After Effect

French Avenue's After Effect is clearly inspired by Initio’s famous Side Effect, and you can sense it right from the first spray. While many inspired scents only loosely capture the essence, After Effect comes impressively close — both in structure and in the scent trail it leaves in the air. The opening is warm and spicy, dominated by cinnamon and rum. Compared to Side Effect, the spices here are slightly rougher, a bit more dry and powdery. It almost feels like you've opened a box filled with freshly ground spices and cured tobacco — intense but not overwhelming. As it transitions into the heart notes, sweet accords of vanilla and tonka bean start to emerge. This sweetness isn’t as smooth or creamy as Side Effect’s, but it’s still well-blended. The tobacco note is rich and masculine, adding depth without becoming cloying. This stage of the fragrance feels perfect for cooler weather and evening wear. In the dry-down, warm amber and a hint of woody notes come into play. The sweetness mellows out, and you're left with a comforting, slightly resinous warmth on the skin. While Side Effect offers a more velvety and creamy finish, After Effect leans slightly more dry and spice-forward. Still, in the air — where it matters most — the resemblance is striking. Performance-wise, After Effect holds its own surprisingly well for its price. It projects nicely for the first 2–3 hours, then settles into a close-to-skin scent that remains detectable for several more. With a few weeks of maceration, I expect the rougher top notes to smooth out and the overall balance to improve. Scent Profile: Top notes: Cinnamon, Rum — warm, spicy, slightly rough around the edges. Heart notes: Tonka Bean, Vanilla, Tobacco — sweet, masculine, and full-bodied. Base notes: Amber, Woody notes — cozy, resinous, skin-friendly finish. Final Thoughts: If you love Side Effect but can’t justify the price tag, After Effect is an absolute steal. At roughly 1/10th the price, you’re getting 90% of the olfactory experience. It’s ideal for fall and winter, especially for nighttime wear. With its warm, sensual aura and solid performance, this fragrance punches well above its weight class. EDIT 1 : After having both Farah and After Effect for 4 months, I can clearly say that if what you’re looking for is 'Side Effect,' then Farah is much closer to it and gives you that exact vibe. After Effect, on the other hand, is more masculine, dusty, and intense. It does remind me of Side Effect, but it’s definitely not the same.

After witnessing how fragrances by Initio fell from grace, i truly deem the best decision is to avoid the brand altogether. Like, there's a video out there that broke down how Initio scale down the quality of basically everything in their fragrance line. From the fragrance quality/performance itself, the presentation, packaging, everything (You can watch the full breakdown on YT by Brian's Broadcast) Yet we as consumers still have to whip out a hefty amount of cash for their product, which is plainly unjust. I therefore advocate for the clone and dupe fragrances to keep on their own game due to the egregious decisions made by the board of directors of some of the biggest name on the high end of the fragrance market as of late, such as Initio. Now, as for the fragrance. FW French Avenue After Effect. i'll give it a straight 9/10. Performance: 9/10 Easy 8 Hours. Without sweating, pollution, or other scents interfering this could push past 10-11 hours. Projection is bordering on beast mode. Scent: 8/10 Haven't smelled the original yet, but the notes listed are there. A bit of rubbery scent at the back, but nowhere near off-putting. Presentation: 8,3/10 for someone who doesn't know about perfumes, they'll assume you had a legit niche fragrance, on the 150-250$ range. The bottle is hefty, has some nice matte finishing on it. (which supports the aging process of the fragrance due to limited sunlight exposure). But for some reason mine has got a tiny leak on the sprayer neck. Price: 12/10 under 20$ (in my country). The absolute best thing about this fragrance, the best decision i've made so far.

Wow.......this one's pretty cool. Initial spray can be a little harsh but dries out smooth, a little sweet, dark, a little smoky and lightly spicy. (It actually reminds me a little of a sweet, smooth incense). This is beautiful! I'm not normally a fan of sweet scents (mainly because they aren't very masculine to me) but this is actually a very nice dark masculine sweet scent. So this will be a definite keeper for me. I did get a little of the BO and bitterness in the opening some people were talking about but as soon as it dried on my skin, it went away immediately (might be the alcohol and spices that makes that smell initially). It also seems to depend on how much or heavily you spray, I noticed. The lighter the spray the less I noticed it. I would downvote this scent if that smell stayed but it went away very quickly the very second the liquid dried. So, I'm not gonna get mad or discouraged with it. I haven't macerated it yet. Some reviewers have said that maceration takes care of this issue, so hopefully (fingers crossed) it will go away and smooth out. But I'm not too concerned since it doesn't stay long anyway. I still absolutely love this. The smell definitely matches the color of the bottle, if smells had colors. This is a really unique and beautifully dark scent. (Once it dries 😉) It's definitely worth trying. 👍 (yes I also blind bought, but it was love at first sniff for me)

As I have collected fragrances, some of them have been really stand-out as far as need for maturation goes. This is my number one on that list. When I first sprayed this fragrance, it smelled like... well you know when you accidentally set a tupperware container on the stove and it’s hotter than you thought it was and the plastic gets heated just enough to melt and sends a plume of some carcinogenic shite flying through your kitchen? It smelled a lot like that. I could tell that there was a nice, creamy perfume hiding in there somewhere, but the initial spray was very discouraging. Fast forward about a month and I have tested AE two more times. There has been zero improvement at this point. Another month passed and FINALLY, we have something worth reviewing. I love this fragrance. It smells expensive and unique. I definitely don’t expect to smell it on anyone else in public where I live. Granted, where I live also doesn’t yield many days where this is useful, but that’s okay! The boozy sandalwood accord is fantastic. Buyer beware though, anticipate a desperate need to let this one rest in a dark room for a couple months. I expect there to be even further improvements as time passes, but it is wonderful the way it is now. 3/10 when I pulled it out of the box, easy 8/10 after 2 months. Who knows what I’ll be working with after 6 months have passed!

I don't know how I happened upon a review of this but I was elated. I believe this was my very first M.E fragrance purchase. I had been living under a rock for so long, and I had never even come across clone/dupe frag vids. Right as I I was gearing up to make my seasonal frag purchases, I pulled out my decants. My Side Effect decant had literal drops left and had turned syrupy from the previous year. I was holding on to that bad boy for dear life until this! It's close who cares if it's not spot on IMO. I've learned that sampling helps a great deal so I suggest finding decants for these impressions as I went crazy buying full bottles and that is just not smart. Also, do what you want with your money. Do not let frags snob convince you of quality and ingredients and all this cheap b.s. We all hope the hundreds we spend on designer/niche goods are b/c of quality but we cannot verify that. It's one of the greatest lies told and sold if you ask me. But snob on if that's your thing. It is all just, smelly-fkn-water. If it makes me feel special at $20 bucks vs $200, even better!