Amber Who Is Blonde!

At slightly less than ~$2 per ml you are getting a high quality fragrance at a very fair price. Meanwhile Blonde Amber from a discounter will be at best ~$6 per ml. While normally it retails for an absurd ~$12 per ml. as of this review. While this fragrance shares similarities with Blonde Amber, this is not a 1 to 1 Blonde Amber, and quite frankly it seems to try to do its own thing too, imo. To my nose there is a strong middle eastern flair present, to the point where it takes over a good chunk of the experience. Fortunately it is not synthetic or screechy at all, and nor should it be at this price point. But, again, you do get a solid tinge of funk. By no means is it challenging in anyway either. It is very fresh, clean, and it is appealing in its own right. The pastiest of westerners should be able to pull off this very easy going exotic no problem. But it is also kind of a generic exotic, like it won't be anything fancy. Lattafa's take on Blonde Amber is a bit more synthetic and screechy while having less exotic flair. Which gets you closer to that Blonde Amber profile at the cost of an overall cheaper experience. Otherwise you actually get far more amber here in this bottle with an overall higher quality experience. This is my first bottle from The Dua Brand and what has impressed me the most, by far, has to be the atomizer. My God, it is the best pressurizer I have experienced - beating out every expensive bottle in my collection! The presentation is excellent as well. The print on the label is high quality and smooth to the touch. The wooden cap, the yellow juice - all of it is very nice for the price point.

Very luxurious oriental scent, lots of spicy resins sweetened with vanilla, dates, and tonka. Like a gourmand oriental, but not the edible kind of sweetness. Gets more powdery and woody as it dries on my skin, but I find the boozy sweetness remains. This needed to sit for a few months when first received because it was quite harsh. Compared to Blonde Amber it wears sweeter on my skin at the opening, but they are very similar as it settles. Autumn and winter for this, lasts all day on skin and double on clothes.

Looks like the Dua haters came out in full force for these ratings. Unless you’re a perfumer, fragrance chemist of some sort, or very serious collector of high-end niche like Clive Christian, you won’t be able to tell the difference between this and the OG. And even then, to say they don’t have a resemblance is absurd. The original and the Dua version both smell spectacular. I’d much rather buy this one and pocket the other $400+.

I don’t know how this compares to the OG but it is spectacular by itself. Such a warm embrace of spices but it’s not too spicy, it smells very well blended. I was expecting a sharper hit and this comes out a bit sharp but quickly softens into this embrace of warming notes. It’s a new favorite, lasted all day on skin and days on days on clothes.

To preface this review, I'm neither a die hard hater nor per se lover of Dua, just a casual, occasional buyer. I just get bored of scents too easily to drop significant $$$ on some OG bottles that will likely be collecting dust in under one year. I am not a wanna be collector either, let's be honest it's a coverup for hoarding. I have a few things from Dua that I'm happy with, but AWIB is not it! Most importantly, it did NOT scratch my Blonde Amber itch. I got a 10ml AWIB "solo" a year ago bc it was a long shot. And, I was right. I've been waiting for it to "macerate" and smooth out, but the amber note is still too skanky, screechy and unrefined to me. It did get a tad smoother (juice got darker too) after a year, but I'm still not getting even 70% of that pure OPULENT Blonde Amber vibe. I'm getting "I'm wearing an average middle eastern style perfume" meh vibes. Lower your expectations with this one and don't buy into 30+ "positive reviews" on company's site!