Why am I raising this subject? Because I’m about to wear some samples that I did receive from a brand representative. For free. Two, maybe three, years ago, a nice person (See how I don’t remember the name? See how bad I am at these relationships?) from PureDistance offered me a bottle, and I declined but said that I’d be delighted to receive ordinary 1ml samples. Only after that did I realize that, oops, PureDistance’s “ordinary” samples are a pretty fancy production, costing a non-trivial bit of money. I felt so guilty that…I never reviewed them.
No, there is no semblance of logic there. But the history was in my thoughts as I was going through my “interesting samples I’ve never tried” drawer and ran across the fancy PureDistance samples. Which I will now sniff. And, if words come to mind, review. Now that they’re no longer new releases and nobody cares.
You see, again, why I am not a bigger blog? There are plenty of other reasons, including my frequent digressions on chicken skin and cucurbits, but this is part of it.
I don’t know why I’m not comfortable with a free-samples relationship for me, when my reaction to it for every other perfume blogger is, “Well, of course. How else could they possibly review all those perfumes without going bankrupt?”. Now, other perfume bloggers are free of Postal Regulation Phobia, which is why free bottles are just fine for them (because they can give them away again, the way they do) and not for me. But it doesn’t explain my issue with samples.
When I analyze all the details, I can only conclude that I trust those bloggers not to be influenced by freebies, while I don’t trust me. I think I should be offended at my opinion of myself.
Meanwhile, I’m debating the fifty dollars for a sample pack from Thorn & Bloom. Whee!
(Catcatcat picture.)
Image: By juanedc. Wikimedia Commons.
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Interesting topic, and one I have often grappled with myself. I accept free samples - and occasionally bottles - and give them away if they are not my thing. I review them if they are my thing, and then and only then. I don't know what the ratio is of reviews to samples received, and when I do review a freebie it could be months or even years later - so I try to be as independent as I can in that way. Like you, I've been offered bottles first of a scent I don't know and always try to negotiate a sample instead if that's an option. And of course I don't suffer from PRP, hehe.
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic, and one I have often grappled with myself. I accept free samples - and occasionally bottles - and give them away if they are not my thing. I review them if they are my thing, and then and only then. I don't know what the ratio is of reviews to samples received, and when I do review a freebie it could be months or even years later - so I try to be as independent as I can in that way. Like you, I've been offered bottles first of a scent I don't know and always try to negotiate a sample instead if that's an option. And of course I don't suffer from PRP, hehe.
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