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Affordable Alternatives

post #1 of 24
10/2/10 at 11:01am
Thread Starter 
What would you suggest as affordable alternatives to the following. Feel free to add your own expensive frags and their cheaper alternatives.

Green Irish Tweed
Silver Mountain Water
Himalaya
Aventus
Bois Du Portugal
Tobacco Vanille
Italian Cypress
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post #2 of 24
10/2/10 at 11:03am
GIT: Cool Water
Italian Cypress: Halston Z-14
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post #3 of 24
10/4/10 at 7:51am
GIT: Cool Water
Himalaya: Paco Rabanne XS
Tobacco Vanille: Tough one. Actually, the tobacco kinda goes away when it drys down, so you really just need a nice gourmand-like vanilla here. Not really that close, but my sample of Joop! Thrill gives me a nice dose of vanilla when I need it.
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post #4 of 24
10/4/10 at 7:56am
How about an alternative for musc ravageur?
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post #5 of 24
10/4/10 at 12:25pm
Only two I can think of are:

Green Irish Tweed - Cool Water
Italian Cypress - Polo
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post #6 of 24
10/4/10 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brenster View Post

How about an alternative for musc ravageur?

L'Erbolario - Meharees is the closest I have come to a twin of MR.
Try a search on it.
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post #7 of 24
10/4/10 at 12:30pm
italian cypress... halston's z-14 is almost identical, imo.
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post #8 of 24
10/4/10 at 12:38pm
I find Dunhill Pure to be more like GIT than CW. Actually I find CW to be nothing like GIT, they're both green, but that's about it. There's supposed to be a new CW flanker that I have yet to try or even hear much about that is a clone of GIT, which would be great, because I love both GIT and CW, and find them both to have huge differences. GIT is just a bit out of my price range at the moment.
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post #9 of 24
10/4/10 at 1:26pm
If you like BdP's drydown mostly, Qourum might work for you. For TV, you can try Mauboussin's original EdP. It's more of an impression of tobacco rather than a real tobacco note, but otherwise it's quite close (no chocolate note though).
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post #10 of 24
10/4/10 at 2:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brenster View Post

How about an alternative for musc ravageur?

Bulgari Black?
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post #11 of 24
10/4/10 at 2:07pm
How about one for Windsor? I can swear, and maybe it was wishful thinking, that the new Brit Limited Edition was a poor man's Windsor. But, and this is a BIG BUT, I also had Windsor on when I tested the new Brit. Anybody else try it?
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post #12 of 24
10/4/10 at 2:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pappy View Post

Bulgari Black?

Not at all, if you ask me.
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post #13 of 24
10/4/10 at 2:35pm
Himalaya - Caliber 12
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post #14 of 24
10/5/10 at 7:09am
Thread Starter 
Can someone tell me a perfume that smells similar to Sables by Annick Goutal?
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post #15 of 24
10/5/10 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sub Zero View Post

Can someone tell me a perfume that smells similar to Sables by Annick Goutal?

IIRC, try Serge - Miel de Bois. I just sampled Sables yesterday and got a super sweet sticky honey / maple syrup / spiced rum accord (and that was all i got). Maybe try Boss #1?
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post #16 of 24
10/5/10 at 8:24am
i think carlo corinto rouge is more like git than cw. as far as the others, to me, there really are no "close to's".
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post #17 of 24
10/5/10 at 8:30am
i put my git next to my cool water, i dont get the comparison. they might give the same feel but, really, they are not even close imo.
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post #18 of 24
10/5/10 at 8:55pm
Green Irish Tweed - Cool Water
Silver Mountain Water - I Am King
Himalaya - ?
Aventus - ?
Bois Du Portugal- PdN New York
Tobacco Vanille- Good luck. The vanilla here is pretty hard to beat
Italian Cypress- Polo

Sub Zero: If you can't afford the scents you want right now, focus on scents you can afford and forget trying to find "smells just like" scents. There are tons of threads and reviews in here of great scents that are affordable and as tasty or tastier than any scents you've listed.

It gives the impression you want to douse yourself in Cool Water and tell people it's GIT. If you like the smell of GIT, there's a fair chance you'll like Cool Water. Buy Cool Water and wear it as Cool Water.

I discovered this site just over a year ago looking for a cheaper alternative that smelled like a scent I liked. Never found it. Poked around in here a couple of months and found a lot of stuff I liked better anyway. Have you tried any of the scents you've listed here?
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post #19 of 24
10/5/10 at 9:46pm
GIT - other inexpensive similars are Aspen and California for Men by Dana, both of which can be had for < $10 each for a big bottle.
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post #20 of 24
10/6/10 at 1:00am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by StylinLA View Post

Green Irish Tweed - Cool Water
Silver Mountain Water - I Am King
Himalaya - ?
Aventus - ?
Bois Du Portugal- PdN New York
Tobacco Vanille- Good luck. The vanilla here is pretty hard to beat
Italian Cypress- Polo

Sub Zero: If you can't afford the scents you want right now, focus on scents you can afford and forget trying to find "smells just like" scents. There are tons of threads and reviews in here of great scents that are affordable and as tasty or tastier than any scents you've listed.

It gives the impression you want to douse yourself in Cool Water and tell people it's GIT. If you like the smell of GIT, there's a fair chance you'll like Cool Water. Buy Cool Water and wear it as Cool Water.

I discovered this site just over a year ago looking for a cheaper alternative that smelled like a scent I liked. Never found it. Poked around in here a couple of months and found a lot of stuff I liked better anyway. Have you tried any of the scents you've listed here?

I have never actually. I live in the middle of no where when it comes to perfume. And the only way I can get my hands on them is if 1. Blind buy, 2. I travel, 3. Friends & family travel. I'm no expert when it comes to perfume so I can't really guess what a fragrance will smell like by looking at the composition. So this is just to get a feel of things. I don't want to pretend to be wearing something I'm not. I just want to change the way I buy and look at perfume. I don't want to walk into a duty free and ask what's the latest perfume, smell it and then buy it. I'd like to understand it a bit more. Thank you for your suggestions.
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post #21 of 24
10/6/10 at 1:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sub Zero View Post

I have never actually. I live in the middle of no where when it comes to perfume. And the only way I can get my hands on them is if 1. Blind buy, 2. I travel, 3. Friends & family travel. I'm no expert when it comes to perfume so I can't really guess what a fragrance will smell like by looking at the composition. So this is just to get a feel of things. I don't want to pretend to be wearing something I'm not. I just want to change the way I buy and look at perfume. I don't want to walk into a duty free and ask what's the latest perfume, smell it and then buy it. I'd like to understand it a bit more. Thank you for your suggestions.

Buy samples. That way you can smell almost anything without shilling out for even one full bottle, and save your pennies for the ones you do want, having tried them. I have had good experiences with http://theposhpeasant.com/ and http://theperfumedcourt.com/default.aspx , there are probably many more.
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post #22 of 24
10/6/10 at 1:41am
I was going to post Bois du Portugal = Parfums de Nicolai New York (about $20-30 cheaper). Still a very high quality similar fragrance. I hate both, so when I tried BdP after NY, I immediately thought, "Ugh, it smells like PdN NY." So I'm glad I wasn't the only one who saw the similarities.
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post #23 of 24
10/6/10 at 1:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brenster View Post

How about an alternative for musc ravageur?

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post #24 of 24
10/6/10 at 8:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sub Zero View Post

I have never actually. I live in the middle of no where when it comes to perfume. And the only way I can get my hands on them is if 1. Blind buy, 2. I travel, 3. Friends & family travel. I'm no expert when it comes to perfume so I can't really guess what a fragrance will smell like by looking at the composition. So this is just to get a feel of things. I don't want to pretend to be wearing something I'm not. I just want to change the way I buy and look at perfume. I don't want to walk into a duty free and ask what's the latest perfume, smell it and then buy it. I'd like to understand it a bit more. Thank you for your suggestions.

Got it. Kind of thought you didn't live near any place to test. Sorry to hear that. You will have to suck it up and pay for some samples through Perfumed Court or Lucky Scent. Your target list above is appx $1,500 worth of fragrance at the smallest bottle sizes available. You could sample all of them for appx $30 or so. But, if you sample the original and then purchase something that smells "like" it, you may be let down.

The Cool Water smells just GIT argument leads many to believe there is something out there that smells just as good as everything on your list for less money. I don't find that to be true personally.

But there are plenty of great fragrances for less. Keep poking around in here and reading. Two of my favorites which are fantastic and well regarded by folks other than me are YSL Rive Gauche Pour Homme and Versace L'Homme. Both can be found quite inexpensively.

If you can afford one or two of the fragrances on your list, buy some samples to see which you really like enough to spend the bucks on. Be patient and look through more threads and the reviews for fragrances you might like that are not an arm and a leg if cost is an issue right now.
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