Black XS - 22

The Essence Vault's No. 22 takes on Paco Rabanne's Black XS, a fragrance built around a genuinely unusual contrast between sharp citrus-herbal top notes and a decadent praline-cinnamon heart. No. 22 replicates that praline sweetness convincingly - it's the note the dupe gets closest to right, and the cinnamon-and-amber warmth around it does a fair job of channelling the original's dessert-like character. Where it falls short is the opening: Black XS's sharp lemon, mint, and sage combination is meant to shock the senses before the sweetness arrives, and here that contrast is softened considerably, so the transition into the praline heart feels less dramatic and the overall composition reads flatter. The patchouli-amber base holds the sweetness together reasonably well in the first couple of hours, but the original's tolu balsam and black cardamom depth gives it a richer, longer-lasting drydown that this budget version can't match, fading to a faint sugary warmth well before Black XS's typical wear time is up. A fun, cheap way to sample the praline-gourmand trend for a night out, but the rebellious contrast that defines the original is largely smoothed away.