The more I look at the fragrance market, the more I believe clones are not the only issue. People love blaming clone houses, but designer and niche brands do their own version of recycling ideas too. They just package it better, charge more, and call it luxury. Sometimes it is the same scent profile being repeated. Sometimes it is the same perfumer using a similar style for different houses. Sometimes it is a successful DNA getting copied, twisted, polished, and resold at a much higher price. Look at Baccarat Rouge 540. That airy saffron, amberwood, sweet-musky, almost cotton-candy mineral DNA became one of the most copied fragrance profiles in modern perfumery. After BR540 blew up, we started seeing that same general direction everywhere — from niche to designer to celebrity scents. Ariana Grande Cloud, Burberry Her, Zara Red Temptation, and many others get brought up because they live in that same sweet, airy amber world. Then you have the Aventus-style lane. Creed Aventus became so successful that pineapple, bergamot, smoky woods, musk, and oakmoss became its own market. After that, you had fragrances like Montblanc Explorer, Mancera Cedrat Boise, and Nishane Hacivat constantly being compared to Aventus. Some are not true clones, but they are clearly in the same successful masculine fresh-fruity-woody lane. Another example is Ganymede and Bois Impérial. Both are by Quentin Bisch, and while they are not the same fragrance, they share that modern mineral, woody, airy, slightly metallic style. Ganymede is more abstract, saffron-mineral, leathery, and niche. Bois Impérial is more affordable, fresh, woody, and aromatic. But you can smell the perfumer’s creative fingerprint. You also see it with Delina and Atomic Rose. Delina made that tart fruity rose style huge — lychee, rhubarb, rose, musk, vanilla, and woods. Atomic Rose is not the same scent, but it lives in that same loud, modern, powerful rose category. Once a DNA works, the market keeps circling around it.

One of the lesser known from the house but impressive nonetheless. This woody aromatic features tonka bean and vetiver and patchouli and is quite masculine. Like all ATH, great longevity.