A YOUTUBER who specializes in perfumes shared 10 of his favorite designer fragrances. They are both affordable and comparable to expensive brands.
Dallas Dudra is the host of Chaos Fragrances YouTube channel for the past five years. His videos provide his expert insight into the finest colognes.
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In his latest video, he shared his top 10 favourite designer scents that “hold up” to pricey brands like Chanel and Dior.
“Often times when you want more quality, you do have to sacrifice price point and you gotta bump it up a bit,” he said at the start of his clip. “But that isn’t always the case. There are some exceptions to that rule and these are 10 of them here.”
Dallas said that he kept the cost between $50 and $55. [£40.78] Below. And although he confessed this is still slightly on the expensive side, he pointed out that most big brands sell their products for £80 or more, even with a discount.
The first fragrance he pulled out was the Azarro Chrome Extreme, which he revealed smells “like Aqua Di Gio Profondo,” by Armani.
“That’s a big designer brand and with that normally comes a pretty big price tag. Even with a discount, Profondo’s usually come at $100, depending on the bottle size. It costs between $40 and $45 [£36].”
The second scent he revealed was the Versace Man Eau Fraiche, which he said also retails at around the £35 mark.
“It’s got lemon, bergamot, there is some musk, some starfruit in here. It’s very relaxing and refreshing. It’s perfect for summer time,” he said.
He went on: “Next up, my tiny bottle of Burberry Brit For Men,” before explaining that he got this at the start of his career in fragrances and kept it.
“Yes, it is Burberry. It is indeed on the lower end of the spectrum. But it’s great. And kind of similar to YSL L’homme Ultime, which also has rose and ginger scents. Discontinued, very expensive, hard to find.”
Dallas added that it’s also around £30, before sharing that not many people will be wearing it.
“Similar to this, right around the $40 [£32] range, the Missoni Parfum,” he continued. “This one often gets compared to Blue de Chanel and kind of in a similar ballpark – it’s got grapefruit, ginger, lemon, there’s a lot of burch in here as well. So very woody and citrusy.”
Explaining that the next scent has been hard to find over the years but is suddenly back in stock, Dallas presented viewers with the £32-range scent Mercedes Benz Infinite Spicy.
“This is by Olivier Cresp,” he revealed. “Very spicy, that should come as no surprise. It’s one of the fresh, spicier scents I have in my collection, one of the strongest ones in terms of just how powerful and spicy it really is.
Dallas said there’s nothing else out there that smells like this scent, adding that this includes everything he has in his own collection.
“It also adds to just how much it adds to your collection. There’s something about this one that’s really refreshing in more ways than one… It’s really good stuff.”
Then he decided to reduce the cost range and introduced a $20 price tag. [£16] perfume called Lalique Encre Noir.
Dallas said there are three in the line: Encre, L’extreme and Sport. He added that they’re all incredible for the price.
“I just wanted to feature this because it’s one of the more wearable ones. Sport is, too… It’s earthy, very dark, very aromatic, it’s just a tonne of wood. It’s very much a dry scent.”
He then moved onto Bentley For Men Absolute, which contains cedar wood, pink pepper, “boozy, whisky, rum accord, and papyrus.
“It kind of smells like Gucci Pour Homme one, which is also a dry cedar wood style scent,” he shared. “Right around $30 dollars for this one, $35 [£28], 100ml, great performance out of it.”
He revealed the eighth fragrance on his list as John VarvatosXX Artisan. [£35]He described Encre Noir as “the complete opposite” of Encre Noir in the fragrance he called “The vetiver-based scent, ”
“This is a soapy, clean vetiver. You’re getting some bitter orange… Much easier to pull off, a little bit more modernised overall,” he said.
He then returned his attention to a summer time scent, which retails for around £24.
“Pepe Jeans Cocktail, it’s got grapefruit, there’s some yuzu going on in here, some ginger as well, with a little bit of a spicy kick on the top,” he shared.
The final scent in this list is the £32 Dunhill Icon as Dallas said the original one is the “most unique by far”.
Dallas described it as smelling like grape soda, with bergamot-pepper flavor.
“It’s bizarre… But I promise you, the first time you get it and smell it, it smells like fizzy grape soda.”
Despite this, Dallas insisted it doesn’t smell like a teenager. He said that he smells more like someone who is well-respected.
People in the comments were in agreement with him on many of the scents as one person wrote: “I’m wearing Chrome Extreme already! I saw the pop, so I had to comment. Banger!”
Another shared: “Dunhill Icon is massively underrated.”
While a third added: “Bentley, Azzaro, Mont Blanc, and Mercedes to name a few proved that you don’t have to charge obscene prices to have an amazing great performing mostly original fragrance.”
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