What do you think of Zara, Dua, et al?

Has anyone ever tried anything from dupe houses like Zara, Dua, Alexandria, Whoever?

What do you think of them? Do they match the fragrance they're duping? Do they make any original fragrances you like?

I've been wondering about this since I got "Khamrah | Lattafa / لطافة". I never tested Angels' Share, but I think Khamrah is gorgeous, whether or not it's a dupe for Angel's Share or not.

Some folks have said Zara scents has a chemical smell they shouldn't, while others rave about them. Would you mind sharing your experiences?

I have never tried Dua or Alexandria.

Zara has many dupes, but also some original scents. I wouldn't really call them a dupe house, they don't try to make exact dupes of everything, they just adapt trends for an affordable price. Just like with their clothes. Some are closer to the high end version, some not. So, they have some really boring designer dupes and some more interesting creations. I don't think they all have a "chemical smell". The quality is a bit of a mixed bag, but the prices are really low and you can try the fragrances in store, so it's fair.

For example my husband has "#Tobacco Collection - Rich/Warm/Addictive | Zara", which is a really nice gourmand and not a true dupe to anything else. This one gets a lot of hype online, too. It has a 7.9 rating on here.

Cherry Smoothie is another nice one. Many perceive it as a Lost Cherry Eau de Parfum dupe, but I have Lost Cherry and found Cherry Smoothie way more powdery and not that similar. Honestly, people call everything with a cherry note an LC dupe nowadays, so I don't know. It's good.

I had a bottle of Black Peony a while ago, and this one is a good example for the average designer dupe category. It's supposed to smell like Flowerbomb Eau de Parfum and is basically a lighter version of that. Nice, but not remarkable. The original is better in this case.

With Zara, you really have to read reviews and try fragrances, they have way too many different scents to generalize.

I tend to agree that everything with a cherry note is supposed to be a LC dupe.  I'll have start paying more attention to Zara.  Thanks for the info!  It's appreciated.

Hi,

So far, I don't have any Duas, although there are several I'm hoping to get. Nor any Alexandrias, or Jenny Glows. Zara, however, I have a plentiful supply of, and really enjoy those I have, e.g. Sacred Green Forest , "#Tobacco Collection - Rich/Warm/Addictive | Zara" , Zara Emotions N°03 - Ebony Wood Eau de Parfum , Osmanthus and several others. In addition, I picked up both Zara Exclusive N°04 - Leather Jardin and Captivating Memories - Unexpected Joy (both Jo Malone) today in the sales. Unexpected Joy is a complete blind buy and I've not even tested it yet, but Leather Jardin's been on my wishlist for some time. The leather's excellent although slightly more tannery than what I normally go for, but I do enjoy it in a similar way to the several Cabochard (1959) Parfum I love, as well as Jolie Madame Eau de Toilette . While a lot of them are perhaps a bit 'throw-away', they do have some fantastic stuff for the price.

They only sell Zara frags here in Norway. They are ok. I seldom find any I fall for from them. The only Zara perfume I have is Joyful Tuberose, which I have bought two times

I've only tried a few fragrances from Zara and fell in love with one of them. Their Fleur d'Oranger is as good as anything on the market today from even the best perfume houses. This is one of their original fragrances created by Jo Malone. 

Be Layered does some pretty good dupes.  Some of them smell almost identical to the actual fragrances they are copying. 

If you love angel share (and live near a zara), try to smell "Sand Desert At Sunset | Zara" in person! I don't have much of an opinion on zara perfumes as a whole- they seem to put out a ton of scents and don't really have an identity? and while cherry smoothie is one of my least favorite scents sand desert at sunset was an immediate purchase for me once i sampled it.

personally i dont care much about buying a dupe fragrance over another, but my bigger issue is blind buying. as far as i know, dua and dupe brands arent carried in normal retailers where i can try out the smell before committing to purchase

I don't like Zara perfumes generally (the ones available in my country) but I liked Tobacco Collection. I wanted to try "#Tobacco Collection - Intense/Dark/Exclusive | Zara". For some reason I found only "#Tobacco Collection - Rich/Warm/Addictive | Zara" which was very pleasant. Zara Emotions N°05 - Tubereuse Noir Eau de Parfum was well made for a tuberose scent but nothing extraordinary.

I second the opinion of Zara smelling a little off. I literally bought one, so that's no representative sample but anyway, the perfume in question was Zara Emotions N°03 - Ebony Wood Eau de Parfum . Lauded, admired and put on pedestal as very good, so on and so on. So I blind bought, tried at home, worn it only three times or so. It has a strong, bittersweet opening of cloves and sour cherries/pink pepper and I dig it, but the cloves could be dialed a bit down. Where the scent lost me is when it settles to middle and base accords. There is something off, some weird musk-adjacent accord that just gets into my nostrills and sticks onto back of my throat. It's borderline cloying and messy I guess? But in an airy way, very hard to describe. I lost my interest in Zara scents from that moment.

I tried a few Maison Alhambra (Lattafa owned very brash clones) - Russian Leather (like Jaguar for men but a little smoother and more airy), Roman Leather (nice patchouli-herbal dark leather, dig it, got a nice bite to it) and Allure Homme Sport Eau de Toilette clone, I believe it was called Alpine Homme or something like that. The last one was not my cup of tea, it's a little messy minty-orange with a payload of tonka beans. I forgot about that decant already. Never tried the original though, so it might be decent clone.

Tested a decant of "Khamrah | Lattafa / لطافة" and it's solid. Very dense, little synthetic, super sweet. Way to cloying milky-raisiny for me but I certainly get the hype.

I like clones. Big part of my collection are at least clone-adjacent scents. I like the affordability. I don't give a darn about presentation and ripping off product designs but it does feels off and cheap. On the other hand I'm not very fond of giant, multi-million holdings plopping fetishes for people to pay crazy amounts of money. I would say I like moderation, but my collection nearing 80 bottles would act as a nice punchline to that joke.