The Perfume Bee

Please join me as I continue my chat with Patty Geissler, founder of Fragrant Fripperies.com. For part I of this interview, please click here.

Perfume Bee: What are your plans for the future of your business?

Patty Geissler: We are merging Fragrant Fripperies into the new combined decanting website [theperfumedcourt.com], which we hope to have open in the next month! This will be a great thing for me and the three other decanters and all of our customers. We will have more things together and can wind up covering more things in the future. It’s just great to be working with three other great women who love perfume as much as I do. Every time I think that I have too many perfumes, I just remember how many Lisa has and know I am a piker.

Bee: Do you have any plans for a brick and mortar store?

P.G.: No, no plans for that at this point, though I seriously like the idea of it.

Bee: What trends have you seen in perfumes requested by your customers in the last 6-12 months, if any?

P.G.: Trends seem to follow the weather. As soon as spring comes, the heavier scents stop selling as much and the lighter scents start flying out.

Bee: Do you see any trends in perfumery in general?

P.G.: I think there are many branches out there right now going in different directions. Some of those I despise, like creating this mass of mass-market fragrances that tend to smell the same. Other trends are to do more reality fragrances, which I love that trend only to a certain point. I don’t really want to smell some of the more hideous scents in the world. Another trend is the mega-release, like the Chanels and Tom Fords, doing several at one time. While it’s a decanter’s dream, I’m not a fan of it at all as a perfume lover.

Bee: Speaking of trends, what is the biggest frenzy you’ve seen over a perfume? i.e., has there been a “must-have” fragrance that everyone wanted?

P.G.: Frenzy, hmmm. I don’t know that I have. There are bumps from articles. I think it was a Chandler Burr article praising Carnal Flower that happened one weekend. Over the next week, Carnal Flower, which generally moves okay, but because of its cost, slowly, was flying out of the shop. It took me three days to discover why. But I don’t think I’ve seen anything that I’d call a frenzy. The one that surprises me, though, is Tom Ford Black Orchid. As much as it gets panned on the fragrance boards, that thing just keeps selling at a really brisk pace.

Bee: You have a wonderful perfume blog, The Perfume Posse. Which came first, the decanting or the blog?

P.G.: I had had the blog for a long time, though it wasn’t always focused on perfume. It used to be a more general navel-gazing kind of blog. I started that in 2001, I believe. It converted to a fragrance blog in 2005, when I really got back into perfume, before I started decanting.

Bee: What advice do you have for people who are just starting to build their perfume wardrobe?

P.G.: Go slow. Most of the perfumes you see out there, if they are good, will still be there in a year. Well, except for the Gobin-Daudes, which is a tragedy. Start a spreadsheet or some other note-taking of what you have tried and loved. This does two things — helps prevent you from re-buying the same samples because you forgot you’ve already tried them, and helps identify the things you hate, which is very useful! Once you get a few loved scents under your belt, use MUA and Basenotes and POL to do some swapping for other scents. You can swap samples you tried and didn’t love for other things you haven’t tried, and you can make up samples/decants of some of the fragrances you’ve bought and swap for things you’d like to try, as well. This helps stretch your perfume dollars farther. It’s not always possible to arrange a swap, or some people just find swapping frustrating, and that includes me, and that’s where decanters come in.

Take your time. Sample first. If you hate the sample, move on. Don’t be surprised if in a year or so you wind up trying that same sample again and love it, though! If you love the sample, swap for or buy a small decant. If you wind up using the decant quickly and still loving it or if you are hording it so you don’t run out, it may be time to think about a bottle or a larger decant. If it’s too pricey, you may be able to organize a bottle split on one of the perfume boards, which has its own problems, but is a great way to get a larger amount of a fragrance without going in for the whole bottle.

Bee: Do perfumers from whom you buy care that you sell decants?

P.G.: I honestly don’t know. I know some who don’t care. I’ve never heard from one who does care and objects to it. I’d think in the area of niche perfumes, most perfumers get that viral marketing is the best thing they can do for their fragrance. If I were a niche perfumer with a limited distribution chain? I’d want to get my fragrance into the hands of the decanters as soon as possible. It’s when it shows up there and people can get ahold of a sample that you start getting the buzz and word of mouth. It’s tough to get that until people can fairly easily try it.

Bee: Would you care to comment about the recent eBay shut-down of decanters?

P.G.: B*st*rds! (laughs) No, really, I’m over it. I think they made a bad decision based on pressure from some large companies. One thing I’ve noticed in my own buying habits, I just don’t shop on eBay like I did. Now if I’m looking for a full bottle of perfume, I just go to one of the reliable internet companies, like parfum1, scentiments, imaginationperfumery, etc., and grab it there. By not being on eBay all the time, I’ve really stopped buying on there, except for vintage, and even that I’m doubly suspicious of. I suspect a lot of decant buyers have noted the same thing. If you’re not on eBay looking for a decant or sample of something, you start forming new shopping patterns that don’t include eBay at all. It used to be if someone shows up on MUA asking where to get something, the answer was always eBay. Now, you don’t see people even mentioning eBay as the place to get perfume.

In the long run, I think it will wind up being a good thing as new websites show up with decants/samples. They’ll have more flexibility in offering sizes and specials, etc.

Bee: And finally, do you have a “day job” outside of Fragrant Fripperies?

P.G.: Yes, I do! They know a little about my perfume obsession and give me a hard time about it. I’m Vice-President of a captioning company that provides closed captioning services to broadcasters, financial firms and relay services. How do I have time to do all of that? I don’t need a lot of sleep, and I’m one of those people that always needs to be doing something — it’s that being raised on a farm in the Midwest work ethic.

Bee: Any closing thoughts?

P.G.: Thank you for doing this interview! And thanks to all the people that have read our blog these past two years and patronized my little decanting business. I’ve met some of the finest, most generous people in the world through those two things.

Bee: Thank you, Patty. It was a pleasure talking to you. I wish you and Fragrant Fripperies all the best!

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