While the warm and woody tones of Bleu de Chanel can be relatively easy to recreate, a good quality dupe will not stint on including rich middle notes found in the original, such as ginger, nutmeg, and jasmine. A good Bleu de Chanel clone should use Bleu's distinct base notes of labdanum, sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, incense, cedar, and white musk, which combine to create an intoxicating and memorable signature fragrance. The eau de parfum is a good all-rounder that can be comfortably worn at work and in social situations. Its fresh citrus overtones make it a great summer scent to wear on holiday or while enjoying days out, but its warm, woody base notes add enough depth to the fragrance to make it suitable for the office.
High Notes: Grapefruit, Lemon, Mint, Pink Pepper, Bergamot, Aldehydes and Coriander Mid Notes: Ginger, Nutmeg, Jasmine and Melon Base Notes: Incense, Amber, Cedar, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Labdanum and Amberwood
Want to know more about Bleu De Chanel?
Bleu de Chanel was created for Chanel in 2010 by Jacques Polge. It was quite notable for being the first men's fragrance released by Chanel since 2004, so it had a lot to live up to in expectation.
Starting as an eau de toilette, Bleu de Chanel had another release formulated by Jacques Polge as a stronger eau de parfum in 2014 and then again in 2018 by his son, Olivier Polge.
Bleu de Chanel can best be described as having a warm and woody scent supported by aromatic herbs to give it some depth and base. The top notes come through first and lighten the fragrance experience with tones of fresh lemon, mint, grapefruit and pink pepper.
Overall Bleu de Chanel clone's are a mixed bag, and a chanel seem to have been quite aggressive with some of the dupe perfume houses when it comes to brand name references, with the bleu de chanel clone we rated best no longer refering to itself as "inspired by". Currently the ones that do advertise themselves directly as copies of bleu aren't actually that good, and for some reason of the most popular fragrances on the market it's one of the less copied out there.
Ok, so in 2024 we have a new winner, and that's Sky by LS colognes. It may be a surprising choice for some, with it being a solid cologne, but honestly it's leagues above the others. It's a perfect, and we do mean perfect match for the Bleu de Channel EDP. With one key difference, it actually lasts longer. The projection was a little bit better than the original, and it lasted about 8 hours. Meaning it's on par with the parfum. As a result it's definitely the best clone of bleu de channel. The top notes, a flawless match, as were the base and mids, it even mixed on the skin in the same way over time. To the point that we genuinely couldn't tell the difference between the two.
£30 or $35 in the US, it lasts longer than the original, smells the same and you get far more wears out of it than any of the competitors. There's really nothing that comes close to LS Colognes dupe. 5 out of 5 for a match, 5 out of 5 for staying power and projection. Nothing more to say other than. Highly recommended.
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Our testers couldn't distinguish much between the original Bleu de Chanel and 299 in our first side-by-side tests. Both scents have an initial hit of sweet citrus tones that mellow out to allow the richer mid and base notes to come through and add warmth to the experience. One of our testers preferred 299 to the original eau de parfum, noting that the alternative had a few stand-out pleasant moments that were not experienced in the original. Sometimes we find it takes time to appreciate the qualities of a dupe fragrance, and this was the case for 299 by The Essence Vault. The longevity of their premium option of 299 was as good as the original Bleu de Chanel, and the eau de parfum dupe was still distinctive and present after an evening out. The 299 eau de parfum is inspired by fresh citrus top notes, with lemon most noticeably coming through to lighten the feel. Warming mid and base tones of ginger and cedar give substance to the fragrance dupe and add a warm and pleasant note that makes it highly reminiscent of Blue de Chanel. The citrusy combination with a high lemon note warms into a ginger and woody cedar experience that is rich, dark and much rounder than most of the other copy fragrances we tested. A lingering cosy smokiness adds an otherworldly feel to 299 that we found lacking in the other dupe fragrances we tried.
The Essence Vault's Bleu de Chanel dupe comes in at £50 for their premium option, making 299 half the price of Bleu. It's pretty close to the real thing, and it's unlikely anyone would ever notice. Overall, we rate 299 by The Essence Vault as 4 out of 5 for authenticity and staying true to the balance of notes created by Bleu de Chanel. The staying power of 299 is noteworthy, and we believe a spray or two will comfortably get you through a day at work or an evening out.
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We tested a sample of 2145 for Men to see how it held up as a dupe of Bleu de Chanel, and it did pretty well in recreating the scent. However, the citrus top notes were slightly weaker than the real thing. This meant that 2145 for Men left us wanting more from our first scent experience. The weighing of the tones also seemed a little off, with the woody and mint notes dominating the overall fragrance. Our team of testers didn't experience that initial pop of top notes you get from Bleu de Chanel, but the warmer notes were pretty close to the original. We didn't like 2145 for Men as much as the original, but we were pleasantly surprised by its similarities and therefore rate it as a good imitation, if not as close a copy as our first choice of 299 by The Essence Vault.
Navy black is more of a clone of the Bleu De Chanel EDT than their parfum in that it’s very citrusy and perhaps a little juvenile by comparison to the fragrance it’s quite clearly inspired by. They’ve not exactly been subtle with the naming here. Zara dupes are normally pretty decent, which does make this a little bit disappointing, especially in contrast to the options from TEV. It’s heavily led by the bergamot top nots, grapefruit mids and vetiver base means it’s a very simple fragrance. But, it doesn’t represent nearly as big of a saving as if it had tried to match the more mature scent of bleu de channels parfum. If we compare it to the far more complex Bleu Parfum, then we’re missing out on all of the woody notes that give Bleu De Chanel it’s more manly edge and musk, removing this also severely diminishes the staying power. Navy Black or the Zara Bleu de Chanel Dupe is an acceptable dupe for the EDT, but pales in comparison to the essence vault as a copy of the parfum. And if you want to smell expensive without the price tag, skip Zara this time.