15 Best Places to Get Free Perfume Samples

Regardless of whether you’re a woman or a man, we all love fragrances or perfumes. In fact, some people like me have more than one perfume because I wear perfumes to match the occasion and time of the day, like most other fragrance aficionados.

Therefore, I can rightly state from my personal experience that buying perfumes can prove an expensive affair at times.

However, over the years, I found that it’s possible to get free perfumes, too. Obviously, nobody is going to give you a flacon of some expensive fragrance unless it’s a gift for some special occasion.

Yet, I will tell you about a couple of places where I’ve actually managed to get entire flacons of perfume for absolutely nothing. You can find my tips later in this article.

Instead, I’m talking about different places where you can get free perfume samples.

If you’re also a perfume lover and would like to get these free samples, this article is just for you. I’ll guide you through various ways to get free perfume samples by mail.

Reasons to Use Free Perfume Samples

There are several reasons why certain places give free perfume samples. And there’re several good reasons why you should use these free samples. I’ll enumerate them below.

• Humans can’t test more than three different fragrances, one after the other. That’s because our sense of smell or olfactory senses aren’t tuned to smell three different fragrances quickly and make out the difference. Therefore, free samples will help you understand the proper fragrance at leisure.
• When you try a free perfume sample, it’s easy to judge whether the fragrance suits you or not. That’s because perfume smells differently on different people. It depends upon your body temperature, body odour, type of skin such as oily, normal or dry and many other factors.
• A free perfume sample can help you decide whether you wish to continue with your present brand or go for a new one that suits you better. Therefore, you can spend on what’s right instead of settling for something that doesn’t suit your style and personality.

However, there’s a flipside to getting free samples of perfumes. You can decide whether or not you wish to try these free perfume samples, depending upon your specific needs.

Flipsides of Free Perfume Samples

While the prospect of getting free perfume samples sounds exciting, here’s the flipside. Generally, every fragrance consists of four distinct notes.

• Top Note: which you can smell immediately upon wearing the perfume,
• Middle Note: the one that’s present after the top note fades away.
• Bottom Note: generally the one you’ll smell after you’ve worn the perfume for a better part of the day or if it wears off due to heat and other factors.
• Base Note: as the name suggests, this is the basic note of a fragrance that lingers long after all the others have faded away. It usually lasts on your garments for a few days.

The flipside is: all perfume samples have a stronger top note. That’s because perfumers want you to decide quickly when you try a perfume. Therefore, the other notes aren’t that prominent. Therefore, if you’re planning on buying a perfume depending on the samples you try, it’s quite possible you won’t be able to experience all the notes fully. 

Samples of perfumes are generally known as ‘Tester Packs’. And as the name suggests, they’re for testing purposes only since perfume makers want to impress you quickly and buy their brand.

15 Places to Get Free Perfume Samples

So if you’re wondering where to get free perfume samples, here’s my list of 15 top places. Keep reading because I’ll also be revealing my secret about how I could get two full, spanking new flacons of superb perfumes absolutely free.

1. Airport Duty Free Shops

Though a perfume aficionado myself, the first time I actually got free perfume samples were at a Duty Free Shop at the famous Schiphol Airport of Amsterdam. Actually, I had bought a couple of fragrances for my companion and myself. 

The woman at the Duty Free Store packed in samples of as many as six different perfumes in the shopping bags- two for me and four for my female companion. 

Duty Free Shops around the world are where top brands launch their products for discerning buyers. They’re very liberal with these free samples too. Since, I’ve always got free perfume samples at Duty Free Shops around the world.

2. Malls around the World

High-end malls where you’ll find stores and boutiques from major designer brands and top labels of the world are another place where you could get free perfume samples. Generally, top brands set up a kiosk at the entrance to the mall or their store. 

Here they allow shoppers to experience their latest fragrances. And in some cases, they also offer one or two sample packs free of cost, if you show genuine interest in buying the perfume they’re promoting.

You can also request for a free sample or small Tester Pack at the brand store. In most cases, they’re happy to give away at least one sample pack for free. And if you buy something, they could toss in a few more of different perfumes.

3. On Board Flights

Generally, I fly First or Business class whenever I’m traveling to distant destinations abroad. Most airlines provide a small toiletry bag or toiletry kit to female and male passengers traveling in premium class on long-haul and especially international flights.

These toiletry kits consist of regular stuff such as a small tube of toothpaste, soap and motley other stuff. But some airlines are also generous enough to pack in a small sample sized pack of expensive perfume that you could use twice or thrice, depending on the volume.

As a rule, these toiletry kits are exclusively for First and Business class passengers. But if you’re a member of that airline’s frequent flyer club, you can request the cabin crew or stewardesses to give you one of these complimentary toiletry kits with a small fragrance bottle inside.

4. In-flight Duty Free

This is also one of the best ways to get free perfume samples, if you’re going to take an international flight. You’ll be aware that most airlines in the world have something known as Onboard Duty Free or Inflight Duty Free shopping service.

Detailed catalogs of stuff that you can buy during the flight are usually available in the pockets in front of your seats.

During the journey, cabin crew will usually announce they’ll accept orders for Duty Free stuff and bring a trolley full of such things to show passengers. Such Inflight Duty Free shopping also includes superb perfumes.

And cabin crew often give away free samples that a top fragrance label is promoting during that season or on the specific route and sometimes, even new launches.

You needn’t necessarily buy anything from the Inflight Duty Free to get free perfume samples, though it does tilt the balance in your favor if you make a purchase.

However, you can request the cabin crew if they’ve any promotional free samples available. They’ll give you one or two small sample packs, if possible.

5. Sephora

Sephora is a French multinational chain of stores that sells beauty products and fragrances, among other stuff. They have stores across all the inhabited continents in the world and most countries.

In fact, you might have seen a Sephora outlet in your city too. And sometimes, Sephora operates through small kiosks where they sell a smaller but high-demand range of beauty products and fragrances.

If there’s a Sephora store near you, it’s possible to get a couple of free perfume sample packs from them. Sephora isn’t a charity to dole out free perfume packs.

However, if you’re a regular buyer at Sephora, it’s possible to get a couple of sample perfume packs absolutely free along with your purchases. And if you happen to know the store staff, you can get more too.

6. MLM Associates

MLM or Multilevel Marketing is one of the best side-gigs or form of self-employment to make money. There’re countless MLM companies that make beauty products and perfumes.

You might have heard about Avon, a nearly 130-year old American company that makes beauty products and perfumes and is famous around the world. Avon operates through MLM like many other companies in the field.

If you know MLM associates of Avon or other companies, you can request them for a sample pack of perfumes for free. Usually, MLM companies give sample packs of perfumes and other products to their MLM associates to bag more customers for their products.

Obviously, these are promo packs and will contain small volume of perfume. But it’s available free if you know the right persons.

7. Topmost Hotels & Resorts

Now who would imagine that a top, expensive hotel or resort would give away free perfume? Neither had I expected any such thing until I checked in at the iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel in India’s port city and financial center, Mumbai.

You might recall this hotel was also the site of the 26/11 terror attacks by Pakistan trained Islamic terrorists.

While attending a seminar, I happened to use one of their washrooms where there was an entire flacon of very exquisite and rather expensive perfume. For obvious reasons, I wouldn’t dare to pocket that flacon and walk away.

Therefore, I noted the name of the fragrance and while checking out, requested the reception staff if they could sell me a flacon of that perfume. I was asked to wait.

To my sheer delight, the receptionist handed me a gift-wrapped box with the perfume absolutely free of cost, as complements from the hotel. This superb French-made perfume isn’t available easily in the market and I cherish the flacon I got till today.

You could try something similar if you’re the guest of any top hotel or resort that has such perfumes.

8. Mystery Shopping

Have you ever tried Mystery Shopping? Maybe not. So let me tell you something about it. Basically, Mystery Shopping means you’ll visit a store on behalf of a market research company, observe a few things, buy something and submit a review of your experiences.

The market research company pays for your efforts or allows you to keep whatever you’ve bought.

Often, cosmetic and fragrance manufacturers hire market research companies to find out how their brand is faring or how it’s being promoted at a boutique or store. And these market research companies send in a Mystery Shopper.

You’ll basically be seeing how that brand is being promoted and behavior of their staff, among other things. 

And in this process you can also get a few samples of the perfume, if they’re being promoted by the manufacturer. That’s because fragrance makers want to ensure that samples reach prospective buyers and aren’t misused.

9. Free Sample Websites

Did you know there’re as many as 20 top websites in America and elsewhere in the world that provide free samples of almost everything? The free stuff ranges from diapers for newborns to energy drinks, cosmetics to perfumes.

You can register on any of these top 20 websites to receive free samples. In exchange of these freebies, companies expect you to write an honest review about their products. And in many cases, you will find free perfume samples too. 

Though free perfume samples aren’t available frequently, you can find at least two or three every year and especially before the holiday and shopping seasons.

10. International Airlines

And here’s the second secret of how I managed to get an entire flacon of superb perfume from none other than Elizabeth Arden free of cost. I’m talking about a 100ml flacon of one of the best perfumes ever created by Elizabeth Arden.

To begin with, I was flying from Dubai to Taipei on the Taiwanese airline, EVA Air. There was a superb, unisex fragrance kept on the washroom shelf of the Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

Though reluctant to touch a flacon used by other passengers and possibly handled carelessly. Yet the fragrance was tempting enough to try. And it was a divine perfume, to say the least.

Shamelessly I asked the cabin crew if they could spare me a bottle, saying I would be happy to pay for it. And typical to Oriental hospitality, the Taiwanese stewardess gave me an entire, spanking new bottle just for free.

 11. Women’s Magazines

There’re several magazines that cater exclusively to women. Some of them specialize in fashion and beauty. Often, fragrance makers turn to these topmost magazines to launch or promote their range of perfumes. Therefore, they insert a sample sachet in the magazine or its outer wrapping.

If you’re subscribing to any of these magazines, you might already have come across some samples occasionally. And if not, you can find out which magazines offer free perfume samples with their copies.

The flipside is that not every issue of these magazines have a free perfume sample. Hence, you’ll have to be on the lookout to check when they’re available and which magazine has them.

 12. Perfume Testing Websites

Perfume testing websites are usually promoted by top brands of fragrances. Their objective is to allow women and men to sample their fragrances before buying a full flacon.

Here you can order a set of perfume samples for a very small price. In fact, they charge you only for postage, handling and packing charges while the fragrances are almost free of cost.

If you’re willing to bear the postage and other costs of having free perfume samples shipped to your address, try any of these perfume testing websites around the world.

They’re promoted by fragrance manufacturers and hence, you’ll be able to try some of the best and latest or trending perfumes for free.

13. Brand Stores & Boutiques

Almost every brand store and boutique from top labels in the world have a stock of free perfume samples. And they’re willing to give them away for free, if you can convince the staff or are a regular customer there.

I’ve come across this practice in the Middle East where fragrances are used very commonly by women and men. In fact, I’ve gotten free perfume samples with purchase of almost everything- from garments to skincare products.

14. Amazon Prime Samples

Amazon Prime Samples isn’t exactly free. However, there’re a simple tweak on how to get free perfume samples free from Amazon Prime Samples. You can order a set of samples from Amazon Prime Samples for a small price.

In exchange, Amazon, the single largest online store in the world provides you store credits. These store credits are useful to get discounts and slice off a few Dollars off your bill the next time you make a purchase for a full pack of whatever sample you’ve ordered.

If you order enough samples and collect sufficient store credits, the perfume sample works out almost free.

15. Credit Card Loyalty Points

Now this could be something you’ve never heard about. Americans waste more than $20 million to $25 million worth loyalty points from credit card issuers and airlines every year.

And you could be one among such Americans who isn’t even aware that loyalty points can actually fetch you superb freebies. Some credit cards issuers are very generous with their loyalty points. And freebies include small flacons of perfumes from top brands.

Therefore, check if your credit card comes with loyalty points. And if so, request for a statement. Generally, these details would easily be available online. You can also view the freebies that your loyalty points can get.

In many cases, they include very useful and high-demand items such as perfumes too. Instead of wasting those precious points, use them to get your favorite perfume or try a new one. It’s worth the effort.

In Conclusion

As a person that loves perfumes, I’ve personally tried most of these 15 ways to get free perfume samples and full flacons that I describe above. You too can use these amazing time-tested and proven ways to get free perfume samples.

Trust me, they’re worth the effort and you wouldn’t be disappointed if you go about it in the right manner. There’s a lot of free perfume samples available around the world. And you can easily get some.