Tobacco Vanille - No.18

Match Perfumes' No.18 goes straight for the headline accord of Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille - cured tobacco leaf wrapped in vanilla and tonka bean - and the opening hour is a genuinely close match. Where it can't compete is depth and time: the original's dried-fruit and cocoa layering gives way here to a simpler, sweeter gourmand that reads more candy-shop than cured-leaf by the second hour. Projection is soft and skin-close rather than the original's room-filling sillage, and where the real Tobacco Vanille is famous for lasting through a full day and clinging to fabric for days, this dupe fades to nothing within 4-5 hours. Still, for the price it captures the core tobacco-vanilla warmth well enough for a casual evening wear, especially in cold weather where the composition holds together best.