Introducing the Fragrance Discovery Set

Selling fragrance online has always involved one fairly obvious limitation: however detailed the description, however accurate the notes and however many reviews you read, you still can’t smell a webpage.

We’ve tried to make that easier over the years. We describe fragrances in as much detail as we can, organize them by scent family, compare them with familiar references, and offer a fragrance quiz for anyone who isn’t sure where to start. Our 90-day returns policy means trying something new doesn’t have to be a risky decision. But none of that is quite as useful as putting the actual product in your hands and deciding for yourself.

So, for the first time, we’ve put every Element Brooklyn soap fragrance together in one Fragrance Discovery Set.

Fragrance Discovery Set Shop now

Ten fragrances, without ten full-size bottles

The set contains ten generously sized 5 ml sample pouches, covering our complete soap collection. It’s designed for anyone who has been curious about several fragrances but reluctant to commit to a full bottle or refill based only on a description.

These are samples of the actual soap formulas, not fragrance oils or scented cards. That distinction matters, because using a scented soap is a different experience from smelling perfume on a strip. You get the fragrance the way it was designed to be experienced: during the wash, as it meets warm water, and in the lighter trace it leaves behind.

We’d also suggest resisting the temptation to try all ten in rapid succession. Your nose becomes less reliable the more fragrance you expose it to, so the set works better spread out. Try a couple at a time, use them normally, and notice which ones you keep wanting to go back to. Preferences are usually much clearer after a few hours of living with something than after an intensive five-minute sniffing session.

Finding your part of the collection

One of the things we’ve learned at the Gallery of Scent is that people often have stronger preferences for fragrance families than they realize. Someone may not think of themselves as liking green fragrances, for example, but consistently reach for basil, tomato leaf, herbs and aromatic woods whenever those notes appear.

The Discovery Set lets you explore the collection the same way:

• Bright and fresh: start with Mandarin Crush (mandarin, rosemary, cedar) and Acadia (cardamom and blue cypress, with a sea breeze).
• Green and aromatic: try Genovese (basil, verbena, lime), Olympus (oregano, resin, amber) and our Scent Society exclusive, Jardín Azteca (tomato vine, cassis, oak moss).
• Woods and earth: Kiso Forest (cypress, cedarwood, musk) and Pumice Stone (vetiver, petitgrain, bergamot).
• Warm and polished: Commodore (bergamot, rum, patchouli) and Wild Pear (pear, plum, lily of the valley).
• Floral: Desert Bloom (geranium, mandarin, bergamot).

There’s also no rule that says one fragrance has to win. The scent you want next to the kitchen sink might not be the one you want in the bathroom, and one of the advantages of a refill system is that changing fragrance doesn’t mean replacing the dispenser. You can move around the collection as often as you like.

Designed to lead somewhere

The Discovery Set is $15, and every mailer includes a code for $10 off your next order of $30 or more. The idea is for the set to be an inexpensive way to make a much more confident decision about what you buy next, rather than another box of miniatures that sits unused in a drawer.

Ordered on its own, the Discovery Set also ships free, with no minimum. It’s small and light enough to travel as a regular USPS letter, so we can mail it without the cardboard box, packing material and parcel shipment that would normally come with an online order. (The trade-off: letters don’t come with a tracking number.)

For years, customers have asked us which fragrance they should choose, and we’ve become pretty good at answering. The Discovery Set is a better solution: try all ten and decide for yourself.

Shop the Discovery Set