I prefer the overall effect of a more traditional spray bottle, but I love how travel-friendly rollerballs are. It’s also a nice way to have a scent on hand that you might not finish quickly, so they aren’t as expensive to acquire.
— Christine
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What I love about them is that they give me a chance to really try out a fragrance without spending a lot of money. I also love that I can throw them in my bag. On the other side, I wonder if the roller ball can “corrupt” the fragrance a bit because it comes in direct contact with the skin, so body oils might roll back into the bottle. Is that a real thing or am I just being overly cautious? Lol!
The fragrance is still mostly alcohol so I don’t think it will really alter the scent that much, but I do prefer sprays just in case!
While I do find them very useful in trying a fragrance on for an extended span of time to see if I love it enough to purchase the full-sized version, I find them to be scarily fragile looking. A tall tower of glass sitting on my dresser, what could possibly go wrong, right?
I keep my rollerball and decant fragrances standing up in one or more wide, short drinking glasses, so they feel secure but are still easy to grasp. For travel or handbag, I prefer sample sizes, corraled in a small makeup bag.
Rollerballs are fantastic for portable scent, especially travel, but I find they turn pretty quickly because they get icky ?. I have not purchased a rollerball in a very very long while so perhaps packaging has improved. I prefer sprays and tend to go for scents with decent enough longevity as to not require reapplication.
I can’t stand rollerballs because they don’t dispense an adequate amount of perfume and I have to irritate my skin by rubbing the rollerball on. But the worst issue is that the rollerball picks up skin cells and makeup bits from the neck area and contaminates the rest of the bottle. It’s incredibly unhygienic.
My thoughts exactly!
I like them in theory — smaller amount of a perfume I might get bored of, cheaper buy-in versus a full bottle, etc. But I hate them in practice — I prefer to wear fragrance on my clothes, not skin, and roller balls get so GROSS so fast! I once had a mini rollerball I couldn’t have used more than six times before the interior juice was visibly gunky from picking dead skin, lotion, or whatever else off of my wrists (and I wash my hands frequently!).
Travel spray/purse spray? Yes please! Rollerball? No thanks.
I almost exclusively use rollerballs because they are less expensive (perhaps not per ounce, but once a roller ball is gone in about a year or two I’m ready for a change anyways – never had one go icky before I used it up, but that might just be the brands?). They are also so incredibly portable and in my experience quite durable. I keep mine in my purse in an inside pocket and none have ever broken or spilled. I keep mine in my purse and roll it on my wrists and behind ears when I think to do so. I don’t like heavy perfume so I like the subtleties of roller vs spraying everywhere.
I don’t like fragrance rollerballs at all – they remind me of deodorants….I just want the real thing.
I generally prefer a spray, but In the past year I started purchasing fragrances in roller balls and pocket sprays instead of full sized bottles. I like variety and this lets me indulge in more expensive fragrances without breaking the bank or taking up precious real estate on my dresser. I purchased a large stemless crystal wine glass to store them, the effect looks really chic without the perfume bottle clutter (and guilt when I didn’t reach for a fragrance as much as I thought I would) I used to have.
I personally find rollerball’s expensive for the amount of product you get, the inability to apply the fragrance over a much larger area (a spray from a traditional bottle you can cover a much larger area with one pump). Additionally I cannot apply it to my hair unless I hold individual strands, and applying on clothing or a scarf, etc… is just a nightmare. A rollerball also applies much less product to the skin and if I really want to concentrate it in one area, I have to apply, wait for some of it to dry, repeat the process.
For those who think it’s cheaper to buy rollerball, look at Sephora’s page for Black Opium. Rollerball costs $29 for 10 ml and the smaller size atomizer is $74 for 30 ml. Same with Chloe – the mark up per ml for the ‘rollerball’ size bothers me, but it may not bother others. It’s not a bargain or steal. There are plenty of legit perfume decant businesses that will offer you a ‘taste’ of an expensive perfume for $4 for a small sample vial.
My other beef with rollerballs is storage – perfumes I use I keep on my countertop and they are pretty much stand alones. Rollerballs require storage in a cup or flat and out of the way. I stopped using the for travel perfume after several incidents of breakage in my handbag which destroyed the inside of the bag.
I don’t like rollerballs at all. It’s probably just me, but they seem unsanitary. They touch skin with every use and impossible to clean.
I like that rollerballs are a cheaper way to try out a scent (especially when you have as many as I do). But I hate that the perfume can get icky inside the bottle from continuously rolling onto moisturized or sweaty skin. When I purchase a rollerball, I always pry off the roller and decant the fragrance into an atomizer. Always, always, always. I much prefer spraying fragrance over rolling or dabbing.
Agree with others, the price point is not great for roller balls. The appeal is most certainly the convenience but the idea of applying over again with potential for contamination, etc. would edge me toward purchasing a refillable mini atomizer and I would use this for my favorite fragrances if needed.
I love rollerballs. They’re small enough to take out with you, and a good way to try out a fragrance before committing to a larger, more expensive size.
The negatives are that they are more expensive per ounce, and they can break in your bag. This doesn’t happen often, but it’s a mess when it does.