Fedrico Mahora 335 - 'Oud Wood' Clone

globalm

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The following is entirely subjective, and your mileage may vary quite considerably!

After trying a decant of Tom Ford's ‘Our Wood' I fell in love with the scent but couldn't justify shelling out a hefty sum of money to buy a bottle. So, the search began for a good clone. I initially turned my attention to eBay seller Mr. Perfume's oil-based offering which have proved very successful in the past for low-cost clone scents. On this occasion, however, his offerings were, to my nose, not acceptable. I tried both his own blend and the Suratti version, both of which seemed to feature an anonymous, sweet high note and far too much White Musk.

Background reading then suggested that Fedrico Mahora 335 scent, AKA ‘Pure Royal' might offer an alternative. I screwed my courage to the sticking place and disbursed £17 for 50ml of the stuff. I decided to test ‘properly' and, following a relatively unscented shower, I sprayed my right hand with the real TF scent and my left hand with FM 335 getting the amounts as near the same as I could. The result was quite surprising and, despite the danger of ‘skipping to the end' I must say that only two small clues gave away which scent was which. For at least 5 hours of life I was unable to distinguish between the two scents and I could detect only two points of difference from application to disappearance.

Using the real TF as the basis for comparison, there was a small difference in the opening of these scents. Everything seemed identical except that the FM335 had a very faint additional note of ‘wet earth' in the opening which I didn't get from TF. This was very faint and I'm certain I would not be able to use this note to distinguish the two scents other than by direct comparison. The ‘wet earth' vanished in 10-15 minutes. For the next 5 hours the scents seemed identical except that (good news!) the FM335 had better projection, not requiring one's nose to be pressed to skin to get a good snootful. After 5 hours, with the real TF very hard to detect, the FM335 was still going, if not exactly strong, still present. It was at this point that a marked difference emerged. The FM335 began to exude a faint but noticeable rubber scent. This was not unpleasant and is a scent I have found, particularly, in some leather-based perfumes. I needed to sniff skin directly to pick this up and I do not think it would be noticeable.

In summary then, an almost perfect clone, reliably distinguished only be a faint scent change in the last hour of life. Cost is £17 for 50 ml (can be had at about £35 for 100ml) against £150+ for the real thing. Since I am a famous cheapskate, you can guess which one I will be using. Sorry I didn't buy 100ml but I might not have liked it.
 
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