Scentpedition: Dxb Mall

I was on an unofficial trip today near Burj Khalifa and I immediately took a side trip to try some new bottle of scents at the nearby Dubai Mall.

Two EDP scents caught my attention. It was Banana Republic's Tobacco & Tonka Bean and Rich Leather by Zara.

Official Notes
Top: Mirabelle Plum, Anjou Pear

Middle: Tobacco, Coconut

Base: Tonka Beans, Vanilla

What I love about this scent is the smooth blending of notes. This reminded me immediately of Issey Miyake's Pulse of the Night minus the incense. I thought if you add a heavy dose of incense here it becomes Pulse of the Night. Nice fragrance. Easy to like if you prefer cuddly, soft scents perfect for close encounters. Bonus point, when I came home and after washing my hands I can still smell this as a skin scent. It currently costs 249 AED for the SRP.

Rating: 8/10

Official Notes
Top: Pink Pepper

Middle: Cedarwood

Base: Vibrant Leather 

I wrote a review for this scent over at fragrantica site. But just as I wrote there that this is a weaker version of Zara Vibrant Leather, the case is actually the opposite after testing two sprays of Vibrant Leather EDP on my left chelidon* and two sprays of Rich Leather on my right chelidon*. Hours later during my RTA train commute I cannot smell the Vibrant Leather anymore and this Rich Leather on my right chelidon* is still prominent. So my review at fragrantica is wrong. I was also wrong in assuming that there is pineapple in the middle note as listed in fragrantica. Only cedarwood. My list here is the official list straight from what is written in the box packaging.

Rich Leather >> Vibrant Leather when it comes to longevity and dry down. The dry down is pretty decent, I think it's better and more refined than washed "bamboo" dry down of Vibrant Leather. SRP is 79 AED. Even the skin scent is refined and better than 90% of the clones.

This is probably a new bang for the buck Aventus clone (because it's cheaper than Montblanc Explorer, CDNIM, Black Gold, and Zara VL) but still the performance needs to be improved (notches lower than CDNIM and Black Gold). I prefer this scent anytime of the day over Montblanc Explorer and Zara Vibant Leather in overall performance and value.

Rating: 7.5/10


*Chelidon - elbow pit, body part opposite of elbow