Morning Chess

Morning Chess is my first try from Vilhelm Parfumerie and I'm delighted to finally sample it after seeing it around a lot. The scent is fruity, creamy, slightly woody, slightly smoky, and yes, my immediate thought upon applying it was that it smelled a bit like Creed Aventus. It wasn’t apparent from the note listing that this would be the case but even without pineapple or blackcurrant in the notes specifically, it nonetheless does have some fruity qualities that resemble the Creed superstar, though admittedly it’s not nearly as similar as, say, Creed Cedrat Boise, or the scores of seemingly very deliberate clones. To solely compare Morning Chess to Aventus is to sell it short and oversimplify it, but it’s the elephant in the room. That said, though, it’s creamier, darker, and dare I say a bit sweeter than Aventus, and it that respect, it sort of stands out in its own ground as a more woody/smoky/resinous and therefore cold-weather-friendly combination. Despite the only fruit listed being bergamot, it does have a sort of bright fruitiness to it along the lines of a pineapple or blackcurrant, but what I think is happening here is that it’s a mix of the bergamot and a fairly liberal use of galbanum that foster the sweet, creamy vibe that rather sufficiently feels like fruit. The other main notes are leather, patchouli, and black amber, and I can’t say I get much of any of these. Overall, it’s a really nice fragrance and I’m instantly a fan. It’s somehow fresh, delicious, and a bit dark and provocative all at once, and I enjoy that, compared to Aventus, it’s relatively dense and more cold-weather-friendly despite being an overall year-round-pleasant, gender-and-situation-versatile offering. The overall performance leaves a bit to be desired, though, at least on this initial wearing, which seems to be contrary to the consensus I’m seeing online, and since perfume generally lasts a long time on my skin, it might need some more tries. Still, with the retail pricing of $245 for 50ml (Aedes and Saks sell it, to name a couple), it really falls into the category of one that I’d need to totally love in order to buy it, and I’m not sure I’m there yet, despite it being great. 8 out of 10

"Morning Chess" known for taking it's inspiration from @ventus, differs with the inspired scent with a drier and slightly greener take and adding a mature but soothing smooth suede like leathery accord. It doesn't have the pineapple many likes but in place is the citrusy bergamot. However the bergamot here doesn't hold and stays, unlike in @ventus the pineapple stays as other notes develop. As the scent develops it shifts away and becomes a separate scent. It gets abit Ambery with some patchouli support towards the end. On clothes it's also more musculine and mature. I'm sure there'll be many fans of this scent development for the dna. A bottle of Morning Chess doesn't come cheap so if you are looking at something similar or even better, perhaps you can look towards the perfumer's creation. The nose behind this fragrance is Jérôme Epinett. He is the man behind the original Zara Vibrant Leather and The Orchid Man Frapin. However I find that Morning Chess has similarities to one of his newer creation also under Zara, namely Vibrant Leather Extreme in the use of black leather and patchouli, not exactly the same since VLE has some candy accord to associate it with 540 too. Personally, I really like leather take on the dna and for those looking for a more prominent leather in the dna, you can look at Invincible Bergamot Hugo Boss. The bottle's presentation is nice and unique but with it's design, spraying becomes slightly clumsy with my smaller palm and fingers. Longetivity is pretty decent half day to 8 hours thereabouts. If you like a more mature and musculine take on the dna with some green, leather and patchouli at the end, try Morning Chess.

Ok, so where do I even start... First of all, while this has an Aventus vibe, it is not a clone and quite different. I used Aventus back in 2012 when the quality was high and the scent was smokey. Morning Chess has a similar smokeyness to it but no pineapple note. Instead, we got bergamot which works quite nicely. Now some people say that this smells similar to a Zara fragrance called "Vibrant Leather". I cannot confirm this as Vibrant Leather is out of production. Apparently there is a new Zara fragrance which is similar to this one, but has an awful performance. So why even bother if the cheapie has no performance? Morning Chess smells great and has a good performance. I tried newer batches of Aventus and they straight out suck, both in scent and performance. While Morning Chess is miles better than current Aventus batches, I will compare the old Aventus (good luck finding it) with Morning Chess and give my interpretations. Old Aventus Batches: Napoleon returning victorious from the battlefield. Confident. Morning Chess: A well spoken and charming Dandy. Confident as well. A few hours on the skin I get a mix of smokey bergamot and a hint of patchouli. The performance is good enough, I wear this to the office currently with 2 small sprays and it lasts for roughly 6 hours on me. The real Aventus is gone for a long time already and this is my personal replacement for it. New signature scent! 4/5 my only complaint is that it could last longer.

This is what I wanted Aventus to be for me. I absolutely love Aventus Cologne but not so much the original. This gives me the vibe of Aventus Cologne mixed with PE. It is definitely more green than Aventus Cologne but has that really sexy alluring scent trail that I miss from the very first formulations of the OG Aventus that were more aromatic in my opinion. I really love this scent a lot; I agree that the performance is a slight issue as it really is not the best. For the $250 price point at retail I have experienced much worse in the niche world. Cough Cough (Much Ado About The Duke) although that's one of my all time favorite smells ;). This is a solid ass fragrance if you have the budget for it. You can wear this anywhere, anytime and feel confident and like a don. This scent really gives you that "Im the boss" feeling. Great for a signature if that's within your budget and great as a splurge for a special occasion scent as well. This does it all and for not a terrible price tag. You can sense the quality in this scent from the presentation to the bottle to the smell. This really does it all and says "I'm here to get stuff done".

This is quite the fragrance! Just to get this out of the way now, this is not a Aventus clone to my nose, yes there is a pineapple top note which is very heavy and prominent on the top and mid but that is where the similarities end. I would say this is closer to hacivat but more balanced, less sweet/less cloying, just about as long lasting but more projecting with a much better scent trail. This is ALL Pineapple and Leather! Pineapple is very strong in opening that lasts for over an hour blending seamlessly into the mid where the distinct leather note comes in...lasting to the base 2hrs in. Once it hits the base its 90% leather with the pineapple just there adding a slight sweetness. Lasts all day on skin and clothes, scent bubble is there for 4+ hrs. To me this is 50ml worthy for sure, while not redundant if you have Aventus they are 'similar' but Morning Chess is just as high quality, lasts longer (longer lasting than any Aventus made after 2017) and best of all its cheaper even at full retail. I picked up 4 2ml samples from Twisted Lily, used those up and bought a full 50ml bottle. 8.5/10