Thursday, 22 October 2026 · No. 25
Fragrance, and what else smells like it
2,182 originals tracked✦8,777 twins catalogued✦Aventus has 119 known copies✦80 houses copied✦Average twin costs 11% of the original, per 100ml✦Oldest original still being copied: Jicky, 1889✦The dupes that lie about what they copy✦The twins that actually work✦Not all dupe houses are equal✦Why a cherry costs $810✦
Cover story
Investigation · 6 min read
The dupes that lie about what they copy
We read what wearers actually say. A lot of famous names are being borrowed for bottles that smell nothing like them.
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By the numbers
2,182
originals tracked
8,777
twins catalogued
80
houses copied
89%
average saving, per 100ml
70% of the fragrances we track have already been copied.
The most copied
Everyone wants to smell like these
Counted, not guessed: the originals with the most known twins in our database.
The price gap
Same idea, a fraction of the price
Pick a bottle. Prices are per 100ml, so a small cheap bottle can't flatter itself.
More stories
Weekly · The price tag · 3 min
The price tag
One luxury bottle a week, what it costs per 100ml, and what its twins charge instead.
The season · 4 min
Tobacco Vanille season
The most looked-up fragrance on FragDNA this autumn — its twins, and the warm, spiced bottles to wear with the cold.
Trend report · 4 min
Copied before it hit the shelves
It used to take years for a fragrance to be copied. This year's launches already have twins.
Classics · 5 min
The hundred-year-old perfumes still being copied
From 1889 to now: the classics that someone is still making a cheaper bottle of.
People · 5 min
The perfumers everyone copies
Whose work has the most twins? Eight noses, and the bottles that made them the most imitated people in perfume.
The guide · 5 min
How to blind-buy a dupe without wasting money
Price per 100ml, the 'sold as' trap, concentration, and a checklist — with a calculator.
The data · 4 min
What everyone is looking up
The ten fragrances readers open most — and the ones they searched for that nobody has copied yet.
Trend report · 6 min
The dupes of autumn
Cinnamon, tobacco, warm milk and smoke: what the cheaper bottles are copying as the nights draw in.
The house · 5 min
Lattafa copies everyone
Hundreds of originals, one house, and prices that make the question "is it close?" worth asking.
New releases · 4 min
Out this year, already copied
The launches that had a cheaper twin almost before they reached the counter.
Explained · 5 min
The number every dupe list leaves out
Why the cheapest bottle is often not the cheapest way to smell like something.
The data · 5 min
The dupe houses, ranked
Who copies the most, who charges the least — the twelve houses behind most of the twins.
The long read · 6 min
Why 119 bottles want to be Aventus
A pineapple, a birch fire, and the most imitated fragrance in the world.
Profile · 5 min
The smell of the 2010s
How a crystal-maker's anniversary present became the amber everyone wears.
The list · 4 min
The ten most copied fragrances
Ranked by how many other bottles are built to smell like them.
Explained · 5 min
What a note pyramid actually tells you
Top, heart, base — and the eight hours they describe.
Money · 4 min
Ten swaps that save the most
The widest gaps between a famous bottle and one that smells like it.
Classics · 5 min
Older than you, still winning
The fragrances from the last century that tens of thousands still rate.
People · 6 min
The people behind the bottles
Eight perfumers, and the fragrances of theirs we cover.
Explained · 5 min
How a $20 bottle smells like a $500 one
What you are paying for when you pay for the name.