Why I’ve Quit Dupes (ME and otherwise)

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Buckle up brethren, this one could get spicy. Be respectful but do not feel like you need to hold back.

https://youtu.be/L12y8gYANCQ?si=usjLr5CgbmdEkZaX

I recently watched this video talking about stepping away from the world of fragrance dupes, and it hit on something I think a lot of us eventually run into if we stay in the hobby long enough.

Early on, I actually bought quite a few of them myself. At the time it made sense, I wanted to quickly experience a lot of different scent profiles and build a frame of reference for my nose. Instead of dropping serious money on niche bottles right away, picking up cheaper fragrances allowed me to explore different styles: ambroxan-heavy modern masculines, blues, gourmands, musks, orientals, etc. In that phase, they served a purpose.

But over time I’ve become much more skeptical of the hype around them.

One thing that has really started to bother me is the influencer habit of assigning percentage equivalence to the original fragrance. You’ll hear things like “90% of the original” or “95% the same.” In reality, fragrance doesn’t really work like that. A dupe might capture the general direction of a scent profile, but it rarely captures the full balance, texture, and refinement of the original. Once you’ve smelled enough fragrances, and you actually spend multiple wearings with the originals, those differences start to become pretty obvious.

And frankly, they’re often not nearly as good as they’re hyped up to be. You may find a few here and there that you truly enjoy or prefer, but overall, it’s just not there.

Another issue that creeps up over time is simple collection fatigue. When your collection is small, grabbing a few inexpensive bottles feels harmless. But once you get past roughly 25–30 bottles, those dupes start to feel like clutter more than anything else. They take up space, rarely get worn, and you realize there’s no realistic way you’re ever going to go through all that juice anyway.

That’s when the math starts to look different.

The money that goes into a stack of $30–60 dupes could easily be redirected toward the fragrances you actually want but initially felt were too expensive or out of reach. Passing on two or three dupes might be the difference between settling for an imitation and buying the real thing, or something genuinely special.

What I’m finding now is that I want the bottles on my shelf to represent the best versions of the scents I enjoy. Not something that’s “close enough,” not something I bought because it was cheap, and definitely not something I keep while secretly wishing I owned the original instead.

There’s also another trend happening that makes this even more relevant: the clone houses themselves are starting to push upmarket. A few years ago many of these Middle Eastern brands lived comfortably in the $25–40 range. Now prices are creeping up into the $50-$80 range as they try to evolve into legitimate fragrance brands; better packaging, bigger marketing pushes, even signing recognizable perfumers.

But the irony is that while the branding is trying to move upscale, many of these formulas are still built on the same cheaper materials and shortcuts that made them clones in the first place. So the value proposition is slowly eroding.

For me personally, the excitement around dupes has largely faded. They were useful early on for exploring scent profiles, but at this stage I’d rather have fewer bottles and make sure that what’s on my shelf is something I genuinely love, reach for, and would choose every time, without feeling like I’m wearing a placeholder for something else.

Please, when you reply, watch the video, read my perspective, and put some thought into your response. Share your personal experience along with your perspective and recommendation for others in this space. I want this to be a genuine discussion, not just a bunch of atta boys or great post responses. I know this is a good post, it’s a relevant topic and I’ve laid out my position thoughtfully and in depth. Now I want to hear your opinion.

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