/fa/ - Fashion

Until recently, I thought Parfums Vintage Emperor was a good Aventus-like but not a great clone. I had been using my personal 2014 bottle of Aventus as a baseline for comparison, and Emperor packs too much dry birch and green fruit to stand in for that particular bottle. Emperor also lacks the prominent currant and vanilla that are characteristic of Aventus as I have always known it.
I recently ordered a fresh 2019 vintage flacon of Aventus and received it this week. Having tested modern, fresh Aventus for the first time in maybe ever, I have to say that Emperor EdP copies it more or less perfectly.
So what are the disadvantages of buying the top shelf clone (PV) over genuine Creed? Well, my previous Aventus flacons matured over time, developing more prominent vanilla and currant notes. I'm not sure Emperor will do the same as my bottle ages or whether it will continue to smell specifically like fresh, green Aventus. It'll be interesting to see. The other disadvantage that I see for PV is that it's really not much cheaper than genuine Aventus. Yeah $159 for the 100 mL EdP is a steep discount compared to $435 for a 100 mL bottle of Aventus at retail or even $295 on the gray market sites. But you can find 250 mL flacons from reputable sellers on eBay for around $400, which works out to exactly the same price per 100 mL as Emperor - $160.