Better to get a sample if possible.
Recommended Fragrances under $40
- Thread starter Eutychus
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Sounds to heavy for indoors with large groups.
It’s not super strong, few of the Italian cheapies are, it’s just not as piney as the pine cone bottle suggests. Polo Green, even in it’s current iteration, is a green bomb compared to Pino.
Going by scent pyramid I got the Basil, Sage, carnation and geranium strongest with everything else far behind.
Ok you got meDidn't see this mentioned in the thread, or the OP. Fantastic old school fougère that performs as well, or better, than frags that cost three times as much.
blind ordered this today
Ok you got me
To my nose, the drydown is pretty damn close to MdC Fougère. Let us know what you think!
I'm so new to the fragrance game that I had no clue of the significance of the color of the bottle. So green is wood forest plant, outdoor scents? Forgive my vocabulary on this subject. So I've discovered my love for the Aquatic fragrances, it makes sense that blue bottles representing water or the ocean right, hmm?
On the top of my cheapies list there's Dakar my Al Rehab. As the name suggests it's a clone of Drakkar Noir, however the current formulation of Drakkar Noir lasts a solid 15 minutes, Dakar is much more potent. And the best thing: it costs around 5€ for 50ml. Doesn't get much better than this.
Second place would go to Caron Yatagan, truly a masterpiece. I'm trying to hunt a full bottle for some time now but it gets harder and harder to find it for a decent price in my country.
I'd throw in classics like Davidoff Cool Water, Azzaro Pour Homme, Aramis, Bogart Signature, Quorum, Dali Pour Homme and Ted Lapidus Pour Homme (and arguably the sports flanker). All of them can be found for pretty cheap and are, in my humble opinion, better than most fragrances that are released today.
Encre Noire a l'Extreme is a good flanker to the regular Encre Noire too. A prime example of what a flanker should be, it retains the base DNA but adds a twist that makes it quite different than the original.
Second place would go to Caron Yatagan, truly a masterpiece. I'm trying to hunt a full bottle for some time now but it gets harder and harder to find it for a decent price in my country.
I'd throw in classics like Davidoff Cool Water, Azzaro Pour Homme, Aramis, Bogart Signature, Quorum, Dali Pour Homme and Ted Lapidus Pour Homme (and arguably the sports flanker). All of them can be found for pretty cheap and are, in my humble opinion, better than most fragrances that are released today.
Encre Noire a l'Extreme is a good flanker to the regular Encre Noire too. A prime example of what a flanker should be, it retains the base DNA but adds a twist that makes it quite different than the original.
Yes, I favor Acquatics so CW is definitely on my list, I'm currently enjoying Eternity Aqua and Nautica Voyage.
I see this term used a lot, what does it refer to please?
A flanker is like a brother to the original. The basic DNA is similar but it has a twist that makes it a bit different. Encre Noire, Encre Noire a l'Extreme and Encre Noire Sport are a very good example of what a flanker should be. The base of dark vetiver is present in all three, yet they're quite unique in their own way. You can tell that they share the same DNA but it wouldn't be redundant to own all 3.
But as it is with big corporations, flankers are often bastardizations of their original. A good example for this is Sauvage and Sauvage Elixir. They share the same name to get the Sauvage crowd to buy it, but Elixir has absolutely nothing to do with Sauvage, it's a completely different scent.
Often, even "parfum" or "intense" flankers are completely different scents compared to the original, it's mainly big designer houses who do this. It's marketing.
Owen Bawn
Garden party cupcake scented
In an effort to coax springtime to come out of hiding I used Boucheron this morning. Creamy lemon, lightly floral, and a soapy finish that lasts all day. Somehow the lemon never entirely disappears with this one. And you can probably still get it for less than $25.
Oh my goodness, that really makes it difficult for novices like me, thanks. But "clones" are all together different than flankers?
Owen Bawn
Garden party cupcake scented
A clone is a cheaper knockoff of a (usually very) expensive fragrance. Razorock, Stirling, Phoenix Artisans, and Fine all make aftershaves/colognes that are clones of top shelf frags.
Owen Bawn
Garden party cupcake scented
Many clones will share the top notes with their more expensive models, so at first application a clone might smell very close to the original. But as it dries down a clones cheapness will usually betray itself, and an hour in the clone will often smell nothing like the original fragrance. There are exceptions, I suppose, but I've used a lot of clones and can only think of one that smells like the original for the entire duration. Razorock's Santa Maria del Fiore smells almost identical to Santa Maria Novella's Tabacco Toscano from application through the long dry down. At least it did in 2016, when I purchased 4 bottles.
Wow thanks, you sure know your stuff.
Yes, flankers are variants made by the same brand, clones are by different brands. Owen Bawn summed it up well. In recent years a lot of clone brands are from the middle east, for example Lattafa, Armaf and Al Rehab.
I'm not sure if I'd call it disagreeing but there are good and bad clones, from what I've seen it often differs from person to person. Personally, I've found Private Oud by Rihanah (Tom Ford Oud Wood clone) terrible, just like Club de Nuit Sillage by Armaf (Creed Silver Mountain Water clone). But other people swear on it. On the other hand I prefer the previously mentioned Dakar by Al Rehab (Drakkar Noir clone) over the original, simply because the current formulation of Drakkar Noir only lasts 15 minutes. I also prefer Qaed al Fursan by Lattafa over Creed Aventus, although that's not a 1:1 clone.
What I'm trying to say: it's very YMMV.
And if anybody wants to be even more confused, I'll post a link to a blog article at the end of the article. Creed's Green Irish Tweed (1985) and Davidoff's Cool Water (1988) are by the same parfumeur and very similar, although the price isn't. That leads to the question: Is CW a clone of GIT? The discussion has been going for 35 years and will probably last another 35. Situations like these are not unusual, another example would be Quentin Bisch with Ganymede, Bois Imperial and Kenzo Homme Intense (2022 version).
frompyrgos.blogspot.com
"Getting" Turin's Opinion On Cool Water
frompyrgos.blogspot.com
Marketing works kind of that: blue/Aquatics green/Oakmoss, Pine, Wood etc. but it's not a hard rule.
Aqua Velva is blue but doesn't feel aquatic to me.
Wow, very articulate post, OB. I agree for the most part, and I would not bother with inexpensive clones. In theory, the ingredients in an expensive scent are small portion of the bottle in the box sells for, and Luca Turin said, if I recall, that a modern perfume house can analyze a scent so that it knows exactly what went into it and in what proportions so that it could replicate that scent exactly. So theoretically a company could put out a clone of a scent that was exactly like the original for less because they would not have the same overhead and advertising costs, but I personally have never seen/smelled that actually happening.
I am not familiar with Middle Eastern clones, though. I suppose some of those could be "better" than the original. The Middle East has available some quality, natural ingredients.
Then there is the situation where a scent is so influential that it encourages other scent makers to create very similar scents. Perhaps these are not out and out clones and they are not necessarily cheaper than the original. I think of Aramis Devin as being very close to Polo Green, for instance, although the current Polo Green is much inferior to the original. I think Jeremey of Jeremey Frangrances, or whatever he calls his company, admits that at least one of his scents is highly influenced by Aventus. There must be a lot of others similarly influenced. I would not know. I do not love Aventus as much as most folks do. Certainly, there have been a lot of scents influenced by Cool Water at all sorts of price points. I think the key ingredient there is "calone." Something like that. I would say that Creed Silver Mountain Water was even influenced by this water scents, evren though I do not think it has any calone in it.
Folks should absolutely make note of this. I would say that completely different is an exaggeration, usually, but many folks buy such versions of certain scents wanting a stronger, longer lasting expression, and most of the time it really is not the same scent, but something similar. I do not know the reasons for this. I have gotten burned myself. I think it is a scandal, really.
I bought a bottle of Pino Silvestre earlier on and I am not sure I have worn it at all. I see the notes list, but to me it is overwhelmingly pine, and I do not want to smell like that at all. This is so even though one of my favorite scents is Pens BB, which is essentially lemon, black pepper, and pine, as I recall. And no, the color of the bottle does not necessarily have much to do with the contents.
And, oh yeah, I meant to say this the first time. I think of flankers as a variation on a scent put out by the original perfume house. Gillette Abdi's description is essentially correct. This is not limited at all to cheaper scents, but they may be easier to talk about. Old Spice and English Leather both, back in the say, as I recall, had variations on the original formula involving lime and musk. For a while, flankers in a "sport" version seemed all the rage, meaning, I guess, or at least often, a lighter, more citrus version. Some of these are much like the original. Kouros Sport as compared to Kouros original, for instance. In a way, all of the Aramis collection of scents, such as Devin and Havana, might be considered, at least by me, flankers of the original Aramis, even though they are quite different from Aramis. I would not have normally consider an intense or parfum version to be a flanker, but GA may be correct. As I indicated earlier I agree that these versions maybe very different than the original scent, aside from the additional concentration. And it should not be overlooked that a lot of scents bearing the name of well-known scents from years ago smell very little like the originals.
No dis to anyone who finds them useful and economic, but I personally stay away from inexpensive clones. I would rather have a small decant of the real thing. At least, usually. Like I said, I have not come across any cheap clones that are really much like the original other than as a quick first impression. That is just me. I would not wear a cheap clone of a Rolex either. On one level I am afraid that those who care my know!
Scents are fun as a hobby. There is a lot there. It is a shame that the vintage ones are so hard to get.
No dis to anyone who finds them useful and economic, but I personally stay away from inexpensive clones. I would rather have a small decant of the real thing. At least, usually. Like I said, I have not come across any cheap clones that are really much like the original other than as a quick first impression. That is just me. I would not wear a cheap clone of a Rolex either. On one level I am afraid that those who care my know!
Scents are fun as a hobby. There is a lot there. It is a shame that the vintage ones are so hard to get.
Ok you got me
To my nose, the drydown is pretty damn close to MdC Fougère. Let us know what you think!
It smells a lot like Stirling Varen to me. Soapy like Irish Spring. It’s definitely not like anything else I own but I’ll keep it around to mix things up from time to time. Thanks for the recommendation
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