Khamrah

Khamrah is the reason a lot of people discovered that a forty-dollar bottle could make them stop and sniff their own wrist. It is warm, sticky with dates and cinnamon, and it lands in exactly the cosy, after-dinner mood that made Angels' Share a cult fragrance.

But read what people who own both actually say and a clear picture emerges: this is the same family, not the same bottle. Angels' Share opens on cognac — that glossy, slightly sharp boozy note is its signature — and Khamrah simply doesn't have it. Instead it goes straight to dessert: dates, praline, a spoonful of cinnamon sugar.

Give it an hour and the gap narrows. In the dry-down both fragrances sit in the same warm, vanilla-and-spice place, and on the strength front Khamrah holds its own — owners regularly find it on scarves the next day.

So the middle way through the reviews is this: if what you love about Angels' Share is the warmth, Khamrah gives you most of it for a fraction of the price. If what you love is the cognac, you'll miss it.

The verdictAbout 70% of the way there — the cosy heart without the cognac. As a winter gourmand in its own right, it's one of the best buys in the whole dupe world.

What we read: Parfumo reviews · Parfumo reviews · Basenotes reviews · Scento guide