u/Adventurous-Leg-8947

Le Parfum is my favorite from the Y lineup. Unfortunately the old formula has been discontinued and a new formula has been released under the same name. I have not tried the new one, but the notes are completely different from the original. These are the 2 clones that I know of.

Yeah! Man Parfum by Maison Alhambra. Not necessarily a bad fragrance but far from the original. It's like it opens up in the late dry down of the original. It is missing almost all of the fresh apple the og has. Mainly florals and woods with a trace of citrus and apple. Does not project very much but has decent longevity. Around 6 hours. Bottle is around a year old. Can be found on discounters for $19

Connoisseur Man by Armaf. I used to think this was very close, but when tested on skin it is not as close as I used to think. I mainly wear on my clothes, and I think on fabric it resembles Y more. Probably something to do with my skin chemistry. This opens up closer to the og than Yeah! Man, but it is not nearly as bright, fresh, and juicy as the original. All the same notes as the original are noticeable, but they are muted. Somewhere between the 2 and 3 hour mark Y and this become a lot more similar, after most of the fresh fruitiness of the OG has died down. This projects ok for the first hour or so, then rests a lot closer to the skin. Total longevity around 6 - 7 hours. Bottle is closing in on 2 years old. Can be found on discounters for $25

After testing these against the original my stance on Connoisseur Man has changed, and I dont think it is a good replacement for Y anymore. I'm not saying it is a bad fragrance. It is good in its own right. It just doesn't stack up to the original. The original is extremely fresh, apple and citrus in the opening that sticks around for quite a while. Projects for 4+ hours and last easily over 8. If you are a fan of this, I would get this while it can still be found at a few discounters. The price has already risen significantly. The cheapest I have seen it is around $140. Hopefully someday a better clone house will release a higher quality dupe.

I can't stress enough that your results may differ from mine considerably. Too many factors like PH, environment, batch variations, and olfactory senses play huge roles in our own personal experiences. Take this review as well as others with a grain of salt and try them for yourselves. My least favorite might just be your favorite.

Maturation has been debated in here as well as other sub reddits numerous times. There are the believers, and the stout deniers. I can only speak on my personal experiences. When I first picked up Al Nashama Caprice well over a year ago, I really disliked it. It was very screechy and had this metallic note that ruined it for me. This got put away and forgotten about for over a year.

While digging through some boxes I came across this and decided to give it a try. This is now my prime example of why I believe in maturation. This is a lavender and cardamom bomb on initial spray, with a little spiciness from the ginger and some freshness from the citrus. It is beautiful, no more screechy metallic note. Just an excellent blue lavender that dries down to a woody base with the lavender and cardamom hanging around the entire time. I never gave this a full wearing in the beginning to be able to comment on performance, but when I recently tried this I got around 3 hours of good projection, a nice sillage trail, and around 9 - 10 hours of total wear before it became a faint skin scent. This fragrance went from something I couldn't stand, to now one of my favorite blue fragrances. For those that say maturation isn't a thing, I highly disagree.