Emperor Extrait

Dear Reader, Parfums Vintage Emperor Extrait and Creed Aventus. Which one should you buy? This is the question running through your mind as you ponder price, longevity, batch variations, and prestige. I have tested CDNIM EDT, CDNIM LE Parfum, Al Haramain L'Aventure Eau De Parfum, Parfums Vintage Emperor EDP, a sample of 2019 Creed Aventus (batch unknown, but was purchased through a reputable decant website.), and I currently own a 100ml bottle of Creed Aventus 22A11A. All of this being said, I have not tried any grail batches like 13z01. Quite frankly, I am not in a position financially to justify the steep prices on vintage batches. I would like to buy three or four vintage bottles in the future from the years 2010, 2013, 2015 or 16, and 2019. That's a ways out, but I digress. I'll talk a bit about the other offerings/Aventus clones I've tried before diving into Emperor Extrait. DISCLAIMER: The fragrances I list below are all being rated/compared to my earliest Creed Aventus experience back in 2019. 1. Club De Nuit Intense Man Eau De Toilette (CDNIM EDT). This was the second fragrance I ever purchased in my fragrance journey. The first being Nautica Voyage. CDNIM EDT's opening is synthetic 100%. When you put your nose into your wrist where you sprayed, you'll be greeted with alcohol and synthetic lemon. That being said, it smells much better if you catch a whiff of it in the air during the opening. About 20 - 30 minutes later, CDNIM EDT becomes much smoother and starts to transform into an amazing smelling fragrance! The first bottle I bought was back in 2017 I believe, and I now own a 2022 bottle. They both smell great and last a very long time. I can smell the dry down of CDNIM EDT projecting for at least 8 - 10 hours easy. It'll last 24+ hours as a skin scent. This stuff is incredibly potent. It smells about 90% like Creed Aventus in the dry down. At least compared to the 2019 sample I tried. CDNIM EDT is a solid 8/10 in my opinion and for the price at around $35 - $40, it's pretty hard to beat. 2. Club De Nuit Intense Man Limited Edition Parfum (CDNIM LE Parfum). This just smells weird. At least the bottle I got. It smells a lot more pungent/sour than the EDT and I will probably never wear it again. Maybe I just got a bad batch? Don't know, but I ordered it off of Amazon from a reputable seller. I give this one a 3/10. 3. Al Haramain L'Aventure Eau De Parfum (AHL EDP). This clone is simply too sweet. I can tell it is trying to match Aventus, but it's just not a good clone in my opinion. Very linear and synthetic. Doesn't smell terrible though so I'll give it a 5/10. 4. Parfums Vintage Emperor EDP (PVE EDP). This is basically the brighter and louder version of the Extrait. Makes sense. The top notes are tart compared to the sweeter pineapple opening in Aventus, but they aren’t unpleasant. Some people say the opening smells like bug spray. If you bury your nose into your wrist, then I can kind of smell what they are talking about, but in the air it smells great! A sample of this stuff is what led me down the PV path to begin with. I will give it a 9/10 because it isn't quite as smooth/rich smelling compared to 2019 Aventus. 5. Creed Aventus 22A11A. Well, here we have it. A 22 batch vs a 19 batch (once again, my sample of Creed Aventus was bought in 2019. I assume it was a 19 batch.). Anyone who tells you that there are no batch variations with Creed Aventus is simply incompetent or lying to you. It's like saying Family Size bags of chips are the same size now as they were 15 years ago. It's just simply not true. There's even a deeper green tinge to older batches vs newer ones. That being said, my 19 sample opened up beautifully and proceeded to dry down into a heavenly scent. Didn't last that long though. I did test to see if I was going anosmic and after I asked some of my family members if they could smell it, they couldn't one hour after initial spray. Even with the lack of performance however, it was still the best smelling batch of Creed Aventus I ever had. Yes, even compared to my 100ml bottle of 22 batch. My 22A11A opens up very nice, not as good as the 19 sample, but very nice nonetheless. The dry down, however, is just... strange. Something is off. It's kind of sad to say this, but if I'm being honest, I like the dry down of CDNIM EDT more than I do my 22A11A batch of REAL Aventus. The reason why I capitalize real is because I know someone will say, "Oh you got a fake! You got scammed!" yatta yatta yatta. I bought my 22 batch from Finescents LLC on Ebay. A very reputable discounter. Bottom line is the opening of my 22 batch of Creed Aventus is really nice, but the dry down just smells off (compared to my assumed 2019 batch sample.). Hurts to say, but with the longevity being 2 to 3 hours on this one (skin scent by hour 1) and with the smell not being quite right, I'm gonna have to give 2022 Creed Aventus a 7/10. Factoring price into the equation, 4/10. For being $300 AT DISCOUNTERS, the price/performance and the QC of current Creed Aventus is a flat-out joke. So, with all of this in mind, this is what I think about Parfums Vintage Emperor Extrait. The stuff is amazing. Easy 10/10. Emperor Extrait is more like Creed Aventus than Creed Aventus is like Creed Aventus at this point. You can make the argument that part of the charm of Creed Aventus is the batch variations. To that I'd say, "There's a sucker born every day and you're most certainly one of 'em.". The majority of Creed is now owned by Blackrock. This means that if money wasn't the primary goal before the merger, it sure as hell is now. As long as people keep buying Creed Aventus, they will continue to charge exorbitant prices for a mediocre product. They're riding off the name at this point. Enter Parfums Vintage Emperor Extrait. $200 for a 100ml bottle. A lot of money on its own? Yes. A lot of money compared to current Creed Aventus in terms of value? HA! This is a steal! Emperor Extrait took Aventus' place by a long shot. Here are my detailed thoughts on the wearing experience of Parfums Vintage Emperor Extrait (I am doing a real time spray analysis). Upon initial spray, after letting the alcohol evaporate, you get a tart smell of citrus. About one minute in, it starts to smooth out a bit. Same citrus smell, but richer. As the fragrance dries down, it becomes this intoxicating, smooth, and rich scent that smells exactly like the dry down of my 2019 sample of Creed Aventus. I can smell Vanilla, Jasmine, Musk, and the Birch. I definitely wouldn't say it smells "smokey", but the Birch definitely adds the perfect little bite to an otherwise still very creamy and wonderful smelling dry down. This stuff is eternal. I sprayed a couple times on a fleece jacket I own and after a month or so, I can still smell it. The best part to me is that it isn't a "loud" fragrance. Extraits by nature sacrifice projection for longevity. It's always better to be discovered rather than announcing yourself when it comes to fragrance. It's classier. The best part of this fragrance is that it's light/fresh enough to wear during the summer, but also concentrated/sweet enough to wear during the winter time. It's extremely versatile and can easily be a signature scent all year-round. Again, Parfums Vintage Emperor Extrait is a solid 10/10 for me. To all of those who have stuck around in the review this long, thank you! Be sure to click that subscribe button, hit the like, and leave a comment if you want to see more of these... oh wait... this isn't YouTube... Hahaha. I know this was a fairly long-winded review, but I hope this helps anyone who is curious about Parfums Vintage Emperor Extrait! =) Take care! IJonFlying

Emperor Extrait is the best performing, best smelling Aventus clone, period. Your only option for the same thing smell and performance wise is to shell out the cash for a real vintage batch of Creed Aventus. This particular Aventus clone is cheaper ounce for ounce than current and especially vintage batches of Creed Aventus, it has improved performance compared to current and likely some prior batches of Aventus, and it may (to some people) have improved smell compared to current Creed Aventus batches and the same smell as vintage batches. It is not as prestigious to own PV Emperor Extrait as it is Creed Aventus. Should YOU buy the Emperor Extrait? It lasts longer than the non-extrait Emporer version by PV, and if you care about performance and smell but don't mind lack of Creed prestige and can afford the intermediate cost of this juice, then the answer is yes. Basically, here is what you are trying to balance with Aventus and it's clones: 1) Cost 2) Performance (sillage + longevity) 3) Smell 4) Prestige If cost, performance, and smell were all great, no one would clone and everyone would buy the real thing. Nautica Voyage is a great example of this. The only clone I know of tried to replicate the performance of the original batch - but I don't think it sold much because even current batches have great performance. In addition, although Nautica does not have particularly high prestige, it does have a degree of prestige. What, then, is the purpose of a clone? Clones provide 2 or 3 functions. They bring down the cost of a very expensive fragrance, they recreate now discontinued fragrances, or they take a scent (usually reformulated) and make the performance better. In the case of PV Emperor Extrait, it both brings down the price (compared to both the current Aventus offerings and the vintage batches that are still being sold) and it increases the performance compared to current Aventus offerings and possibly compared to vintage batches. What is arguable is whether or not smell is improved or degraded or neither for Emperor Extrait. Obviously this is subjective and has so many factors (current and vintage batch being compared, preferences of the person doing the smelling, how long the PV has been macerating, etc). Unless you have a photographic scent memory, I doubt you could tell which is which without a side-by-side smell allowing you to discern micro differences in each. So, which are you? **Money is no object** If you don't care about price, then buying a vintage batch of Aventus is a no brainer because you get everything you want in cost, performance, smell, and prestige. **Smell and performance trumps all, and I don't wear Supreme and I have some cash.** If you care about cost and performance and also care about smell, then for $150 or so PV Emperor Extrait gets you 8+ hours and great smell, but it is still costly (but not USD $600 costly). You won't feel the prestige of owning Creed. You might wonder if you are missing the nuances of the real deal, but you can live with that. **I want to know I'm wearing the real deal!** If you care about prestige but don't care about cost or performance, then get a newer batch of Aventus for $250 or so. You'll know that whatever Creed meant it to be, you are getting! Plus, you are directly supporting Creed and their product development if you get it from an authorized reseller. **Wish I had more money, but I want to smell like a million bucks!** If your main concern is cost, buy one of the cheaper clones like Explorer, CDNMI, Insurrection II Pure, or my favorite, Dunhill Desire Gold. You can get some decent colognes with tradeoffs in scent and/or performance for around $30-$80ish. You're welcome.

If you're an Aventus fan, this is an obvious dumb reach. Let me preface, that it is my opinion (lol) that Aventus died after the 120mls stopped coming out (17Q11), and this brand was created to lap up what Creed failed to continue providing. I've had more than three dozen batch variations of Aventus '10 to '21, and I must say it's not the same item that it once was -- the King is getting old, and tired! Similarly, I've tried dozens (literally, dozens) of Aventus "clones," (i.e. Afnan, Armaf, Al Haramain, Jo Milano, various other knockoffs like Alexandria, Dua, Fragrenza to Scentual Obsessions, other lesser known houses that do not have pages from EU/UK like Essenza, Pocket Scents, Perfumologist, so many to name -- literally ...), this is simply the best, best, best house of them all. "This one ring to rule them all!" Parfums Vintage does not lack quality, they provide quickly, and are offering various other takes and immitations/riffs of other popular houses with arguably better price point to scentual experience. Their presentation is A grade -- the packaging, the carded samples, the 50ml and 100ml bottle packaging and sleek gold-embossed lettering -- it's all top tier provision. Worthy mentions on here that are 100% worth your time from the brand that, at the time of me writing this review, may or not have a review page on Fragrantica are the following: - Beyond Noir (birch tar bomb!) - Pineapple Vintage "Classic" (Classic!!! Pineapple that was the item to start it all!) - Pineapple Vintage Noir (Is like PVC above, but with a bit of birch) - Pineapple Vintage Intense (impact notes turned way up) - Pineapple Vintage Intense Gold (musks, and pineapple sweetness) - Pineapple Vintage Intense The One (PVI extrait, high concentration) - Pineapple Vintage Limited Edition (PV Classic w/tuned up blackcurrant for a grape effect) - King / King Intense (PVC base with woods tuned up as impact notes) - Vanilla Intense (PVC with more emphasis on VANILLAAA) - Noir / Noir Intense (PVC with the birch notes tuned more intensely) - Emperor EDP / Extrait (this is the Extrait version, spoken about here) - Emperor Maximus (pineapple notes tuned up) - Emperor Napoleon (woods and vanilla tuned up) - Emperor Colossus (black currant tuned wayyy up) - Emperor Severus (2nd Gen Emperor base, licorice and very '16-esque) - Emperor Galerius (2nd Gen base, with Incense and very 16L01/16M01 tones) - Emperor Tiberius (Is a sweety rosey 16H11 type, very undulating and different to the nose) - Emperor Aurelius Noir (the DARK one with a lot of anise, and licorice-accord!) (I hope these help ... THIS HOUSE HAS SO MUCH NOSTALGIA FOR THE FRAG ENTHUSIAST WHO LOVES AVENTUS, YOU MUST SAMPLE!) Is the only frag that is 1:1 on par with Aventus as my favorite, perhaps moreso since Creed is a washup. All 19, 20, and 21 batches are so lackluster it's embarassing that I've even enjoyed the King before ... This is the only fragrance line that tries to bring back NOSTALIGIA of previously established home-run fragrances, adding a twist and a facelift refresh for thsoe who wish to parallel the original experience with a fresh, new remix! Where else can you go where you can see this type of product/experience offered?! 10/10 A+. Edit: New signature scent, but 15r11/14m01/13q01/12f01/11x01/10j01 will forever be my favorite.

This is tied for my favorite fragrance of all time and I've worn about 100 different designer and niche. For me this has a great development and 3 very distinct phases. The opening is a very juicy and mouth watering pineapple and bergamot that lasts about 2 hours for me. The mid I get more of the birch with still a good amount of freshness and fruitiness that lasts another 4-6 hours. And the drydown is dominated by musk and this lasts another 6-8 hours. The performance on this is unreal. I only ever use 1 or 2 sprays. Just to give you an idea: -I got a compliment from a cashier 5 feet away from me, 5 hours after I used put a single spray on under my shirt. -I can smell it on the necklines of my shirts near where I sprayed after they went through the wash -If I take a sniff from the atomizer (not spraying), I can smell it for the next few minutes. I will say that I only enjoy this in warm weather. Like 60F+, and ideally around 70-75 to where your skin feels warm to the touch. Something about the heat lets this lighten up properly. When I have worn this in colder weather it takes on more of a "dank" smell and the smoke becomes annoying. Also I think this is best worn outside. I tend to go a little noseblind to if I wear it indoors especially for the first few hours when it's projecting heavy, having some moving air outside helps avoid this. I love the juxtaposition of this both in the scent character (fresh and fruity while smoky and musky) and the vibe it gives off (fun and easygoing, yet masculine and bold). Since wearing this is such an intense experience for me I reserve it for more fun and special occasions. As far as similarity to Aventus I can only comment on a 2019 batch I tried. To me the Aventus was much drier and less juicy, more linear, and had more of that "dank" smell that I've heard people mention and which I do not enjoy. Some of this might come from the presence of oakmoss which is missing from Emperor. The longevity was similar but the projection was a lot less than Emperor. To be honest I did not enjoy wearing it at all. I know some of the older batches of Aventus might be better but I don't have the money or desire to hunt them down, to me Emperor gives me everything I want.

I got a sample in January with the PV Intense and Vanilla Intense. I picked up the Extrait sample by chance as I was actually interested in PV Intense which is the one which gets all of the attention in the Gents Scents facebook Group. The first spray of Emperor Extrait is not a case of "how close it it to Aventus". Emperor Extrait is an immediate throwback to Aventus but when Aventus was the best fragrance in the world (2011 - 2015). It is very different to PV Intense which is more it's own entity. Extrait however is full on Aventus my old friend. The opening is a hint of Apple, Blackcurrant and a touch of Pineapple. The main player here is the Bergamot with the Pineapple and camphorous peppery notes of Juniper supporting a woody undertone which is present but all is beautifully balanced. This is very well blended. In PV Intense the Pineapple comes in layers. in Emperor Extrait there is nothing sticking out here and it makes for a complexity which I thought was only remaining in bottles on eBay for $800 for specific older batches. In Emperor Extrait, the birch is well balanced and there is just enough Patchouli to provide a woody balance. This reminds me of a 2011 or a 2013 Aventus batch and is certainly stronger than a 2018 Aventus bottle that I bought and sold very quickly in December. I'm not sure what Creed are doing but the complexity of Aventus has long since been gutted from the composition from when it was GREAT. Emperor Extrait IS this great composition of old. What are Creed doing in 2019? I hear that they are producing a cologne version to match their watered down Aventus. Very, Very sad to see not only batch variations over the past few years and now we have batches which are looking silly next to a $450 price tag. Emperor Extrait is amazing. If you have never tried the older batches of Aventus which are over $800 then this is the answer. Some 2015 batches can be bought for $550 which are still a manageable option but I can easily see that Emperor will be a fantastic choice for those who are disillusioned with Aventus and Creed in general.