This one surprised me. Sauvage Extrait really doesn’t come across like another typical Sauvage flanker to me. It’s much drier, darker, woodier and more resinous, with the patchouli and oud giving it a completely different character from the familiar fresh Sauvage DNA. My first thought was actually Amouage. Not that it smells exactly like a particular Amouage fragrance, but it has that same type of dense, dry, woody, slightly smoky Middle Eastern niche feel. I can especially understand the comparisons people are making to the dry oud character of Amouage Royal Tobacco. This smells much more expensive and serious than I expected from the Sauvage name. Less blue designer fragrance and more like Dior decided to take Sauvage into Amouage territory. First impression: I like this quite a bit. It may actually be one of the most interesting Sauvage releases Dior has done because it doesn’t feel like they simply turned up the concentration. They changed the personality. Definitely a cooler-weather fragrance for me, and I’m looking forward to giving it some full wearings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWHtRzOz3M

When people talk about perfume, they often use words like designer, niche, independent, and artisan as though they all mean the same thing. They don't. The perfume industry is actually made up of several different levels and business models. Some perfume houses have their own dedicated perfumer. Others hire professional perfumers from large fragrance companies to create individual fragrances. Some independent perfumers create everything themselves, while artisans may work on a much smaller scale and physically make and blend their own perfumes. To really understand perfume, you have to look beyond the name on the bottle. 1. Clone and Inspired Perfumes At the most accessible end of the market are clone and inspired-by fragrances. These companies study popular perfumes and create fragrances intended to smell similar to an existing perfume, usually at a much lower price. Some are very close to the fragrance they're trying to reproduce, while others simply take inspiration from a popular scent profile. This part of the industry is important because it makes certain fragrance styles accessible to people who cannot or do not want to spend hundreds of dollars on an original designer or niche perfume. But a clone company and an original perfume house are fundamentally different businesses. A clone brand's main objective is usually to reproduce an established olfactory idea. An original perfumer is trying to create something new. Clone Company Perfumers: There is no perfumer associated with them because they buy Pre-Made oils and add perfumer's alcohol to get to the concentration. They can buy these oils in diffrent quality depending on how much they are willing to spend. Basically, it comes already made minus perfumer's alcohol, from 2 companies in the Middle East. One in Dubai, UAE, and One in Kuwait. There are some smaller oil houses also doing some in-house pre-made Blends as well. These companies are like Givadaun, and they have an in-house perfumer and chemist and a Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry machine, Essentialy they are all getting the premade bundle from the same companies; no perfumer needed! That is all the ME Clone houses!!! And that is all American and European Clone houses as well. The better ones sometimes buy better-quality pre-blends and are essentially mixers, not perfumers; some may add certain raw materials or tweak a pre-made perfume oil concentrate.