Silver by Al Rehab

I heard a lot on this community (and on Fragrantica) how similar Al Rehab Silver was to Silver Mountain Water. I've seen a lot of comments all over the forum saying "They are nearly identical" and "Why pay $300 for Silver Mountain Water when I can pay 1/10th the price for Al Rehab Silver." I think I asked this question on the forum before, and I've read other questions of this sort, and nobody really provided a detailed answer. So, that's where I come in. I wanted to test it for myself and try to give a better answer to the community. For those who don't know, Silver Mountain Water is a niche perfume from the house of Creed, which is much more expensive than many other perfumes. I went through two 2.5 ml samples of Silver Mountain Water and I absolutely love it. Some projection issues aside, I think SMW is a masterpeice. But a triple digit price range IS expensive. Al Rehab Silver, I got it for $5 for 6ml roll-on oil, is a non-alcohol natural perfume from a small middle-eastern indie company Al Rehab. I bought this on Ebay and had to wait 3 weeks for it to ship from India, probably longer than I've had to wait for anything. So I'm testing both and I'm going to let you know the results. I've made threads like this before. I compared New Haarlem to Rochas Man, as well as Green Irish Tweed to Cool Water. And like those two cases, I am comparing two fragrances that are similar (or at least many people saying they are similar). In both of those cases, my verdict was that both had their merits and demerits, so it's up to you. In this case, my verdict is a little more decisive. Top Notes Silver Mountain Water opens up with an icy metallic fresh blackcurrant and herbal tea notes. It is fresh (a little similar to Millesime Imperial) but peppery at the same time. It really conveys the image of water running down a snow ice mountain as Olivier Creed intended. Al Rehab Silver, in the first few minutes, opens similar to Hamptons by Bond no 9. (which is another knockoff of Silver Mountain Water). It is a little bit more citrus heavy than SMW, just like Hamptons. So, with the tea note, it gives off an sweetened lemon ice tea drink vibe, just like Hamptons. Al Rehab stays like that on paper, but on the skin (and I've tried multiple different parts of my body) it changes. Dry Down The drydown of Silver Mountain Water make it lot more subtle, but it still is similar to the opening. Al Rehab Silver does become a little metallic. It reminds me slightly of silver metal, but never a sparkly snowy mountain. Al Rehab gets to be quite floral. Some people I know who I asked said it smells like roses or flowers, which I understand and can agree with. After the first hour, it stops smelling anything like SMW, if it ever did. But it still has an unclean dirtiness about it, where it may smell a little bit like body odor. Silver is a multidimensional fragrance. You could say it fresh/citrusy, floral, and metallic at the same time. And based on where you spray it and how long since it was sprayed, your experience may vary. Sometimes, I get a little SMW out of it. More often, I see it as a clone of Bond's Hamptons. The key point is that if no one of the forum said the two were similar, and I happened to test Silver for a random reason, I would not have made that association. I might have said it smelled a little bit like SMW, but I wouldn't have called it a clone. Silver won't make you smell fresh and clean. It won't project the same aura of cleanness as SMW. It will just smell like you applied a bunch of cheap synthetic cologne, on caliber with Axe/Lynx or Tag. Creed colognes specialize in freshness and having a smell thats natural with distinguished ingredients. Silver just doesn't do that. Projection/Longevity The perfume oil of ARS (Al-Rehab Silver) projects much better, at least early on, but like most other natural perfume oils it fades away in a few hours. It's much stronger than SMW (Silver Mountain Water), and I could even smell it through the packaging. Silver Mountain Water projects for an hour or two, but stays close to the skin for the next few hours. SMW actually has great longevity, though it is very subtle and you have to have a great nose to pick it up. Try spraying clothes if your skin doesn't project it well enough. Still, you can carry at atomizer of SMW or ARS. Cost To be fair, people have been exaggerating the price difference. Especially because you can buy legit greymarket Creeds like SMW on websites like Fragrancenet ($150 for 125 ml and $80 for 2.5 oz). Also, Al Rehab is only cheap because it sells their oils in small quantities. Paying $30 for 30ml is still $1 per ml, even if you are paying less for less. SMW comes out to about slightly more than $1 per ml. The oil is more concentrated and therefore more expensive than the sprayer of Silver, but even the Sprayer price would be $50+ for 125 milliliters. And at that priceyou can buy much better fragrances. In the end, the price difference is very minimal (and much less significant than people have been saying). It's not like $30 for 4.2 of Cool Water vs. $150 for 4.2 of Green Irish Tweed, which is a big price difference. The pricing is so similar that they can be compared on an even standard. SMW sells in larger quantities and Al Rehab sells in smaller quantities - that's the only huge difference. But even if Silver were half the price it was, I still wouldn't buy it. Overall In the end, Silver Mountain Water is easily the better choice and if you like it, it's easily worth the asking price. If you don't like it, you probably won't like Silver either. Silver is an interesting scent, but not worth owning in my opinion. There are much better things in my collection to the point where I probably won't wear Silver very often. That said, I'd rather wear Silver than nothing, but still it doesn't even compare to even the most average and mundane bottles in my collection (much less SMW). If you have a big collection, chances are Al Rehab's Silver won't impress you. And even if you have a small collection, there are much better fragrances to explore. Verdict Try Silver Mountain Water. Buy it if you like it. Don't bother with Al Rehab's Silver at all. So I hope this helps the people who are thinking of buying Silver Mountain Water (but who are not doing so because they heard there was a cheaper version of it). Hopefully this is your green light to just go out and get it.

OK, so Ive had a bottle of this in my wardrobe for a little while now and never really fussed over it much. That is until I started seeing blogs favourably comparing this to the much more expensive Creed Silver Mountain Water. I was then so intrigued that I decided to do a full comparison of the two; first on paper, then on skin. On paper, both start almost identical. Im hit with a synthetic cool note and a natural citrus and berry. The SMW has a bit more of a berry vibe to it, whereas the Silver has more of a lemony vibe. 10 minutes later and its not too difficult to still tell the difference; due to the continuing dominant berry note in the Creed. 1 hour later and the fruitiness has all but disappeared from both. Whats left is a very pleasant and almost herbal tea like feeling. Im sure theres a floral component here to both, but its mixed well enough that I cant really distinguish what it is. Maybe violet? 6 hours later and the Creed has a slightly different stronger musky drydown. The Silver has a light muskiness to it, yet its still a noticeable musk. In then end, on paper you can tell the difference, as the Creeds opening is more berry and the sillage is stronger on the card after 6 hours. On skin, the result is not too different for me. Neither seems to have much sillage or longevity past 5 or 6 hours (despite both being of EDP strength) and the only real difference of note is that the Creed seems sweeter and the Silver seems more citrus. In drydown, the Creeds musky base is slightly more preferable. Both are still strikingly similar in their construction and end result. As much as I like SMW (not love), I probably wont ever spring again for another full bottle. In contrast, when you consider that the retail cost of 30mls of Silver EDP is approximately AUS$6.50 and the retail cost of 30mls of Creed SMW costs approximately AUS$90, I will no doubt consider buying another bottle of Silver when (if ever) my current bottle is empty. Value for money on Silver is phenomenal! In summary, Silver really is a very pleasant fragrance. It has a nice cool fruity citrus opening and dries down to a muted floral and tea heart with a noticeable clean light musk base. If you are buying this just as a straight cheaper substitute for Creeds SMW, its very very close; but based on smell alone (not $) I think that the Creed still comes off rather a bit better in the long run