Company Overview: Conjure Oils

By Unknown

Nothing to Disclose

Hello! For today's Company Overview, I'll be talking about Conjure Oils, a perfumer I've been buying from on and off for years. Based in Eagle Creek, Oregon, and owned and run by Vajra Wright, Conjure creates perfume and ritual oils with a variety of interesting themes ranging from cryptozoology (the study of imaginary creatures) to the Roaring '20s to poisons of various types. I haven't ordered from them in probably two years, so my experiences may not reflect the typical shopping experience at the moment, but hopefully this will still be helpful!

Packaging: 

The Conjure Oils bottles I've encountered are amber glass, with a reducer cap that can sometimes be leaky in the mail, but is helpful in avoiding disastrous spills. It's been too long since I've placed a Conjure order to be able to comment on the packaging for their orders, unfortunately!

Samples are the same size as a typical perfume sample, labeled with a brown paper label, but some are in clear glass and others are in amber glass with a black cap. For the perfumes where they do this, I think this is a nice touch since amber glass is better at shielding out light and protecting the perfume within: a must-have for full sizes but usually not something you see in sample sizes.

Selection: 

Conjure Oils produces mainly perfume and ritual oils, which is all I see on their site at present. However, they've also had various other products in the past--solid perfumes, soaps, lotions, sugar scrubs--listed under the Oddment Emporium section.

They have a very inventive and inspired range of perfumes, including a huge number of tea and hot-drink based scents in the Miss Victoria's and Tea and Sympathy sections--and as I mentioned in the intro, I love the themes of sections like Cryptozoology and Pick Yer Poison (I reviewed Arsenic Ambrosia from the Poisons a few months ago!)

Samples: 

Standard 1/32 oz. samples are available from some sections of the general catalog for $30 for 10 samples, or $3.50 for individual samples. Certain scents are available only as a full set of perfumes from the set, and certain scents are unavailable as samples. A few scents are more expensive, such as the Apothecary scents, which are $4 per sample.

Quality: 

I've enjoyed most of the scents I've gotten from Conjure--I have a positive impression of their perfumes overall. They tend to be distinctive, strong, and long-lasting.

Cost:

Conjure's pricing and packaging availability is all over the place, which made this section a huge pain to compile!

The standard permanent collection scents are priced as follows:

• 1/32 oz. Sample Pip - $3.50
• 5ml Brown Apothecary Bottle - $15
• 10ml Brown Apothecary Bottle - $25
• 10ml Clear Glass Roll-On with Black Cap - $25

Apothecary scents, which are essentially single note perfumes, and Hoodoo ritual oils are a bit more expensive:

• 1/32 oz. Sample Pip - $4
• 5ml Brown Apothecary Bottle - $17.50
• 10ml Brown Apothecary Bottle - $30
• 10ml Clear Glass Roll-On with Black Cap - $30

Cryptozoology scents are similarly priced, at $17.50 for a full-sized apothecary bottle or $45 for a sample set of all the monsters. Tea and Sympathy perfumes are $17.50 for either an apothecary bottle or a roll-on. Via Carpathia scents are $17.50 for a bottle or $4.50 for a sample.

Whore's Couture perfumes are priced as follows:

• 1/32 oz. Sample Pip set - $45 
• 5ml Brown Apothecary Bottle - $18 
• 10ml Brown Apothecary Bottle - $28 
• 10ml Clear Glass Roll-On with Black Cap - $29

Toby Daye scents, based on an urban fantasy book series by Seanan McGuire, are priced at $20 for a 5 mL brown apothecary bottle or $35 for a pack of any 7 perfume samples.

Book of Shadows ritual oils are $20 a bottle.

Limited edition pricing varies--for instance, a perfume called Sugar and Filigree is currently available here for $19 for a 5 mL brown apothecary bottle or $20 for a roll-on. Nursery Rhyme scents are priced the same, although I think they're actually part of the permanent catalogue.

Customer Service: 

I have to admit that both the best and the worst customer service I've received has been from Conjure Oils. They've had a very long turnaround time and messed up a number of orders I've placed, with a higher "miss" rate on packing orders correctly than any other indie perfumer I've dealt with. However, and this is huge, and very uncommon for indies: they do have an actual brick-and-mortar phone number you can call when you have a problem with your order. I've done so before and Vajra was perfectly wonderful and friendly and helped me out with fixing the problems. But I don't have the best impression of the quality of their order fulfillment overall, if I'm being perfectly honest.

TAT: 

The turnaround time is listed at up to 21-28 business days on their main page. I've typically experienced fairly long turnaround times with them, but always within their quoted window.

Shipping: 

For oils, shipping is done by USPS First Class with delivery confirmation, and is a $5.50 flat rate for domestic orders under $100.

For international orders, it's $8 for USPS first class shipping, up to $100.

Shipping is free for EVERYONE for orders of $100 or more!

However, shipping is priced by actual weight for Oddment Emporium orders of things like lotions and soaps that tend to be heavier.

Personal Thoughts:

I don't think Conjure gets enough love in the indie perfume world these days. Although I haven't ordered from them in years, based on my previous experiences, I would certainly recommend Conjure quality-wise, with some possible reservations about the customer service experience--you can't be afraid to speak up if your order comes in wrong, or leaky, or late. That's not something that bothers me, but I've seen various people on forums expressing doubts about whether or not to contact a merchant about an incorrect order, out of shyness or social anxiety... don't be afraid to speak up if something is wrong, people!

A few of my personal recommendations that are currently available: Loch Ness Monster (a light, fresh raspberry-herbal scent), Bete Noire Brew (lychee red tea), Earl Black (Earl Grey tea mixed with oakwood and sugarcane), Gears of Imagination (leather and amber mixed with chocolate), and Sloe Gin Fizzy (fizzy blackcurrant soda). I'm quite interested in trying out Unicorn Leather from the Apothecary someday, as I once read a review describing it as "eating ice cream in a leather shop" and that sounds wonderful... plus Fresh Dirt, Black Tea, Chai Spice Tea, Madagascar Vanilla, and Tomato Leaf all sound great.

I do remember ordering from Conjure being a strange experience a few times because the site didn't have credit card processing capabilities for a while--they do seem to have a normal Paypal system now, so I think those days are over unless you can't work with Paypal carts.

Anyway, aside from my reviews that I've linked above, you can also check out the Conjure forums for lots of reviews--they don't seem to be very active these days, though. They used to have a program where you could get points for writing reviews, and trade in the points for free perfume! I don't know if this is still active.

Have you tried Conjure Oils? Are you a fan? Do you have any favorite scents of theirs to recommend?

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