Drowning in Vanilla

This is a Nishane Ani dupe with a cheaper pricetag and stronger performance, and by all accounts it's pretty accurate. Dua's fragrance clones are a little weird in that they need to sit on the shelf for a month and mature a bit before they really "pop". For me this one was a cardamom bomb for a while, I let it sit for a few weeks after a few test sprays and now it's finally more vanilla-centric. One of my favorite vanillas in my collection. A gourmand-esque creamy vanilla paired with ginger, citrus and some spicy notes. Makes me think of a citrus creamsicle, except for classy adults. Perfectly unisex, maybe slightly female leaning since the sweet creamy vanilla is the centerpiece of this fragrance. Honestly could work well year round i think, even in summer. Dua knocked this one out of the park. Easily blind buy worthy, if you can stomach the embarassment of having a dupe instead of the OG. I know my wallet is happy with my choice.

One of my favorites from Dua. It’s a fantastic and sexy fragrance with very good performance, this fragrance last forever on skin and clothes.

It's nice. Definitely unisex. I mostly get juniper at the top which eases into a whipped vanilla frosting. Nishane calls this blue ginger but I don't have any experience with this note so my interpretation is juniper. This is a great performer. The projection is arms length for 4-6 hours on me and very sweet. It's quite an intense gourmand in that way which normally doesn't intimidate me but I haven't really come to terms with it. People rave about it though and other reviewers have said it is 95% similar to the original with a few opening discrepancies (which I cannot confirm since I don't like it enough to pursue). The cold opening makes me think to wear it in cold weather only and it does well in brisk temperatures. I'm not inclined to reach for it in warm weather but maybe I'm just being narrow-minded about that. All in all, nice to have but I wouldn't miss it if it went missing.

I’m usually pretty open to unisex scents and I’m also a big lover of spices but this pulls really masculine on me :/ I’m wondering if it’ll get sweeter over time or if I already know it isn’t for me. Hm. And so many mixed reviews on whether its actually a good dupe or not, I guess I’ll have to try another dupe (bc I can’t test Ani anywhere near where I live.) Edit 5/14: Today on my wrists atop a very faded lemon grass body oil it’s reminiscent of Grand Soir, one of my faves. Can’t stop sniffing, the benzoin is doing alot of heavy lifting. Last time I wore it on my inner elbow creases and I reeked of ambergris, so salty and radiant. Thats the note my partner loved, I think its intriguing if you don’t have much experience with it. Probably the smell of the decade. It’ll be something that smells vintage to us one day.

I ordered this one along with ottoman drowned in vanilla and aphrodisiac drowned in vanilla, and to be honest this one was just not for me it was my least favorite out of the three. Now I'm not saying this is a horrible fragrance, it's just not for me. On me the ginger, spicy, and herbal notes are just too strong and it's all that I can smell, even when it dries down. The aphrodisiac and ottoman versions at least eventually got sweeter or got some nice woody notes to them.