Free Life Aigner 1987 Eau de Toilette

What should one actually think of a perfume that is so obviously copied, like Free Life? The model here was clearly Zino by Davidoff. That one was released just a year earlier and has a similar violet tint in the bottle. The listed ingredients are nearly identical, with the small difference that cedar in Free Life is already present in the heart note (officially) and tonka bean is completely absent here. It couldn't be more obvious.

So let's dive deeper into the details. To make a proper comparison, I dripped a drop of Free Life and Zino (both from a well-preserved miniature in the original version) onto paper and skin, and I find that both march in exactly the same direction of spicy-woody.

Zino has more radiance and feels darker, rounder, and at the beginning, a hint more citrusy, while Free Life feels a bit lighter and somewhat flatter. Towards the end, both scents are indeed quite identical.

Even I was faced with the choice of deciding between the two back then, but on one hand, Zino was already in my collection and seemed to me to be more stylish and valuable in terms of bottle design and packaging than Free Life. Green writing on violet is quite special.

Sure - if there were no Zino, Free Life would be "the one and lonely," but as it stands, for me, it is rather a really well-made copy of another major brand - but just a copy!