Sauvage - 197

No. 197 is a direct nod to Dior's Sauvage, arguably the most widely copied masculine fragrance of the last decade thanks to its huge, radiant Ambroxan heart. The opening bergamot and pepper are close to the original's sharp, effervescent citrus blast, and on first application the two are genuinely hard to tell apart. The gap opens up as it develops: Dior's Ambroxan is used at a scale and quality that gives Sauvage its enormous, skin-warming radiance and multi-day bottle sillage, and No. 197's version is noticeably smaller in scope, reading as pleasant but ordinary rather than the room-filling original. The woody base is serviceable but generic, missing the specific ambery-mineral quality that defines Sauvage's dry down. As an easy, fresh, everyday citrus-woody it works fine and the resemblance is obvious in the first half hour, but it fades to a much quieter, shorter-lived scent than the fragrance it's referencing.