few). Yet the series also includes three “soliloquies”—soliflore scents with the colorful names Noir Patchouli, Blanc Violette and Vert Pivoine—and because my mood has shifted in concert with my reading, my first impulse when opening the box of generous samples was to select the latter two scents. I was hoping, but not expecting, the fragrances would evoke the kind of feeling that their names inspired; I wanted contemplative beauty, and to my delight, that’s what I got. Click here to read the rest »
