Fierte

This smells fucking fantastic! It skips right to Babycat's heart notes and dry down, leaving out the original scent's opening. I don't think they're distinguishable after 5 minutes. Maybe Fierte is around 3% sweeter than Babycat, but that's it. Fierte performs admirably, producing a pleasant smell bubble. I prefer Fierte to the original, believe it or not. I don't like the spice bomb of Babycats opening and this skips that while having much better performance. Not to mention the hugeeeee price difference. Babycat did not perform well for me, and it was no longer detectable on my skin after 30 minutes. I don't know why, it was really odd. Fierte, on the other hand, hits it out of the park. I'm extremely satisfied with the aroma of fierte. It's a beast for winter and it's very cozy while kind of formal at the same time. It's a very unisex scent but I feel Fierte is a little bit feminine leaning while Babycat was a tad bit masculine leaning. The only flaw with this perfume is the bottle and packaging. The cap, which is extremely heavy, comes undone in almost every box, scratching and destroying everything. And there are scratches on the cap and the top of my bottle. The fragrance world needs to reconsider their bottle and packaging. Update: I have since came across Nayel Queen and it's much better in terms of projection and longevity and it smells overall more similar to the original, even though it doesn't have the balsamic deeeeep vanilla suede that Fierte does so well. But if you want more performance and a closer to the original smell, I'd recommend Nayel Queen over Fierte.

Nose Note #959 I haven't yet tried Babycat. Even a sample is very expensive, but I had Rossendo Mateau #5 and yes, very similar, but where #5 just smelled like play-doh this offers ultimately the same experience, but making it more dark-vanillic. This vanilla boost makes all the difference, all the difference... This suddenly becomes so dark, alluring and addictive. Oh, yess... Just almost perfect. Besides this comparison to play-doh I don't know how to describe it (I'm apparently one of very few people that think this smells like play-doh by the way, other people just find it sweet, warm, cashmere-like). There are a ton of vanilla dominant perfumes, but this stands out a lot. So you just have to try it to know for yourself. I don't know if it's 100% blindbuy safe, but honestly I don't know who wouldn't like the sillage of this. A person can get used to wearing almost any perfume. The ones around you will probably appreciate this one, so, yeah. To me this is definately slightly more feminine. Very strong, super nicely done in terms of performance. Projection is not crazy, but it has everything you could expect from a luxury brand honestly. Except this costs like $30... 9/10, well, isn't this DNA a masterpiece?

Never smell Babycat, hard to find from where I live. I have a decant of Rifaaqat by Paris Corner, really like it and about to purchase the full bottle. Then I met Fierte, my friend sent a sample to me and said "you need to try this". Oh my God!! This is Rifaaqat on the next level! The love at first sniff! I bought this instead of Rifaaqat. The price is 3 times more expensive than Rifaaqat in my country. (still a cheapie anyway.) Rifaaqat to me, gives 'dry' feeling. Dry leather, dry wood, dry spice and dry vanilla pods. A bolder fragrance compare to Fierte. Fierte is smokier, smells like incense and vanilla with a dash of spice and sweetness. (I can't smell leather in this one.) Very well blended, very smooth, ticks all the boxes for me. - nice presentation (love the fox!) ✔️ - wonderful scent ✔️ - great projection ✔️ - great longevity ✔️ - reasonable price ✔️ - compliments getter ✔️ Projects like crazy for the first couple of hours then become the scent bubble around you. Lasts on skin for 12+ hrs. and lasts like forever on cloths. Signature scent worthy. Only downside I could think of is... it's gonna be suffocating and unbearable scent during scorching heat of summer in my country.

I'm not a big gourmand perfume or sweet perfume lover, but there is something so attractive to me about a spicy vanilla scent. I came across YSL Babaycat online and immediately learnt how expensive and hard to find it is. I managed to get a decanted sample from a South African decanting service and instantly fell in love!! I immediately wanted to purchase a big bottle but it is always out of stock at the only store in my country that sells it! And... THE PRICE. Anywho, I then found out about dupes and Rifaaqat by Paris Corner. Bought it and yuck... People talk about the "burnt rubber" smell in Babycat and Rifaaqat, didn't get that with Babycat but Rifaaqat has this gross sharp almost sour top note that leans incredibly masculine and puts me off the perfume completely. The dry down is nice. All in all I wasn't happy at all so I continued by search for a better dupe and here comes Fierte. My word.... It's nearly a 1:1 it's that good. Peppery, spicy flowing into a soft and sweet vanilla. As some of the other reviews said, it may be even better than Babycat! I am so so impressed and will most certainly keep buying this fragrance.

I honestly think that this is the perfect vanilla fragrance. My wife however does not like it because she says it's too sweet but for me this is the perfect balance of sweet vanilla and ambery darkness with a little bit of anchoring from woodiness in the base. I have never smelled YSL Babycat but if it smells anything like this or better then it's definitely full-bottle-worthy. Performance and projection are incredible 12 to 24 hours on clothes and 8 to 12 hours on skin even though my skin eats up fragrances. This is nothing to be played with. For me and this is a very personal rating I give this one a 10 out of 10 for presentation performance sent profile and complexity because it's not just some vanilla fragrance it has depth and it has character.