The Decant Index 2026: What Perfume Lovers Actually Sample

Updated July 2026.

Ask a collector what they want to try next and you will hear poetry. Look at what they actually order and you get the truth. The Decant Index is our yearly look at that truth: twelve months of real decant orders, poured one by one at our atelier, counted and ranked.

No panel, no jury, no sponsored placements. Just what perfume lovers chose to put on their skin before committing to a full bottle.

The headline numbers

• The top three houses, Louis Vuitton, Amouage and Adi Ale Van, account for 30% of every decant we poured this year.
• Independent artisan labels hold 8 of the top 20 places.
• Adi Ale Van, an artisan working in tiny batches, places four fragrances in the top 25, level with Amouage and ahead of Louis Vuitton.
• When collectors choose a size, more than half reach for the 2 ml decant.
• The most sampled musk in the index is Musc Ravageur, a composition from 2000 that outsold almost everything made since.

The 25 most sampled fragrances of 2026

Share is each fragrance's percentage of all decants poured in the twelve months ending July 2026.

1. Imagination by Louis Vuitton, 4.8%
2. Ombre Nomade by Louis Vuitton, 4.4%
3. Musc Ravageur by Frédéric Malle, 3.3%
4. Inexcusable Evil by Toskovat, 3.1%
5. Triumph of Bacchus by Argos, 3.0%
6. The Void by The Antagonist, 2.7%
7. Oud Maracuja by Maison Crivelli, 2.6%
8. Naxos by Xerjoff, 2.3%
9. Reflection 45 by Amouage, 2.3%
10. Interlude 53 by Amouage, 2.3%
11. Coliva Gourmand Potion by Adi Ale Van, 2.2%
12. Reliqvia by Filippo Sorcinelli, 2.2%
13. Attrape Rêves by Louis Vuitton, 2.0%
14. Side Effect by Initio, 1.9%
15. Tyrannosaurus Rex by Zoologist, 1.9%
16. Afterlife Potion by Adi Ale Van, 1.9%
17. Absolu Aventus by Creed, 1.8%
18. LAVS by Filippo Sorcinelli, 1.8%
19. Oud Satin Mood by Maison Francis Kurkdjian, 1.8%
20. Outlands by Amouage, 1.6%
21. Diamonitirion Elixir Atonit by Adi Ale Van, 1.6%
22. Decembrie 89 Freedom Elixir by Adi Ale Van, 1.6%
23. Guidance 46 by Amouage, 1.6%
24. Blue Talisman Extrait by Ex Nihilo, 1.5%
25. Tales from Zanzibar by Memoirs of a Perfume Collector, 1.5%

Read the list from top to bottom and a picture forms. A radiant citrus opens the index, then the middle fills with dark ouds, incense and animalics. The Void and Inexcusable Evil sit comfortably inside the top six, which says something quietly remarkable: given a low-risk way to explore, people reach for the strange and the challenging, not the safe.

The house leaderboard

Share of all decants poured, by house.

1. Louis Vuitton, 12.7%
2. Amouage, 9.9%
3. Adi Ale Van, 7.8%
4. Argos, 6.8%
5. Frédéric Malle, 5.2%
6. Toskovat, 4.4%
7. Creed, 4.1%
8. Filippo Sorcinelli, 4.0%
9. Maison Crivelli, 3.3%
10. Zoologist, 3.3%

Two exclusive collections sit at the top, and then the leaderboard belongs to the independents. An artisan pouring elixirs in small batches outsells houses with global boutiques. This is what sampling culture does: it lets curiosity, not distribution, decide who wins.

The 2 ml rule

Among orders where a size was actively chosen, the split is unambiguous: roughly 53% went to the 2 ml decant, 26% to the 5 ml, 19% to the 10 ml and 3% to the 1 ml.

The 2 ml is the collector's sweet spot. Enough for three or four honest wearings, through a morning, an evening and a change of weather, without the commitment of a larger format. People do not want a spritz of something new. They want to live with it for a week.

How we counted

The index covers every non-cancelled decant order at Gouttes Rares in the twelve months ending 10 July 2026, net of returns. Shares are percentages of all decants poured in that period. Curated sets are counted separately from single fragrances. We stock every fragrance in the index, so we have no reason to favour one name over another; the ranking is simply what our customers chose.

If you quote this data, you are welcome to do so with a link to this page as the source. We will publish the next edition in 2027.

Every fragrance in the index is available as a decant, hand poured from the original bottle. Browse the full collection or start with a first discovery set.