Empress

Creed's Aventus for Her adapted the house's famous masculine Aventus into a fresher, more floral register, opening with tart green apple and citrus lifted by pink pepper, moving into a graceful rose, lilac and peach heart, then closing on a smooth musk, sandalwood and amber base with a touch of styrax. It remains one of the most requested 'expensive fruity-floral' references in the dupe space precisely because the real thing is so costly. Empress follows the same route closely, with the same green apple opening and the same rose-lilac-peach heart. The apple-citrus opening is a fair likeness and the rose-driven heart carries the floral character through recognisably. The base is where the difference shows: Creed's Aventus for Her has a rich, multi-layered base that keeps developing for hours, while Empress's musk-sandalwood-amber base is comparatively simple and fades to a light skin scent well before the original's reported staying power. Worth trying if you love the apple-rose combination and want to see whether the family suits you before spending Creed money.