Fresco For Men by Ilum Dean, 2012

Let's recap for a second.  Early 2013, around February I think, a few Youtube reviewers were claiming that this fragrance smelled really similar to Aventus for 1/6 of the price and a lot of people ordered it to see what it was about and there was a lot of discussion.  5 months later, we don't hear much about it, so it's clearly a fad.

 

Moreover, Ilum Dean isn't even a real fashion house.  They have no brick-and-mortar business and the sample that was sent to me was from a guy in his apartment. Also, they claim to be a fashion house, but only have one product: their fragrance.  If the cheap web design rife with spelling errors wasn't enough, if you go to the Terms & Conditions as well the Disclaimer pages, they say "Coming Soon".  What actual company would do that?

 

Okay, Fresco is essentially, a DIY (do it yourself).  And for a Do It Yourself, it's decent.  For an actual fragrance not so much.

 

It smells probably 1/3 like Aventus.  Enough to notice a slight similarity, but not enough to ever mistake the two.  It also smells a little bit like Bleecker Street, especially with it's grassy notes.  However, it just lacks the well made base of vanilla, birch and ambergris that makes Aventus so special.  As others have said, it's a much more lighter, inoffensive and wearable (of course, spraying less Aventus is an option too). 

 

The key point is that this won't replace Aventus anytime soon and you are better off spending the money toward a decant of Aventus.  If you have low standards and collect just about anything, this is an alright fragrance that would probably be middle of the road compared to most designer/celebrity fragrances.  However, this wouldn't be a good choice if you are selective about what you buy.

 

Just the dishonesty of the maker alone turns me off.  

As Fresco's alleged allure is it is an Aventus clone at 1/6th the cost, I think instead of my usual review I should just get right down to the comparison of the two scents as I have one on each arm.

Fresco's open on skin is very close to the Aventus innovative synthetic pineapple minus a bit of the acidic energy derived from the apple Aventus has. It smells very pleasant after the first 30 seconds of being more alcohol than anything else but cleans up nicely into a relatively soft, muted fruit that dominates its entire linear development. As it makes its way to the heart phase, I get a bit of the smoky dry-down of Aventus with Fresco but much less intense and cloying. The primary difference between the two scents overall is Aventus is *much* more potent and projects a heck of a lot more with a stronger focus on the synthetic smoke. In my case, I view these Aventus attributes as deficiencies, as it is just so overbearing and synthetic that it drives me crazy the longer I wear it. With Fresco, even though the scent profile is nearly identical throughout, it is much more wearable as it does not get cloying like Aventus over time and focuses more on the fruity aspects of Aventus' open, even through the smoky phase later-on. Fresco due to its lower potency and projection should be able to be worn to work a lot more readily without one worrying the entire office will smell them. Projection and longevity are both average with Fresco lasting about 8 hours.

If I could only own one of the two scents being compared here it would be the Fresco. Luckily I don't have to own either, as I dislike Aventus and am relatively indifferent to Fresco. If cloning Aventus "on the cheap" was Ilum Deam's goal, however, they get a gold star and a 3 out of 5 star overall rating from me.