Is it just me or does $2.50 for a sample sound like an awful lot? It's just a sample the size of say AVONS. I think these should be sent free to popular customers or sold at no more than $1.00. Just my opinion. Thanks for listening. Gia

The essential oils that Kristen uses are all top quality and come with a pretty hefty price tag so I actually think that it is a fair price to pay. I have a sample of Dulcinea and full sizes of Kristen and Isobel and I think they are all wonderful. I plan on getting samples of the others too and a full size Dulcinea once it is available

Gia, thank you for offering us your opinion on this matter. However, as Kim has mentioned, Kristen uses very expensive, top-of-the-line ingredients in her natural fragrances. Aromaleigh is a very small company, unlike Avon, which is a very large company. Small companies simply do not have the capacity of very large companies to absorb sample costs and offer them free or below cost to customers, as much as we might like to be able to do so.

Therefore, we have to offer our samples at a price that covers everything involved in producing them: ingredients, packaging, labeling, labor, and so on. I can assure you we always do our best to keep our sample prices just as low as we possibly can to make them cost-effective for our customers. I can also assure you that samples do not provide a direct means of profit for us. The only profit we receive from offering samples is the profit when customers order full-size products after trying our samples.

Even if we did make a profit from selling samples, would there really be anything wrong with that? We are a business, after all, and the purpose of any business is to make money.

However, we do not look at samples as a source of profit revenue for our company. We look at samples as a convenience for our customer, so they can try a product and decide if it will work for them before they invest in a full-size product. Since our samples are a service for our customers, we do our best to keep sample prices as low as possible and to only charge what it costs us to produce them.

Of course, if the sample cost for a particular product seems too high to anyone, that person should definitely vote with their dollars and not purchase samples of that product. And if they want to let us know they aren't trying samples for that reason, that's great, too.

Hi GIACONDA,
Just wanted to add to Kim's and Amy's comments since I worked at a perfume counter (conventional) four years ago (before I became 'all-natural'!), and one of my hobbies is aromatherapy.

Most conventional products like avon are made with hundreds of synthetic chemicals/fragrances, and only a small amount of pure essential oils (typically less than 5% of the product)

Kristin's perfumes are made with a high percentage of only pure essential oils in a natural base of alchohol or oil. As both Kim and Amy stated essential oils can be expensive, depending on how much essential oils are produced by the plant (some plants have a high concentration of e.oils and some have only a tiny amount, so you need a larger amount of plant material to produce the same amount of e.oil), or if the flowers or plant have to be handpicked, or the plant just bloom at certain times of the season or year--a lot of factors can affect production costs of the essential oils.

I looked at the essential oils that Kristin used, and she uses some of the most expensive ones! (vanilla, sandalwood, neroli, angelica, jasmine, rose)

I saw that she used rose in 'Isobel'--rose is considered one of the most expensive essential oils in the world, since it takes thirty to sixty roses to make one drop of essential oil (not kidding). Most places that sell pure 100% essential oils (not diluted or adulterated) charge $1 to $2 or more per drop of rose essential oil (rose absolute is a bit cheaper though, but only a tad).

The price of the samples may sound like a lot, but I think they are a good price to pay. AL's perfumes sound delicious, and I can't wait to try!

Cheers,
DLW

Just a quick comment on AL's fragrances... Because of the natural essential oils Kristen uses, I can actually wear perfume again! Conventional perfumes and all their synthetic chemicals give me migraines in no time at all and I had resigned myself to a scent-free life till AL came along!

Not only that, more and more research is emerging on the dangers of putting such chemicals on our skin. I believe that one day we'll understand why, despite all our amazing knowledge and technology, illness and disease still plague us. It's all those chemicals in everything from our food to furniture to clothing to houses to cars to skin care! I'd rather pay a little more and save myself big health care costs down the road.

And best of all, AL's scents are just heavenly. Worth every penny.

Ellen,
who is sheepishly stepping down from soapbox...

Thank you everyone for your input on this topic. There is a lot of time/labor involved in making the fragrance samples- filling the tiny vials, getting the caps on (which is surprisingly difficult), putting the vials in bags, making the tags for the samples, cutting out the tags with a knife and cutting board, stapling each tag to it's fragrance sample... lots of materials, time and labor not even counting the fragrance materials.

It's easy for huge companies to offer free samples, or very low price samples- they have them mass manufactured and put on those pretty, glossy cards- we unfortunately can't do that, since all of the fragrances are hand-made.

I suppose I could always do a coupon with the sample that would give you 2.50 off the purchase of a full size, thus rendering the sample free if you go on to buy it in a full size.

I'll look into that as an option, but in the meantime, I do feel that $2.50 per sample is a fair cost and I regret if anyone feels it is too costly, but there are valid reasons for the pricing.

thanks for reading,

kristen

Another thing that makes the samples reasonably cost-effective...AL scents are much closer to a true concentrated "parfum" than the standard diluted "eau de toilette". With a commercial fragrance you may apply 3 or 4 sprays...with an AL fragrance, a couple of small dabs will do! With my sample of Dulcinea, I run the little plastic stick over both wrists, dip it back in the bottle, then run it lightly along both sides of my neck...and that's enough!

Thank you everyone. Who knew that it was so expensive(well obviously I didn't)I feel like I got a great education on the topic of essential oils . Your never too old to learn even if I'm only 34! Thanks again. Gia

Gia, I'm so glad you took all this information in the spirit in which it was intended, and that you didn't feel all ganged up on by the Aromaleigh perfumaholics!

The world of natural perfumery is much, much different than the world of the traditional perfumes you find in department stores.

If you knew how inexpensive some of the regular perfume ingredients actually are, and the percentage of markup on many perfumes just because of the "name," you'd be shocked at how much profit those companies are making!!

Oh, and just for some more education for those who have never tried any of Kristen's natural fragrances before: please be aware that natural scents just do not last as long as traditional fragrances do. It may be necessary for you to reapply your fragrance during the day. Here's some information from the website, since Kristen has said this much better than I can:

Natural fragrances are very different than their synthetic counterparts. They are more subtle, more complex, more therapeutic and have less staying power. This is due to the volatile nature of essential oils and plant extracts. They evaporate faster than synthetics. While this is a frequent complaint of many natural perfume wearers, it is intrinsic to wearing and enjoying a natural perfume. You simply get more chances to enjoy it because you need to apply more often!

Of course I took it well, I'm a very resonable person. In fact I'm looking right now at which ones I'm going to try. Thank you again. Gia