The Essence Vault products are good, but they're not the best option in the clone aftershave game. They ironically are a copycat of copycat fragrances who do this a lot better. There's a couple of scents that the essence vault get better than copycat, although both beat out the other competitors hands down. Unfortunately, the few that they do make better, are less popular fragrances. If you're looking for any creed clones or other popular men's fragrances we'd recommend copycat in all cases, but where The Essence Vault does win, and is categorically the best right now is in it's women's selection.
In short, The Essence Vault is a good option for clone perfumes, but the quality is second to CopyCat Fragrances in almost all cases, come closer to the original scents (especially for their Dior Sauvage dupe and their Aventus dupe) and have better staying power overall.
How Do We Rate The Best Dupe Perfume Brands Like The Essence Vault?
When people are looking for a dupe aftershave or perfume they're not looking for just any cheap perfume. What they want is something that can actually compare to the original in staying power, scent quality and is simply a better value option because it doesn't have the brand name of Tom Ford or Creed slapped on it. This is where companies like The Essence Vault come in. They use modern technology to reverse engineer and make something that is 99% the same as the original (they say 99% and call it "inspired by" for quite obvious legal reasons). As such we rate these companies based on what people are actually looking for and that is:
- How much does the dupe aftershave or perfume smell like the original?
- How long does it last on the skin?
- How well does it last on the skin? (all notes as compared to the original)
- Price
- Customer Service & Delivery
- Product Range
A Quick Explainer About Notes
Typically speaking when talking about perfume and fragrance in general we talk about 3 different types of notes, top, mid and bottom. These refer to the order in which the blended smells become noticeable and where they "sit" in the mix.
What Is A Dupe Perfume?
Ultimately there's two types of dupe perfumes, there's the "inspired by's" like those produced by The Essence Vault. These are designed to smell identical to the original, but simply be a cheaper option. And then there's the smell alike's, these are more like zara perfume dupes or superdrugs, which are also typically designed to smell similar to a far more expensive perfume, but with some notable differences. We generally don't like these high street brands versions of the designer scents as they tend to be notably lower quality. If you are more interested in smell alikes though, then check out dupejump.com they go through all the designer names and break down their smell alike options.
Reviews Of The Essence Vault: Most Popular Perfume Dupes
Creed Aventus Dupe
Unsurprisingly The Essence Vault's number one seller for men is a Creed Aventus Copy. We did notice that the sweeter top notes from the original Creed Aventus did fade quite quickly with The Essence Vault when compared against the original. This was disappointing as otherwise they'd done a pretty good job. The base and mid notes held up pretty well although perhaps the birch mid note was a little weak on The Essence Vault's version, but nothing you'd notice without a side by side test.
However, that doesn't mean that you can't get a cheap aventus clone, in fact this is why we've mentioned their competitor copycat fragrances a few times as they do the job a lot better on Creed Aventus, we are also comparing it against The Essence Vault's "intense" version which sits at the same price point of £50's per 100ml. If we compared it to the cheaper alternative on The Essence Vault then it's a hands down win for copycat as the staying power is more akin to an eau de toilette.
Get The Best Creed Aventus Clone From copycatfragrances.co.uk
Get The Essence Vault Creed Aventus Clone From theessencevault.co.uk
Dior Sauvage Dupe
The Essence Vault does well with their Dior Sauvage Dupe it's good, really good, we still think that copycat's version is a little bit more true to the original, but The Essence Vault's version is great.
Unfortunately it does suffer from the same issue as their Aventus Dupe, although not as noticeably, the price difference between the original and the Dior Sauvage dupe isn't as stark so it feels less excusable.
We do still recommend giving the Dior Sauvage clone a try mind, but it's only really going to smell like Dior for about an hour and a half, then it still smells nice, but it's not the same as Sauvage. It loses a little bit of the clean edge that it has. The copycat fragrances version get's you closer to 4-5 hours, and after that still smells like the original enough that nobody would be able to tell unless you had the original on one wrist and the Dior Dupe on the other.
Get The Best Dior Sauvage Clone From copycatfragrances.co.uk
Get The Essence Vault Dior Sauvage Clone From theessencevault.co.uk
La Vie Est Bell Dupe
Here The Essence Vault actually wins out against all it's competition, they definitely make the best La Vie Est Bell dupe. Honestly, this smelled exactly the same. We couldn't make any real discernible difference between the two, with Essence Vault's version hitting the fruity top notes, and the earthy and floral low notes perfectly.
The closest competitor is the Match Fragrance one which is still great, but The Essence Vault has this one nailed. Highly recommended.
Get The Essence Vault La Vie Est Bell Clone From theessencevault.co.uk
Black Opium Dupe
Coffee and Vanilla heavy with powdery and floral mid and base notes, The Essence Vault does a decent job on this one as well. As we've already said their female focused dupes are good and The Essence Vault Black Opium dupe is really good. Most customers essence vault reviews agree that the black opium dupe is identical and we're inclined to agree. It lasts all day and honestly we've got no complaints at all on this one. It lasts the expected 8 hours of an eau de parfum and all the notes last as well as the original. Also highly recommended. As of the time of writing the competitors either don't offer a Black Opium dupe or are not as good.
Get The Essence Vault Black Opium Clone From theessencevault.co.uk
The Essence Vault Dupes Overall
Overall The Essence Vault dupes are good, we typically don't recommend their cheaper £25/100ml range as it just doesn't have the staying power or the quality of the originals that they're trying to copy. The cheaper range tends to have a slightly artificial smell. However, if we look at the £50/100ml range then they're very good. We've noticed that some of the men's aftershave dupes lose their top notes a little bit too fast, but the women's range is great.
The Essence Vault Candle Reviews
The Essence Vault hands down make the best candle dupes. The only catch is they're almost always sold out. Which if anything is testament to how good they are. The reed diffusers are pretty good too, although not quite as good as the candles. If you ever get chance to grab some of the essence vault candles then definitely do.The Essence Vault V CopyCat Fragrances
Copycat comes out on top against The Essence Vault in most cases, the only real edge that the essence vault has is it's range of women's dupe perfumes being a bit larger than Copycat's. Copycat does a much better job of Tom Ford Dupes than The Essence Vault and with those being out of stock everywhere at the moment they're a great alternative.
Winner - copycatfragrances.co.uk
The Essence Vault V Match Fragrances
The Essence Vault wins out against Match Fragrances, the quality is a little bit higher, but there isn't really a great deal in it between these two. Match compares more to The Essence Vaults standard range, and in that case the price point is a little bit higher, making The Essence Vaults offering a little better all round. The offering is pretty much the same in terms of range.
Winner - theessencevault.co.uk
The Essence Vault V The Fragrance World
The Fragrance World were a bit of a let down overall, the packaging is a bit nicer than the competitors, the black bottles feeling a bit more luxury, but that's as far as it goes. It's not that their blends are bad, just the other dupe perfume brands that we've listed are better.
Winner - theessencevault.co.uk
The Essence Vault Review Conclusion
The essence vault is good at what they do, and we definitely recommend giving them a try if you haven't already. If you're looking for a men's eau de parfum or aftershave dupe, we'd typically recommend that you try copycat fragrance instead, but at the moment The Essence Vault have a much wider range of women's clone perfumes. Although from what we hear Copycat Fragrances are looking to expand their range in 2022, so we may have to update this article in the relatively near future. Watch this space.
Visit copycatfragrances.co.uk
Visit theessencevault.co.uk