It's been a while since I've tried a new round of perfume samples. I've been happily rotating through my standard fragrances, but I decided that I should try a few new-to-me fragrances, thanks partially to some suggestions from Angel B.

Today's mail yielded New Perfume Samples, part 1:

• Serge Lutens Tubéreuse Criminelle (Now Smell This review)
• Serge Lutens Rahät Loukoum (Now Smell This review)
• Serge Lutens Muscs Koublaï Khan (Now Smell This review)

I sniffed all three after arriving home this afternoon, and had two of my three original expectations fulfilled:

• Tubéreuse Criminelle has this batshit crazy menthol opening blast, just as promised, and
• Rahät Loukoum is like being hit by a sweet cherry-vanilla bat.

Muscs Koublaï Khan, though, doesn't have the horrid skanky note that was widely reported. I chose to wear it first, and am highly amused; I would love to know what it is about my skin that takes skanky, "dirty" perfumes and turns them darkly feminine. Most straight-ahead florals become queasily sweet on me after a while, but these 'skanky' and 'difficult' perfumes just seem to sink into my skin.

Not sure which one I'll try wearing tomorrow, but it'll be one of the other two. I have several more tiny samples coming, so my wrists are going to be unusually sniffy for the next couple of weeks.

So what's The Usual?

I've worked my way through lots of the previous scents I've sampled. I've re-purchased a few, but most will fall by the wayside after the itty bitty sample tubes finish, never to return.

Perfumes still in active rotation

• Chanel No. 5, by Chanel (I have a large bottle)
• Cuir de Russie, by Chanel (I have two tiny bottles)
• Mitsouko, by Guerlain (I have a large bottle)
• L'Artisan, Dzing! (I repurchased)
• Serge Lutens, Bois de Violette (I repurchased)

Samples yet unfinished, but I won't repurchase

• Badgley Mischka, by Badgley Mischka
  Decent, but not great; I won't repurchase. It smells boozy-fruity on me.
   
• Bal à Versailles by Jean Desprez.
  Won't repurchase. Neat but expensive.
   
• Ormonde Woman by Ormonde Jayne.
  I actually kind of like this perfume, but it's never really grabbed me. We're acquaintances, not friends.
   
• Narcisse Noir by Caron. Vintage formula.
  Utter failure. Every time I uncap the sample it screams "Grape Ape!" It smells like grape candy.
   
• Bvlgari Black, by Bvlgari.
  The rubbery, artificial notes that some people mention are the only thing I can smell when this is on my skin. It's neither subtle nor enjoyable. It wears me, instead of the other way around.

• Apres l'Ondée, by Guerlain.
  When Guerlains are great, they smell amazing on me, but this one just smelled Old-Fashioned. Not timeless, just ... frumpy. I opened the bottle expecting 'classic and timeless' and instead got 'biddy.'

I try a lot of perfume samples, and I buy TINY samples. A 1-mL sample tube, because I wear perfume very sparingly, gets me a LOT of wear. I can't justify spending $100-$200 on a bottle of perfume that will take me decades to finish when I can spend $5 to get a sample that will take me about six months to finish.

Usually, by the end of a sample bottle, I know whether or not a perfume works for me. I've had two exceptions, though. I tend so strongly toward odd and unusual scents that it took me almost the entire sample tube of Jean Patou's Joy (in the parfum) before I realized that I didn't care if it was an exuberant floral, because I liked it...

-- and then there was L'Artisan's Dzing. I re-bought Dzing! after finishing the first sample tube because it was so weirdly wonderful. I was never sure if it really worked against my skin, but I know that it made me keep sniffing my wrist and asking, "What? What in the WORLD?"

I'll re-buy Joy.

In the meantime, Muscs Koublaï Khan is settling down into something dark, comforting, and lovely on my skin.

Stay tuned - more are coming.