...https://www.stylist.co.uk/beauty/the-royal-familys-favourite-perfumes/168851

...I have not had any problems purchasing from them, but I am not impressed with their service. They ship even expensive fragrances in envelopes!

...Anessa:Hello Oriane,Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with this vendor.Dusty inside/dirty cellophane which made my fingers grey and obviously looked as if it had been too much in heat or sunlight sound familiar to me.However, the envelope and tightly ruined box aside, greasy packaging and fingerprints indeed sound more than one should expect from a professional vendor.For that matter, I even wouldn't want these by a private seller, similar to some clothes or crafting items 'in very good condition' smelling of tobacco smoke.Hopefully, the customer service will process your claim and make amends as it is due.If such are not single cases, I cannot imagine them already being almost 20 years around.Nonetheless, I wish you a Merry Christmas and beautifully scented holidays.Thank you, Anessa. Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, healthy, happy 2019!Best,Oriane

...I have ordered from Beauty Encounter twice, but I do not think I will order from them again in future, and this is why.First order they sent me a re-celloed box. It was the manufacturer's white box, and beneath the cello were dark smudges from finger prints. They also shipped in an envelope. Other than the smudges, the box arrived undamaged. I had to send it back and wait for a replacement. I never ordered from them again for many months. I ordered from them again recently forgetting that they shipped in an envelope the first time.The second order, an even higher end fragrance, arrived today (USPS is horribly behind in deliveries---this is the worst Christmas season I have witnessed with them) in an envelope. I was so chagrined that I set the package aside for hours before I finally worked up the courage to open it late tonight. Firstly, I had to use a scissors to cut it out of the tightly taped envelope. Then, once it was freed from the envelope, I had to cut it out of a layer of tightly taped bubble wrap. Once I finally extricated the perfume from the bubble wrap, my heart sank. The perfume I had so anxiously awaited for almost a week obviously had not been well cared for before coming to me. Firstly, the cello, although it looked original, was loose and "aged" looking. I do not know where they store their stock, but judging by this box, I would not doubt that it was stored in a hot, humid warehouse. Heat and humidity do this kind of damage to cello. Also, along the edges of the box were signs of stress to the cardboard no doubt from the very tight wrapping of it first inside of bubble wrap and then inside of an envelope. I am sure its movement through the mail stream contributed to this as well. On top of all of this, there was a rather "oily" or "greasy" feeling to the cello as though whomever prepared this for shipping did not have clean hands. To say I am disappointed would be a grave understatement indeed.I am pretty disgusted with Beauty Encounter. I would rather they said "if you want your perfume shipped in a box, please add an additional $1, $2, $3, or whatever amount to the shipping cost to cover it." I would rather pay a little more to have my perfume arrive in a box than to have it shipped to me like this. I would not be pleased to receive a very inexpensive perfume shipped in this manner much less a high end perfume. They are closed at the moment, but I left a very unfriendly message on their recorder a few moments ago. I know Fragrancenet is not perfect, but they have never done this to me. Their shipping may be slow, but I have never received a bottle of perfume from them in an envelope. I lament this sort of thing with individual eBay sellers, but to have a big company do this is totally unacceptable. I ordered a few other fragrances from another discounter recently (not Fragrancenet) and they arrived in pristine condition in a shipping box. That is what I expect from a reputable seller. Anyway, friends, if you order from Beauty Encounter, you may want to do it over the telephone and specify that you want your order shipped in a box and not in an envelope.

...You are welcome, MiaTrost. It has been ghastly. I hope no one else goes through what I have been through with this seller. PayPal told me he should not have blocked my refund since I do not have his package as he is well aware, but they insist it is my bank and not they who are blocking the refund. They consider his blocking my refund to be fraudulent activity and have flagged his profile accordingly to watch him. That is all well and good, but it does not get my money back. :(

...Exciter76:Cincy:Vintage furniture, love it! Although I like mixing it with new.Me too. Too much vintage furniture can make a room look like the set of Sanford and Son! :D Not if all pieces are nice quality antiques! :wink:

...For anyone who may be thinking about ordering from eBay seller perfumeguru in Ottawa, Ontario, I would like to report that I have been trying to get a refund from this man, Mr. Jessa, for FIVE MONTHS.I placed an order with him last January. He did not ship the item. He sent me a tracking number that did not appear in Canada Post's system. I confirmed with Canada Post several times that there was no such tracking number in their system. I asked this seller to please check the tracking number he provided to be sure it was correct. He ignored several requests to verify the tracking number which was very frustrating to say the least.Finally, I said, I no longer wanted the perfume and asked him to cancel the purchase and refund me. Mr. Jessa insisted that the perfume had been shipped already. Weeks later, a package finally arrived with a totally different tracking number on it. It was not the tracking number he had given me earlier. I told him I did not want the perfume. He told me to simply give it back to the post office to send back to him as refused by recipient. I checked with USPS and with Canada Post to be sure this could be done, and they assured me it could be done and that the package would be tracked back to the shipper's address, so I refused the package on 26 February 18. Tracking showed the package left my state on 27 February 18. I notified my bank that the package was refused and was being sent back to the shipper, and my bank removed the charge from my account.Several days later, there was no update to the tracking. I contacted this seller and advised him if the tracking did not update soon, he should contact Canada Post about it. I never heard anything about it again, and I forgot about it. Then, on 02 May 18, I received a letter from my bank to advise me that FIVE MONTHS later Mr. Jessa claimed he never received the package and disputed my refund. I checked the tracking number again, and tracking showed the package left my state 27 February 18, but there was no update beyond that point. I contacted both USPS and Canada Post.USPS told me they had to manually key in the number because the bar code was not scanning, but they keyed it in and shipped the package out of my state on 27 February 18, as tracking showed, and insofar as they could determine, the package was returned to Mr. Jessa. Canada Post told me they did not see the package back in their system, but it was entirely possible that the package had made it back to Mr. Jessa. Canada Post told me only Mr. Jessa could request a trace on the package and file an insurance claim. If the package had been lost, they would reimburse him for the value and the cost to ship it. I then contacted Mr. Jessa and told him what I had been told, and I asked him to please file his claim and refund my money.Firstly, Mr. Jessa said he knew I indeed did not have the package, but he claimed he could not refund me through the old auction links because they were not working. He suggested he send me a refund via my PayPal account insteand. I advised I do not have a PayPal account, but he could send the money to my dear friend's PayPal account, and she would direct deposit the funds from her bank to my bank. I provided her PayPal email address to Mr. Jessa at least 5 times. He claimed he could not decipher the email address. It was an ordinary email address. Her name followed by @aol.com. Yet, he insisted he could not decipher it. Next, we sent him a request for the money via her PayPal account. Now, there was no question that he had a readable, valid PayPal email address to send the refund. Unsurprisingly, he found a new reason why he could not refund my money.He denied the PayPal request for the money and told me that he could not refund what I had paid because (1) PayPal had charged him seller fees; and, (2) he had paid to ship the perfume. I told him seller fees should not be a problem since the sale had failed, but either way, the buyer is not responsible for his seller fees. As for the postage, I advised him that his insurance claim would refund the package value AND thepostage if the package could not be located. He replied that it is not easy to file an insurance claim. I replied that it had nothing to do with me as I am not Canada Post's customer, and I am not a PayPal account holder, either. I again asked that he refund my money. Next, Mr, Jessa told me to send him yet another request for a refund minus his seller fees, shipping fees, etc., and he would send me send me a partial refund of $87.80. I was/am appalled. Despite the fact that I am not responsible for his operating expenses, I sent another request for the reduced amount. As of today, he STILL has not refunded a single penny of my money.This was the second purchase I made from this seller. There was a problem with the first purchase, too. After the first purchase, I received no tracking number after a week. I finally contacted him and asked for my tracking number. He replied that he had shipped out a number of packages, and mine had been overlooked. He later shipped out my package more than a week late. That first package finally arrived and the perfume looked okay, so I wrote off the problem as forgivable human error and did not hold it against him. I thus made this second purchase from him which I bitterly regret. He has kept my money for FIVE MONTHS, made ridiculous excuses about refunding me, and wants me to cover his selling expenses. I feel Mr. Jessa has been unfaithful to his buyer in this transaction. He should have been watching for his package in March, and whence it did not arrive, he should have filed a trace on it and filed on the insurance claim then instead of letting this problem fester until 02 May 18. Now, after FIVE LONG MONTHS, he still will not say whether or not he has filed an insurance claim even. It could very well be that he has not filed a claim because the package did arrive back in Ottawa, Ontario, and he is keeping both my money and the perfume. I do not know this to be a fact, but I find it rather odd that he has not filed an insurance claim after all this time, do not you, too? If the situation were reversed, I would have initiated a trace on the package in March, and I would have filed a claim on the insurance no later than first of April. Would you not have done the same if your package had not been received and you owed your buyer a refund?? Meanwhilst, PayPal claims it can not send a refund because I opened the claim through my bank. My bank claims Mr. Jessa and PayPal are blocking the refund based on the fact that the tracking does not show the package delivered back to Mr. Jessa. The bottom line is I have been waiting almost HALF A YEAR to receive my refund for a single bottle of perfume. I do not have the perfume, and I do not have a refund. Even after I sent him a request for a lesser amount than I paid, he STILL has not refunded me. I feel this is unprofessional to say the least. Not to refund a customer even though you know the customer does not have your package and only you can file a claim and sort this out is nothing short of disgraceful business practice. Warning: You could face the same or similar problems if you purchase from this seller, so buyers beware.

...MiaTrost:Hi Oriane,I have no idea how to decipher their batch codes but I'd like to know too.For what it's worth, here is what I can share:- 130067 and 148028, would have to guess- 224110 and 290082, approx. 2012The more recent batches have longer numbers.Good morning, MiaTrost, and thank you for sharing your batch codes with us. Yes, the more recent batch codes do seem to be longer for some reason. I did contact Malle customer service about it, but they were no help. I was told that the bottles come from France. Of course, we all know that already. Oh, well....If I ever do find out anything more, I will let everyone know. :)

...I have not been able to find anything on-line for dating Frederic Malle perfume batch codes. I have had two different types of codes on the bottles I have purchased. One has A17 followed by some other numbers, and another bottle (purchased from a different seller) has a purely numeric batch code of eight digits and no letters.Does anyone know how to decipher Malle batch codes? Please would you share the batch codes on your bottles along with the approximate purchase dates?Thanks!

...^^^ Thank you. : )

...For those of you who have smelt both the EdT and the EdP, do you think they smell the same? I have a sample of the EdT. I really like it, but I wonder if the EdP is as good. Does the EdP smell like a very different fragrance from the EdT? If you perceive differences, what are they? Which formulation do you prefer?Thanks.

...Hi. Yes, it seems they must have reformulated the original EdP, but I cannot understand why as it was so popular. I have had the EdT and EdP on my test list for a long time. I have a sample of the EDP Absolue arriving today. If I really like it, I may order samples of the regular EdT and EdP. I think the reason I have never ordered samples until now is that I have been worried Infusion d' Iris was going to be too clean and simplistic.

...I see on another website that Prada launched Infusion d' Iris in 2007. Was this 2007 launch an EdT? If so, how does one explain Prada's launch of Infusion d' Iris EdT in 2010? Is this a totally different fragrance from the 2007 launch? The colour of the 2010 launch looks greener, and according to the other website, it has slightly different notes. The upshot is I am confused and would appreciate it if anyone could explain this to me.

...Thank you for posting Exciter76. I saw the EdT for half price at the semi-annual sale last month in fact, but I never bought it, although I was tempted. I have too many fragrances in my collection now, so I have been trying to hold back a bit. Famous last words..... ; )Cheers,Oriane

...The more I think about it, the more 2016 sounds like the correct year of launch. The reason I say this is because I recall that Cozy Sunday Morning, Wrapped in Comfort, and Cup of Warmth were all launched Autumn 2015. I did not not shop at all either that Autumn or at the semi-annual sale in January 2016, and later I purchased these three from an eBay seller. I had had a bereavement in August 2015 and was grieving horribly for many months and thus had no interest either in shopping or much else. I did not shop at B&BW again until Autumn 2016, and that was whence I purchased Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte Comfort. Therefore, based on this recollection, I believe MPL was indeed launched in 2016. The only similar one I recall that was launched some years prioer to 2016 was Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin. :)

...Cincy, I thought it was a 2016 launch, but I received a message from an Amazon seller who said he "thinks" it was a 2015 launch. This is entirely possible as it would no doubt have been a B&BW Autumn launch, and I may have purchased my bottle in January 2016 during the semi-annual sale.As a side note, it looks as though B&BW may have re-launched it with a slightly different note pyramid but a very similar name--minus the "Comfort" in the name. My bottle definitely smells lovely, though. Spicy and a bit sweet and warm---very comforting indeed during the cold weather months. Cheers,Oriane

...I have it in my collection. I purchased it whence it was launched in 2016. It is also listed as a 2016 launch on Basenotes. I do not know if this is good enough, but I thought I would mention it since the date is missing on Parfumo.Cheers,Oriane

...I do not know if this is the appropriate forum for this or not, but I noticed today that this fragrance has no release date on the site. I do not know how to add the release date, but I believe it was launched in 2016.

...I still cannot believe what happened to me, but I wanted to warn other users to be careful.I paid a "shop for you" service $235 for perfume. It was only a $25 savings off of Nordstrom's price for the same perfume, but I thought why not save a few dollars? This woman was supposed to be reputable. She sells on eBay and has been mentioned by perfumistas who supposedly bought through her and had a good experience. I could not have been more wrong.The day she shipped my $235 of perfume, she sent me the tracking number. I was very excited to receive the perfume. I checked the tracking number and discovered the package was headed to someone in Tennessee! I immediately telephoned her and asked her why did you send my perfume to Tennessee?! I do not live in Tennessee! She replied, "oh I am so sorry!! I was in assembly line mode and did not realise what I was doing!! So sorry!!"I said, well, go back to your post office and ask for the package back. Once it leaves for a sorting centre tonight, it will be out of reach! She replied, "no way! I am sleeping off the jet lag!! I only picked up the telephone because I thought it might be my sister." I then scrambled to contact her post office. I managed to reach them and explained the error, but they were uninterested in helping me because I was not the shipper. There was nothing else I could do at that point.The next morning I checked tracking and saw that the package had arrived at the sorting centre. My heart sunk. Later that day, this woman contacted me and said "the post office offers a non-guaranteed service to try to intercept the package. Are you willing to send me the money?" I think my mouth fell open at that moment. I replied, hell no I am not going to send you the money for this! This was not mistake. It was your mistake! The third day I checked tracking and saw that my perfume had arrived in Tennessee. All I could do was shake my head in disbelief not only for her error but for the fact that she expected me to pay more money to her to try to correct HER ERROR. I asked her for my money back, but she chose to let me take the loss for her mistake. Moral of the story is buy through reputable retailers. It is not worth it to use one of these services and risk losing the joy of getting a new perfume but your money as well.

...No problem, Briarthorn. Congrats on the baby. Chat with you later. :D