Veloura Essence

Veloura Essence reaches for Mind Games Sissa, the cult toasted-sesame gourmand. It opens just like the original wants to - nutty toasted sesame dusted with sweet coumarin and a soft, slightly musky ambrette, the smell of warm bread fresh from the oven. The heart pours in a glass of warm milk alongside creamy tonka bean and a whisper of jasmine sambac, soft and almost praline-like. The drydown is rich Madagascar vanilla wrapped in clean musk with a touch of labdanum for a faintly resinous warmth. Where Sissa is an extrait - dense, long and deeply cosy - this dupe reads thinner and softer, giving up some of the labdanum's ambery depth and the original's tenacity, settling closer to the skin after a few hours. It is still a thoroughly comforting sesame-milk-vanilla gourmand - warm, edible and snuggly - that shines in cold weather, an affordable budget stand-in for the Mind Games.