Sample Sets
Sample sets are quantities of material supplied for evaluation rather than for use: a set of small containers of wood, oil, base or finished product, sent so that a buyer can assess them. The family is defined by its purpose, and that is exactly why a sample set is not a small order of the same material. A sample exists to support a decision, and its size, its cost and its labelling are all consequences of that, whereas a small order exists to be used.
What this family includes
The family covers the supplier sample kit sent to a prospective buyer, the sample of a specific lot, the mixed set offered as a general introduction, the application set sent to a formulator, and the small decants supplied for evaluation at trade events. It also covers the arrangement where samples are supplied free against a commitment, and the arrangement where they are paid for and deducted from the first order.
The material inside a sample can be anything in this encyclopedia: wood chips, an oil, an accord, a base, a finished perfume. What makes the set a sample is the purpose and the labelling, not the contents.
Not the same as
A sample set is not a small order. A small order is bought to be used, priced at the trade price and delivered as part of the supply. A sample is bought to be assessed, and its price is a different kind of price.
It is not a gift set, which is a presentation format for a buyer who has already decided. It is not a scent card, which carries no material at all. And it is not a proof of quality, because the material in a sample and the material in a bulk delivery are not necessarily the same thing.
Material and format fields
The fields are: what each sample is, described precisely enough to be re-ordered later; the quantity in each container and the container itself; the label, which must carry an identifier, the supplier's marking, the description, the date and the batch reference if there is one; the basis on which the sample price is set; the shipping arrangement and who bears it; the terms, including whether the sample cost is credited against an order and within what period; and whether the material may be used or only assessed.
On the standards, the position depends on what is in the container. A sample of a raw material is a raw material, and IFRA certificates are generally not issued for raw materials. A sample of a finished consumer product is a finished consumer product, and the mixture documentation that covers the bulk should cover it.
Comparisons
A sample and a small order are compared by purpose, and that comparison settles the price, the labelling and the freight. A sample set and a gift set are compared by who they are for: one is for a buyer who has not decided, the other for a buyer who has.
And a sample is compared with the bulk delivery it is supposed to represent. This is the comparison that catches buyers out, because a sample drawn from a favourable part of a lot, or an oil decanted at a moment when it was at its best, will flatter the batch.
Buyer requirements
Ask what each container is and how much is in it, and keep the labels, because a set that cannot be re-identified in three months cannot be used to order.
Then settle the terms before the samples are sent: the price, whether it is credited, how long it is held, and what happens if the material is not approved. And ask for the sample to be drawn from the lot that will be supplied, not from a house sample, because that is the only version of the sample that answers the question the buyer is asking.
Related suppliers
The directory lists the suppliers of every material family in this section, and any of them may run a sample programme. What a buyer should look for is a supplier whose samples are labelled, drawn from a named batch and sent with a quotation that refers to the same batch reference.
Relevant guides
Build a wholesale oud sample plan sets out how to sample systematically rather than reactively. Match samples to bulk batches covers the traceability link that makes a sample meaningful. Label and organize samples covers the labelling that makes a set usable a year later.
- Search the supplier directory
- Start a request for quote
- Read build a wholesale oud sample plan
This page defines the family and the fields a buyer should fill in. It does not state a sample price, a sample size or a shipping cost, and it does not establish that any sample corresponds to any bulk batch.
- IFRA โ Using the IFRA StandardsEstablishes that conformity for a fragrance mixture's intended use is established by the fragrance-mixture formulator or supplier, that a Certificate of Conformity applies exclusively to fragrance mixtures intended for incorporation into finished consumer products, and that IFRA Certificates are generally not issued for raw materials. Establishes that the final decision and responsibility for the finished product lies with the end consumer product manufacturer, and that conformity with the Standards does not exempt a company from applicable national or local regulation. It does not establish that any named supplier holds a certificate, nor what any certificate says about a finished product.
- IFRA โ Understanding the IFRA StandardsEstablishes that the IFRA Standards operate through three kinds of control โ prohibition of a material, restriction of the maximum quantity used, and specification of conditions on a material โ and that quantitative limits are expressed as an upper concentration in the finished consumer product rather than in the fragrance mixture. Establishes that product types are set out in the guidance documents and that the applicable category is determined from the product's intended use. Establishes that IFRA itself does not issue certificates, does not authorise any third party to certify on its behalf, does not certify products, and that a Certificate of Conformity does not replace a safety assessment. It does not establish the safety of any particular product, the concentration of any material in any product, or compliance by any named supplier.
- Biodiversity and application prospects of fungal endophytes in the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops (Thymelaeaceae): a reviewStates that all members of the agarwood-producing genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops are placed in CITES Appendix II. Records 92 compounds identified in agarwood, of which terpenoids are 40.22%, and names eighteen fungal genera reported to promote agarwood formation. It does not establish the quality, yield or age of any material, and it is a review rather than a regulatory instrument.
- CITES Appendices โ what each listing requires for tradeEstablishes what each of the three CITES Appendices requires for trade. Appendix I: international trade is permitted only in exceptional circumstances and cannot be primarily for commercial use, and both an import and an export permit or re-export certificate are required. Appendix II: an export permit or re-export certificate from the country of export is required, and no import permit is needed unless a country's national law requires one. Appendix III: an export permit is required from the country that listed the species, and a certificate of origin is required for exports of a listed species from elsewhere. It does not name any particular species, it does not establish that a shipment complies, and it is not itself a permit.
- Agarwood: use and trade and CITES implementationA 2000 review of the agarwood trade and of CITES implementation, covering the range States, the trade, the national legal position in each range State, and the import controls of the consuming markets. It supplies the export figures by country and year compiled from Taiwan Customs data for 1993 to 1998 (recorded in pieces, which is how the source database held them), and it records that Bhutan and Lao PDR are not CITES Parties. It records that A. malaccensis is native to nine north-eastern Indian states, that the A. crassna listing proposal was submitted by Thailand, and that CITES import permits for A. malaccensis in the importing markets examined require a prior export or re-export permit. It also records the reported prevalence of illegal harvesting and cross-border movement, which is a trade-compliance finding and not a legal determination. The figures are historical and the trade has changed since: the document predates the 2005 extension of the Appendix II listing to all remaining species, and its year-by-year figures must not be read as current. It does not establish the current state of any range State, the current export position of any country, or the legal position of any shipment.
OudGuide editorial review ยท 2026-10-21
Reviewed against the cited sources. The family boundary was checked against the format descriptions elsewhere in the encyclopedia, the distinction between the part of the family that carries a fragrance mixture and the part that does not was checked rather than assumed, and no composition, concentration, price or grade is stated anywhere on the page.