Amber Oud Aqua Dubai
Extrait de Parfum, Al Haramain (2024)

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN! Can't tell you how many times I almost blind-bought a bottle of this, but the price was just a bit too high. So I bought a 10 ml decant instead. Thing about buying a decant is that, unlike a full bottle blind buy, you don't have the pressure to like it to excuse yourself from falling for the PR. This is a scratchy and synthetic mess, and in that sense, is quite similar to Fragrance World Imperium Intense, another LV Imagination wannabe. I'm not a clone hater, and Al Haramain makes some fragrances that I really like. But this is just bad.

Harsh soap, Windex, citruses found in furniture polish, florals found in dryer sheets, and a jagged fake artemisia constituting "green notes." I really wanted to like this, really thought I would. Guess I'll be sticking with Fragrance World Trillium or Imperium (the non-intense version), that at least smells good for its 45 minutes of life.

I'm satisfied with this as an alternative to the very expensive Imagination by LV. I won't go into the very subjective differences in how I perceive the notes, but overall, very close and not screechy or cheap-smelling. A very worthy clone of Imagination and I enjoy wearing this.

Performance is not bad either. Decent to very good projection, and I find it lasts 7-8 hours.