Aether

Aether. The fifth element. The quintessence. Also, a dupe of PDM Greenley. While being a fragrance, nevermind a "dupe", may not be as dramatic as being the fifth element in this case it's no disappointment regardless. Parfums de Marley released Greenley in 2020 and it was a smash hit. As the name would imply Greenley is a beast of a green fragrance. Not heavy, leather elbow pad smoking jacket green like Ralph Lauren Polo. This is a bright, fresh basket of green apples on top of fresh cedar. There's other notes and plenty of aroma chemicals doing background work but in the end Greenley is a bright and sharp green freshie. Green apple shower gel in the best way imaginable. Enter Aether. A nearly 1:1 dupe in regards to scent profile on dry down. The opening of Aether is less rich and a bit brighter but within 20 minutes Aether is identical to Greenley. That's the good news. The bad news, on my skin Greenley is good for a solid 12 hours. Aether I get about 8 hours of wear. Which is still quite remarkable for such a bright and fresh fragrance. One of my favorite qualities about the Greenley/Aether DNA is that while this is incredibly fresh and summer friendly it at no point feels "generic". With the blue and green "shower gel" fragrances it's so easy for the scent to lack personality. I like a fragrance that makes you decide and I feel this DNA is of that nature. There are elements here that will require choice, not complex choice but if you dislike green apple or cedar heavy scents you may dislike this but if those notes are agreeable to you then you may find a new love. Lastly, the price. Parfums de Marley Greenley sells for around $300 USD, Aether French Avenue can be purchased for $40 USD online currently. There are plenty of examples of dupe fragrances being laughable recreations. This is not the case with Aether. Increasingly dupe fragrances are released that make many consumers begin asking questions regarding price, quality, artisanship, and how their buying power relates. This has been the case with Aether. Let that speak for its quality. - 8/10 - Summer, Spring. Day. - Location/Situation: Highway 99, California, June, 11 AM.... They say Johnny Appleseed traveled around selling appleseeds or something like that. Who knows, who cares but you like traveling and eating apples. The sun on your face reminds you that while you prefer winter, the warm weather isn't all bad. - Song: Oogum Boogum Song - Brenton Wood

I beg of you, please let this macerate, maturate, marinate, whatever the hell people want to call it. I first bought this because a few influencers claimed it was a near-identical clone of PDM Greenley. I’ve got a massive dent in my Greenley bottle, which meant it was time to replace it. But I wasn’t about to drop $200 on a gray market bottle, let alone the $350 retail price. Greenley smells incredible, but the performance is weak: hard to justify buying it again. Enter Aether Extrait. At first, it smelled decent but lacked that signature apple note and leaned heavily into oakmoss. Not a dealbreaker on its own, but after a few hours it would morph into this weird “freshly cleaned public bathroom” vibe. Not disgusting, but definitely not something I want to smell like. On the advice of one of those same influencers, I tossed it in a drawer for a month. And wow, it actually made a huge difference. Now I get that crisp apple snap right at the opening, the bathroom smell is gone, and it dries down and burns out almost identically to Greenley. I even got multiple compliments my first day wearing it after maceturination. Overall, Greenley still hangs onto the woods and apple notes longer, and it has a stronger apple punch: it’s the better fragrance. But this is extremely close. If I didn’t have them side-by-side, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Like Greenley, it isn’t the best performer. I get about 4-6 hours of decent sillage before needing to reapply. I know I will burn through this thing this summer. But for the price over Greenley? That’s perfectly ok. I can let it rip without having to nurse it like I do my PDM bottles. Honestly, I highly recommend this. It’s a fantastic scent for the price and kind of makes Greenley feel redundant unless you’re rich. For regular people, go with Aether Extrait. Just make sure you let it age a bit after you get it so that apple-green burst can actually show up.

French Avenue Aether is probably the closest interpretation to greenley I have been able to find so far. I had a 10ml decant of Greenley, because the full bottle is simply too expensive for me to purchase. Held side by side on smell strips, it's almost scary how close the two are. First off presentation is top tier. The box is beautiful, the velour inside is gorgeous to look at and the bottle design is just a joy to see everytime I look at it, it's a comfortable bottle to hold and the cap, while stylish, is somewhat weirdly angular so you can only put it on one way. I feel like a bottle like this requires a magnetic cap. However there is a distinct difference, Aether when compared to PDM Greenley is distinctly more sweet, fruity and feels less "whole". It misses that gorgeous earthy dry down while still providing some amount of woodiness. The Green apple is present and overall its just a well blended, though somewhat sweet green scent in general. I've worn this to weddings, meetings, summer get togethers etc. Now where Aether falls apart for me is the perceived longevity. It's supposed to be an extrait de parfum. So i'd expect this scent to linger for quite a bit. Because Aether does not have that earthy, strong woody drydown that PDM Greenley has, you get noseblind to it VERY quickly. Which gives the idea that the scent just doesn't last long. Which is definitely not the case. I've had people ask what I wear 6-8hrs down the line on a hot summer day. The key here is apply somewhat heavy and let it sit before you go out. All in all i'd say Aether is a good 7/10 fragrance for anyone. Its a 9/10 fragrance when you're in love with Greenley, its just so SO close.

French Avenue Aether Extrait opens with a crisp, clean apple accord backed by noticeable musk and subtle woods. The apple is sweet without becoming candied or juicy, coming across more like a fresh green apple body wash than fresh-cut fruit. Green earthy facets run throughout the composition, giving the fragrance a natural backbone and keeping it from feeling overly clean or synthetic. As it settles, the apple, musk, woods, and green elements blend together into a cohesive profile. The fragrance maintains an airy character with a slight fuzzy texture, and the green notes become increasingly important in shaping the overall impression. It consistently reminded me of Greenley, capturing the same fresh, masculine aesthetic built around crisp apple and green woods. By the drydown, the apple gradually fades into the background while the musk takes center stage. The scent becomes a green aromatic musk with a dry woody backbone and only faint traces of apple remaining. The musk develops a slight sharpness that never feels harsh or unpleasant and instead helps the fragrance project well even late into the wear. Longevity was solid at around 6.5 hours. Overall, this was a very high-quality interpretation of Greenley. I wasn’t wearing them side by side, but based on having worn Greenley several times, I genuinely couldn’t identify a meaningful difference during the wear. For me, the DNA is distinctive enough to justify owning, but not enough to justify spending over $200 when this delivers such a comparable experience for around $40. It’s a fresh, green fragrance with excellent execution and outstanding value. Score: 9.0/10

Going to give a 100% real and genuine honest review about this one: I have a sample of Greenley & bought this to compare them both & genuinely Aether is essentially a clone like Liquid Brun is to Althair however I will say the performance of Aether being worse then Greenley is true but that is NOT a bad thing in my opinion especially because of the price & in my opinion the performance difference isn't even that large (Aether lasts maybe 3-4 hours less then Greenley but still lasts a decent 7-8 hours or so.) Also small personal story of day 1 of owning Aether: I put on like 8-10 sprays and went to a doctor's appointment & got a compliment so the compliment factor of this especially during the spring is fairly high & normally I don't ever look for compliments or anything when I buy a new fragrance so getting a compliment day 1 is just awesome. I will say this though if you do not like the original Greenley you will MORE then likely not like this however in my honest opinion I prefer the dry down of this more then the original because this makes the sweet green apple opening of Greenley last longer. If you want a fragrance that will literally be one of the best if not the best spring fragrance you own definitely get this one it is worth it especially for the price and because of that it gets a 8.5/10 and like most clones it will only get stronger & better with time like most of them do. Edit: Might delete this review after a day or so because this stuff is honestly worth gatekeeping but I just wanted to make a review because why not.