How To: Find Similar Fragrances
A quick guide on fragrance searching
Whether you are looking for new fragrances that are similar to ones you already love, trying to see all the ways a certain note can be used, or trying to replace a discontinued love, knowing how to find look through fragrances by notes and finding samples to test is an integral part of curating your nose or your collection.
Step 1: Original Fragrance
Whatever fragrance you are basing your search on, you have to know what the most important notes in that fragrance are, that way you can isolate what you want to search by. Perfumes are made up of many notes and sometimes not all of them play a starring role. Decide which parts of your fragrance you want to find in new ones.
I’m going to make this a case study on the recently discontinued Miss Dior flanker Absolutely Blooming. What set this one apart from the others in the line was the use of sweet berries, especially when contrasted with the Miss Dior EDP. Peony, rose, and musk are present in both, but Absolutely Blooming included raspberry and black currant.
When searching by notes, choose a few standouts that you want to see in the new perfumes you try. For an Absolutely Blooming replacement, we will likely want to keep at least one note from each tier, and possibly two top notes. Don’t restrict yourself too much; just because another fragrance has a nearly identical notes list doesn’t mean it will smell the same. Choose the handful of notes you really love the most and search by those.
Step 2: Search
This is one of the best functions of the website Fragrantica: the ability to search perfumes by notes. Obviously it is limited to what notes the perfumer or brand has listed, as Fragrantica does not add notes beyond what is officially confirmed, which is another reason to be selective about the notes you search by. Under their Perfumes drop down is a button to search by notes:
It will take you to a screen that will allow you to type in notes and it will start filtering all the fragrances in the database to show you ones that include ALL the notes you search by:
Start typing in notes and see what pops up! For an Absolutely Blooming replacement, I decided to look for fragrances that included raspberry, rose, and musk, since I think those are the core of what make up MD:AB. Those are incredibly popular fragrance notes, and so the list is quite long. You will likely not encounter this problem if using more obscure notes and combinations like honey, mint, and gasoline.
You also have the option of excluding notes, in the red box, if you want to avoid notes you know you dislike. If Absolutely Blooming was almost perfect but you did not enjoy the pink pepper, putting rose and peony in the green box and pink pepper in the red will sort out the undesired.
Here is the first 6 rows of the list brought back to me after searching:
I will be honest, I am not entirely sure how Fragrantica orders these results, although popularity seems to be a good guess. Powerhouse designers usually end up near the top with very obscure results at the bottom. Since I am looking for a designer replacement, this will benefit me, but if you are trying to find niche and indie results using the search by notes function, you will have to scroll down a bit to find them.
Step 3: Pyramid of Needs (Notes)
Now just start opening up the various fragrances and look for similarities. In this list, a few of the top fragrance matches have also been discontinued, so I won’t include those. Otherwise, I opened quite a few, looking for similar notes lists, but also similar vibes. MDAB had an even mix of peony and rose for a relatively well blended pink floral middle, so anything focused too hard on rose or peony may not be what we’re looking for. However, Absolutely Blooming also had a “sophisticated” air to it, so a warm base and slightly spicy edge is also preferable in a new fragrance.
First stop is the notes pyramid. This will be the quickest way to guess whether or not the new fragrance will be similar to the old or if you’ll even enjoy trying it. First up is Giorgio Armani’s Pivoine Suzhou from their Prive line’s Les Eaux collection:
“Pivoine” is peony in French, and Suzhou is the name of the Chinese gardens that inspired the creation of this fragrance, so it is a peony focused scent but has rose to balance and add complexity to the florals. We lose the tart blackcurrant and sweet pomegranate as the fruits, instead getting mandarin orange which will be a little sweet, but still a zingy green citrus. The base adds amber and patchouli, which again will add some warmth and depth. While this may make the dry down a little more aromatic than Absolutely Blooming, the inclusion of the amber might make the florals last a little longer.
Another fairly similar fragrance would be Coach’s classic Coach the Fragrance:
Rather than pomegranate we get pear, which often has a soft green juiciness to it. The smooth and gentle pear sets up the inclusion of creamy gardenia quite well, but this does mean that there’s a possibility the florals are quite cloying rather than fresh and uplifting. Suede and cashmere paired with musk will likely create a very smooth, creamy dry down as well, everything in the notes list being quite soft and sweet. While the opener of Coach may be just as bright and fruity as Miss Dior, the dry down will likely be cozier and creamier than the plain musk of Absolutely Blooming. I think this means it will wear well in many occasions and be generally appealing, even if the notes are a bit different.
I changed up the search slightly to look for black currant with rose and musk, replacing the raspberry to see what else was available. This led me to Mancera’s Roses Greedy:
This is a much more varied fruit opener, with peach and mandarin orange replacing the pomegranate and raspberry. As with Pivoine Suzhou, mandarin orange is often a bright citrus with a leafy green quality to it, while peach has a slightly sweet, slightly pithy edge to it. Pink pepper and black currant are present in both, with a coconut addition, which likely starts the fragrance off with a creaminess that continues into the jasmine mid notes. Jasmine and flowers add complexity to the rose, as opposed to the peony present in Absolutely Blooming. The base of Roses Greedy is more sweet and heavy than Absolutely Blooming, which will help give it that “sexy and sophisticated” air. The creamy thread will continue into the musk, with rich vanilla mixing with warm amber for a deep dry down. The base may be a little more heavy and this will likely be a more rose forward scent, but I would check this one out simply for a matching vibe, rather than direct notes matching.
Step 4: Others’ Opinions
I would suggest reading reviews to help you narrow down suitable candidates if you’re still undecided on what to try, but be warned that as with any opinion, take reviews with a grain of salt and know it’s better to smell the fragrance and form your own opinion than to rely on others. We all smell things differently, we enjoy different scents, and most importantly, fragrances react on the skin different on everyone.
A few reviews for Pivoine Suzhou:
Pink peonies and feminine grace. This perfume blasts pink all over you in its opening. Pink pepper, pink peonies and juicy raspberries. I was blown away by the first spray. It is as floral as well as fruity with a slight hint of sweetness.
A simple and beautiful fragrance. It mostly smells like peony, a fresh floral, like if you would smell a fresh flower in the garden.
This is lovely perfume. It so so feminine, clean, floral opening after it settled down it smell so delightful. I couldn't stop smelling my wrist .clean expensive Musky floral and crisps of citrus & soapy notes.
Dissenting opinions remark on the lack of originality and personality, being that rose and peony are very popular and widely used notes (but sometimes a classic is a classic for a reason). Some also mention that the scent can turn on their skin, so while I would look into this one as an Absolutely Blooming replacement, I would definitely sample it first rather than buying a full bottle.
Reviews for Coach the Fragrance:
This is such a classy, timeless, everyday scent. All the notes come out beautifully and work so well together. It's not super fancy or innovative, but that's exactly why I think it works so well. Universal fragrances like this are needed in everyone's collection.
It has a very likeable top of raspberry and pear. Underneath rose and dewy cyclamen. It feels honeyed and very feminine. Sometimes I find it delightful, sometimes I find it too simple.
I like this scent. It’s nothing special or innovative but wearing it makes me feel clean and classy. The dry down is nice if unmemorable
Critical reviews also note a lack of originality, but mention that this quality makes it “safe” and “appropriate” for everything from work to weddings. Some call it soapy and clean and a few say it’s a little powdery, likely due to the gardenia, so this one would probably be the least like MD:AB, and we seem to lose that "sexy and sophisticated” vibe, but still worth a sniff since Coach is a widely available brand.
A few for Roses Greedy:
Beautiful powdery, musky, soapy rose fragrance. A clean-girl type of fragrance. It does have a designer-rose-fragrance vibe, like Narcisco rose-musk fragrances, but Roses Greedy is way more interesting and has better perfomance.
Everyone talks about how this smells like a pretty bouquet of flowers but there’s something so much deeper than that, it’s more complex and seductive.
This smells exactly like a fresh rose garden but so sweet. I absolutely love this. It is probably [my] favorite of all time.
There seems to be a little division on whether or not this is sexy or not, and there are comparisons to other rose forward fragrances that are similar, but overall this seems to be a safe fragrance for those who like rose.
Step 4: Sniff or Sample
The last step is just to find the perfume in store so you can smell it in person without spending any money, or finding samples available online, which will be more likely with perfumes that are difficult to come by.
In our case, we are lucky that Coach is carried at Ulta, so that one would be easy to stop in and test at a local store.1 In my area, it looks like only the stores in wealthier and higher traffic areas have it available in store, so it may not be as widely accessible as some of their other offerings, but easier than ordering samples.
Otherwise, for both Roses Greedy and Pivoine Suzhou, samples are likely the next step in the process, unless you feel confident enough to blind buy.2 A few of my favorite sites for sourcing samples are:
Ministry of Scent - they carry mainly niche and indie. They have the best prices ($5 for a 1.5mL spray) but also have the smallest selection in comparison to other sites. I usually check here first, then go to other sites
Twisted Lily - very wide selection of both niche and designer as well as indie and mainstream, plus very competitive pricing, with samples ranging from $5-10. They only come in the 2mL sample spray size, but are often from the brand officially as well as being hand decanted.
ScentSplit - carries almost everything you can think of and has a good VIP program that grants a standing % off all orders. They also decant into a wide variety of sizes, from 1mL dab samples to 9mL travel sprays, with prices scaling to match. Usually has the highest prices on popular fragrances but if you use a welcome or return coupon code (usually for 10% off) the prices are comparable to other sites. They occasionally adjust prices to popularity, meaning that you may get a less popular scent sample for a good price! They also often have perfumes that have been discontinued or reformulated. The pricing will reflect their scarcity but you may be able to test something you can’t otherwise get your hands on.
DecantX - also has an extremely wide variety of brands and several decant sizes with scaling prices. Prices vary here depending on bottle price, popularity and availability, just the same as ScentSplit and they also have a revolving number of % off coupon codes. They also have a good sale section which will offer discounts on any size decant from the fragrance included.
Olfactif - carries weird and hard to find fragrances and has a straightforward pricing structure, from $8-12 per 2mL sample, but has one of the most annoying websites to use.
In our case, only ScentSplit had both Armani Prive’s Pivoine Suzhou and Mancera’s Roses Greedy, both at very competitive prices. From there, buy and spray your samples and see if you like them. If not, loop back to step one and try again!
End Note
In this little guide I did focus on notes matching an existing fragrance, but search by notes is also an amazing function if you’ve concocted a little mixture in your head and want to see if someone else has already made it. When I searched for milk and violet, I found Zoologist’s Cow; when I searched for rose, mint, and milk, I found Givenchy’s Very Irresistible Summer Cocktail (2008) (it’s been on my eBay to buy for some time now), and when I search for peach, tea, and lily of the valley I find Yue Tu by Strangers Parfumerie, a brand that’s been on my radar for a while. Make something up in your head and play around!
Noting here that this is a newsletter written by an author who resides in the US and in a highly populated urban metro area
I plan on writing an essay in the future about blind buys and how there’s no such thing as a safe blind buy. They all carry risk of failure!
Love your writings girl :> Keep it up