To Dupe Or Not To Dupe?
By Tove Solander
Sometimes popular scents are imitated and the imitations sold cheaply under similar names. Sometimes great scents are imitated and the imitations sold expensively under completely different names. Today I’m writing about one case of the latter phenomenon. You may not agree the scents are practically dupes, and I don’t mean to accuse the niche houses in question of outright theft (I’m too postmodern to believe much in artistic originality anyway), but I know I’m not the only one to smell the similarities…
The first pair is the celebrated Parfum d’Empire Ambre Russe and Atelier d’Artiste from the infamous Nez à Nez. Here are the notes:
Ambre Russe: champagne, vodka, grey amber, incense, Russian tea, leather, cumin, cinnamon, coriander
Atelier d’Artiste: rum, cognac, black grape, cade, leaves of patchouli, roots of vetiver, raspberry, tobacco, coffee beans, vanilla, heliotrope, leather notes
Juxtaposing the notes like this I find to my surprise that they only have leather in common, but let’s roughly translate liquor with liquor, tea with coffee, and amber with the patchouli and vanilla combo. They’re both boozy, gourmandy orientals, full of adult treats.
The original: Well, you know this already, don’t you? Ambre Russe is such a great scent: deliciously gourmandy without being cloying, cozy without being boring, heavy on the amber without being a single note… It’s sweetly intoxicating, but saved from sugar hell by its powdery dryness. Dry ambers like this one remind me of desert sand and cookie crumbs, ever so slightly burnt. The leather is very subtle and refined, more like an added dryness which might honesty just as well be the tea note. Something in it is vaguely fruity to balance the dry notes; it reminds me of apple or tobacco or apple tobacco, but I’m guessing it might be the champagne.
The copy: In Atelier d’Artiste the balance is reversed. It has a similar ambery atmosphere, but the dryness is hidden underneath a hefty dose of anise/liquorice (the heliotrope?) and sugar, just like most of the line. Thankfully, I don’t get any berries. The leather is more pronounced and animalic like the manure note in Dzing! What else could you expect from an anything-but-subtle line like Nez à Nez? Dirty minded as I am I enjoy it. It’s what elevates this scent to something other than a poor Ambre Russe dupe. And better yet, the leather note evolves from downright dirty to cozy, old, worn leather. Pity there’s so much plasticky candy on top…
15 comments May 15th, 2007