Dior Sauvage can only be described as a masterpiece of fragrance engineering. Created by Francois Demachy and confidently promoted by Johnny Depp, Dior Sauvage has dominated the male fragrance marketplace since its launch in 2015. You are first met with a fresh, invigorating, lifting wave of bergamot and lavender. Your senses are then treated to the peppery undertones and warming feeling of the mid notes. Lastly, the whole experience is grounded with the base notes of ambroxan, adding more weight and substance to the formulation. Dior Sauvage is a pleasure to the senses, and it is the type of fragrance with an all-year-round appeal, although it does lead a little bit more towards evening wear over a warm summers day.
High Notes: bergamot, black pepper Mid Notes: pink pepper, elemi, patchouli, Sichuan pepper, vetiver Base Notes: ambroxan, cedar, and labdanum
A good Dior Sauvage clone comes with your own personalized Johnny Depp clone to model it, just kidding. But, in all seriousness what we look for is that the notes develop in the same way over time. We want to make sure that the top notes hold over time, and that after you've been wearing Dior Sauvage for 5 hours it still smells the same as the original does. A lot of the Dior copys lose the vetiver mids and ambroxan bases, so this is an area we made specific note of when looking for the best dior sauvage copy.
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A single spray of Dior Sauvage can last for a good 8 to 12 hours. A good quality Eau de parfum such as this is typically more potent than regular aftershave or an eau de toilette fragrance, so you should expect a good level of longevity from a top-brand name from the house of Dior.
In most cases, fragrance copies or dupes don't contain premium ingredients at such high levels. These dupes would be nearly as expensive as the real thing if they did. This is why many of the cheapest, poor-quality dupes will last only an hour or so before losing their scent.
However, our favourite Dior Sauvage dupe from copycat fragrance is a proper eau de parfum and has excellent staying power. Our fragrance testers report that it lasts just as long as the original Eau de parfum, and infinitely longer than the Dior Eau De Toilette.
Like many generic copies of other products in life, some are better than others. The copycat Dior Sauvage that we gave our thumbs up to is absolutely spot on. We can't tell them appart in side by side tests after 5 minutes on the skin.
When you buy a top-brand name fragrance such as Dior Sauvage, you are not just paying for the liquid parfum you spray on your skin. You are also paying for everything that has gone into the creation of the product, from the scent recipe research and testing to the design of the bottle, label and associated packaging.
There is also the huge marketing budget that goes with these top brands, plus let us not forget the salary of Mr Depp for being the face of Dior Sauvage, which doesn't come cheap.
It is possible to bypass the associated expense of buying genuine Dior Sauvage Eau de parfum and instead go with a top-quality dupe. This way, you will be getting the scent you want at a much-reduced price, and in most cases, the people around you will be none the wiser.
If you love the smell of Dior Sauvage, there is no harm in buying a bottle and refilling it with a good quality copycat fragrance so you can keep the bottle as a status symbol on your bathroom shelf.
Our team of fragrance testers conducted a side-by-side sniff test and could hardly tell the difference between the original Dior Sauvage and Copycat DS. We had the same refreshing and uplifting experience from the high notes and then quickly detected the warmer, peppery mid-notes coming through. Copycat claim that the notes that inspired DS are Pinkpepper, Lavender and Vetiver although we can definitely catch the other notes, we expect the reason they haven't listed everything is because the copy is so good they could have a copywrite issue. And knowing the industry Dior can be quite litigious. We cannot fault Copycat for their attention to detail with their duplicate scent ranges, and with Copycat DS, they really have nailed the essence of Dior Sauvage.
The team rated Copycat DS 5/5 for its authenticity and staying power. It is the closest dupe fragrance to the original Dior Sauvage we have come across, and we would highly recommend going with this option if you want to try out Dior Sauvage without paying the hefty price tag of the real thing. If you have never smelled Dior Sauvage and want to get a feel for it, we recommend trying Copycat DS first. One warning, though, if you end up loving the scent, you may end up sticking with Copycat DS because it does everything that Dior Sauvage does at a much more cost-effective price.
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Salvatore Ferragamo F Black comes close to Dior Sauvage as it carries a peppery and floral scent, but it isn't an exact match. You get the first impression of lavender and pepper, but it has a fresh apple scent that differs from Dior Sauvage. As the mid notes kick in, you can detect more warm, peppery tones coming through to give it a spicy edge. There are elements of creamy tonka beans that smooth out the peppery overtones, which is very well done. Overall the more creamy tones blend well with the pepper, fresh apple and lavender notes, so you end up with a pleasant Eau du parfum for your money, which is reminiscent of Dior Sauvage but not identical. Some shared scents and notes include black pepper and lavender, but Salvatore Ferragamo F Black is carried mainly by its apple, coriander, tonka bean and labdanum fragrances. Christian Dior Sauvage doesn't contain apple notes in the top opening notes, plus the formula doesn't include tonka bean, which gives Salvatore Ferragamo F Black such a creamy edge.