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.
Comment what you think below. Thanks for reading and have a great night.
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.
Comment what you think below. Thanks for reading and have a great night.
