Hello, and welcome to Sucreabeille!

I remember when I first became interested in perfume. There were a ton of new words and concepts getting thrown around, and it felt overwhelming. I wanted to make sure that new folks feel welcomed, so here's a little glossary and general introduction to help you feel more comfortable. 

Eau de Parfum, or EDP: This is a fragrance made with perfumer's alcohol. It's a special type of denatured alcohol that blends with the oils in the actual perfume. Fragrances using alcohol can be smelled when worn from further away. 

Perfume Oil: This is a fragrance made with an oil base, instead of alcohol. Here at Suc, we use fractionated coconut oil for our oils, because it has the longest shelf life. Perfume oils tend to not be noticeable from as far away as EDPs, so some folks will choose an oil to wear when they'll be in closer quarters, like an office. 

Dram: This is a wee little bottle, measured as 1/8 of a fluid ounce, or 3.6mls. 

1ml sample: This is the smallest size carried by most perfumers. The intention is that you get a couple of doses per sample, enough to test how the perfume works on your skin, while keeping your costs low. 

5ml bottle: Ours is a pretty cobalt blue, and contains 5ml of perfume.

What the heck are these weird little bottles anyway: If you're coming to us from mainstream perfumeries, you might be confused, and that's ok! Indies are a fun, strange breed, and we do things a little differently. Some of our customers have many hundreds of tiny bottles from many different brands! One thing folks in our community understand is that regardless of description, a specific scent might just not work for you. That might be due to preference or individual skin chemistry (see below!). So you'll notice that our 1mls and drams are all "open mouth." That means that they don't have a wand or reducer cap. How is that related? Well, there's a huge community of people that decant their purchases! That means that they use their own pipettes, and swap/sell tiny amounts of perfume among each other. Having an open mouth bottle makes that much, much easier! There are many ways to apply from an open mouth bottle. If I already know I love the perfume, I'll unscrew the lid, press it to my skin, and flip the whole thing upside down to get a nice little circle of perfume on me. If i'm not sure yet, I'll unscrew the lid, and use the lid to catch a few drops, and drop that directly on my skin. I do that so that my skin chemistry won't enter the bottle, which can effect the chemistry of the perfume. That way, if I don't like that particular scent, I can send it along to someone else and let them know that it hasn't been adulterated.

Throw: How far away you can smell a perfume when worn. So EDPs have a higher throw in general, and perfume oils have less.

Skin Chemistry: Oooooh, here's where it gets fun! Everyone's skin chemistry is different. That means that a fragrance might smell completely different on you than it does on me. This can be a subtle difference, or really profoundly wonderful/awful. We offer 1ml vials for this exact reason! They allow you to try a few scents out inexpensively before committing to a larger size. This is something to know if you email me asking for a specific fragrance you're looking for. I can certainly tell you what it smells like in the bottle, but I have no way of being sure what it'll smell like on YOU. 

Death Note: A maddening and important part of learning about your specific skin chemistry is finding out if you have a death note! Some folks just have one ingredient that turns sour on their skin. Since each perfume house uses different ingredients, it's generally a good idea to try a sample from a new house. A base ingredient I use here at Suc might be your personal death note, but be wonderful from another perfumery!

Decant: Say you buy a perfume from me, but you've got so many perfumes that you know you'll never use the whole bottle. You might choose to use a pipette to sell a specific amount of fragrance to someone else. This is often done for very expensive perfumes... You might not have hundreds of dollars for a bottle, but you might have $20 for a few applications.

Decant circle: A group of trusted internet friends who buy or trade decants with each other. Allows you to enjoy a much more varied selection of perfumes at a fraction of the price.