Honey Havane

Dua Fragrances' Honey Havane is one the house's newest and limited edition fragrances, and as its name and note breakdown suggest something vaguely along the lines of Thierry Mugler A*Men Pure Havane. Maybe they're in the same general category, but Honey Havane is a different experience for me overall. Honey Havane is dominated by honey and tobacco leaf, the balance between the sweet honey and sharp tobacco leaf being the front-and-center duel. With some sniffs, I get more honey, and with others, I get tobacco leaf. And that the tobacco is tobacco leaf is somewhat of a distinguishing characteristic, as its smell is somewhat greener than pipe tobacco or a burnt tobacco type of scent. Other notes include vanilla, which I find to pretty limited relative to the presence of honey as the sweetness-driving note, and perhaps some oud and amber, but they're surely in the background as well. Again, comparisons to Pure Havane are valid, though I don't get the "cherry" sweetness with which many (including myself) associate Pure Havane. Certainly the honeyed tobacco aspect is somewhat consistent between the two, as is the strength. Also, as with most of the A*Men line, patchouli factors in significantly, and this not the case in Honey Havane. Lastly, Honey Havane is not (at its sweetest point) as sweet as Pure Havane or even Wiseguys' Vegas Cologne, which might be the sweetest of the three. Again, they're all in the same general category but each has its own merits, and I'm happy to have all 3, including the latest, Honey Havane. HH's performance is outstanding---very powerful projection and outstanding longevity, which are becoming the norm for most Dua Fragrances in their extrait concentration, especially cold weather-leaning options like this. 8 out of 10

This fragrance is very similar to Pure Havane. It is sweet, just barely, in the slightest dimension floral, and had a oud base. I think this is a good fragrance if you like the Thierry Mugler line, but want something more unique. Amber is the main player, though, in the composition, which sets it apart from Pure Havane. Composition: Oud, amber, honey, tobacco, patchouli, some kind of flower.

The musk is heavy at least on my skin giving it a powdery vibe. Honey tobacco and musk. 1 of the earlier DUA frags but not really a fan of this as Insurrection II is a better bang for your buck option.

I’m not sure why this fragrance is getting some bad reviews as I feel the scent is very inoffensive, which for having Oud in it, is a pretty good feat... Maybe it’s because the note profile set it up to be something a little different than it is once you get your nose on it...? I have not seen any other reviews mention this, but to me, I get a really powdery honey with green tobacco smell right away. The fragrance is pretty linear although it does sweeten up a bit as it dries down with the vanilla coming into play a little bit later on. I really enjoy the honey note in this one more so than the one in the Mugler one... The HH honey is a realistic honey smell like you’re smelling it out of the jar which is less of a sweet scent than that of the Pure Havane note. I enjoy fragrances that have a powdery edge to them especially when it’s unexpected as it is in this one. I’m a fan of Honey Havane and feel it stands up on its own vs being compared to anything else out there. It’s an original blend for Dua so I don’t know if they were necessarily trying to mimic Pure Havane like people say. If you enjoy a less sweet version of Pure Havane with a slight powdery nuance to it then you’ll enjoy this one for sure!

I got a sample of this last year not knowing it was a relaunch...I don't know what took me this long to try it but it's not good at all! The notes sound good on paper—evoking Chergui meets Pardon (I foolishly thought)—what comes out is barely sweet with no pronounced honey nor tobacco, and a strange/sickly oily woodiness packaged as cocoa & oud. Even though it's "A Dua Original Blend," I should've looked it up to see that it's a variation of Pure Havane 😩 Some people are crazy to suggest it's anything like Parfums de Marly!

Not a fan of this juice. It is loud and lasts a long time but the smell is off putting. I also tried Electric Citrus and this fragrance is a straight out stink bomb. If you are trying to repel people this is your juice.

Is this basically an inexpensive fragrance oil "dupe" of Pure Havane?