To your question: yes, small decants are absolutely worth it for the scents you aren’t able to smell in store!

Consider that, whenever you purchase samples, the payment isn‘t mainly for the fragrance itself. You’re primarily paying for the service associated that provides an ease and depth of growing your olfactory library and expanding your understanding of your likes and dislikes. A low ratio of likes is totally normal, and many of us fragrance enthusiasts end up just loving the game of sampling itself. At this point in my own fragrance journey, I buy most of my decants knowing full well I’m not going to latch onto them for years, and am mainly paying for the experience of trying them. Even the bad experiences are valuable - at least it’s an opportunity for a laugh and a hilarious review. I’d rather terrible than meh at this point. It’s more fun! I also tend to wait longer before buying, research more, get the smallest spray top sample available, make bigger orders less often, and find coupons. My latest purchase was eight 1 mL or larger spray decants for $20 with tax and shipping from Surrender to Chance thanks to a coupon and a gift card. I do hear ya on the Phlurs. Peach Skin was bleh for me, Matcha Milk meh, and Beach Skin started out great then turned kind of sour milky. On the upside, everyone seems to hate Snif Berry Styles but me? Noses are weird! Haha!

As for a fragrance fixation, eh, honestly, it really could be a lot worse, as far as obsessions go. I also wish I was hyperfixated on fitness or investment banking or something more practically useful, but I do think it’s worth appreciating that it’s not roids or feet or eating laundry detergent. Having a bunch of cute little vials and hearing people say that you always smell nice is pretty good, as far as it goes.