Everything, answered properly.

A decant is a smaller amount of a fragrance transferred from its original retail bottle into a separate atomiser. The liquid is identical to what is in the full bottle — nothing is added, diluted or changed. Only the container is different, which is what lets you buy 5 ml of something instead of 100 ml.

Not quite. A brand sample is typically 1 to 1.5 ml in a dabber vial or a fixed-spray tube given away at a counter. A decant is a size you choose, in a proper refillable glass atomiser with a real sprayer, which means you can wear it repeatedly and judge it fairly.

They are not cheaper per millilitre — usually the opposite, because pouring, labelling and shipping each vial takes time and materials. What they are is a much smaller total outlay. You pay slightly more per millilitre for the privilege of not buying 100 ml of something you might not like.

Yes, when they are poured properly from a genuine bottle. A freshly poured decant is indistinguishable from the source. The two things that can degrade it are heat and light, which is why decants ship in opaque or tinted glass and why you should not store one on a sunny windowsill.

Stored in a cool, dark place with the cap on, an eau de parfum decant holds up well for two to three years. Citrus-heavy fresh fragrances turn sooner, sometimes within a year, because the top notes are the most volatile. Heavy ambers, ouds and tobaccos can last considerably longer.

Selling a decant of a genuine fragrance is legal — this is a resale of a lawfully purchased product, not a counterfeit. What is not legal is representing a decant as being sold or endorsed by the fragrance house. We are independent and not affiliated with any brand named on this site, which is why that disclaimer appears in our footer.

Five millilitres, in almost every case. Two millilitres is enough to know whether you hate something but not enough to wear it in three different settings, which is what actually tells you if you will keep reaching for it. Ten millilitres is the right size once you already know you like a fragrance.

Yes, Canadian sales tax applies and is calculated at checkout based on your province — GST, HST or GST plus PST depending on where you live. The price you see on the product page is before tax.

Absolutely, and plenty of people do — a 2 ml to carry in a bag and a 10 ml for the shelf, for example. Each size is a separate line in your case.

No minimum. A single 2 ml decant is a perfectly normal order and we ship it the same way as a fifteen-item one. Shipping is free over $60 and $7.95 below that.

Not as fixed sets, deliberately — pre-made samplers usually include two fragrances you want and four you do not. Add whichever 2 ml decants interest you and you have built a better sampler than anything we could box for you.

Out-of-stock sizes cannot be added to your case, so you will not be charged for something we cannot ship. Join the restock list in the footer and we will email you when that fragrance is poured again.

No. Decant Perfume is online-only and ships Canada-wide. Not paying for retail space is a significant part of why a 10 ml decant costs what it does rather than what a boutique would need to charge.

No. We pour and ship from within Canada, so your order never crosses a border. There is no import duty, no brokerage fee and no customs hold.

Fragrance contains alcohol and is classed as a limited-quantity dangerous good, so it moves by ground rather than air on most services. That is why British Columbia and the territories take a little longer than a typical parcel from Ontario.

Email us with your order number and we will open a trace with the carrier. If it cannot be located we replace the order. We do not ask customers to absorb a carrier's mistake.

Yes, both. Rural and remote postal codes can add two to three days beyond the regional estimate.

Not currently. Everything goes through the carrier so that every order has tracking and a delivery record.

You cannot know that from a website alone, which is why the standard should be traceability rather than reassurance. We print the source bottle's batch code on your label and will send you the dated photographs of that bottle on request. A seller who cannot produce either is asking you to trust a claim rather than showing you evidence.

Because it is easy, hard to detect and profitable — topping a bottle with perfumer's alcohol stretches it considerably. Two practical protections: buy from somewhere that publishes its sourcing, and compare a decant against a shop tester if you have any doubt. A diluted decant is noticeably weaker in the first ten minutes.

Yes. Email us the fragrance name and we will tell you what is currently open. If you have loved a particular batch before, ask — sometimes we have it and sometimes we honestly do not.

Only when a fragrance is not otherwise obtainable, and we say so on the product page when we do. Testers contain the same juice as retail bottles but the packaging differs, and we think you should be told which you are buying from.

Lines like Dior Privée, YSL Le Vestiaire and Louis Vuitton are only sold through brand boutiques, so we buy them there or through authorised European retail. These carry a higher cost per millilitre, which is reflected in our pricing and is the honest reason those decants cost more.

Cool, dark and upright, with the cap on — a drawer or a closed cupboard away from a radiator is ideal. The two things that degrade fragrance are heat and ultraviolet light. A bathroom shelf is the single worst place, because of the temperature and humidity swings every time you shower.

Yes, and it is one of the best reasons to own one. Our 2, 5 and 10 ml sizes are comfortably within the 100 ml per-container limit for carry-on liquids, and the whole vial fits in a standard clear bag with room to spare.

Most often it is the sprayer rather than the juice. Small atomisers deliver a finer, smaller spray than a full bottle's pump, so two sprays from a decant is genuinely less liquid than two from a 100 ml bottle. Try three and compare again before concluding anything.

Yes, our atomisers are refillable and reusable. Rinse with unscented high-proof alcohol and let it dry completely before putting a different fragrance in, or you will taint the next one.

It should not, and if it looks materially short, tell us. We overfill slightly to account for the liquid that stays in the sprayer tube and mechanism, so a 5 ml vial holds a little more than 5 ml. What you can see in the vial is a bit less than the total because some sits in the straw.